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The idea for an animated feature film was Idries Shah’s, but it became Williams’ obsession. The illustrations became the model for the styling of what became The Thief. In 1966, Williams collaborated with Idries Shah by providing illustrations for a series of humourous books on Nasrudin. Williams was co-writer and director on a 1965 short film called, The Dermis Probe, based on writings of Idries Shah. Idries Shah had written a seminal work on Sufism, ‘The Sufis,’ and was collecting folk tales about the Mulla Nasrudin. The brothers traced their family back to 122 BC – through the prophet Muhammad and to the Sassanian emperors of Persia. Omar Ali Shah’s brother, Idries Shah, was a major Sufi, scholar/master. Most Sufi orders trace their lineage through Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and the fourth Caliph. Omar Ali Shah was a prominent exponent of Naqshbandi Sufism, an order that traces its connection to Muhammad through Abu Bakr, the first Caliph and a companion of Muhammad. Omar Ali Shah was the first business manager that Richard Williams Animation (RWA) had in its twenty-year lease at 13 Soho Square. Sufism is a concept related to an inner ‘mystical’ aspect of Islam – although some Sufi scholars teach that the concept pre-dates religions and only flowered under Islam. The Thief had its origins in the mid-1960s, when Richard Williams became interested in Sufism. It is a project that consumed much of his career and for which there still remains mystery, intrigue, and cautionary tales.
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It is almost impossible to discuss Richard Williams without discussing The Thief and the Cobbler (or, The Thief).