THE SUFI MASTER POET SHAH NI'MAT'ULLAH Selected Poems (Large Print & Large Format Edition) Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Shah Ni'mat'ullah Vali (1330-1431) was the founder of an order of Sufis that is today the largest in Iran. As well as a Sufi Master he was a poet who at times used 'Sayyid' as his takhallus or pen-name. He was influenced by Ibn 'Arabi and Hafiz. He came from Aleppo and after studies travelled in Egypt, Morocco, Mecca (where he met his Spiritual Master Abdullah Yafi'i). He built a monastery in Mahan near Kirman and lived there until his death. He composed many prose works on Sufism and his Divan contains over 13,000 couplets, mostly ghazals and ruba'is. This is the largest selection of his poems published in English from that Divan. Introduction is on his Life & Times & Poetry and the Forms in which he wrote and on Sufism & Poetry. The rhyme-structure has been kept as well as the meaning of these beautiful, enlightened poems. Selected bibliography. Included is an Appendix on The Poems of Other Poets of the Ni'mat'ullah Sufi Order including poems by Bushaq (the poet of food), Kasim Anwar, Shah Da'i, Nur 'Ali Shah, Bibi Hayati, Rida 'Ali Shah, Muzaffar; Ali Shah, Khusrawi and Munis 'Ali Shah... Large Print (16pt) & Large Format (8" x 10") Edition. 267 pages Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, 'Iraqi, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Jigar, Abu Nuwas and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and 12 screenplays. amazon.com/author/smithpa
