being too concerned with their reputations and the
letter of the law. Nevertheless, a degree of consen-
sus was reached between the Ulama and mystics
as reflected in the writings of abU qasim al-JUnayd
(d. 910), Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri (d. 1074), and
abU hamid al-ghazali (d. 1111), who promoted
what was called “sober” Sufism as opposed to the
“intoxicated” Sufism of figures such as abU yazid
al-bistami (d. ca. 875) and mansUr al-hallaJ (d.
922). Indeed, it was common for jurists and schol-
ars to also be members of the brotherhoods. Even
one of Sufism’s strongest critics, taqiy al-din ibn
taymiya (d. 1328), a follower of the literalist han-
bali legal school, was reported to be a member of
the qadiri sUFi order.
The growth of Sufism was partly a reaction
against the worldly orientation taken by the Mus-
lim community in the wake of the conquest of
Middle Eastern lands in the seventh and eighth
centuries, as well as against political violence
and official corruption. Sufis benefited from the
mystical traditions of Christianity, Hinduism,
and Buddhism, and they subsequently played
a significant role in the indigenization of Islam
among the peoples living in lands governed
by Muslim rulers. They carried Islam via trade
routes into sub-Saharan Africa, india, Central
Asia, southeastern Europe and the Caucasus, and
Southeast Asia. Among the leading Sufi orders
that arose and spread across Islamdom were the
Qadiris, Suhrawardis, Rifais, Kubrawis, Shadhilis,
Mevlevis, Naqshbandis, and Bektashis. The most
famous of the Sufi orders in India is that of the
Chishtis. Each of these orders was named after its
founding Sufi master, and many of them enjoyed
the patronage of rulers and wealthy merchants.
Sufis have played a significant role in Islamic
reneWal and reForm movements. Two orders that
were especially active in this were the naqshbandi
sUFi order and the Khalwatis. The Naqshbandis,
under the leadership of ahmad sirhindi (d. 1624)
and Shah Wali Allah (d. 1762) in India, spread
reformist ideas throughout Asia and Ottoman lands
during the 17th and 18th centuries. Among the
leading Naqshbandi teachers in the Middle Eastern
region were Taj al-Din ibn Zakariya (d. 1640) in
Mecca, Murad al-Bukahri (d. 1720), and Abd al-
Ghani al-Nablusi (d. 1731) in the Levant and Syria,
and Khalid al-Baghdadi (d. 1827) in Kurdistan and
among Ottoman authorities. The Khalwati brand
of reformism was initiated by Mustafa al-Bakri (d.
1748), a student of al-Nablusi, and his leading dis-
ciple in Egypt, Muhammad al-Hifnawi (d. 1767).
Their reformist teachings were well received among
the ulama and Sufis alike, and, in concert with
Naqshbandi teachings, they sparked the establish-
ment of new reform-minded Sufi orders in algeria,
tUnisia, sUdan, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Sufis also were involved in leading armed oppo-
sition to the forces of European colonial powers
that penetrated and occupied Muslim lands in the
19th and 20th centuries. Between 1830 and 1847,
abd al-qadir al-Jazairi (d. 1883), a Qadiri Sufi
shaykh inspired by Naqshbandi reformism, led
Algerian tribes in a Jihad against the French. Out-
breaks of resistance continued after Abd al-Qadir’
s deportation, culminating in the great Algerian
revolt of 1871, which resulted in a strengthening
of the French stranglehold on the region. A Sam-
mani Sufi shaykh named Muhammad Ahmad (d.
1885), proclaimed to be the promised mahdi, led
a tribal coalition against Ottoman-Egyptian troops
and established a Mahdist state in northern Sudan
in 1885. British forces put an end to his regime
in 1898, but Mahdist partisans have continued
to play a prominent role in Sudanese religious
and political affairs to this day. Another reformist
Sufi order, the Sanusis, established a network of
lodges throughout much of libya and the central
Sahara region during the 19th century. From 1901
to 1914 they led unsuccessful campaigns against
French expansion into Chad, then against the Ital-
ians in Libya from 1911 to 1932.
Despite the active involvement of Sufi orders
in such resistance movements, Muslim modern-
ists such as Jamal al-din aFghani (d. 1897) and
mUhammad abdUh (d. 1905) have blamed Sufi
ideas and practices for making the umma vulner-
able to foreign domination. The Sufis have also
incurred the wrath of the Wahhabis of Saudi
Arabia, and today they are vulnerable to attack
wherever Wahhabi influence is strong. SufismK 640 Sufism