Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The primary focus of this dissertation is to examine the proliferation of the Sufi Orders in the Durban area. The popularity of tasawwuf, (Islamic Spirituality) appears to be on the increase as manifested by the increase in the membership of the more established Sufi Orders as well as an increase in the emergence of new Sufi Orders. This study reviews the history, nature, characteristics and activities of the Sufi groups, and documents their growth over the last ten - twelve years. It also focuses on the reasons which could possibly account for such an increase and it asks the question "What motivates individuals to gravitate to Sufi Orders and groups?" / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

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<p>The objective of this thesis was the translation of an original defence of Sufi practice titled &quot / A Kind word in response to those who reject sufism&quot / by Shaykh A&ograve / hmad ibn Mu&ograve / s&ograve / taf&aacute / &deg / Alaw&aring / i. This book was written in defence of Sufis and Sufism. This research provide some notes on the life, spiritual heritage and writings of the Shaykh &deg / Alaw&aring / i in conjunction with a critical introduction to complement the translated text. The Shaykh's methodology applied in his ijtih&aring / ad to validate and defend the Sufis and their practices was also reviewed.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1995. / Thesis prepared for Dept. of Music. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references ((leaves 192-205)).

Studies on gender in medieval and modern Sufism have tended to posit two extremes: Sufism as an oasis for women, away from the strictures of ‘orthodoxy,’ or Sufism as a haven for misogynistic views of women as temptations, distractions, and necessary evils. However, these simplistic characterisations cannot encompass the full range of the evidence, as we find many positive representations of women, and indeed female saints, alongside brutal anti-woman declarations. This study attempts to nuance these prevailing characterisations of medieval depictions of gender by providing further evidence of Sufi attitudes towards women and femininity. It does so via a comprehensive consideration of a prominent Persian Sufi poet, Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār, in the context of select Persian and Arabic hagiographies, Qur’an commentaries, and qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’. Analysis of the material reviewed suggests that gender representations are not fixed, even within the work of a single author. I argue that these texts exhibit a striking disconnect between their conceptions of ‘woman’ as a category and the depiction of narrative women, especially Sufi women. I suggest that this tendency reflects a Sufi philosophy of gender-egalitarianism and that philosophy’s inherent conflict with predominant social hierarchies of the medieval Islamicate context. This study shows the utility of engaging the classical Islamic tradition with contemporary theory surrounding gender and identity, including corporeality theory and intersectionality theory. It also employs more traditional formalist literary critiques using the lenses of defamiliarisation and paradox/apophasis. Ultimately, this research reveals the need for careful, critical studies of medieval views on gender, and contributes to the bodies of literature on Islamicate sexualities and the construction of sainthood in Islam.

The shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar is located in the rural city of Sehwan in Sindh, Pakistan. Sehwan is a site of pilgrimage for thousands of devotees at the annual festival known as urs, spanning three days to commemorate the death anniversary of the saint. Men, women, and transgender participants engage in many rituals at the urs among which the prominent is devotional dancing called dhamaal. This thesis project relates sacredness of spaces and hyper-reality of the festival with the performances of rituals that involve diverse publics. At the urs and otherwise, the shrine space provides devotees, largely poor, a collective non-verbal expression in the form of dhamaal. Dhamaal gives expression to the body in a society that does not normally encourage such expressions in the public sphere. This thesis argues that the Sufi discourse in Sehwan makes the body of a devotee an expressive body.

The thesis first summarises the history and main ideas of Sufism. It then examines the reception, mainly favourable, of Shah's representation of Sufism particulary in the West, and, finally, attempts to analyse and explain his methodology. It is not the aim of this thesis to examine the complete works of Idries Shah. Rather, by studying a number of his texts I have endeavoured to emphasise Shah's role as a pontifex between Islam and the West. As well as placing Shah within the complicated realm of Sufi thought, I have examined in some detail the methods by which he has played this role. The aspect of Shah that I have focused upon is that of the populariser and explicator of Sufism. For Shah the subject of Sufism is not one confined to academic study. It is a way of knowing related to everyday life and particularly relevant to the needs of the West at a time when the Western world is experiencing emotional and spiritual bankruptcy. Shah resembles the deconstructionist theorists in that he sees the limits of the language on which the West has relied for so long. But, even though his method is similar to theirs, he differs from them in that for him there is another realm of knowledge beyond language. I have quoted extensively from the stories Shah uses in order to demonstrate the ideas and images he thinks are relevant to an understanding of Sufism for the West, and I have used reviews and comments from audiences in both East and West in order to demonstrate what those audiences think of what Shah is attempting to do. This thesis examines the pedagogical techniques employed in this process. The applicablity of deconstruction theory to Sufi teaching is considered.

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