The Sir Abdullah Sahrawardy Lectures. An Introduction to the History of Sufism

The present ruling family of Hyderabad and many of the Paigah nobilities are the spiritual descendants of the great mystic saints of Islam of the Suhrawardi order. [...] For instance, the rule of the Suhrawardi order is that the devotee should occupy himself mainly with the recitation of the Qur'an and expounding of Hadith (Traditions of the Prophet); the members of the fraternity who took a narrow view of things viewed with disapproval music and dancing accompanying the recitation of hymns and songs of praise, which are widely practised by Qalandars, and generall [...] In the course of my own studies of Sidi life and thought it has, of course, always been abundantly apparent to me that, without the twin foundations of the Qur'an and the kiadith, the whole vast and beautiful structure of Islamic mysticism could neither have been erected nor preserved; and Sir Abdullah Suhrawardy's work on the Traditions of the Prophet is therefore a direct contribution to the stu [...] The interest in oriental studies provoked by the con- siderable achievements of British pioneers in India was not long in spreading to many parts of the European continent; and it was the turn of France and Germany' to make the next contribution to the investigation of Sufism. [...] The first part d this work, which can well stand as a model for all subsequent researches of a similar character, sketches a general history of Arabia and the rise and development of Islam, leading into a discussion of the origins and evolution of Safism against the particular background of the Arab conquests of the Maghreb.