In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the 'idiots' are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically-knowledgeable. The exercise-stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose. On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes. Wisdom of the Idiots...

In December of 1979, Soviet tanks rolled across the borders of Afghanistan, beginning a period of barbaric aggression that triggered a turning point in modern history. Idries Shah's brilliant novel chronicles the courageous 10-year resistance of the Afghan people, an epic story of triumph over tyranny that deserves to be immortalized. Kara Kush is the definitive story of freedom fighters. It is a story of patriotism-in-action, mobilized and fuelled...

An illustrated collection of 65 folktales, each with an introduction outlining the appearance of the tale in various cultures.

A clever boy and other villagers devise a plan to improve the manners of one of their neighbors. Based on a folktale from Afghanistan.

"A Sufi teaching tale of a chicken that has learned to speak as people do and spreads an alarming warning, which causes the townspeople to panic without first considering the messenger." --

A Sufi teaching tale in which two very different princes find their hearts' desires: one in a wonderous, mechanical fish, the other in a magical wooden horse.

"Fatima's life is beset with what seems to be disasters. Her journey leads her from Morocco to the Mediterranean, Egypt, Turkey and, finally, to China. It is in China that she realizes that what seemed at the time to be really unfortunate events were an integral part of her eventual fulfillment." --Jacket flap.

A Sufi teaching tale of a boy who visits another village and helps the townspeople deal with their fear of something that they have mistaken for a terrible, dangerous animal.

"A man tricks a young fox into believing that he will give him a chicken. The fox is trapped, but through ingenuity and perseverance, he escapes. Reading this story inspires children to face challenges directly, and even to use the obstacles in their paths to solve problems. This story belongs to the rich and ancient storytelling tradition of Central Asia and the Middle East. Retold here by the author and educator Idries Shah, it is one of a series...