Thinkers

The people cited in the posts, with the talks and books each post draws on.

• Umar Faruq Abd-Allah American Muslim scholar of Islamic thought and history.
• Ibn al-Fāriḍ Arab Sufi poet of Cairo (1181-1235), author of the Dīwān, whose odes on love are still sung.
• Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī Eleventh-century Persian-born scholar and author of Tafṣīl al-nashʾatayn.
• Zvi Ben-Dor Benite Historian of China and the Islamic world (New York University); author of The Dao of Muhammad.
• Luc Besson French film director of Le Grand Bleu (1988).
• William C. Chittick Scholar of Ibn ʿArabī and Sufi metaphysics (Stony Brook).
• Wang Daiyu Chinese Muslim scholar of the late Ming and early Qing who wrote on Islam in classical Chinese, author of the Qingzhen daxue (The Great Learning of the Pure and Real).
• Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil Egyptian architect of traditional Islamic architecture.
• Viktor Frankl Austrian psychiatrist, founder of logotherapy and author of Man's Search for Meaning.
• Robert Greene American author of The 48 Laws of Power and Mastery.
• Pierre Grimes Philosopher, founder of Philosophical Midwifery and the Noetic Society.
• Kabir Helminski Sufi teacher in the Mevlevi tradition, translator of Rumi.
• Jāmī Persian poet and Sufi (1414-1492), author of the Lawāʾiḥ ("Flashes"), a short treatise in the school of Ibn ʿArabī.
• Nacer Khemir Tunisian filmmaker, storyteller and writer, director of Bab'Aziz.
• Jacques Mayol Freediver (1927-2001), the first to dive to 100 metres on a single breath.
• Idris Mears Elder and teacher in the Islamic spiritual tradition.
• Tim Winter (Abdal Hakim Murad) British scholar of Islam and Arabic at Cambridge, also writing as Abdal Hakim Murad.
• Sachiko Murata Scholar of Islamic thought in its Chinese-language expressions, and of Sufi cosmology.
• Jordan Peterson Canadian psychologist and public speaker.
• Plato Athenian philosopher, author of the dialogues.
• Plotinus Third-century philosopher, author of the Enneads.
• Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī Persian poet and Sufi (1207-1273), author of the Masnavi.
• Stefan Sperl Scholar of Arabic literature and Sufi poetry (SOAS).
• Shams-i Tabrīzī Wandering Sufi teacher and companion of Rumi.
• Tu Weiming Scholar of Confucian thought, long at Harvard; co-author with Murata and Chittick of The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi.
• Hamza Yusuf American Muslim scholar and teacher, co-founder of Zaytuna College.
• Liu Zhi Chinese Muslim scholar of the Nanjing school (born around 1670) who wrote Islamic thought in Neo-Confucian terms, notably in the Tianfang xingli (1704).
• Ibn ʿArabī Andalusian Sufi master and metaphysician (1165-1240).