Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.

His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. He used to say that the great collections of stories from the East were like encyclopedias storehouses of wisdom and knowledge ready to be studied to be appreciated and cheriIdries Shahd. For the time being we can only hope that some good will come and meanwhile continue our own work.

Shah came to be recognised as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. Born in India the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles Shah grew up mainly in England. In 1965 Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research a London-based educational charity devoted to the study of human behaviour and culture.