WRITER

Idries Shah

1924 - 1996

Photo of Idries Shah

Icon of person Idries Shah

Idries Shah (; Pashto: ادريس شاه‎, Urdu: ادریس شاه‎; 16 June 1924 – 23 November 1996), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي) and by the pen name Arkon Daraul, was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies, and also a leading thinker of the 20th century. Born in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Idries Shah has received more than 324,302 page views. His biography is available in 24 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 23 in 2019). Idries Shah is the 2,067th most popular writer (up from 2,197th in 2019), the 205th most popular biography from India (up from 216th in 2019) and the 36th most popular Indian Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 320k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 65.30

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 24

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.28

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.65

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Page views of Idries Shahs by language


Among WRITERS

Among writers, Idries Shah ranks 2,067 out of 5,794. Before him are Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, John Fletcher, Bella Akhmadulina, Parthenius of Nicaea, Pjetër Bogdani, and Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. After him are Clark Ashton Smith, Uri Orlev, Philippe Sollers, Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Joseph Joffo, and Albert Gleizes.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1924, Idries Shah ranks 129. Before him are Lefter Küçükandonyadis, Daniel Inouye, Raymond Barre, Yuri Bondarev, Alexander Haig, and Yehuda Amichai. After him are Allan Edwall, Vasil Bykaŭ, Karlheinz Deschner, Zbigniew Herbert, Fess Parker, and Dinah Washington. Among people deceased in 1996, Idries Shah ranks 92. Before him are Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, Lo Wei, Karl Rappan, Ben Johnson, Jack Churchill, and Jo Van Fleet. After him are Shams Pahlavi, Hans Blumenberg, Annabella, Dan Flavin, Leo Joseph Suenens, and Amos Tversky.

Others Born in 1924

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Others Deceased in 1996

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In India

Among people born in India, Idries Shah ranks 205 out of 1,227. Before him are Hema Malini (1948), Shilpa Shetty (1975), Nizamuddin Auliya (1238), Kittur Chennamma (1778), Homi J. Bhabha (1909), and Baji Rao I (1700). After him are Jamsetji Tata (1839), Salim Ali (1896), Motilal Nehru (1861), Thiruvalluvar (350), Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905), and Narayana Guru (1855).

Others born in India

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Among WRITERS In India

Among writers born in India, Idries Shah ranks 36. Before him are Abdul-Qādir Bedil (1642), Bharata Muni (-1000), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1942), Mahadevi Varma (1907), Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (1908), and Subramania Bharati (1882). After him are Jim Corbett (1875), Mir Taqi Mir (1723), Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876), Zeb-un-Nissa (1638), M. Karunanidhi (1924), and Kuvempu (1904).

Indian born Writers

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