TRADITION AND CHANGE. In spite of this political vitality,
the influence of the t:ar ̄ıqahs was reduced to a minimum after
the reformist movement inaugurated by Jama ̄l al-D ̄ın
al-Afgha ̄n ̄ı and Muh:ammad EAbdu ̄ h resulted in an intensive
campaign against them. There had been movements against
the t:ar ̄ıqahs before, yet a relative balance between the
strength of their supporters and their opponents had pre-
vailed. In the early twentieth century, however, there was a
qualitative change and a definite shift in balance as the con-
vergence of various factors militated against the t:ar ̄ıqahs in
a special way.
The reform movement was inspired in part by nine-
teenth-century European secular rationalism and in part by
a renewed emphasis upon the rationalist or puritanical un-
derstanding of Islam by movements such as Wahhabism
(which led eventually to a ban on S:u ̄f ̄ı orders in Saudi Ara-
bia). As a result many of the practices of the order were seen
not only as idolatrous innovations—such as the celebration
of the birthdays of deceased saints, the honoring of their
tombs, and certain forms of meditation—but also as harbor-
ing superstitions that disgraced Islam by making it appear
contemptible to Europeans. Dervishes were also associated
with the use of narcotics (to induce ecstasy) and with the
practice of pederasty, a habit attested in S:u ̄f ̄ı sources from
the medieval period though not sanctioned by the official
code of the t:ar ̄ıqahs. Moreover since the reformists believed
the t:ar ̄ıqahs attracted people to otherworldliness and magic
instead of challenging them to face reality, they considered
it a root cause of the backwardness of Muslims. Muh:ammad
EAbdu ̄ h and Rash ̄ıd Rid:a ̄, for example, while accepting the
ethical and spiritual ideas of Sufism (as per al-Ghaza ̄l ̄ı), re-
garded every aspect of the t:ar ̄ıqahs as degenerate, and in Tur-
key under Atatürk they were outlawed altogether.
Abuses were easy to find. Some shaykhs believed that ho-
liness was hereditary; certain heads of orders regarded great
wealth as a right, an outward manifestation of the spiritual
favors they had received. Barakah (the blessing a shaykh and
his silsila could give) was something to be bought and sold.
Moreover despite the international networks so characteristic
of the t:ar ̄ıqahs, many individual shaykhs remained too at-
tached to family clan and local traditions to respond to the
rise of nationalism.
Modernization and secularization also undermined the
social and economic foundations of the t:ariqahs. Employ-
ment now required training in public institutions created by
the state rather than the parochial education offered by
t:ar ̄ıqah schools and “study circles” (h:alaqa ̄t). Clubs and asso-
ciations took over the social role of the t:ar ̄ıqahs, and indus-
trialization weakened the trade and craft guilds with which
they had been formerly associated. There were also rival reli-
gious organizations: for example, in Egypt, the Muslim
Brotherhood, because of its dispersion into local groups, was
able to offer the community individual guidance and service
that had previously been the province of the t:ar ̄ıqahs. More-
over the local orientation of many branches of the orders
made them appear irrelevant to communities increasingly re-
lated to the outside world.If modernity has weakened the traditional membership
base and structure of the t:ar ̄ıqahs and governments have reg-
ulated or curtailed their functions, they nevertheless retain
vitality and the potential to adapt to changed circumstances.
It is striking that in Indonesia, for example, the reformist-
oriented anti-t:ar ̄ıqah party, the Masyumi, which during the
1950s appeared to reflect the dominant Islamic ethos, was
eclipsed by the traditional, adaptive t:ar ̄ıqah-tolerant group,
the Nahdatul Ulama. Research on African t:ar ̄ıqahs shows
that they contribute to social stability and, in a very special
way, to the work ethic. The Mur ̄ıd ̄ıyah of Senegal, born in
an African environment, is an example of the moral authority
and social dedication of a modern t:ar ̄ıqah. Equally impor-
tant, various offshoots of the Naqshband ̄ı order in former
Soviet territories, such as Daghestan and Chechnya, have be-
come numerous and influential.
The tariqahs still play an important social and political
role in addition to the enrichment they bring to the spiritual
lives of millions of people. Traditional celebrations like the
mawlids, or saints’ birthdays, often sponsored by t:ar ̄ıqah as-
sociations, remain extraordinary public events and displays
of devotional fervor in India. This is also true in Egypt,
where the Supreme Council of S:u ̄f ̄ı Orders estimated in
1989 that between three and five million people belonged
to one of the seventy-three registered orders. The interest in
theosophical Sufism has also increased, largely because it
jumped across confessional boundaries in the twentieth cen-
tury as Western scholars engaged with the S:u ̄f ̄ı tradition,
first in the form of translations of S:u ̄f ̄ı poetry, then as the
object of metaphysical study (for example, in the Eranos
seminars in Switzerland). In the West, Sufism was offered as
the “perennial philosophy” and popularized as a method of
spiritual psychology by Idries Shah and others.Finally, S:u ̄f ̄ı poetry found a broader commercial audi-
ence. Following the earlier example of Hazrat Inayat Khan,
Meher Baba, and other teachers who came to the United
States from India and elsewhere to establish disciple commu-
nities, the traditional t:ar ̄ıqah orders have also responded to
this “New Age” receptivity. Traditional orders have estab-
lished branches or subbranches in Europe and the United
States, including the Khaniqahi Nimatullahi, Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah
(counting René Guénon among its members), Naqshbandi-
Haqqani, and Jerrahi Order of America. Previously inter-
rupted traditions have also been successfully revived or recre-
ated by Western devotees, as is the case of the Mevlevi Order
of America and the Threshold Society, which do not, howev-
er, require their members to be Muslims. These Western
t:ar ̄ıqah branches purchase centers, appoint shaykhs, train dis-
ciples, teach classes, sponsor festivals and academic confer-
ences, and maintain a presence on the internet. Meanwhile
new orders, such as the MTO or Maktab-i t:ariqat-i Uways ̄ı,
founded by Shah Maghsoud Angha (d. 1980), are actively
promoted among diaspora communities and indigenous9012 T:AR ̄IQAH