Of all the great traditions of spiritual music, Sufi music is the least known and yet, in many ways, the most approachable. Open, cultured and non-violent, Sufism is the mystical arm of Islam, for whose adherents music, dance, chant and song become the means of achieving the abandonment of the self in the ecstasy of being part of creation. All across North Africa, right through the Middle East and into Central Asia, traditions have developed around the shrines of saints and the homes of sheikhs, which have profoundly influenced the music of the countries around them.