Instructor: Ali Asani
This course offers an introductory survey of mystical traditions of Islam, popularly labelled as “Sufism.” It explores the fundamental concepts, practices, and institutions associated with these traditions, their historical development and their influence on the devotional, cultural and social lives of Muslim communities through the centuries. Through case studies drawn from the Middle East, South Asia, West Africa and North America, the course examines ways in which these traditions have developed and promoted alternative perspectives on what it means to be Muslim, challenging in recent times sectarian, legalistic and politicized understandings of Islam such as Wahhabi, Islamism and jihadism. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Islam. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1802 and Islamic Civilizations 163.