Sufism in Medieval Muslim Societies

7/30/2019 Sufism in Medieval Muslim Societies

1/12

Sufism in Medieval Muslim Societies

Erik S. Ohlander*Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne

Abstract

Taking under consideration major historiographical and interpretive trends associated with recentwestern scholarship on the topic, this article furnishes a broad schematic overview of basic issuespertaining to the development, place, meaning, and role of Sufism in medieval Muslim societies.

IntroductionAs a popular and enduring mode of religiosity prevalent across Muslim societies past andpresent, Sufism has been a topic of natural interest to historians of the medieval Islamicworld. At the same time, significant lacunae exist in present understandings of the develop-ment, place, meaning, and role of Sufism and its institutions in medieval Muslim societies.As recently noted by a string of scholars, one of the major reasons for this is that research onSufism produced in western academic discourse over the past century has tended to favorlargely de-historicizing phenomenological approaches to the topic. These approaches tendto yield little of direct interest to historians.1 Whether a result of disciplinary territorialityand parochialism, epistemological impasses associated with particular intellectual and confes-

sional proclivities, or the persisting legacy of hidebound interpretive schema inherited fromclassical Orientalist discourse, this dislocation stands in some opposition to the study of othersocio-religious phenomena associated with the broader history of pre-modern Islamdom.2

In recent years, however, a marked uptick in the production of scholarship on Sufismrooted in methodologies and interpretive paradigms falling within the general ambit ofsocial and cultural history has began to invigorate the topic as a subject of historicalresearch. By taking into account larger questions concerning social, cultural, political, andeconomic life, Sufism has come to be seen as possessing wider import than it has in thepast.3 Still, when taken as a whole, this work has reached only a tentative body of con-clusions and much groundwork remains to be done.

Keeping this in mind, this article furnishes a broad schematic overview of basic issuesconcerning the development, place, meaning, and role of Sufism in medieval Muslimsocieties in relation to major historiographical and interpretive trends associated withrecent western scholarship on the topic. While boasting an impressive range of researchwhich does, in more than a number of cases, intersect with the interests of researcherswriting in European languages, scholarship on Sufism produced within the Muslim worldfalls outside the purview of this article.4

Periodization

By medieval is meant here those periods indentified by Marshall Hodgson as the Earlierand Later Middle Periods. The first of these spanned the years 9451258 C.E. and wasmarked by the establishment of an international Islamicate civilization that spread beyond

History Compass 8/6 (2010): 518529, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00683.x

2010 The AuthorJournal Compilation 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd


2/12

the Irano-Semitic areas. The second spanned the years 12581503 C.E. and was markedby processes of crisis and renewal resulting largely from the Mongol invasions of the firsthalf of the 13th century.5 In starting from this basic framework, scholarship on Sufismand its associated institutions over the course of these periods has tended to superimposea secondary periodization. This parallel chronology has typically been envisioned as fallinginto four discrete phases: 1) a pre-classical phase spanning the late-7th century throughthe 8th century; 2) a classical phase spanning the 9th century through the late-11thcentury; 3) a post-classical phase spanning roughly the end of the 11th century throughthe beginning of the 13th century; and, 4) a neo-classical phase spanning the mid-13thcentury up through the beginning of the 16th century.6 Each of these historical phases isenvisioned as being marked by predominant characteristics which differentiate it from theothers. In order to better outline the major interpretive models, trends, and developmentsattendant to western academic research pertaining to the wider subject of Sufism in medi-eval Muslim societies, this article will summarize the predominant characteristics associ-ated with each of these phases as they have been presented within the standard scholarlyliterature.

The Pre-classical Phase

While this phase does not overlap with Hodgsons definition of the medieval period ofIslamic history, in view of the generally assumed linkage between the first phase andthose which followed, it is essential to make note of its predominant characteristics. It isimportant to note here that the term Sufism, or ta

_sawwuf, did not gain currency until at

least the first half of the 9th century.7 However, various antecedents of the movement,even though they were not generally defined by the term ta

_sawwufuntil later on, were

rooted in the teachings of certain circles of Muslim ascetics (zuhhad; nussak) who first

appeared in Iraq and Syria in the early 8th century.8

Marked by a commitment toreligious scrupulosity and strict adherence to sharia norms, indifference to worldly plea-sures, and the cultivation of an ascetical lifestyle prone to expressing itself in sometimesquite fantastic acts of contrition, such currents of asceticism (zuhd) are typically under-stood to have influenced the emergence of a loose proto-Sufi movement by the 9thcentury. This movement combined ascetical piety with devotional and contemplativepractices centered on the cultivation and analysis of mystical experience, and is knownlargely through a hodgepodge of logia, biographical anecdotes, and poetic fragmentscollected by later Sufis. Despite a growing recognition of the problem of back-projectingthe developments of later stages of Sufisms evolution into this period, and the underde-

veloped nature of prevailing reconstructions in light of larger questions concerning thedevelopment of Islamic theological and legal discourses during the period, the generaloutlines of this phase are nevertheless typically conceived of along such lines.9

The Classical Phase

The transition from the pre-classical phase, characterized by the activities of relatively iso-lated ascetico-mystic virtuosi, to the classical phase proper is typically linked to the emer-gence of groups of like-minded individuals, largely from the mercantile and artisanclasses, coalescing around the teachings of exemplary mystico-ascetic masters. Here, the

ethos associated with the proto-Sufis of the previous phase has been portrayed by Wes-tern scholarship as inspiring the development of distinctive regional mystico-asceticschools. These movements, by the mid-9th century, began to appear predominantly in

Sufism in Medieval Muslim Societies 519

2010 The Author History Compass 8/6 (2010): 518529, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00683.xJournal Compilation 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd


3/12

the major urban centers of Iraq and Khurasan, with the school of Baghdad being themost influential. Centered in the bustling cosmopolitan milieu of the Abbasid capital andcalling themselves

_sufiyya (Sufis), it was representatives of this group such as al-Junayd

al-Baghdad (d. 910) who are typically cited as having been responsible for fashioning theoverarching epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, and basic technical language whichwould come to characterize Sufi thought in the phase which followed. At the same time,competing mystico-ascetic schools, such as a Basran mystico-theological movementknown as the Salimiyya, various movements born in the Persian province of Khurasansuch as the Karramiyya and Malamatiyya, or the cases of seemingly isolated mysticalthinkers such as al-

_Hakm al-Tirmidh (d. ca. 932), Ibn Massara (d. 931), or al-Niffar

(d. after 977), seem to point to a situation characterized more by diversity thanhomogeneity. While all of these strains have been addressed independently in thescholarship to one degree or another, synthetic accounts concerning the wider dynamicsattendant to this situation have only just recently begun to appear.10

This phase has also been characterized by something of a second wave marked by theconcerted efforts of a line of prolific Sufi apologists active between the later-10th century

through the mid-to-late-11th century to secure a recognized place for Sufism as a legiti-mate religious science ( ilm) alongside law, Quranic exegesis, the study of the Hadith andsuch like. Thus, the later part of this phase has often been characterized as a period ofsystematization and consolidation.11 Spurred on by the suspicions of certain sectors of thelearned religious classes regarding the orthodoxy of the Sufi movement generally, a liter-ary output emerged from various Sufi apologists such as Abu Na

_sr al-Sarraj (d. 988), Abu

Bakr al-Kalabadh (d. 994), Abu Abd al-Ra_hman al-Sulam (d. 1020), Abd al-Karm al-

Qushayr (d. 1074), Al al-Hujwr (d. between 1072 and 1077), and Abd Allah-i An_sar

(d. 1089). This was a time in which oral and textual traditions belonging to an earlierperiod were carefully sifted in defense of a teleology which envisioned the sciences of

the masters of hearts ( ulum arbab al-qulub) as a contiguous tradition originating in thepractice of the prophet Muhammad and his immediate companions. This tradition, almostwithout exception, came to pass through the line of the

_sufiyya of Baghdad. Supported

by the production of handbooks, doctrinal works, and biographical compendia, the over-all success of these systematizers in securing a place for Sufism within the mainstream ofthe Islamic religious sciences is often seen to be exemplified in the life and work of theSunni theologian, jurist, and polemicist Abu

_Hamid al-Ghazal (d. 1111), an influential

figure who championed a moderate form of Islamic mystical piety as the most efficaciousroute to salvation. Given the critical role of the figures who emerged over the course ofthis phase in establishing Sufism as a recognizable presence in medieval Muslim societies,

the literature of this period has been studied more extensively than that of the others,although overarching synthetic accounts remain few and far between.12

The Post-classical Phase

Up to this point, the scholarly literature frequently assumes a preceding golden agemarked by innovation and creativity followed by a post-classical phase marked by awidespread flowering of Sufism across the Abode of Islam. The most predominant char-acteristic of this phase is the emergence of the so-called Sufi orders (

_turuq; sing.

_tarqa),

mystical brotherhoods or teaching-lineages typically named after a particularly outstanding

Sufi master claimed as the founder of the orders particular method or path (_tarq) ofmystical praxis. Of particular importance here are a number of such eponyms whosenames figured prominently over the course of this phase: Abd al-Qadir al-Jlan (d. 1166)

520 Sufism in Medieval Muslim Societies



4/12

and Umar al-Suhraward (d. 1234), who were both active in Baghdad and who lent theirnames to the Qadiriyya and Suhrawardiyya orders respectively; A

_hmad al-Rifa (d.

1182), who was active in the marshlands of southern Iraq and lent his to the Rifa iyya;Najm al-Dn Kubra (d. 1220), who was active in Transoxiana and lent his to the Ku-brawiyya; Mu n al-Dn Chisht (d. 1236), who settled in India and lent his to the Chis-htiyya; and Abu l-

_

Hasan Al al-Shadhil (d. 1258), who was active in North Africa andlent his to the Shadhiliyya.

13 Other eponymous orders, and various sub-branches of estab-lished ones, would continue to appear towards the end of this period and continue toproliferate throughout the course of the next.14

Questions concerning the development of the early Sufi orders, their attendant pro-cesses of institutionalization, and the nature of their position within medieval Muslimsocieties have proven a fecund area for recent research. Predicated on what is increasinglyseen to be a decidedly ahistorical and unilinear trajectory of the development of the Sufiorders, the influential three-stage model proposed by J. Spencer Trimingham15 hasrecently begun to give way to a model which views them instead as largely decentralizedmystical teaching-lineages deriving their vitality from the charisma of individual Sufi

masters rather than the structural context of an order as such.16 In addition to witnessingthe results of an earlier shift in the nature of the master-disciple relationship, in whichSufi masters begin to act more as directors than teachers,17 this phase is also marked bythe widespread proliferation of residential centers or hospices (riba

_t, khanqah; or, zawiya).

These institutions acted as loci in which groups of Sufi novices would engage in pro-grams of austerities, supererogatory devotions, and individual and communal rituals underthe tutelage of a recognized master.18 This hospice system has proven to be another fruit-ful area for recent research, especially as articulated in the phase that followed.19

The Neo-classical PhaseStretching from the period that witnessed the initial crystallization of the early Sufi orderson the eve of the Mongol invasions in the 13th century up through the era witnessingthe rise of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires in the 16th century, the neo-clas-sical phase has typically been characterized by the popularization of Sufi modes of religi-osity across wide segments of Muslim society. Whereas over the course of much of thepreceding phase Sufism was primarily an elite phenomenon, from this point forward itwould begin to develop mass appeal. As perceptively stated in a recent work of syntheticscholarship on the topic, the general assent is that the history of Sufism during its forma-tive period is in many ways the story of how Sufis gradually moved to the centre of Isla-

mic societies and became part of the mainstream in both urban and ruralenvironments.20 As Hodgson had proposed as part of his broader synthesis of Islamic his-tory, Sufism flourished in a context marked by the widespread breakdown of traditionalstructures of religious authority and the need to rebuild urban life across much of thecentral and eastern lands of Islamdom following the Mongol invasions. Due to their focuson interior experience and their generally tolerant attitudes towards localized expressionsof religious diversity resulting from notions of metaphysical inclusivity, eminently adapt-able Sufi masters were able to provide the basis for a social order which simultaneouslyembraced and co-opted less flexible modes of socio-religious organization.21

Throughout this period and across the Abode of Islam, prominent Sufi masters and

their followers increasingly enjoyed the patronage of the ruling classes. These patrons,whose motives often seem to have been related more to matters of political expediencythan pious sentiment, not only funded the construction of scores upon scores of Sufi




5/12

hospices and tomb complexes22 but also regularly called upon Sufi leaders, both at courtand beyond, as advisors and spiritual guides. Despite a long history of unease in mixingworldly affairs with those of the spirit and a good deal of diversity in expressed attitudestowards engagement with the state amongst different Sufi communities,23 there arenumerous examples of Sufis of this phase who were not only deeply involved in the poli-tics of their day, but who owned and administered extensive properties, married intopowerful families, travelled with large retinues, and maintained visible relations with stateofficials. Accounts of such situations are readily found in scholarship bearing upon theperiod, and show a clear potential to contribute to a wider understanding of socio-politi-cal forms obtaining in medieval Muslim societies.24

At the same time, however, it is essential to note that any potential measure of legitimacya Sufi master might bestow upon a potential patron was rooted first and foremost in his per-ceived status as a spiritual elite and bearer ofbaraka (blessing; holiness; spiritual charisma)among the general population. It appears that this was often the case, for in envisioningthemselves as the true heirs to the prophets many Sufi masters not only maintained a policyof attending to the spiritual welfare of the wider communities surrounding them but also

became preeminent foci of petitions for supernatural help and intercession long after theirpassing. Whether or not they were accepted as trained members of the learned religiousclass and tensions between Sufis and the ulama were not unknown in any case25 thatsuch assertions served to endow Sufis with status and authority is well documented. Aubiquitous feature of both urban and rural landscapes across the medieval Muslim world,this cult of saints was predicated on the idea that the spiritual charisma of particularlyexemplary Sufi masters could survive them after death, being accessible in tomb-shrinesbuilt to house their remains. Throughout the later medieval period the tomb-shrines of suchintimates or friends of God (awliya ; sing. wal)

26 served as places of popular devotion andpilgrimage amongst the masses. This phenomenon has been the subject of a number of

recent studies in the context of several regional milieux.27

Recent scholarship on this phase has been marked by certain interpretive and substan-tive shifts, such as a reevaluation of the potential usefulness of hagiographic literatures foraddressing issues concerning the development, place, meaning, and role of Sufism andSufis in medieval Muslim societies. Hagiographies of all types, which were initially dis-missed or received only limited attention among earlier generations of scholars, have nowbeen shown to be sources of profound significance for the study of Sufism in pre-modernIslamic societies generally.28 Moreover, a number of scholars working on the topic acrossmultiple regions of the medieval Muslim world have in recent years made a concertedeffort to divest such literatures from the old positivist problematic of their questionable

value as historical sources.29

Similarly, recent scholarship has also witnessed a markedexpansion in the definition of Sufism, or Sufis, as a descriptive category. Here, researchon mystico-ascetic collectivities whose practices, organizational forms, or social position-ing appears to have intersected in larger ways with that of Sufi communities has consider-ably broadened the picture of the place, role, and meaning of mysticism in the socialand cultural life of medieval Muslim societies. For example, recent studies of antinomianQalandar groups,30 the chivalric futuwwa fraternities,31 or mystically-inclined messianicmovements32 show a clear potential for adding to our general understanding of Muslimsocial and religious life in the Later Middle Period.

The general acculturation of Sufism within Muslim societies during this period is also

evinced in other arenas. The contributions of Sufi litterateurs to the literary arts and theculture of letters, for example, has been particularly well-studied. This is especially truefor the production of those writing in Persian, the lingua franca of the eastern half of the




6/12

medieval Islamic world.33 Rooted in the popularity of mystically-tinged verse amongSufis and non-Sufis alike, by the end of this period a synergistic confluence between clas-sical poetic forms and Sufi doctrine would inform the establishment of a common literarycanon which would mark literary traditions from the Indian subcontinent to the Balkanregions of the Ottoman Empire in the period that followed.34 As a ubiquitous feature ofthe general fabric of day-to-day life across the medieval Muslim world, the ways in whichSufis and Sufism figured in the configuration of space in medieval Islamic cities hasrecently been brought under scrutiny as well.35

Conclusion

In considering the possible implications of this brief overview of issues pertaining to thedevelopment, place, meaning, and role of Sufism in medieval Muslim societies in light ofmajor historiographical and interpretive trends associated with recent western scholarshipon the topic, three main points come into focus. First, in contradistinction to both earlierracialist models which saw Sufism as a foreign accretion grafted upon an incongruous

Semitic substrate, or modernist or romantic models which have interpreted its floweringduring the later medieval period as a sign of either decadence or the watering down ofthe lofty ambitions of its classical paragons,36 recent scholarship has become increasinglyless interested in questions concerning the origins or evolution of Sufism as such. Rather,the focus has shifted to larger questions concerning the ways in which Sufism and Sufismight be plotted in the broadly-conceived social, religious, cultural, political, and eco-nomic life of medieval Muslim societies.

Second, whereas past phenomenological approaches have typically posited an object ofstudy defined by the transcultural and transhistorical category of mysticism which, in thiscase, just happens to be Islamic, recent social and cultural history approaches have

attempted to redefine the object of study as something drawing much closer to cases ofMuslim mysticisms. Here, substantive focus has been shifted from largely disembodiedreligious discourses to the empirically accessible traces of the activities of historical actorsplotted firmly in time and space. In the same way, interpretive focus has been shiftedfrom analyses rooted in theological or philosophical interpretive schema to what might bedescribed as historicist interrogations of the social and cultural embeddedness of theempirically accessible traces of actors so identified. As a convenient descriptive category,here Sufism has increasingly come to be seen as referring to an interrelated complex ofhistorically-defined mystical and ascetical movements marked by a shared reference tocertain practices, texts, and institutions, rather than a discrete, univocal religious move-

ment marked predominantly by its relation to mysticism.Third, while a periodization predicated ultimately on an outmoded model of classicism

and decline is inherently problematic,37 its largely unquestioned persistence evinces theneed, already well known to specialists in the area, for further groundwork in primarysource materials bearing upon the activities of Sufis across the medieval Islamic world. Agreat deal of such material exists in scores of manuscript collections housed in librariesand repositories scattered across the Muslim world, Europe, and North America; it mustbe stressed here that much of this has only just begun to be systematically explored.38

Short Biography

Erik S. Ohlander is currently Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of theReligious Studies Program at Indiana UniversityPurdue University Fort Wayne. An




7/12

historian of religion and specialist in Islamic studies, he has written widely in the areas ofIslamic mysticism, Quranic studies, and Islamic intellectual history and religious move-ments. Author of Sufism in an Age of Transition: Umar al-Suhrawardi and the Rise of the Isla-mic Mystical Brotherhoods (Brill, 2008), he has also contributed numerous articles on Sufismto the much anticipated third edition of Brills Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Encyclopaedia Ira-nica, and other scholarly reference works. He holds a B.A., summa cum laude, in MiddleEastern and Religious studies from the University of Minnesota, and an M.A and Ph.D.in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Notes

* Correspondence: Department of Philosophy, Indiana UniversityPurdue University Fort Wayne, 2101 E. ColiseumBlvd. CM 23, Fort Wayne, IN 46805, USA. Email: [email protected].

1 See, for example: A. J. Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam (London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.,1950); M. Mole, Les mystiques musulmans (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965); A. Schimmel, MysticalDimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1975); G. Anawati and L. Gardet,

Mystique musulmane: Aspects et tendences, experiences et techniques, 4th rev. edn. (Paris: J. Vrin, 1986). A limitedoverview of this approach can be found in R. Caspar, Muslim Mysticism: Tendencies in Modern Research, inM. Swartz (ed. and trans.), Studies in Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 16484.2 An overview of western scholarship on Sufism can be found in A. Knysh, Historiography of Sufi Studies in theWest, in Y. Choueiri (ed.), A Companion to the History of the Middle East (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing,2005), 10631, and comments on some of its perceived failings in C. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston:Shambhala Publications, 1997), 118; E. Ohlander, Sufism in an Age of Transition: Umar al-Suhrawardand the Rise of the Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 12; and, N. Green, Making Sense of Sufism in the IndianSubcontinent: A Survey of Trends, Religion Compass, 26 (2008): 104449.3 On the development of trends following WWII see A. Knysh, Historiography, 12127.4 Examples of such intersections are readily apparent in the bibliographies attached to many of the studies cited inthis article, particularly in research published over the past decade.5 M. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, vols. 12 (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1974).6 Clearly evinced for example in F. Meier, The Mystic Path, in B. Lewis (ed.), Islam and the Arab World: Faith,People, Culture (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1976), 11728; and, L. Massignon et al., Ta

_sawwuf, in Th.

Bianquis et al. (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition) (Leiden: Brill, 1998), vol. 10, 31340.7 See J. Baldick, Mystical Islam: An Introduction to Sufism (New York: New York University Press, 1989), 3032;and, A. Knysh, Islamic Mysticism: A Short History (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 57.8 See J. Chabbi, Remarques sur le developpement historique des mouvements ascetiques et mystique au Khurasan IIIe

siecleIXe siecle, Studia Islamica, 46 (1977): 571; C. Melchert, The Transition from Asceticism to Mysticism in theMiddle of the Ninth Century C.E., Studia Islamica, 831 (1996): 5170, and idem, Asceticism, in M Gaborieau, et al.(eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam Three(Leiden: Brill, 2007), fasc. 2007-1, 16369; A. Popovic and G. Veinstein (eds.),Les Voies dAllah: Les orders mystiques dans le monde musulman des origines a aujourdhui (Paris: Fayard, 1996), 3133;Massignon et al., Ta

_sawwuf, 31314; A. Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 813; and, in a broader context, R. Gramlich,

Weltverzicht. Grundlagen und Weisen islamischer Askese(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1997).9 See A. Popovic and G. Veinstein (eds.), Les Voies dAllah, 3336; L. Massignon et al., Tasawwuf, 314; A. Knysh,Islamic Mysticism, 1342; C. Melchert, Basran Origins of Classical Sufism, Der Islam, 82 (2005): 22140; and,A. Karamustafa, Sufism: The Formative Period (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 17.10 On this phase generally, see A. Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 43115, a valuable synthetic account which should beread alongside the more recent reconstruction offered in A. Karamustafa, Sufism, 782, who has produced the mostcomprehensive picture of the period to date.11 For example L. Massignon et al., Ta

_sawwuf, 31415; J. Baldick, Mystical Islam, 5067; A. Popovic and

G. Veinstein (eds.), Les Voies dAllah, 4043; A. Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 11649; A. Karamustafa, Sufism, 83113(which is the most comprehensive account to date); and, E. Ohlander, Sufism in an Age of Transition, 4553.12 The bibliographies adduced in L. Massignon et al., Ta

_sawwuf, 31617, present a fairly comprehensive picture

of standard literature pertaining to this phase.13 On all in general see A. Popovic and G. Veinstein (eds.), Les Voies dAllah, 4467; E. Geoffroy et al.,

_Tar

_ka, in

Th. Bianquis, et al. (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition) (Leiden: Brill, 1998), vol. 10, 24357; L. Massignonet al., Tasawwuf, 315; J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, with a new foreword by J. Voll (NewYork and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 3166; J. Baldick, Mystical Islam, 7277; C. Ernst, The Shambhala




8/12

Guide to Sufism, 12046; and, A. Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 169244. An important discussion of antecedents can befound in A. Karamustafa, Sufism, 11427. A detailed account of the initial diffusion of the orders in the Indian Sub-continent can be found in S. Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, vol. 1 (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Pub-lishers Pvt. Ltd., 1978). A highly instructive overview of the same can be found in S. Digby, The Sufi Shaikh as aSource of Authority in Medieval India, Collection Purusartha, 9 (1986): 5777.14 In addition to the substantial overview found in A. Popovic and G. Veinstein (eds.), Les Voies dAllah, 261518,see also E. Geoffroy et al.,

_Tar

_ka, 24657.

15

See J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam.16 Examples of which include C. Ernst and B. Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia andBeyond (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); E. Ohlander, Sufism in an Age of Transition; D. Ephrat, TheShaykh, the Physical Setting and the Holy Site: The Diffusion of the Qadir Path in Late Medieval Palestine, Jour-nal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 191 (2009): 120; and, idem, Spiritual Wayfarers, Leaders in Piety: Sufis andthe Dissemination of Islam in Medieval Palestine (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008). On this in general,a useful summary can be found in J. Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 23640.17 See the foundational essay by F. Meier, Khurasan and the End of Classical Sufism, in J. OKane (trans.) andB. Radtke (ed.), Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 189219; and further M. Malamud, SufiOrganization and Structures of Authority in Medieval Nishapur, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 26(1994): 42742; and, A. Buehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating SufiShaykh (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1998), 2954. A recent questioning of Meiers model

can be found in L. Silvers-Alario, The Teaching Relationship in Early Sufism: A Reassessment of Fritz MeiersDefinition of the shaykh al-tabiya and the shaykh al-ta lm, The Muslim World, 931 (2003): 6997.18 See A. Popovic and G. Veinstein (eds.), Les Voies dAllah, 90100 and 13972; C. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide toSufism, 81119; L. Massignon et al., Tasawwuf, 31516; J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, 194217; M.I. Waley, Contemplative Disciplines in Early Persian Sufism, in L. Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism(Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1999), vol. 1, 497548; and, A. Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 31425.19 See J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, 16693; and for specific examples: K.A. Nizami, SomeAspects of Khanqah Life in Medieval India, Studia Islamica, 8 (1957): 5269; J. Chabbi, La fonction du ribat a Bag-dad de Ve siecle au debut du VIIe siecle, Revue des etudes islamiques, 42 (1974): 10121; L. Fernandes, The Evolutionof a Sufi Institution in Mamluk Egypk: The Khanqah (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 1988); Th. Emil Homerin, Saving Mus-lim Souls: The Khanqah and the Sufi Duty in Mamluk Lands, Mamluk Studies Review, 3 (1999): 5983; R. Islam,Sufism in South Asia: Impact on Fourteenth Century Muslim Society (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2002), 87124;

J. Berkey, The Formation of Islam, 24142; and, E. Ohlander, Sufism in an Age of Transition, 187247.20 A. Karamustafa, Sufism, 143, an idea which clearly builds on Richard Bulliets influential synthetic model ofMuslim intellectual and religious history pertaining to this period, for which see his Islam: The View From the Edge(New York: Columbia University Press, 1994).21 M. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, vol. 2, 20154. A recent synthetic historical overview of Sufism during thisphase, clearly inspired by this model, can be found in J. Berkey, The Formation of Islam, 23147.22 An instructive account of three such complexes can be found in S. Blair, Sufi Saints and Shrine Architecture inthe Early Fourteenth Century, Muqarnas, 7 (1990): 3549.23 A good example of ambivalence towards engagements with the prevailing political situation in a medieval Suficommunity can be found in J. Paul, Solitude within Society: Early Khwajagan Attitudes toward Spiritual andSocial Life, in P. Heck (ed.), Sufism and Politics (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007), 13763, and anexample of a decidedly oppositional engagement in O. Safi, The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam NegotiatingIdeology and Religious Inquiry (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 158200.24 Examples of which can be found in A. Ahmad, The Sufi and the Sultan in Pre-Mughal India, Der Islam, 38(1963): 14253; J. Gross, The Economic Status of a Timurid Sufi Shaykh: A Matter of Conflict or Perception?,Iranian Studies, 2112 (1988): 84104; J. Baldick, Mystical Islam, 9394; L. Potter, Sufis and Sultans in Post-Mon-gol Iran, Iranian Studies, 2714 (1994): 77102; C. Ernst, Ruzbihan Baql: Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood inPersian Sufism (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996), 13237; H. Dabashi, Historical Conditions of Persian Suf-ism during the Seljuk Period, in L. Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, vol. 1, 15369; R. Islam, Sufism in SouthAsia, 23491; O. Safi, The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam, 12557; B. Manz, Power, Politics and Religion inTimurid Iran (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 20844; A. Karamustafa, Sufism, 15255; and,E. Ohlander, Sufism in an Age of Transition, 66136 and 249303. A brief general discussion of the issue can befound in J. Berkey, The Formation of Islam, 24244.25 See, for example, A. Knysh, Ibn Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in MedievalIslam (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999). A number of the essays in F. de Jong and B. Radtke(eds.), Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics (Leiden: Brill, 1999) deal with the

medieval period and should also be consulted on the topic. The brief comments in J. Berkey, The Formation of Islam, 23235 are instructive in this regard as well.




9/12

26 On this concept generally see M. Chodkiewicz, Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn Arab(Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1993), 1746; H. Landolt, Walayah, in L Jones (ed.), TheEncyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edn. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005), vol. 14, 965662; and, J. Renard,Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Califor-nia Press, 2008), 26081; and on its range of manifestations in relation to the period: C. Ernst, The Shambhala Guideto Sufism, 5863; V. Cornell, Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin: University of TexasPress, 1998), 1120; and, A. Karamustafa, Sufism, 12734. An extended study of the relationship between the con-

cept and the construction of a medieval Sufi order can be found in R. McGregor, Sanctity and Mysticism in MedievalEgypt: The Waf a Sufi Order and the Legacy of Ibn Arab(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), and anexcellent overview of the intersection between the concept and broader conceptions of religious authority in thesocial and political sphere in a late-medieval Muslim society in B. Manz, Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran,178207. A re-consideration of the use of the concept as related to the period can be found in N. Amri, Waletawliya dans l-Ifrqya medievale, Studia Islamica, 90 (2000): 2336.27 In particular C. Taylor, In the Vicinity of the Righteous: Ziyara and the Veneration of Muslim Saints in Late MedievalEgypt (Leiden: Brill, 1999); J. Meri, The Cult of Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2002); and, A. Suvorova, Muslim Saints of South Asia: The Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries (Londonand New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004). A precis on the wider implications of this phenomenon for the writingof medieval Islamic social history is to be had in C. Taylor, Saints, Ziyara, Qi

_s_sa, and the Social Construction of

Moral Imagination in Late Medieval Egypt, Studia Islamica, 88 (1998): 10320. See also C. Ernst, The ShambhalaGuide to Sufism, 7180; A. Karamustafa, Sufism, 14349; and, J. Renard, Friends of God, 17685.28

See D. Aigle, Charismes et role social des saints dans lhagiographie persane medievale (Xe

XVe

siecles), Bulle-tin dEtudes Orientales, 47 (1995): 1536; M. Hermansen, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Islamic BiographicalMaterials, Religion, 184 (1988): 16382; idem, Religious Literature and the Inscription of Identity: The SufiTazkira Tradition in Muslim South Asia, The Muslim World, 8734 (1997): 31529; C. Ernst, The ShambhalaGuide to Sufism, 6371; M. Hermansen and B. Lawrence, Indo-Persian Tazkiras as Memorative Communications,in D Gilmartin and B Lawrence (eds.), Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia(Gainsville: University of Florida Press, 2000), 14975; J. Mojaddedi, The Biographical Tradition in Sufism: The

_tabaqat Genre from al-Sulamto Jam(Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001); and Renard, Friends of God, 24057.29 Examples include C. Ernst, Ruzbihan Baql, 11130; J. Gross, Authority and Miraculous Behavior: Reflectionson Karamat Stories of Khwaja Ubaydullah A

_hrar, in L. Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, vol. 2, 15769; D.

DeWeese, Sayyid Al Hamadan and Kubraw Hagiographical Traditions, in ibid., 12158; idem, Dog Saints andDog Shrines in Kubrav Tradition: Notes on a Hagiographical Motif from Khwarazm, in D. Aigle (ed.), Miracle etkarama (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), 45997; D. Ephrat, In Quest of an Ideal Type of Saint: Some Obser-

vations on the First Generation of Moroccan Awliya Allah in Kitab al-tashawwuf , Studia Islamica, 94 (2002): 6784;C. Ernst, Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center, 2nd edn. (New Delhi: OxfordUniversity Press, 2004) 6293; E. Alexandrin, The Sciences of Intuition and the Riches of Inspiration: Najmal-DnKubra in Jams Nafahat al-uns, in T. Lawson (ed.), Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Philosophy, and Mysticism inMuslim Thought. Essays in Honour of Hermann Landolt (London: I.B. Tauris Publishers in association with the Insti-tute of Ismaili Studies, 2005), 28497; J. Curry, Home Is Where the Shaykh Is: The Concept of Exile in theHagiography of Ibrahim-i Guls eni, Al-Masaq, 171 (2005): 4760; O. Safi, The Politics of Knowledge in PremodernIslam, 12557; and, D. DeWeese, Ahmad Yasav and the Dog-Men: Narratives of Hero and Saint at the Frontieror Orality and Textuality, in J. Pfeiffer and M. Kropp (eds.), Theoretical Approaches to the Transmission and Edition of Oriental Manuscripts: Proceedings of a Symposium held in Istanbul, March 28-30, 2001 (Beirut and Wurzburg: ErgonVerlagOrient-Institut Beirut, 2007), 14773. To a certain extent, an earlier example can be cited in R. Eaton,Sufis of Bijapur 13001700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978),whereas a recent counterpoint can be found in R. Islam, Sufism in South Asia, 167.30 See A. Karamustafa, Gods Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period 12001550 (Salt LakeCity: University of Utah Press, 1994); J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, 26469; A. Knysh, IslamicMysticism, 27274; and, J. Berkey, The Formation of Islam, 24546.31 See J. Baldick, Mystical Islam, 9192; M. Mahjub, Chivalry and Early Persian Sufism, in L. Lewisohn (ed.), TheHeritage of Sufism, vol. 1, 54982; E. Ohlander, Chivalry, in J. Meri (ed.), Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia(New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2006), vol. 1, 15354; and, idem, Sufism in an Age of Transition, 27191.32 A particularly poignant example of which is discussed in S. Bashir, Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: TheNurbakhsya Between Medieval and Modern Islam (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003).33 See J. Baldick, Mystical Islam, 6769; C. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism, 17378; and, J. de Bruijn, PersianSufi Poetry: An Introduction to the Mystical Use of Classical Persian Poems (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1997).34 See A. Schimmel, As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982),13569; A. Popovic and G. Veinstein (eds.), Les Voies dAllah, 17384; C. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism,

15769; and, L. Massignon et al., Tasawwuf, 32122.35 See, for example, S. Wolper, Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia(University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003).




10/12

36 See A. Knysh, Historiography, 11219 and 12526; P. Heck, Sufism What Is It Exactly?, Religion Compass,11 (2007): 14849; and, N. Green, Making Sense of Sufism in the Indian Subcontinent, 104449.37 An instructive discussion concerning which can be found in F. Meier, Soufisme et decline culturel, in R.Brunschvig and G.E. von Grunebaum (eds.), Classicisme et decline culturel dans lhistoire de lislam; actes du symposiuminternational dhistoire de la civilisation musulmane (Bordeaux 25-29 Juin 1956), reprint (Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et La-rose, 1977), 21745.38 See, for example, W. Chittick, Notes on Ibn al- Arabs Influence in the Subcontinent, The Muslim World,

82

34 (1992): 21841; D. DeWeese, Two Narratives on Najm al-D

n Kubra and Ra_dal-D

n

Al

Lala from aThirteenth-Century Sources: Notes on a Manuscript in the Raza Library, Rampur, in T Lawson (ed.), Reason and

Inspiration in Islam, 298339; and, E. Ohlander, A New Terminus Ad Quem for Umar al-Suhraward s MagnumOpus, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1282 (2008): 28593.

Bibliography

Ahmad, A., The Sufi and the Sultan in Pre-Mughal India, Der Islam, 38 (1963): 14253.Aigle, D., Charismes et role social des saints dans lhagiographie persane medievale (XeXVe siecles), Bulletin d

Etudes Orientales, 47 (1995): 1536.Alexandrin, E., The Sciences of Intuition and the Riches of Inspiration: Najm al-Dn Kubra in Jams Nafa

_ht al-

uns, in T. Lawson (ed.), Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Philosophy, and Mysticism in Muslim Thought. Essays in

Honour of Hermann Landolt (London: I.B. Tauris Publishers in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies,2005), 28497.Amri, N., Walet awliya dans l-Ifrqya medievale, Studia Islamica, 90 (2000): 2336.Anawati, G., and Gardet L., Mystique musulmane: Aspects et tendences, experiences et techniques, 4th rev. edn. (Paris: J.

Vrin, 1986).Arberry, A. J., Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam (London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1950).Baldick, J., Mystical Islam: An Introduction to Sufism (New York: New York University Press, 1989).Bashir, S., Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nurbakhsya Between Medieval and Modern Islam (Columbia, SC:

University of South Carolina Press, 2003).Berkey, J., The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press, 2003), 23147.Blair, S., Sufi Saints and Shrine Architecture in the Early Fourteenth Century, Muqarnas, 7 (1990): 3549.de Bruijn, J., Persian Sufi Poetry: An Introduction to the Mystical Use of Classical Persian Poems (Richmond, Surrey:

Curzon Press, 1997).Buehler, A., Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh (Columbia,

SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1998).Caspar, R., Muslim Mysticism: Tendencies in Modern Research, in M. Swartz (ed. and trans.), Studies in Islam

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 16484.Chabbi, J., La fonction du ribat a Bagdad de Ve siecle au debut du VIIe siecle, Revue des etudes islamiques, 42

(1974): 10121.Chabbi, J., Remarques sur le developpement historique des mouvements ascetiques et mystique au Khurasan IIIe

siecleIXe siecle, Studia Islamica, 46 (1977): 571.Chittick, W., Notes on Ibn al- Arabs Influence in the Subcontinent, The Muslim World, 823-4 (1992): 21841.Chodkiewicz, M., Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn Arab(Cambridge, UK: The Isla-

mic Texts Society, 1993).Cornell, V., Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998).

Curry, J., Home Is Where the Shaykh Is: The Concept of Exile in the Hagiography of Ibrahim-i Guls eni,Al-Masaq, 171 (2005): 4760.

DeWeese, D., Dog Saints and Dog Shrines in Kubrav Tradition: Notes on a Hagiographical Motif fromKhwarazm, in D. Aigle (ed.), Miracle et karama (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), 45997.

DeWeese, D., Two Narratives on Najm al-Dn Kubra and Ra_d al-Dn Al Lala from a Thirteenth-Century

Sources: Notes on a Manuscript in the Raza Library, Rampur, in T. Lawson (ed.), Reason and Inspirationin Islam: Philosophy, and Mysticism in Muslim Thought. Essays in Honour of Hermann Landolt (London: I.B. TaurisPublishers in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2005), 298339.

DeWeese, D., A_

hmad Yasav and the Dog-Men: Narratives of Hero and Saint at the Frontier or Orality andTextuality, in J. Pfeiffer, and M. Kropp (eds.), Theoretical Approaches to the Transmission and Edition of OrientalManuscripts: Proceedings of a Symposium held in Istanbul, March 28-30, 2001 (Beirut and Wurzburg: ErgonVerlagOrient-Institut Beirut, 2007), 14773.

Digby, S., The Sufi Shaikh as a Source of Authority in Medieval India, Collection Purusartha, 9 (1986): 5777.Eaton, R., Sufis of Bijapur 13001700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India (Princeton: Princeton University Press,

1978).




11/12

Ephrat, D., In Quest of an Ideal Type of Saint: Some Observations on the First Generation of Moroccan AwliyaAllah in Kitab al-tashawwuf , Studia Islamica, 94 (2002): 6784.

Ephrat, D., Spiritual Wayfarers, Leaders in Piety: Sufis and the Dissemination of Islam in Medieval Palestine (Cambridge,MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).

Ephrat, D., The Shaykh, the Physical Setting and the Holy Site: The Diffusion of the Qadir Path in Late MedievalPalestine, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 191 (2009): 120.

Ernst, C., Ruzbihan Baql: Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press,

1996).Ernst, C., The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1997).Ernst, C., Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center, 2nd edn. (New Delhi: Oxford

University Press, 2004).Ernst, C., and Lawrence B., Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond (Basingstoke, UK:

Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).Fernandes, L., The Evolution of a Sufi Institution in Mamluk Egypk: The Khanqah (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 1988).Geoffroy, E., P. Lory, R.S. OFahey, Th. Zarcone, N. Clayer, A. Popovic, K.A. Nizami and N. Kaptein,

_Tar

_ka,

in Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition),vol. 10 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 24357.

Gramlich, R., Weltverzicht. Grundlagen und Weisen islamischer Askese(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1997).Green, N., Making Sense of Sufism in the Indian Subcontinent: A Survey of Trends, Religion Compass, 26

(2008): 104461.

Gross, J., The Economic Status of a Timurid Sufi Shaykh: A Matter of Conflict or Perception?Iranian Studies,2112 (1988): 84104.

Heck, P., Sufism What Is It Exactly?Religion Compass, 11 (2007): 14864.Hermansen, M., Interdisciplinary Approaches to Islamic Biographical Materials, Religion, 184 (1988): 16382.Hermansen, M., Religious Literature and the Inscription of Identity: The Sufi Tazkira Tradition in Muslim South

Asia, The Muslim World, 873-4 (1997): 31529.Hermansen, M., and Lawrence B., Indo-Persian Tazkiras as Memorative Communications, in D. Gilmartin, and

B. Lawrence (eds.), Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia (Gainsville:University of Florida Press, 2000), 14975.

Hodgson, M., The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, vols. 12 (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1974).

Homerin, Th. Emil., Saving Muslim Souls: The Khanqah and the Sufi Duty in Mamluk Lands, Mamluk StudiesReview, 3 (1999): 5983.

Islam, R., Sufism in South Asia: Impact on Fourteenth Century Muslim Society (Karachi: Oxford University Press,2002).

de Jong F., and Radtke B., (eds.), Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics (Leiden:Brill, 1999).

Karamustafa, A., Gods Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period 12001550 (Salt Lake City:University of Utah Press, 1994).

Karamustafa, A., Sufism: The Formative Period (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007).Knysh, A., Ibn Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam (Albany: State

University of New York Press, 1999).Knysh, A., Islamic Mysticism: A Short History (Leiden: Brill, 2000).Knysh, A., Historiography of Sufi Studies in the West, in Y. Choueiri (ed.), A Companion to the History of the

Middle East (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 10631.Landolt, H., Walayah, in L. Jones (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edn., (Detroit: Macmillan Reference

USA, 2005), vol. 14, 965662.Lewisohn, L. (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, vols. 12 (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1999).Malamud, M., Sufi Organization and Structures of Authority in Medieval Nishapur, International Journal of Middle

East Studies, 26 (1994): 42742.Manz, B., Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007).Massignon, L., B. Radtke, W.C. Chittick, F. de Jong, L. Lewisohn, Th. Zarcone, C. Ernst, F. Aubin and

J.O. Hunwick, Ta_sawwuf, in Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (eds.), Encyclo-

paedia of Islam (New Edition), vol. 10 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 31340.McGregor, R., Sanctity and Mysticism in Medieval Egypt: The Waf a Sufi Order and the Legacy of Ibn Arab (Albany:

State University of New York Press, 2004).Meier, F., Soufisme et decline culturel, in R. Brunschvig, and G. E. von Grunebaum (eds.), Classicisme et decline

culturel dans lhistoire de lislam; actes du symposium international dhistoire de la civilisation musulmane (Bordeaux 25-29

Juin 1956), reprint (Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1977), 21745.Meier, F., The Mystic Path, in B. Lewis (ed.), Islam and the Arab World: Faith, People, Culture (London: Thamesand Hudson Ltd., 1976), 11728.




12/12

Meier, F., Khurasan and the End of Classical Sufism, in J. OKane (trans.), and B. Radtke (ed.), Essays on IslamicPiety and Mysticism (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 189219.

Melchert, C., The Transition from Asceticism to Mysticism in the Middle of the Ninth Century C.E, StudiaIslamica, 831 (1996): 5170.

Melchert, C., Basran Origins of Classical Sufism, Der Islam, 82 (2005): 22140.Melchert, C., Asceticism, in M. Gaborieau, G. Kramer, J. Nawas and E. Rowson (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam

Three (Leiden: Brill, 2007), fasc. 2007-1, 163169.

Meri, J., The Cult of Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).Mojaddedi, J., The Biographical Tradition in Sufism: The_tabaqat Genre from al-Sulam to Jam (Richmond, Surrey:

Curzon Press, 2001).Mole, M., Les mystiques musulmans (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965).Nizami, K. A., Some Aspects of Khanqah Life in Medieval India, Studia Islamica, 8 (1957): 5269.Ohlander, E., Chivalry, in J. Meri (ed.), Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge,

Taylor & Francis, 2006), vol. 1, 15354.Ohlander, E., Sufism in an Age of Transition: Umar al-Suhraward and the Rise of the Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods

(Leiden: Brill, 2008a).Ohlander, E., A New Terminus Ad Quem for Umar al-Suhrawards Magnum Opus, Journal of the American

Oriental Society, 1282 (2008b): 28593.Paul, J., Solitude within Society: Early Khwajagan Attitudes toward Spiritual and Social Life, in P. Heck (ed.),

Sufism and Politics (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007), 13763.

Popovic, A., and Veinstein G., (eds.), Les Voies dAllah: Les orders mystiques dans le monde musulman des origines aaujourdhui (Paris: Fayard, 1996).

Potter, L., Sufis and Sultans in Post-Mongol Iran, Iranian Studies, 271-4 (1994): 77102.Renard, J., Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University

of California Press, 2008).Rizvi, S., A History of Sufism in India, 2 vols.. (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1978).Safi, O., The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam: Negotiating Ideology and Religious Inquiry (Chapel Hill, NC:

University of North Carolina Press, 2006).Schimmel, A., Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1975).Schimmel, A., As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).Silvers-Alario, L., The Teaching Relationship in Early Sufism: A Reassessment of Fritz Meiers Definition of the

shaykh al-tabiya and the shaykh al-ta lm, The Muslim World, 931 (2003): 6997.Suvorova, A., Muslim Saints of South Asia: The Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries (London and New York:

RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).Taylor, C., Saints, Ziyara, Qi

_s_sa, and the Social Construction of Moral Imagination in Late Medieval Egypt, Studia

Islamica, 88 (1998): 10320.Taylor, C., In the Vicinity of the Righteous: Ziyara and the Veneration of Muslim Saints in Late Medieval Egypt (Leiden:

Brill, 1999).Trimingham, J. S., The Sufi Orders in Islam, with a new foreword by J. Voll (New York and Oxford: Oxford Uni-

versity Press, 1998).Wolper, S., Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia (University Park, PA:

Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003).



Documents

Sufism in Medieval Muslim Societies