Translated and compiled
by Jennifer Ferraro
with Latif Bolat
List Price $17.95
ISBN 978-1-883-991-68-5
Published by
White Cloud Press
Ashland, OR
January 2007
Original Trade Paperback
This collection presents, for the first time in English, a compilation of eight centuries of the mystic hymns of Turkey's rebellious Sufi poets… the popular folk counterparts to Rumi whose poems are characterized by a passionate and unorthodox commitment to Truth. At the time Rumi was writing in ancient Anatolia, many other great mystics in the region were also composing wild, ecstatic, and controversial poems that were circulated among the people as spiritual songs and are still played and sung today in sacred dervish ceremonies and gatherings. The poems present a spiritual tradition from the Islamic world that bravely challenged orthodox religion and emphasized universal mystic love and tolerance.
“ Here are the unheard voices of the mystical poets of the Turkish Bektashi tradition, a tradtion that influenced Jelaluddin Rumi and that also remains one of the most vibrant, independent and passionate in living Sufism today. In clear and elegant translations, the authors unleash the wild voices of these mystics for us, as they sing about love, relationship and the purpose of life.”
~ Neil Douglass-Klotz, PhD, author of Desert Wisdom: Sacred Middle Eastern Writings
from Goddess through the Sufis.
“ We are truly grateful to Latif Bolat and Jennifer Ferraro for offering us a rare glimpse into the universe of Anatolian Sufi poetry. For from the universe of the Heart we are given a fresh perspective on our human life here. It is a joy to be n the company of the friends of the Friend. Their songs resonate through the centuries.”
~ Kabir Helminiski, Sufi Shaikh, translator of Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness
and the Essential Self.