Suger of Saint Denis, Abbot 677stirrup SeeCAVALRY.
Studium Generale SeeUNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS.
Sturluson, Snorri SeeSNORRISTURLUSON.
Sufism (Tasawwuf) The exact meaning of Sufi or who
is a Sufi is disputed. Sufism can designate Muslim MYSTI-
CISMand ASCETICISM. Whether in Arabic, Persian, Turkish,
or any other Asian or African language, it must be based
on the QURAN. It can be seen as a reaction to the excessive
worldliness at any one moment of the Islamic world. It is
not a sectarian term and cannot be used in opposition to
SUNNAor SHIA. Sufi orders, or tariqahs,are expressions of
personal piety and social organization. The English term
has been constructed from an Arabic word referring to
one who wears a woolen robe. Muslim mysticism was not
at all connected with Islam’s tribal and Arabic origins.
There were mystics in BAGHDADin the late ninth century
who collectively received the name of Sufis. This term had
been applied individually to people whose elaborate mor-
tifications caused shock. Their model was probably the
practices of Christian eremitism. The execution of the Sufi
al-Hallaj at Baghdad in 922 caused a migration of practi-
tioners toward eastern IRAN. They were considered hetero-
dox and persecuted for a time. They returned to have
great influence on the CALIPHATEin the 11th century and
in SYRIA, EGYPT, and AL-ANDALUSin the 12th century.
With this the integration of Sufism into ISLAMbecame
irreversible.
From the late 12th century, mystical CONFRATERNI-
TIESwere established and supported by networks of char-
itable institutions financed by public donations or official
authority. These institutions had different names at differ-
ent times and places such as ribat, khanqdh, zawiya, tarl-
gat, or tekkeh/takkiya. This kind of organization has
survived up to the present time.
Especially important in the later spread of Islam,
Sufism gained prominence in all the Muslim territories
from the 13th and 14th centuries. Outside this organized
movement, Sufism has known great spiritual masters.
The most notable of them was Ibn Arabi from AL-
ANDALUS, who died at DAMASCUSin 1240. Some were
great poets, such as JALAL AD-DINRUMI, the founder of
the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes.
See alsoAL-GHAZALI;HAFIZ;OMARKHAYYAM.
Further reading:“Tasawwuf,” Encyclopedia of Islam,
4.681–685 (1929); J. J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi
Orders in Islam (New York: Oxford University Press,
1998); A. M. Schimmel; Titus Burckhardt, An Introduction
to Sufism,trans. D. M. Matheson (London: Thorsons,
1995); Leonard Lewisohn, ed., Classical Persian Sufism:
From Its Origins to Rumi(London: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi
Publications, 1993).
Suger of Saint Denis, Abbot (1081–1151)adviser
to the king of France, historian, talented abbot of Saint
Denis
Suger was born into a peasant family near PARISand was
given to the abbey of Saint Denis as an oblate at the age
of about 10. He professed and took his vows at the age of- As a church archivist, he distinguished himself in
1107 by documenting the abbey’s privileges before Pope
PASCHAL II. He was later appointed the provost of
Berneval-en-Caux in NORMANDY, and then in 1109 of
Toury in Beauce. There he took part in King Louis VI the
Fat’s (1081–1137) war against the lord of Le Puiset in
1111 and 1112. Elected abbot of Saint Denis in March of
1122, he soon began to give aid and counsel to the king,
traveling to RHEIMSduring a military campaign against
the emperor Henry V (r. 1106–25) in 1124 and in
1125 to Mainz for the election of the emperor Lothair III
(r. 1125–37). He used that occasion to assert rights over
abbeys in Lorraine. When he subsequently reformed the
practices of the Abbey of Saint Denis in 1127, he received
much praise from BERNARD OFCLAIRVAUX.
From then on, he tried to exploit the incomes of the
properties of the abbey to allow him to rebuild the abbey
church in the new GOTHICstyle. He accompanied the
young King Louis VII (r. 1137–80) to Bordeaux for his
marriage with ELEANORof Aquitaine in 1137. He soon
retired to his abbey to write the Deeds of Louis the Fatand
to oversee the rebuilding of the church in the early
1140s. He was asked to assist in the regency during Louis
VII’s absence on the Second CRUSADEin 1147. He quelled
a revolt by nobles and earned the nickname “father of his
country” during Louis’s absence. On the king’s return in
1149, his influence in the church of France continued;
his opinion was considered in the appointment of all
bishops. After reforming and adding to the finances of
the abbey, he used the new funds to design and build the
new abbey church, an early model of the Gothic style. He
dreamed of going to the East himself to rectify the failed
Second Crusade but fell ill and died on January 13, 1151,
at Saint Denis at age 70.
Further reading:Suger, Abbot of Saint Denis, The
Deeds of Louis the Fat,trans. Richard Cusimano and John
Moorhead (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of
America Press, 1992); Suger, Abbot of Saint Denis, Abbot
Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and Its Art Trea-
sures, ed. and trans., Erwin Panofsky, 2d ed. (1948;
reprint, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1979); Sumner McKnight Crosby, The Royal Abbey of
Saint-Denis: From Its Beginnings to the Death of Suger,
475–1151,ed. Pamela Z. Blum (New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1987); Lindy Grant, Abbot Suger of St.-
Denis: Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France
(London: Longman, 1998); Conrad Rudolph, Artistic
Change at St.-Denis: Abbot Suger’s Program and the Early
Twelfth-Century Controversy over Art (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1990).