Talbis Iblis (Delusion of the Devil) (2 Volumes)

Jamal al-Din Abû’l-Faraj ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Ali, popularly known as lbn al-Jaûzi, 510 A.H.— 599 A.H. (A.D. 1116 – A.D.1200), was the author of a vast number of works—theological, historical, biographical, medical, philological, and entertaining—of which several have been printed in recent times. He was famous as a preacher and the traveller lbn Jubair gives an enthusiastic account of two of his sermons heard in Baghdãd. The work of which a translations is here offered is directed against the sins of contemporary society, which it traces to “delusion by the Devil.” Its title (Talbis Iblis) of which those words are a rendering, had been previously selected by Ghazali for a work of similar scope which he contemplated. Ibn Jaûzi, though he handles Ghazali severely, adopted it by far the greater part of the book is criticism or censure of the Sûfis, who, owing to the establishment of Orders by lbn al-Rifa’i and ‘Abd al-Qadir âI-Gilani in the sixth century of Islam, were beginning to render them, especially in North Africa, a political factor.