A Study of the English Translations of Kashf al-Mahjub

Abstract

Sayyed ‘Ali bin ‘Usman al-Hujwiri popularly known as Data Gunj Bakhsh is a much revered Sufi of great repute. He contributed a lot to spread the true message of Islam to the masses of the Punjab through his larger than life character. Besides preaching, he also wrote some books on different disciplines of Islam, of which is his famous treatise named “Kashf al-Mahjub” (The Unveiling of the Veiled). Since his work on Sufism presented in this book is of encyclopedic nature and a simple but comprehensive one, it soon attracted the attention of both his contemporaries and posterity. This is why the orientalists also turned to translate it into different European languages especially in English. The paper is an articulation of critical study of different translations of the book.