About

Chickpea Press was founded in 2012 by Daniel and Saimma Dyer, after a dear mentor our theirs, Debra Kaatz, spied the potential for them to make use of their shared experience in book publishing. Debra’s book Sufi Tales was their first publication, soon leading to the publication of Daniel’s own book, The 99 Names of God, and the accompanying deck of cards with the same name. These titles broke the mould of Islamic children’s publishing, inspiring Muslim writers and publishers to take a more creative and soulful approach to Islamic education. Chickpea Press currently concentrates on helping others produce inspiring books in a broad range of genres. Daniel offers design, editorial, and production services, with Saimma always on hand to offer advice, support, and inspiration.

We aim to:

• help create resources that nurture spirituality
• promote a holistic, creative and heart-based approach to education
• foster a sense of unity and interdependence between people of different faiths, races, and cultures
• cultivate an awareness of the equality of women and men
• encourage reverence and respect for the natural world.

Daniel is a would-be dervish, author, musician, publisher, and regular blogger, living with his wife, Saimma, in Kendal, Cumbria. He belongs to the Mevlevi Order founded on the wisdom of Mevlana Jaluluddin Rumi, and studies under the guidance of Shaikh Kabir and Camille Helminski (founders of Threshold Society). He has also received the name ‘He who listens to truth’ from mentor Elizabeth Anne Hin, founder of the White Rose Foundation, who received the same name (‘She who listens to truth’) from Seneca Iroquois Grandmother Twylah Nitsch.

As an author, his first book was The 99 Names of God, a family guide for all ages. God willing, his next book will be The Mystic Keats, exploring Keats in the light of Rumi and other great mystics. He has written many articles for Rumi’s Circle, Threshold Society, Patheos, and the Inquirer among others, and offers courses on Sufism, whirling, and literature. He frequently leads services at his local Unitarian chapel.

Under Chickpea Press he works as a freelance editor, designer, and production manager, offering publishing solutions to various clients, especially in the fields of spirituality, poetry, chidlren’s books, and biography.

As a singer/songwriter he has released three albums (available on most streaming platforms): Root of the Root, Remember, and Seen & Unseen.

Boil Nicely Now

Look at the chickpea in the pot,
how it leaps up when it feels the fire.
While boiling, it continually rises to the top
and cries, “Why are you setting the fire under me?
Since you bought me, why are you turning me upside down?”
The housewife keeps hitting it with the ladle.
“No!” she says, “boil nicely now,
and don’t leap away from the one who makes the fire.
It’s not because you are hateful to me that I boil you,
but so that you might gain flavor,
and become nutritious and mingle with essential spirit.
This affliction is not because you are despised.
When you were green and fresh,
you were drinking water in the garden;
that water-drinking was for the sake of this fire.”

[Mevlana Rumi’s Mathnawi III, 4159–4165, trans. by Kabir and Camille Helminski]