Kings and Dervishes

Sufi World Renunciation and the Symbolism of Kingship in the Persianate World
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-0-520-40168-6
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 590 g

Saïd Amir Arjomand's Kings and Dervishes is a pioneering study of the emergence and development of Sufism during the formation of the Persianate world. Whereas Sufi doctrine was expressed in the New Persian language, its social organization was detached from the civic movement among the urban craftsmen and artisans known as the fotovva(t) and was politically shaped by multiple forces—first by the revival of Persian kingship, and then by the emergence of the Turko-Mongolian empires.

The intermingling of Sufism's developmental path with the transformation of the Persianate political regimes resulted in the progressive appropriation of royal symbols by the Sufi shaykhs. The original Sufi world renunciation gave way first to world accommodation and the medieval love mysticism of Jalal al-Din Rumi and Hafez of Shiraz, and then to world domination. This comprehensive work of historical sociology traces these spiritual and political evolutions over the course of some six centuries, showing how the Sufi saints' symbolic sovereignty was eventually made real in the imperial kingship of the Persianate world's early modern empires.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Arjomand, Said Amir

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islamische Gruppen: Sufis
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Introduction 
The Emergence of the Persianate World and Its Extension beyond Iran 
Sufism and Kingship in an Analytical Frame 
Power in the Heavens and on Earth in the Sufi Cosmology 

1. The Emergence and the Development of Persianate Sufism in Greater Khorasan 
Greater Khorasan as the Cradle of Sufi Islam 
The Buddhist and Manichaean Roots of World Renunciation in Early Sufism 
The Social Base and Organization of Early Sufism in Khorasan 
Divergence of the Developmental Path of Sufism from that of the Fotovvat Movement 

2. Persianate Sufism—from Ascetic World Renunciation to Divine Love 
The Theoretical Elaboration of Sufi Islam 
The Development of Love Mysticism in Persian Sufi Literature 

3. The Development of Persianate Sufism in Iran, the Seljuq Kingdom of Rum, and Northern India 
The Development of Love Mysticism in Western Iran and Shiraz 
The Mongol Invasion and the Dispersal of the Sufi Masters of Khorasan 
The Spread of Persianate Sufism to Northern India 

4. The Persianate Theory of Kingship and Its Symbolic Contestation 
The Revival of Kingship in Iran and Its Historical Context 
The Muslim Encounter with Greek Practical Philosophy and its Mystical Turn 
The Civic impact on Political Theory and the Fotovvat Professional Ethic 

5. Sufi Love Mysticism and Its Antinomian and Gnostic Turns in Thirteenth-Century Anatolia 
Society, Polity, and Rebellion in the Seljuq Kingdom of Rum 
Jalal al-Din Rumi and the Development of Antinomian Love Mysticism in Anatolia 
The Rehabilitation of Antinomian Love after the Confrontation with Gnostic Reason 
The Militarization of Popular Contestation in the Anatolian Frontier Region 

6. The Emergence of the Sufi Orders in Iran and the Coming of Age of Sufi Sainthood 
The Reorganization of the Fotovvat into Sufi Congregations under the Late Abbasid Caliphate 
The Organization of the Sufi Orders in Iran and Northern India and the World-Accommodating Turn in Sufism 
The Age of Sufi Sainthood (Velayat) a

Über Autor(innen)

Saïd Amir Arjomand is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Stony Brook University, the founding editor of the Journal of Persianate Studies, and author of Messianism and Sociopolitical Revolution in Medieval Islam and Revolutions of the End of Time.