Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Meena, Sharify-Funk
• William, Rory Dickson
• Merin, Shobhana Xavier

Titel

Contextualizing the production of knowledge on contemporary Sufism in the West

Ist Teil von

• Contemporary Sufism, 2018, p.1-31

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

United Kingdom: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This chapter situates the field of contemporary Sufism in historical context by mapping knowledge production on Sufism in the West, academic and otherwise. After highlighting pre-modern European encounters with Sufi texts and traditions, the chapter considers how Orientalist scholars would, through translation and commentary, create a base of knowledge on Sufism in European languages filtered through a Romantic and Perennialist framework, fostering a broader sense of Sufism as a wisdom transcending religion and Islam. This largely de-Islamicized Sufism would then act as a resource for later Western artists, interpreters, and Sufi teachers. The production of knowledge on Sufism in the West can be traced as far back as the medieval period. Literature on Sufism has been available in the West at least since the 15th century. Edward W. Said's work has been recognized as one of the more significant and influential cultural studies of the 20th century, and his insights remain essential to making sense of contemporary Western understandings of the East and Islam. The broader political, military, and cultural context within which Europeans encountered Sufism shifted decisively in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, shaping a new form of discourse on Islam, as so acutely outlined by Said. Sufism was growing not only as an academic subject of study or even a path of personal transformation, but, in the 1960s and 1970s, was also gaining some cachet as a form of popular literature.