RLST 4551 - Islamic Mysticism: Sufism Sources

This beautiful online book contains excellent essays and anecdotes on the historic and contemporary role of food, meeting and hospitality in Sufism, featuring an art gallery of Islamic art. 

The Cookbook

The Recipes

The Gallery

Bibliography

Complete Index

(Dervishes performing a ritual dance, Konya, Turkey. Credit: Bruno Morandi, Stone/Getty Images)

Our libraries, especially Divinity Library, Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, Central Library have many CDs, DVDs and videotapes on various aspects of Sufism, and you are free to borrow them. A few of these CDs and DVDs are as follows:

• The music of Islām. Volume five, ʻAīssāoua Ṣūfī ceremony, Marrakesh, Morocco 
  

Available at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library; Call Number: CD MUS-15410

• Rumi the wings of love ; Come to life: al-Mahya

Available at the Divinity Library; Call Number: BP189.7 .M42 R865 2007

• Tabala Wolof Sufi drumming of Senegal.

Available at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library; Call Number: CD MUS-4076

• I am a Sufi, I am a Muslim

Available at the Central Library; Call Number: DVD 4709 ( or Videotape 1547)

• For those who sail to heaven

Available at the Divinity Library; Call Number: BP188.8 .E32 L86 2000z

• Sidi Sufis African Indian mystics of Gujarat.

Available at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library; Call Number: CD MUS-7522

• Sufi ceremony Rifa' ceremony of the eleventh day of Rabi-L-Achien, honouring Abdul Hadir Beker.

Available at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library; Call Number: CD MUS-6880

• The music of Islām. Volume nine, Mawlawiyah music of the whirling dervishes, Istanbul, Turkey

Available at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library; Call Number: CD MUS-15411

• Saints and spirits

Available at the Central Library; Call Number: DVD 3832

• The JVC video anthology of world music and dance. South Asia, IV

Available at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library; Call Number: DVD MUS-377 v.14

• The Silk Road music, art, and poetry from Istanbul to Samarqand

Available at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library; Call Number: DVD MUS-1081

(We also have many videotypes available in our libraries.)

Alan Godlas', "Sufism, Sufis, Sufi Orders": Dr. Alan Godlas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia, and his page of resources has a section devoted to Sufism.

Dr. Godlas also edits a blog devoted to Sufism, titled the Sufi News.

The Threshold Society (https://sufism.org/); a lot of information on Mevlevis, as well as books, activities and videos.

The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society; a website devoted to the medieval mystic Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-'Arabi (d.1240) that also contains scholarly articles on Islamic mysticism, and podcasts by prominent scholars. (We have the "Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society" in our library as well.) The Society was founded in 1977 to promote a greater understanding of the work of Ibn 'Arabi and his followers. It is open to all and has members in more than 40 countries. Many of the honorary fellows are leading scholars in this field. The society also organizes various scholarly conferences on Sufism. 

Dar al-Masnavi is a free online school which contains the English translation of Rumi (d.1273)'s Mathnawi, his collection of poems, prose works as well as detailed information on the Mevlevi Order, its rites (including The Mevlevi "Whirling Prayer Ceremony," Sema), articles on the order, translations of Mevlevi musical compositions, and a list of very helpful links. Dar al-Masnavi also has an excellent and popular blog for scholars who study the Mathnawi.

Baraka Institute's webpage contains videos by known scholars in the field, as well as articles, podcasts and information about news, conferences and other events.

William Chittick is a famous scholar of Sufism and a professor at Stony Brook University, whose research focuses on pre-modern Islamic intellectual history and its relevance for contemporary humanistic concerns. Chittick's blog entries for the Huffington Post cover a variety of topics including Sufism.

International Mevlana Foundation; founded in Istanbul in 1996, the webpage of the organization contains information on Mevlevi Order, Mevlana & His Works, About & News and Activities.

Nimatullahi Order's webpage has a great media library, among other things, that entails videos, music and talks on Sufism. The order also publishes a journal titled "Sufi."

Sufism | International Association of Sufism: The International Association of Sufism was established in America in 1983 by Seyyedeh Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar. It is a nonsectarian, nongovernmental organization of the United Nations, Department of Public Information.

Carl W. Ernst's "Resources on Islamic Studies": Dr. Carl W. Ernst is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Islamic studies at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a specialist in Islamic Studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His webpage entails a distinguished list of resources for Sufism.

MidEastWeb has brief introductory articles on Sufism, Sufis, Sufi Music, Sufism in Jerusalem under Ottoman Rule.

James Winston Morris Database: James W. Morris, a professor at Boston College, is an expert in Sufism. Many of Prof. Morris’ articles and reviews are now freely available in searchable and downloadable .pdf format here.

"Lovers in a Landscape," Afzal al-Husayni, 1646, Safavid period. The lady is administering burn marks to her lover, as evidenced by the brand, with its rising wisps of smoke in her left hand. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries love burn (dagh) marks were a sign of a lover’s sincerity, according to Anthony Welch quoting Don Juan of Persia (the former Iranian diplomat Ulugh Beg, who participated in Anthony Sherley’s 1599-1604 CE embassy from Isfahan to Spain. He became a Roman Catholic, adopted the name Don Juan and stayed in Spain; see Welch in Hillenbrand, 2000, p. 304). Burn marks are also visible in contemporary dervish portraits and their presence there implies love for God. Lovers in a landscape, however, depicts passionate, physical, heterosexual love. (Source: the Online Gallery of the Agha Khan Museum)