Sufism
03 Oct 1994 12:03
Sufism is an organized mystic tradition in Islam. I am interested in part in its (possible) connections with non-Islamic traditions, both in its roots (e.g., what did it take from Indian or pre-Islamic Iranian religions?) and its influences (e.g., on European poetry). There is also something of a modern interpretive tradition of looking to sufism as a kind of counter-force within Islam that's more in favor of some modern values (pluralism, [proto]-feminism, experimentation), but that may be more about wishful thinking or projection than sound scholarship.
- Recommended, big picture:
- A. J. Arberry, Sufism, an Account of the Mystics of Islam
- Recommended, close-ups (very misc.):
- Raziuddin Aquil, Sufism, Culture and Politics: Afghans and Islam in Medieval North India
- Ernest Gellner, Saints of the Atlas
- Fatima Mernissi, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World
- Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century
- To read:
- Simon Digby, Sufis and Soldiers in Awrangzeb's Deccan
- Richard Maxwell Eaton, The Sufis of Bijapur, 1300--1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India
- Toshihiko Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts
- Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Sufism: The Formative Period
- Alexander Knysh, Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism
- Sachiko Murata, Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light: Wang Tai-Yu's Great Learning of the Pure and Real and Liu Chih's Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm
- Austin O'Malley, The Poetics of Spiritual Instruction: Farid al-Din 'Attar and Persian Sufi Didacticism
- Tony K. Stewart, Witness to Marvels: Sufism and Literary Imagination
