Middle East Research

Islamic Mysticism and Abu Talib Al-Makki

The Role of the Heart

By Saeko Yazaki

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

Both in everyday language and religious metaphor, the heart often embodies the true self and is considered to be the seat of emotion in many cultures. Many Muslim thinkers have attempted to clarify the nature of Sufism using its metaphorical image, particularly in the tenth and eleventh centuries....

Published November 20th 2012 by Routledge

Sufism and Society

Arrangements of the Mystical in the Muslim World, 1200–1800

Edited by John Curry, Erik Ohlander

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

In recent years, many historians of Islamic mysticism have been grappling in sophisticated ways with the difficulties of essentialism. Reconceptualising the study of Islamic mysticism during an under-researched period of its history, this book examines the relationship between Sufism and society in...

Published August 30th 2011 by Routledge

Spiritual Purification in Islam

The Life and Works of al-Muhasibi

By Gavin Picken

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

Purification of the soul is a principle that is central to understanding Islamic spirituality but despite this, relatively little has been written explicitly in the Islamic tradition regarding this discrete method of spiritual purification. This book examines the work of a scholar of this...

Published March 20th 2011 by Routledge

Morals and Mysticism in Persian Sufism

A History of Sufi-Futuwwat in Iran

By Lloyd Ridgeon

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

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...

Published May 11th 2010 by Routledge

Sufis in Western Society

Global networking and locality

Edited by Markus Dressler, Ron Geaves, Gritt Klinkhammer

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

In recent years Sufism has undergone something of a revival as a spiritual alternative to other manifestations of Islam. This book investigates the development of Sufism in Western societies, with a regional focus on North America and Europe. Exploring a number of issues relating to the dynamic...

Published May 27th 2009 by Routledge

The Naqshbandiyya

Orthodoxy and Activism in a Worldwide Sufi Tradition

By Itzchak Weismann

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

The Naqshbandiyya is one of the most widespread and influential Sufi orders in the Muslim world. Having its origins in the Great Masters tradition of Central Asia almost a millennium ago, it played a significant role in the pre-modern history of the Indian subcontinent and the Ottoman Empire, and...

Published June 21st 2007 by Routledge

Popular Sufism in Eastern Europe

Sufi Brotherhoods and the Dialogue with Christianity and 'Heterodoxy'

By H T Norris

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

This is a detailed description of the various Sufi orders and movements which entered into the Balkans, the Crimean peninsula and other parts of Eastern Europe following the Ottoman conquests. Many of the Sufis came from Christian societies, principally from an Eastern Orthodox background, but...

Published October 2nd 2006 by Routledge

Indian Sufism since the Seventeenth Century

Saints, Books and Empires in the Muslim Deccan

By Nile Green

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

Sufism is often regarded as standing mystically aloof from its wider cultural settings. By turning this perspective on its head, Indian Sufism since the Seventeenth Century reveals the politics and poetry of Indian Sufism through the study of Islamic sainthood in the midst of a cosmopolitan Indian...

Published May 14th 2006 by Routledge

Sufi Castigator

Ahmad Kasravi and the Iranian Mystical Tradition

By Lloyd Ridgeon

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

Sufi Castigator investigates the writings of Ahmad Kasravi, one of the foremost intellectuals in Iran. It studies his work within the context of Sufism in modern Iran and mystical Persian literature and includes translations of Kasravi’s writings. Kasravi provides a fascinating topic for those with...

Published May 14th 2006 by Routledge

Early Mystics in Turkish Literature

By Mehmed Fuad Koprulu

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

This book is a translation of one of the most important Turkish scholarly works of the twentieth century. It was the masterpiece of M.F. Koprulu, one of Turkey’s leading, and most prolific, intellectuals and scholars. Using a wide variety of Arabic, and especially Turkish and Persian sources,...

Published March 29th 2006 by Routledge

Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus

'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, 1641-1731

By Elizabeth Sirriyeh

Series: Routledge Sufi Series

'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641 to1731) was the most outstanding scholarly Sufi of Ottoman Syria. He was regarded as the leading religious poet of his time and as an excellent commentator of classical Sufi texts. At the popular level, he has been read as an interpreter of symbolic dreams. Moreover,...

Published February 14th 2005 by Routledge