Studies on Sufism – serie

In Power Brokers in Ottoman Egypt, Side Emre documents the biography of Ibrahim-i Gulshani and the history of the Khalwati-Gulshani order of dervishes (c. 1440-1600). Set mainly in Mamluk-Egypt, and in the century following the region’s conquest by the Ottomans, this book analyzes sociopolitical dialogues at the geographic peripheries of an empire through the actions of and official responses to the Gulshaniyya network.Emre argues that the members of this Sufi order exerted social and political leverage and contributed significantly to the political culture of the empire and Egypt. The Gulshanis are uncovered as unexpected figures among the roster of influential players, in contrast with empire-centered historiographies that depict Ottoman ruling and learned elites as the primary shapers and narrators of the fates of conquered provinces and peoples. The Gulshanis’ political and cultural legacy is situated within an analysis of perceptions of Sufism in the early modern Ottoman world.

In Sufism East and West, the contributors investigate the redirection and dynamics of Sufism in the modern era, specifically from the perspective of global cross-cultural exchange. Edited by Jamal Malik and Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, the book explores the role of mystical Islam in the complex interchange and fluidity in the resonance spaces of “East” and “West.”The volume challenges the enduring Orientalist binary coding of East-versus-West and argues instead for a more mutual process of cultural plaiting and shared tradition. By highlighting amendments, adaptations and expansions of Sufi semantics during the last centuries, it also questions the persistent perception of Sufism in its post-classical epoch as a corrupt imitation of the legacy of the great Sufis of the past.

Thus Spake the Dervish explores the unfamiliar history of marginal Sufis, known as dervishes, in early modern and modern Central Asia over a period of 500 years. It draws on various sources (Persian chronicles and treatises, Turkic literature, Russian and French ethnography, the author’s fieldwork) to examine five successive cases, each of which corresponds to a time period, a specific socially marginal space, and a particular use of mystical language. Including an extensive selection of writings by dervishes, this book demonstrates the diversity and tenacity of Central Asian Sufism over a long period. Here translated into a Western language for the first time, the extracts from primary texts by marginal Sufis allow a rare insight into their world.The original French edition of this book, Ainsi parlait le dervice, was published by Editions du Cerf (Paris, France).Translated by Caroline Kraabel.

Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī (1145-1234) is the author of a classic work of Muslim piety, a key figure in the rise of institutional Sufism in the form of “orders” called “ṭarīqas,” and the influential eponym of one of these famous orders. This book presents studies, editions, and English translations of his shorter treatises that were originally penned in Arabic and Persian. Relying on global archival research, the book discovers materials that shed new light on his teachings and networks, as it traces the context, sources, and reception of his works. Carefully identifying the authentic works of ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī, the book presents significant new information on a key moment in the history of Muslim piety and mysticism.

The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi explores the life and teachings of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311), a little-known Ḥanbalī Sufi master from the circle of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). The first part of this book follows al-Wāsiṭī’s physical journey in search of spiritual guidance through a critical study of his autobiographical writings. This provides unique insights into the Rifāʿiyya, the Shādhiliyya, and the school of Ibn ʿArabī, several manifestations of Sufism that he encountered as he travelled from Wāsiṭ to Baghdad, Alexandria, and Cairo. Part I closes with his final destination, Damascus, where his membership of Ibn Taymiyya’s circle and his role as a Sufi teacher is closely examined.The second part focuses on al-Wāsiṭī’s spiritual journey through a study of his Sufi writings, which convey the distinct type of traditionalist Sufism that he taught in early eighth/fourteenth-century Damascus. Besides providing an overview of the spiritual path unto God from beginning to end as he formulated it, this reveals an exceptional interplay between Sufi theory and traditionalist theology.

The distinguished position of the seventeenth-century Ḥijāz attracted Sufis from across the Islamic world, making it the largest Sufi center of that era, with more than forty Sufi orders active during the Ottoman period. Most of the region’s many scholars were associated with Sufism and affiliated to these orders; their lives and Sufi activities more broadly were documented by one of their number, al-ʿUjaymī, in two texts. These texts, critically edited here for the first time, constitute some of the best evidence for the character of spiritual life in the Ḥijāz during the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.

Ahmad Zarruq, a 15th-century North African Sufi, turned his considerable intellect towards integrating theology, Islamic law and the spiritual path. His model of a jurisprudentially-grounded Sufism is as relevant today as when he presented it to a mediaeval audience, using an aphoristic style tailored to his educated readership. The current growth of puritanical movements in the Islamic world makes Zarruq’s The Foundations of Sufism a must-read for scholars, educators and those seeking to reconcile various interpretations of the faith. The author of this fresh translation, an Arabic and Classical Sufism scholar, consulted newly-discovered manuscripts in preparing his critical edition of this seminal work.

Abū Yazīd al-Basṭāmī (d. ca 234/848), popularly known as “Bāyazīd”, remains one of the most celebrated yet controversial figures in the history of Islamic mysticism. This in-depth study of his life and teachings is based on the earliest available sources. The book sets out in detail what is known of Bāyazīd’s family, his education, his disciples and associates. It explores the distinctive rhetoric that has made some of his sayings so memorable, and shows how his mode of expression adds a sense of urgency, often drama, to quite conventional doctrines of Sufism. Through the varied corpus of his sayings, this study traces Bāyazīd’s teachings concerning many aspects of the mystical path, as well as his reflections on God, the Prophet, heaven and hell. Having considered his role as spiritual master, his favourable view of women and his place in the wider community, the study then turns to the controversial side of Bāyazīd: his apparently blasphemous utterances, and his so-called miʿrāj. The book goes on to explore how the two seemingly contradictory sides to Bāyazīd might be reconciled, and finally, provides a brief survey of the extent of his influence on later Sufism and its literature.