The Way of Abu Madyan

"The Way of Abu Madyan" is the first English translation-by Professor Vincent Cornell-of works attributed to Abu Madyan, a seminal figure of Sufism in Muslim Spain and North Africa. The Arabic text accompanying the English translation also represents the first scholarly edition of these works in the original language.---In "The Way of Abu Madyan", Professor Cornell presents a variety of Abu Madyan's work, which includes doctrinal treatises, aphorisms, and poetical works in the ode, "qasida", style. This provides a unique opportunity for students of Arabic and Sufism, as well as the interested layman, to experience several of the most important genres of religious writing in the Islamic Middle Period. The Arabic texts contained in "The Way of Abu Madyan" have been extensively vocalised in order to aid the student in learning their morphology and syntax. The work as a whole is well-suited for use as a reader for advanced to superior-level classes in the Arabic language.---The Introduction to "The Way of Abu Madyan" contains a biography of Abu Madyan based on his own words, as well as a critical and historical discussion of the `way', "tariqa", of this important spiritual master in the context of western Maghribi Sufism. The Appendices contain texts and translations of two works attributed to Abu Madyan's own shaykhs, Abu Ya`za Yalannur (d. 572/1177) and Ali ibn Hirzihim (d. 559/1162).