Sufi sm and ‘Popular’ Islam 151
much outdated, studies of this genre are Rinn (1884), Le Chatelier (1897) and
Depont and Coppolani (1897). Snouck Hurgronje’s work is of a different quality
and has outlasted that of his colleagues. On the Russian literature of this genre,
see Knysh (2002).
- Rachida Chih (2007) has shown how even within a single order (the Khalwatiyya
in Egypt) there are considerable differences in organisation, relations between the
shaykh and his disciples, and function of the lodges.
- The most outspoken representative of this view (the ‘Islamic Enlightenment’
thesis) is Reinhard Schulze (e.g. Schulze 1996), its fi ercest critic is Bernd Radtke
(O’Fahey and Radtke 1993; Radtke 1996). See also the discussion in the section
‘The controversy about Neo-Sufi sm’ in this chapter.
- Gammer (1994) claims the imams were themselves also khalifa of this order and
that the structure of the order helped in coordinating the resistance; Kemper
(2005) contests this and fi nds no solid evidence supporting that claim. Both
scholars are in agreement, however, on the enormous authority the leading
Khalidiyya shaykhs in the region enjoyed among the population, and on the fact
that the imams derived much of their legitimacy from these shaykhs.
- This is Fazlur Rahman’s summary defi nition (1979: 206). Other infl uential
statements outlining ‘Neo-Sufi sm’ are in Voll (1982: 36–9) and Levtzion and Voll
(1987: 7–13).
- Ahmad al-Tijani claimed to have had a personal encounter with the Prophet, who
taught him the special litanies of his order (Abun-Nasr 1965: 19); Ahmad b. Idris
was similarly taught a prayer by Khidr in the presence of the Prophet, as was his
teacher’s teacher, al-Dabbagh (O’Fahey 1990: 42–8).
- A small selection of relevant titles: O’Fahey (1990); Vikør (1995); Radtke (1996,
1999, 2005); Schulze (1996); Cornell (1998); Hoffman (1999); Knysh (2002).
- The names of the Sufi s of whom Ibn Taymiyya speaks with great respect are
listed by Meier (1999: 313). Julian Johansen (1996: 189) quotes the contemporary
Egyptian Sufi shaykh Muhammad Zaki Ibrahim as claiming that Ibn Taymiyya’s
description of ‘true tasawwuf’ and his disciple Ibn al-Qayyim’s Sufi commentaries
are ‘entirely in support of their Way’.
- This compendium, Tanwir al-qulub, remains widely used in places as far apart as
Turkey and Indonesia and is regularly reprinted.
- The terms Salafi and (Muslim) Modernist have been used to refer to movements
of quite divergent religious and ideological positions. All reject the classical
learned tradition in favour of direct recourse to the Quran and hadith, but there
are great differences in the degree to which rational interpretation of these
sources is accepted and in the attitude towards political action.
- Gellner developed this model in a series of publications, in its most elaborate and
most frequently quoted form in Muslim Society (1981). A succinct restatement,
more explicit in its treatment of Sufi sm, is given in Gellner (1992). Much of the
argument is based on his fi eldwork observations and is already present in his
dissertation on a pilgrimage centre in the Middle Atlas (Gellner 1969).
- Hume’s Natural History of Religion, quoted in Gellner (1981: 9).
- As concrete examples, Gellner obviously had the alliance of the puritan scholar
Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Saud’s tribesmen in mind, besides the
much earlier puritan movements of the Almoravids and Almohads in medieval
Moroccan history.
- An important and sophisticated study of sainthood in Morocco, based on a
