Person
Ian Dallas
Acting · 1930–2021 · Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Biography
After a brief career in acting, Ian Dallas, a native-born Scotsman, later reverted to Islam and joined the Shadhili-Darqawi Order of Sufis in Morocco. Upon the death of his Shaykh, Shaykh Muhammad Ibn al-Habib, Dallas became the Shaykh of the Order under the name Shaykh Abdulqadir as-Sufi, the name he was given by his Shaykh. He is still active today (2004) as the leader of the worldwide Murabitun movement of Sufis. He wrote a fictionalized account of his journey into Sufism in a novel, "The Book of Strangers." It is also said that, while living in London in the 1960s, he was friends with Eric Clapton, and gave Clapton a copy of the ancient Persian Sufi parable "Layla and Majnun," which later became the basis for Clapton's song "Layla" about his own ill-fated romance.
Known for

The Wednesday Play
Writer

8½
Maurice, Maya's Assistant

Jane Eyre
Teleplay

Familiar Spirits
Self

The Madhouse on Castle Street
Reverend Spooner
Filmography
- 1966Familiar SpiritsSelf
- 1964The Wednesday PlayWriter
- 19638½Maurice, Maya's Assistant
- 1963The Madhouse on Castle StreetReverend Spooner
- 1956Jane EyreTeleplay
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