New anthology of classical Sufi texts

PISAI is pleased to announce the publication of Manifestazioni spirituali nell’Islam. Antologia di alcuni testi fondamentali del Sufismo classico (secoli I/VII-VII/XIII) tradotti e commentati, edited by Giuseppe Scattolin; Parte I: Nascita e sviluppo del Sufismo nei secoli I/VII-III/IX, Officina di Studi Medievali, Palermo 2021, edited by Riccardo Paredi.

This is the first of three volumes of an Anthology that will cover the first nine centuries of the Islamic era. Through the words of the Sufis themselves, the reader will be able to “taste” in first person the experiences and the wisdom of these Muslim ascetics and mystics who represent the most important spiritual current within Islam. The aim is to show how much the constitutive values of the Sufi experience are shared by Abrahamic religions and are still extremely alive and relevant.

Father Scattolin writes in the introduction: “This Anthology is in fact the fruit of about thirty years of teaching at the PISAI in Rome. During this period, the idea grew in me to open to the public the world of Islamic spirituality, which is often unknown or misrepresented, indeed even condemned. The spiritual dimension of human experience is becoming more and more important in the context of today’s globalization, in which there is an encounter between various cultures and civilizations; it is our hope that this encounter will take place in a mutual fraternal welcome” (pp. 17-18).