Global sufism : boundaries, structures and politics / Francesco Piraino, Mark Sedgwick (editors).

Euro 35.00
TRP40/97

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Global Rumi / Robert Irwin -- The Islamisation of Western Sufism after the early new age / Mark Sedgwick -- Afropolitan Sufism: the contemporary Tijaniyya in global contexts / Zachary Wright -- Who is the infidel? Religious boundaries and social change in the Shadhiliyya Darqawiyya ʻ Alawiyya / Francesco Piraino -- Eu-rap-ia: rap, Sufism and the Arab Qaṣīda in Europe / Andrea Brigaglia -- Contemporary Mawlids in Chicago / Justine Howe -- Disordering and reordering Sufism: North American Sufi teachers and the Tariqa model / William Rory Dickson and Merin Shobhana Xavier -- In the path of the Ancestors: the Ba ʻ Alawi order and the struggle for shaping the future of Islam / Besnik Sinani -- The making of Sufism: the Gülen movement and its effort to create a new image / Florian Volm -- Sounding Sufi: Sufi-oriented messages on Swedish public service radio / Simon Stjernholm -- Algerian 'traditional' Islam and political Sufism / Thomas Joassin -- Neo-traditionalist Sufis and Arab politics: a preliminary mapping of transnational networks of counter-revolutionary scholars after Arab revolutions / Usaama al-Azami.

Sufism is a growing and global phenomenon, far from the declining relic it was once thought to be. This book brings together the work of fourteen leading experts to explore systematically the key themes of Sufism's new global presence, from Yemen to Senegal via Chicago and Sweden.The contributors look at the global spread and stance of such major actors as the Ba 'Alawiyya, the 'Afropolitan' Tijaniyya, and the Gülen Movement. They map global Sufi culture, from Rumi to rap, and ask how global Sufism accommodates different and contradictory gender practices. They examine the contested and shifting relationship between the Islamic and the universal: is Sufism the timeless and universal essence of all religions, the key to tolerance and co-existence between Muslims and non-Muslims? Or is it the purely Islamic heart of traditional and authentic practice and belief?Finally, the book turns to politics. States and political actors in the West and in the Muslim world are using the mantle and language of Sufism to promote their objectives, while Sufis are building alliances with them against common enemies. This raises the difficult question of whether Sufis are defending Islam against extremism, supporting despotism against democracy, or perhaps doing both.