Martin Lings, formerly Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Library, is the author of three works on Islamic mysticism. The Book of Certainty, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Alawi and What is Sufism?, the last two of which have been published in many languages. He is the author of The Secret of Shakespeare, Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions, Symbol and Archetype and the splendidly illustrated The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination, a revised edition of which is in preparation. His Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources has been internationally acclaimed as a masterpiece as has his Symbol and Archetype. His two latest publications are his Collected Poems and The Eleventh Hour: The Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of Tradition and Prophecy. Mr. Lings died in 2005.