List of 16

This list uses the 4 written traditions as the starting point, and eliminates texts after 1500AD, i.e. the whole Modern Western tradition in the main list. The only new work introduced thus is for Rumi's Masnavi (Rumi 1207-1273A.D.; Masnavi was written during last 12 years of his life; date roughly half a century before Dante's Commedia) to replace Ferdowsi's Shanameh. To maintain balance of the list by reducing a text from the Islamic tradition in the main list, I chose to take out Ghazali's Revival of Religious Science, as Ibn Sina's work has linkages to Neo-platonic, Islamic philosophies (East and West), and medieval theological philosophies. But taking out Ghazali's work eliminates all shades of Sufism from the list, and thus I use Rumi's Masnavi(which maintains a Persian-language representation) to cover the Sufi aspect of the tradition. According to some, the Masnavi is "the second Quran", so it is not necessarily less influential than Ferdowsi's Shanameh, which probably appeals more narrowly to primarily to Iranians. Suggested versions of Masnavi: older complete translation by Nicholson; or newer still-in-progress translation by Mojaddeddi.