Western Sufism: From the Abbasids to the New AgeWestern Sufism is sometimes dismissed as a relatively recent "new age" phenomenon, but in this book Mark Sedgwick argues that it has deep roots, both in the Muslim world and in the West. In fact, although the first significant Western Sufi organization was not established until 1915, the first Western discussion of Sufism was printed in 1480, and Western interest in Sufi thought goes back to the thirteenth century. Sedgwick starts with the earliest origins of Western Sufism in late antique Neoplatonism and early Arab philosophy, and traces later origins in repeated intercultural transfers from the Muslim world to the West, in the thought of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, and in the intellectual and religious ferment of the nineteenth century. He then follows the development of organized Sufism in the West from 1915 until 1968, the year in which the first Western Sufi order based on purely Islamic models was founded. Western Sufism shows the influence of these origins, of thought both familiar and less familiar: Neoplatonic emanationism, perennialism, pantheism, universalism, and esotericism. Western Sufism is the product not of the new age but of Islam, the ancient world, and centuries of Western religious and intellectual history. Using sources from antiquity to the internet, Sedgwick demonstrates that the phenomenon of Western Sufism draws on centuries of intercultural transfers and is part of a long-established relationship between Western thought and Islam. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Part I Premodern Intercultural Transfers | 13 |
Part II Imagining Sufism 14801899 | 69 |
Part III The Establishment of Sufism in the West 19101933 | 133 |
Part IV The Development of Sufism in the New Age | 187 |
Notes | 263 |
| 319 | |
| 333 | |
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Abdalqadir al-Ghazali Alawiyya American ancient Arab philosophy Aristotle became Bennett Beshara Bjerregaard century chapter Christian classic Colledge and McGinn Coombe Springs Dabistan Deism dervishes developed dhikr divine emanationism emanationist Emerson English esoteric established Fazal followers French George of Hungary Guénon Gurdjieff Hayy ibn Yaqzan Hindu Hybrid Sufi Order Ibn Arabi Ibn Tufayl Idries Shah Inayat Khan Indian Intelligence intercultural transfer Islam Ivan Aguéli Jewish Jones Judaism Kabbalah Khayyam known later Latin Lewis London Meher Baba Meister Eckhart Menavino Muhammad Muslim world mystical Neoplatonism Neoplatonists Notes to pages Omar Khayyám original Ottoman Ouspensky Pantheism Paris perennialism Persian Plato Plotinus political Postel practice published Quran religion religious René Guénon Rubáiyát scholars Schuon Sedgwick Shah’s sharia shaykh soul Spinoza spiritual Subud Subuh Sufi groups Sufi Movement Sufi theology tariqa teaching Tertium Organum texts Theosophical Society Toland Traditionalist translation understanding of Sufism universalist University Press Vilayat West Western Sufism wrote