Western Sufism: From the Abbasids to the New Age

369 Pages·2016·2.78 MB·English

by  Mark Sedgwick

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Western Sufism
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Western Sufism
From the Abbasids to the New Age
Mark Sedgwick
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sedgwick, Mark J., author.
Title: Western Sufism : from the Abbasids to the new age / Mark Sedgwick.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016008846 (print) | LCCN 2016011517 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780199977642 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780199977659 (updf) |
ISBN 9780199977666 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Mysticism—Islam—History. | Mysticism—History. |
Sufism—History. | Sufism—Europe—History. | Sufism—North America—History. | Neoplatonism.
Classification: LCC BP188.5 .S43 2017 (print) | LCC BP188.5 (ebook) |
DDC 297.409—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016008846
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
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Contents
Introduction  1
Part I | Premodern Intercultural Transfers
1. Neoplatonism and Emanationism  15
Plotinus: The Key  17
Emanation Explained  19
Neoplatonism Spreads  24
2. Islamic Emanationism  30
Arab Neoplatonism  31
The First Sufis  36
Sufi Classics  40
3. Jewish and Christian Emanationism  50
Jewish Neoplatonism  50
Jewish Sufism  56
Latin Emanationism  58
Conclusion to Part I  66
Part II | Imagining Sufism, 1480– 1899
4. Dervishes  71
Angels and Deviants  72
The View from France  79
Sufism as Mystical Theology  82
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5. Deism and Pantheism  85
The prisca theologia in the Renaissance  86
Universalism: Guillaume Postel and the Jesuits 89
Deism Demonstrated by Arab and Turk  93
Pantheism and Anti-Exotericism  97
6. Universalist Sufism  102
Sufism as Esoteric Pantheism  103
Perennialism and Universalism in India  106
The Dabistan and After  108
7. Dervishes Epicurean and Fanatical  113
Dervishes in Drama, Painting, and Verse  114
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám  121
Fighting Dervishes  125
Conclusion to Part II  130
Part III | The Establishment of Sufism in the West, 1910– 1933
8. Transcendentalism, Theosophy, and Sufism  135
Transcendentalism and the Missouri Platonists  137
The Theosophical Society and Carl- Henrik Bjerregaard  142
Ivan Aguéli, the Western Sufi  148
9. Toward the One: Inayat Khan and the Sufi Movement  156
Inayat Khan Visits America  157
The Sufi Message is Spread  162
The Continuation of the Sufi Movement  170
10. Tradition and Consciousness  172
René Guénon and the Traditionalists  173
George Gurdjieff and Consciousness  176
The Early Years of John G. Bennett  181
Conclusion to Part III  183
Part IV | The Development of Sufism in the New Age
11. Polarization  189
Toward Islam  190
Reorientation with Meher Baba  191
The Travels of John G. Bennett  194
The Maryamiyya and the Oglala Sioux  202
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12. Idries Shah and Sufi Psychology  208
Shah and the Gurdjieff Tradition  209
Shah’s Sufism  213
Followers and Opponents  217
13. Sufism Meets the New Age  222
Traditionalism and the New Age  223
The Sufi Movement Conserved  223
Sufi Sam in San Francisco  225
Vilayat and the Sufi Order International  231
Fazal and Mystical Warfare  233
14. Islamic Sufism  236
Ian Dallas and the Darqawiyya  237
Ibn Arabi and Beshara  240
The Murabitun and Sufi Jihad  243
John G. Bennett at Sherborne  246
Conclusion to Part IV  247
15. Conclusion  249
Notes  263
Selected Bibliography  319
Index  333