A very RARE and uncommon book...ONLY COPY SELLING WORLWIDE!!! "An Early Mystic of Baghdad. A study of the life and teaching of Ḥārith b. Asad al-Muḥāsibī, A.D. 781–857" written by Margaret Smith.....Anazi, called al-Muhasibi, master of primitive Islamic mysticism and precursor of the great Muslim mystics, Basra, ca. A.H. 165 - Baghdad A.H. 243. Based on unpublished manuscript sources, with notes, references, a short bibliography, and two indexes.Ascetic and theologian, ardent heart and profound thinker, Muhasibi is both the initiator of the doctrinal synthesis that would be achieved fifty years later by Gonayd, a doctor of the Sufi school of Baghdad—one of the masters of the inner life in Islam, “the Thomas à Kempis of his time and country,” as has been said—and one of the most endearing figures of Sufism, due to his balance, integrity, and dynamism. This book is the first comprehensive study devoted to this great figure. The first three chapters, based on the few documents that have survived, recount the biography, inner life, and circle of the mystic. Then two chapters briefly describe the works that remain of his and explore the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian sources that nourished his thought. Then comes the essential part of the book, the exposition of Muhasibi's doctrine. Mr. Smith follows the different stages that lead the soul from sin to "gnosis," this direct contact of the creature with its God. Inisde light stains but overall cklean and complete, externally original cloth with wear around edges and corners, shelfwear, light wear on spine. Scarce.