Leonard Lewisohn was a specialist in Persian language and Sufi literature. He was the Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Persian and Sufi Literature at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter; a Research Associate in Esoteric Traditions in Islam in the Department of Academic Research at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London; Fellow of the Temenos Academy; and Editor of Mawlana Rumi Review. He authored and translated over twelve volumes in the field of Sufi literature, including on Muhammad Shirin Maghrabi, Mahmud Shabistari, Attar, Hafiz and Rumi, as well as editing several volumes of collected essays on Sufism.

‘This remarkable trilogy is likely to remain the definitive work in the field for many years.’

• 1. Introduction and Historical overview 1 2. Poetics and Imagery 45 3. Between History and hagiography 87 4. Metaphysics and Ontology 203 5. Sufi practices and methodology 277 6. Comparative Religion and Symbolism 353