Two new articles on Western Sufism, and one of relevance

Two new chapters on Western Sufism, and one of relevance to it, have just been published in a new book, Esoteric Transfers and Constructions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. Mark Sedgwick and Francesco Piraino (New York: Palgrave, 2021). They are:

• "The Sufi Shaykh and His Patients: Merging Islam, Psychoanalysis, and Western Esotericism" by Francesco Piraino, pp. 195-217.

The Sufi shaykh in question is Gabriele Mandel, in Italy, who combines Islam, psychoanalysis, and Western Esotericism.

• "Sufism and the Enneagram" by Mark Sedgwick, pp. 219-246.

Covers the complicated relationship between the Enneagram from Gurdjieff to the Naqshbandiyya.

• "Heretical Orthodoxy: Eastern and Western Esotericism in Thomas Moore Johnson’s 'Platonism'" by Vadim Putzu, pp. 273-296.

Not strictly speaking about Sufism, but important, as Thomas Moore Johnson was the publisher of some of the important articles about Sufism by C. H. A. Bjerregaard, and was also connected in other ways.

See https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030617875 for full details.  

New book on eight North American orders

Eight Sufi orders in North America are discussed in a new collection, Varieties of American Sufism: Islam, Sufi Orders, and Authority in a Time of Transition, ed. Elliott Bazzano and Marcia Hermansen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2020). The book starts with a good introduction by Hermansen.

Of the eight orders, only two are discussed in my Western Sufism: the Sufi Order of Inayat Khan (chapter by Geneviève Mercier-Dalphond) and the Mevlevi Order of America (chapter by Simon Sorgenfrei). The other six are not discussed, as they were established less than fifty years ago.

In terms of new research, the two most valuable chapters are by Bazzano on the Shadhiliyya of the Palestinian shaykh Muhammad Sa‘id al-Jamal (1935-2015), and by Rasul Miller on the Tijaniyya among Black American Muslims in New York City. Nothing significant has been published by anyone on either of these before. The Tijaniyya chapter is especially interesting for what it shows about gender.

Two chapters usefully summarize unpublished PhD dissertations: Sorgenfrei on the the Mevlevi Order of America from his “American Dervish: Making Mevlevism in the United States of America” (University of Gothenburg, 2013) and Melinda Krokus on the Ansari Qadiri Rifa‘i Tariqa from her “The Poetic Body: Love and Knowledge in a Transnational Sufi Order, the Qadiri Rifa'i Tariqa” (Boston University, 2014). 

Three chapters provide accessible summaries of important recently published work: William Rory Dickson on the Golden Sufi Center (from his Living Sufism in North America, 2015), Merin Shobhana Xavier on the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship (from her Sacred Spaces and Transnational Networks in American Sufism, 2018), and Julianne Hazen on the Alami Tariqa (from her Sufism in America, 2017).

Excellent new PhD on healing in the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order

An interesting and unusual PhD dissertation is now available online, Athar Ahmed Yawar, "From madness to eternity: Psychiatry and Sufi healing in the postmodern world," University College London, 2020, at https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10094782/.

The dissertation deals with the healing activities of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order, and is based on very extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Lefke, London, and at other sites.

The dissertation is unusual because it was submitted for a PhD in psychiatry, not anthropology or the study of religion. In fact, however, it might equally well have been submitted in either of those disciplines, except that the lack of respect that it shows for contemporary psychiatry (!) might have raised eyebrows in departments of anthropology or the study of religion.

It is also unusual because of the depth and quality of the fieldwork, which really does describe the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order very well, and from what is really an insider perspective. It also gives an insider perspective on the author's own illness, suffering, and healing.

What, then, of its conclusions? On the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order:

Healing is held to be universal: almost everyone is crazy, and in need of help with their nafs, since they are under the control of their egos. The Order therefore transforms what is ordinarily a liminal, stigmatising state into a universal condition. In fact, people who recognise their craziness, and have found a suitable spiritual healer, are held to be privileged. The Order’s ability to receive marginalised, often mentally ill people and make them more whole is not only a demonstration of the Order’s power and compassion, but a redrawing of social boundaries. Disparate people, often with difficult lives, are brought together by Shaykh Nazim’s charisma, and inducted into a shared world of symbol and meaning. Everybody is perceived to have a role in the order, no matter what their moral or intellectual shortcomings: they are actors in a moral theatre, directed by Shaykh Nazim on behalf of his spiritual masters. 

And on psychiatry? "The behaviour of patients... is increasingly postmodern," and perhaps psychiatrists should learn from their patients.

The thesis consists of seven chapters. One deals with "Psychiatry’s beliefs," one with "Sufi knowledge and healing," and one with "The Naqshbandi-Haqqani order." Then the dissertation gets down to business with a chapter on "Investigating healing in the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order," another on "Knowledge in the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order," and then the two key chapters: 6, on "Healing in the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order," and 7, on "Knowledge, healing, and postmodernity."

Strongly recommended.