Scholars, Saints, and Sufis

Scholars, Saints, and Sufis
Title Scholars, Saints, and Sufis PDF eBook
Author Nikki R. Keddie
Publisher Univ of California Press
Pages 420
Release 1972
Genre Religion
ISBN 9780520020276

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Middle East officially Near East.

Sufis and Saints' Bodies

Sufis and Saints' Bodies
Title Sufis and Saints' Bodies PDF eBook
Author Scott Kugle
Publisher Univ of North Carolina Press
Pages 368
Release 2011-09-01
Genre Religion
ISBN 0807872776

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Islam is often described as abstract, ascetic, and uniquely disengaged from the human body. Scott Kugle refutes this assertion in the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body. Examining Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century, Kugle demonstrates that literature from this era often treated saints' physical bodies as sites of sacred power. Sufis and Saints' Bodies focuses on six important saints from Sufi communities in North Africa and South Asia. Kugle singles out a specific part of the body to which each saint is frequently associated in religious literature. The saints' bodies, Kugle argues, are treated as symbolic resources for generating religious meaning, communal solidarity, and the experience of sacred power. In each chapter, Kugle also features a particular theoretical problem, drawing methodologically from religious studies, anthropology, studies of gender and sexuality, theology, feminism, and philosophy. Bringing a new perspective to Islamic studies, Kugle shows how an important Islamic tradition integrated myriad understandings of the body in its nurturing role in the material, social, and spiritual realms.

Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt

Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt
Title Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt PDF eBook
Author Valerie J. Hoffman
Publisher Univ of South Carolina Press
Pages 485
Release 2023-06-30
Genre Religion
ISBN 1643364200

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For centuries Sufism—Islamic mysticism—held a major place in Islamic spirituality, intellectual life, and popular religion. While many scholars have commented on Sufism's decline, few have delved deeply into present-day Egyptian Sufism or considered it as a system in its own right. Drawing on her detailed fieldwork and a variety of little known literary sources, Valerie J. Hoffman presents Sufism as it exists in Egypt today, in the vivid experiences of its adherents. With an array of conclusions that overturn widely held beliefs about modern Sufis, Hoffman argues that the apparent assimilation of Egyptian Sufism masks a thriving movement hidden from the Western world. From her experiences as a quasi disciple of a Sufi master, she offers new insights into the movement's evolution, the vital role of women in Sufism, and Sufi perspectives on gender and sexuality.

Sufi Saints and State Power

Sufi Saints and State Power
Title Sufi Saints and State Power PDF eBook
Author Sarah F. D. Ansari
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 200
Release 1992-01-31
Genre History
ISBN 0521405300

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In this book, Dr Sarah Ansari examines the system of political control constructed by the British in Sind between 1843 and 1947. In particular, she explores the part of the local Muslim elite, the pirs or hereditary sufi saints. Using a wealth of historical material and in depth interviews, the author looks at the development of the institution of the pir, its power base and the mechanics of the system of control into which the pirs were drawn. The overall success of the political system depended on the willingness of the elite to participate and Dr Ansari argues that it did indeed work in Sind. This enabled the British to govern while allowing the pirs to adapt to colonial rule, and later independence, without serious damage to their interests. The author demonstrates that only in the heightened nationalist atmosphere of the 1940s did the system break down.

Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia

Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia
Title Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia PDF eBook
Author
Publisher Penn State Press
Pages 168
Release 2003
Genre Architecture
ISBN 9780271048239

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The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam

The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam
Title The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam PDF eBook
Author Omid Safi
Publisher Univ of North Carolina Press
Pages 356
Release 2006-01-01
Genre History
ISBN 9780807856574

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The eleventh and twelfth centuries comprised a period of great significance in Islamic history. The Great Saljuqs, a Turkish-speaking tribe hailing from central Asia, ruled the eastern half of the Islamic world for a great portion of that time. In a far-r

Modern Sufis and the State

Modern Sufis and the State
Title Modern Sufis and the State PDF eBook
Author Katherine Pratt Ewing
Publisher Columbia University Press
Pages 228
Release 2020-08-25
Genre Religion
ISBN 0231551460

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Sufism is typically thought of as the mystical side of Islam. In recent years, it has been held up as a supposedly peaceful alternative to the spread of forms of Islam associated with violence, an embodiment of democratic ideals of tolerance and pluralism. Are Sufis in fact as otherworldy and apolitical as this stereotype suggests? Modern Sufis and the State brings together a range of scholars, including anthropologists, historians, and religious-studies specialists, to challenge common assumptions that are made about Sufism today. Focusing on India and Pakistan within a broader global context, this book provides locally grounded accounts of how Sufis in South Asia have engaged in politics from the colonial period to the present. Contributors foreground the effects and unintended consequences of efforts to link Sufism with the spread of democracy and consider what roles scholars and governments have played in the making of twenty-first-century Sufism. They critique the belief that Salafism and Sufism are antithetical, offering nuanced analyses of the diversity, multivalence, and local embeddedness of Sufi political engagements and self-representations in Pakistan and India. Essays question the portrayal of Sufi shrines as sites of toleration, peace, and harmony, exploring cases of tension and conflict. A wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection, Modern Sufis and the State is a timely call to think critically about the role of public discourse in shaping perceptions of Sufism.