brotherhood and its offshoots, and so he kept
them and their activities on a short leash. Much
of this changed with the coming of anWar al-
sadat (r. 1970–81) to power, although he was not
solely responsible for the change by any means.
A reform-minded Islamist movement had been
important in Egypt since the founding of the Mus-
lim Brotherhood in 1928, and it was only Nasir’s
combined charisma and autocracy that kept their
activities suppressed, especially after 1954. Sadat
released many of the members of the Muslim
Brotherhood from the prison camps where Nasir
had placed them, and he encouraged the Islamist
movements to broaden their power base and attack
the leftists, which Sadat saw as buttressing his own
authority against the legacy of his predecessor.
Shaarawi benefited from all of this, even though he
was never exactly an activist, and it seems he was
never a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sadat,
as a means of encouraging the kind of Islam that
he thought politically beneficial, provided “mod-
erate” Islamists such as Shaarawi access to a large
popular audience, thereby doing much to shift the
national discourse onto a more religious basis.
Shaarawi was closely allied to the Saudi Ara-
bian elite, having taught in that country for much
of the 1960s and 1970s. His beliefs, while not
extreme, tended toward the literalism and dogma-
tism of the Islamists. Since his death, a great deal
of debate and controversy has arisen in Egypt sur-
rounding efforts by his son to ensure that his father
is revered as a saint and miracle worker, and that
his tomb is visited in an annual pilgrimage. Many
of Shaarawi’s most devoted followers consider this
a sacrilege, and it is hard to imagine that Shaarawi
would have been pleased with the controversy.
Nonetheless, there is now a saint’s shrine over
Shaarawi’s place of burial, and an annual saint’s
festival or mawlid takes place there in early June,
to which singers of religious songs and believers
from Egypt and elsewhere come to pray, to join in
the sacred and secular aspects of the festival, and
to honor Shaarawi in their own way.
See also islamism; sermon.
John Iskander
Further reading: Johannes J. G. Jansen, “The Preaching
of Shaykh as-Shaarawi: Its Political Significance.” In ` Pro-
ceedings of the 14th Congress of the Union Européenne des
Arabisants et Islamisants. (Budapest, 29th August–3rd
September 1988, 1995); ———, “Shaykh al-Shaarawi’s
Interpretation of the Quran.” In Proceedings, Union
européenne des arabisants et islamisants: 10th Congress,
Edinburgh, 9–16 September 1980, edited by Robert Hil-
lenbrand; Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, “Muhammad Mutawalli
al-Sha`rawi—A Portrait of a Contemporary `Alim in
Egypt.” In Islam, Nationalism, and Radicalism in Egypt
and the Sudan, edited by Gabriel Warburg and Uri M.
Kupferschmidt, 281–297 (New York: Praeger, 1983).Shabazz, el-Hajj Malik el- See malcolm X.
Shadhili Sufi Order
The Shadhili Sufi Order is one of the oldest Sufi
orders, known for promoting orthodoxy and propri-
ety as the means to achieve an internal union with
the divine. This important strand of Sufi thought
is attributed to the Moroccan mystic Abu al-Hasan
Ali al-Shadhili (d. 1258) who lived and taught in
tUnisia and egypt. No writings from al-Shadhili
survive and it was his immediate successors, espe-
cially Ahmad ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 1309)
who recorded his teachings. Though considered to
be a Sufi way, or tariqa, the Shadhiliyya Sufis never
formed a centralized organization; rather, through-
out its history many branches have emerged with
weak links to one another, but all claiming spiritual
descent from the founder and adhering to his teach-
ings. Around the turn of the 13th century sUFism
increasingly began to be practiced in institutional
settings, which emphasized establishing life-long
relationships to a single master. It is in this context
that the Shadhiliyya movement arose and spread.
In contrast with other more emotional and
ascetic strands of Sufi thought, al-Shadhili taught
that each member of the tariqa could best achieve
mystical and spiritual fulfillment through living an
exemplary, but ordinary life. The individual should
seek complete devotion and gratitude to God by
transforming his heart through performing ritualShadhili Sufi Order 615 J