SKU: 0930872851

• Authors: Hazrat Inayat Khan, Coleman Barks
• ISBN: 978 0930872854
• Book (Quality paperback)
• Omega Publications
• 6x9 inches
• .65 lbs
• 237 pages

What the Sufis and the Dervishes have sought for in the past is the same as that which all true seekers after Truth yearn for now in their own hearts. The message for our time is the same message that was given to us by these great mystic poets, who wrote so long ago. It is the message of Freedom.--Reshad Field

It is always wonderful to taste the fruit of these masters, and both Inayat Khan and Coleman Barks make their wisdom and delights more accessible to us. --Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee

The Hand of Poetry offers entrance into the world of beauty and truth. Seven lectures on Persian poetry given by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan in California in 1923 and 1926 are followed by fresh translations by the poet Coleman Barks of some of the poetry Inayat Khan discusses, including pieces from Sanai, Attar, Rumi, Saadi and Hafiz. The revised edition includes two addtional chapters by Hazrat Inayat Khan, from original source material.

Coleman Barks is a renowned poet and the bestselling author of The Essential Rumi, The Soul of Rumi and Rumi: The Book of Love. He was prominently featured in both of Bill Moyers's PBS television series on poetry, "The Language of Life" and "Fooling with Words." He taught English and poetry at the University of Georgia for thirty years, and now focuses on writing, reading, and performances.

Hazrat Inayat Khan, founder of the Sufi Order International, came to the West as a representative of the highest musical traditions of his native India, and brought with him a message of love, harmony and beauty that was both the quintessence of Sufi teaching and a revolutionary approach to the harmonizing of Western and Eastern spirituality. He dedicated his early life to the mastery of subtle intricacies of classical Indian music, winning the high title of Tansen from the Nizam of Hyderabad, a powerful ruler and renowned patron of the musical arts.

In fulfillment of his quest for a spiritual teacher, Inayat Khan took initiation from Shaykh al-Mashaykh Sayed Muhammed Abu Hashim Madani. While he was an inititator of the four main Sufi lineages in India, Madani's primary connection was with the Chishti Order. At the end of his apprenticeship, Inayat Khan was enjoined by his teacher to travel to the West and harmonize the two cultures.

On September 13 of 1910 Inayat Khan began an odyssey which would encompass three continents, and transform the lives of thousands. He eventually settled in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris. During his sixteen years in the West, he created a school of spiritual training based upon the traditional teachings of the Chishti Sufis, and infused with a revolutionary vision of the unity of religious ideals and the awakening of humanity to the divinity within.

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