His most seminal work was The Sufis, which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own.

His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. Idries Shah (Persian: ادریس شاه), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي), was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.īorn in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. Expect the impact of 'The Book of the Book' to continue to ripple through the literary marketplace for decades to come. Readers and reviewers now understand that unlike any other literary product ever published, 'The Book of the Book' offers the opportunity to participate in a major Sufi teaching-event. In time, the pendulum began to swing in the other direction. Others either thought the cover price was too high for a 'book that was not a book', or simply bought it for novelty value and kept it on hand to mystify their friends. One 'expert' at the British Museum said it was 'not a book at all'. Reactions to 'The Book of the Book' ran the gamut. But it projects this lesson in a highly unconventional way. 'The Book of the Book', first published in that year and now in its seventh printing, transmits a 700-year-old narrative on the theme of 'do not mistake the container for the content'.

In 1969, Idries Shah, author of over thirty books on Sufi teaching and learning, used modern methods of mass communication to create a teaching-event for the modern world.

The purpose of these demonstrations was to create an event that people could think about and learn a lesson from. The classical Sufi masters often behaved in dramatic and unexpected ways in marketplaces, palaces, village streets, wherever people assembled.

The book of the book idries shah