Ruzbihan Baqli is the first full-length study devoted to the life and mystical experiences of one of the outstanding figures in Persian Sufism. Although Rubihan Baqli (d. 1209) was long recognized within the Sufi tradition, it is only within the past few decades that his works have been rediscovered and printed. This study introduces and analyses the most important sources for the life of Ruzbihan, his own visionary diary (The Unveiling of Secrets), written in Arabic, and two Persian hagiographies written by his great-grandsons a century after his death; extensive excerpts from these works are presented here in translation. Ruzbihan's diary is filled with visions of astonishing intensity, and it contains remarkable encounters with God, the angels, the prophets and the Sufi saints. This books aims to articulate and describe the structure of mystical experience in Ruzbihan's writings through analysis of his rhetoric of sainthood. Ruzbihan's diary is contrasted with the two biographies devoted to him by his descendants.

This study is aimed partially at those who have a special interest in Islamic studies and Sufism, and it will also prove attractive to readers who follow the subjects of mystical literature and sainthood.

Carl W. Ernst is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Curzon Sufi Series attempts to provide short introductions to a variety of facets of the subject, which are accessible both to the general reader and the student and scholar in the field. Each book will be either a synthesis of existing knowledge or a distinct contribution to, and extension of, knowledge of the particular topic. The two major underlying principles of the Series are sound scholarship and readability.