The Book of Strangers

by Ian Dallas

Book Overview

Sometime in the future the head librarian at a great center of learning suddenly disappears, leaving behind a journal that describes his weariness with a world where people teach but know nothing,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671820826
• ISBN13: 9780671820824
• Release Date: August 1978
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

a book to read again and again....

....as an antidote to material insanity....one of those "vade mecums" to have always in your backpack as you are traveling the world...I found this in a used bookstore in the original "quokka" edition, misplaced it and found it AGAIN in another store in the same out of print edition....have never seen it in any other store since...the author leaves you with the impression of true devotion, that as an "outsider" he has fully surrendered to and mastered the Sufi tradition; in fact it is one of the few fictional works I have read to give off the "perfume of devotion"...this, my friends, is the real McCoy. For the spiritually aware, to be ordered without delay.

You shouldn't miss

If you feel lonely and desperate among the 'madding crowd'of the 'modern world' you shouldn't miss that masterpiece. (By the way: May I make a transcriptional correction regarding Herman Greenstein's review: More appropriate transcription of the quotation can be 'La ilahe ill'Allah' which approximately means 'There is no deity but Allah'...)

A great introduction to the world of Sufism and Islam.

I came across this book entirely by chance, and only picked it up because the back cover claimed that it was the "Sufi Siddhartha." Being already interested in Sufism, my curiosity was piqued. And once having read it, I felt compelled to read it again and again. This is no mere introduction to either Sufism or Islam in a purely intellectual sense, as is so common in Western books on the subject. Still less is it a "novel" intended to amuse. Rather, it is an allegory of one postmodern, Westernized individual's journey into the Islamic Tradition. As such, I found it to be just as powerful as some of the classic allegories and poems written by the great Sufi masters of the medieval period. The plot is very simple: the story is narrated by a young man who works in a University library at some point in the near future. He is appointed to head the library after the disappearance of its former keeper. In this time, libraries are no longer merely buildings which house books, but they have been reduced to processing stations in which computers select and digest materials for scholars and students in such a manner that nothing will distract them from their area of specialization. However, the narrator becomes curious, and begins trying to solve the mystery of the previous librarian's disappearance. He soon comes across the missing man's journal, which contains the story of his growing dissatisfaction with modern life and his interest in ancient mystical writings as a more genuine form of knowledge. Finally, not content to merely read about the mystics of old, the vanished librarian ends his journal by confessing that he is journeying to the "desert lands" in search of living mystics from whom he can learn. The narrator very soon decides to travel in his footsteps, and departs for an unnamed location (most likely North Africa) to see what he can find out. The rest of the story details his gradual journey, first into Islam, and then into Sufism (Islam's mystical heart), after which he changes irrevocably. The book is interesting not so much for its plot but, as in any good allegory, for the record of a man's thoughts as he undergoes an inner transformation. While I have read many books on Islam and Sufism, I have not encountered another work quite like this one. Most books on Islam intended for Westerners pander to modern beliefs and prejudices, treating it either as a relic of the past requiring modernization or as a threatening political force. This book treats Islam not as an intellectual or historical abstraction, but rather details the thoughts of a man, initially utterly submerged in the lies and half-truths upon which modern Western society is based, as he abandons his prejudices and comes into contact with the genuine reality offered by spirituality.A brief, biographical note on the author is warranted. Ian Dallas was a Scotsman who travelled to Morocco during the 1960s and became involved with the Shadhili Sufi Order of the highly respected Shaykh A

Highly recommended for westernised intelligentia

I read the Turkish translation of The Book of Strangers twenty years ago. It was translated by the prominent poet Ýsmet Ozel and it was a great chance for the Turkish readers.It was an exciting experience for the westernised Turkish intelligentia to read this marvellous story of spritual as well as cultural oddysey written by a westerner. I think it would be as much interesting for all eastern and middle eastern readers living in the western countries or studying in American/British/German/French universities.

A spiritual classic like Hesse's "Siddhartha"

This work is a Sufi version of Hesse's Siddhartha. It's also a good story, and would hold the reader's interest even if he or she had no prior knowledge of Sufism. It's obviously a fictionalized version of the author's discovery of Sufism and Islam, and Dallas has written in such a way that the reader gets a true feeling of the seeker's contact with the mystical tradition of Sufism. A well-written, interesting, educational, and transforming book.