Böcker av Jamil M. Abun-Nasr

Since the eighteenth century, adherence to Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam, has been associated with membership in one of the Sufi brotherhoods. This title examines the emergence of Sufism's central tenets and the factors that account for their appeal to Muslims in different lands.

The Sufi brotherhoods are not religious orders, but religious communities within the general community of Islam. This book reconstructs the development of the Sufi tradition, guided by insights from original Sufi sources, intended to explain the emergence of the Sufi brotherhoods' form of Islamic communalism and its perennial appeal.