Sufism in an Age of Transition

Sufism in an Age of Transition PDF Author: Erik Ohlander
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047432142
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Get Book

Book Description
Based on heretofore unexplored sources, this book offers a comprehensive study of the life, work, thought and influence of the eponym of one of the earliest Sufi ṭarīqa lineages, Abū 'Umar al-Suhrawardī (d. 632/1234).

Sufism in an Age of Transition

Sufism in an Age of Transition PDF Author: Erik Ohlander
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047432142
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Get Book

Book Description
Based on heretofore unexplored sources, this book offers a comprehensive study of the life, work, thought and influence of the eponym of one of the earliest Sufi ṭarīqa lineages, Abū 'Umar al-Suhrawardī (d. 632/1234).

Varieties of American Sufism

Varieties of American Sufism PDF Author: Elliott Bazzano
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438477929
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book

Book Description
From Rumi poetry and Sufi dancing or whirling, to expressions of Africanicity and the forging of transnational bonds to remote locations in Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, Varieties of American Sufism immerses the reader in diverse expressions of contemporary Sufi religiosity in the United States. It spans more than a century of political, cultural, and embodied relationships with Islam and Muslims. American encounters with mystical Islam were initiated by a romantic quest for Oriental wisdom, flourished in the embrace of Eastern teachings during the countercultural era of New Age religion, were concretized due to late twentieth-century possibilities of travel and immigration to and from Muslim societies, and are now diffused through an explosion of cyber religion in an age of globalization. This collection of in-depth, participant-observation-based studies challenges expectations of uniformity and continuity while provoking stimulating reflection on a range of issues relevant to contemporary Islamic Studies, American religions, multireligious belonging, and new religious movements.

Routledge Handbook on Sufism

Routledge Handbook on Sufism PDF Author: Lloyd Ridgeon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351706470
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 739

Get Book

Book Description
This is a chronological history of the Sufi tradition, divided in to three sections, early, middle and modern periods. The book comprises 35 independent chapters with easily identifiable themes and/or geographical threads, all written by recognised experts in the field. The volume outlines the origins and early developments of Sufism by assessing the formative thinkers and practitioners and investigating specific pietistic themes. The middle period contains an examination of the emergence of the Sufi Orders and illustrates the diversity of the tradition. This middle period also analyses the fate of Sufism during the time of the Gunpowder Empires. Finally, the end period includes representative surveys of Sufism in several countries, both in the West and in traditional "Islamic" regions. This comprehensive and up-to-date collection of studies provides a guide to the Sufi tradition. The Handbook is a valuable resource for students and researchers with an interest in religion, Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies.

Morals and Mysticism in Persian Sufism

Morals and Mysticism in Persian Sufism PDF Author: Lloyd Ridgeon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136970584
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book

Book Description
Sufism is often understood to be the mystical dimension of Islam, and many works have focused on the nature of "mystical experiences" and the relationship between man and God. Yet Sufism was a human response to a wide range of contexts and circumstances; the fact that Sufis lived in society and interacted with the community necessitating guidance on how to behave. This book examines the development of Persian Sufism, showing it to be a practical philosophy of the everyday rather than just a metaphysical phenomena. The author explores the ethic of futuwwat (or jawanmardi), an Iranian code of honour that emphasised loyalty, humility, generosity and bravery. Although inevitably some Sufis spiritualised this code of honour and applied it to their own relationship with God, the ethic continued to permeate Sufi behaviour on a more mundane level, typified by the strong links between Sufis and certain trades. Drawing on field research in Iran, as well as detailed analysis of both Arabic and Persian texts and new materials that have been published in Iran in recent years, this is the first book in English to provide a history of Persian Sufi-futuwwat, As such, this book is an important contribution to the study of Persian Sufism, and to the fields of Islam, history and religion.

The Cambridge Companion to Sufism

The Cambridge Companion to Sufism PDF Author: Lloyd Ridgeon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107018307
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Get Book

Book Description
This book traces the evolution of Sufism from the formative period to the present.

Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt, 1173-1325

Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt, 1173-1325 PDF Author: Nathan Hofer
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748694226
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book

Book Description
This book is the first systematic investigation of how and why Sufism became extraordinarily popular across Egypt in the 12th - 14th centuries.

Awhad al-Dīn Kirmānī and the Controversy of the Sufi Gaze

Awhad al-Dīn Kirmānī and the Controversy of the Sufi Gaze PDF Author: Lloyd Ridgeon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135167580X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 490

Get Book

Book Description
Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī (d. 1238) was one of the greatest and most colourful Persian Sufis of the medieval period; he was celebrated in his own lifetime by a large number of like-minded followers and other Sufi masters. And yet his form of Sufism was the subject of much discussion within the Islamic world, as it elicited responses ranging from praise and commendation to reproach and contempt for his Sufi practices within a generation of his death. This book assesses the few comments written about Kirmānī by his contemporaries, and also provides a translation from his Persian hagiography, which was written in the generation after his death. The controversy centres on Kirmānī’s penchant for gazing at, and dancing with, beautiful young boys. This anonymous hagiography presents a series of anecdotes that portray Kirmānī’s “virtues”. The book provides an investigation into Kirmānī the individual, but the story has significance that extends much further. The controversy of his form of Sufism occurred at a crucial time in the evolution of Sufi piety and theology. The research herein situates Kirmānī within this critical period, and assesses the various perspectives taken by his contemporaries and near contemporaries. Such views reveal much about the dynamics and developments of Sufism during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the Sufi orders (ṭurūq, s. ṭarīqa) began to emerge, and which gave individual Sufis a much more structured and ordered method of engaging in piety, and of presenting the Sufi tradition to society at large. As the first attempt in a Western language to appreciate the significant contribution that Kirmānī made to the medieval Persian Sufi tradition, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Sufi Studies, as well as those interested in Middle Eastern History.

Sufis and Their Lodges in the Ottoman Ḥijāz

Sufis and Their Lodges in the Ottoman Ḥijāz PDF Author: Naser Dumairieh
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004525262
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 535

Get Book

Book Description
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.

Sufis in Medieval Baghdad

Sufis in Medieval Baghdad PDF Author: Atta Muhammad
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755647602
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the political and social activities of Sufis in Baghdad in the period 1000-1258. It argues that Sufis played an important role in creating a public sphere that existed between ordinary subjects and the government. Drawing on Arabic sources and secondary literature, it explores the role of Sufis and their institutions including their ribats or lodge houses, from the use of Sufis as political ambassadors to their role in redistributing charity to the poor. The book reveals the role of Sufism in structuring a wide range of social and political arrangements in this period. It also reveals the role of ordinary, non-elite actors who, by taking part in Sufi-affiliated religious or professional associations, were able take part in public life in late-Abbasid Baghdad.

Jihad in Premodern Sufi Writings

Jihad in Premodern Sufi Writings PDF Author: Harry S Neale
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137561556
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book

Book Description
This book is the only comprehensive study in a European language that analyzes how Sufi treatises, Qur’anic commentary, letters, hagiography, and poetry define and depict jihad. Harry S. Neale analyzes Sufi jihad discourse in Arabic and Persian texts composed between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries, providing access to many writings that have hitherto been unavailable in English. Despite the diversity of practice within Sufism that existed throughout the premodern period, Sufi writings consistently promulgated a complementary understanding of jihad as both a spiritual and military endeavor. Neale discusses the disparity between contemporary academic Sufi jihad discourse in European languages, which generally presents Sufis as peaceful mystics, and contemporary academic writing in Arabic that depicts Sufis as exemplary warriors who combine spiritual discipline with martial zeal. The book concludes that historically, Sufi writings never espoused a purely spiritual interpretation of the doctrine of jihad.