Margaret Smith (author)

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Margaret Smith was a woman academic writing on early Christian and Muslim mysticism from an openminded Christian perspective.

Among here mentors she counted Thomas Walker Arnold, Alfred Guillaume, R. A. Nicholson, Louis Massignon.

Her writings were contemporary with those of Miguel Asin Y Palacios, another enlightened Christian writing on Islam and Sufism (Ibn Arabi and "Christianised Islam") who as a giant scholar did not dwarf here, indeed in their work they complemented and completed each other admirably -

In the 1970's four of her, by then hard to come by, works were reprinted in Amsterdam, Philo Press -by arrangement with The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London.

An Early Mystic of Baghdad: Al-Muhasibi, ca 781-875 A.D. Master of primitive Islamic mysticism and precursor of the great Muslim Mystics, 1935

An Introduction to the History of Mysticism , 1930

Rabi'a the Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam. Being the life and teachings of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya of Basra, Sufi saint, ca A.H. 99-185, A.D.717-801. Together with an account of the place of the women in Islam and with a survey of sources, references, a concise bibliography and indexes, 1928

Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East. Being an account of the rise and development of Christian mysticism up to the seventh century, of the subsequent development in Islam, known as Sufism, and of the relationship between Christian and Islamic mysticism. With references, a bibliography and two indexes, 1931