GROWTH OF SUFISM IN
ISLAMIC WORLD
The Formative Stage (Upto 10th Century)
Early Sufis applied an esoteric meaning to
verses in the quran which stressed on such
virtues as repentance (tauba), abstinence,
renunciation, poverty, trust in god (gawakkul)
etc. Mecca, Madin, Basra, and Kufa were the
earliest centres of Sufism. Sufism at Basra
reached its height during the time of the woman
mystic Rabia. Other regions of the Islamic world
where Sufism spread to Iranian regions, it
tended to express greater individualism,
divergent tendencies, and heterodox doctrines
and practices under Persian influence. The most
famous of the early Sufis in the Iranian regions
was Bayazid Bistami from Dhurasan. In
Baghdad, Al junaid was the most well-known
of the early Sufis. Al junaid won the approval of
the Islamic orthodoxy and represented the
controlled and disciplined side of Sufism and,
therfore, those Sufis who followed his line are
regarded as sober. Both Junaid and Bistami
exercised profound influences on their
contemporary and later Sufis. Two contrasting
tendencies initiated by them come to be
distinguished as Junaidi and Bistami, or Iraqi and
Dhurasani,
Another prominents early sufi from Baghdad
was Mansur al-Hallaj who started his career as
pupil of Al Junaid but later developed the method
of Bayazid Bistami. His mystical formula “I am
god” played an important role in the evolution
of Sufi ideas in Iran and then in India. The Ulema
considered, imprisoned and finally hanged. His
ideas provided the basis for the development of
the doctrine of “Insane-i-kamil” (the perfect
man).
Growth of the Organised Sufi Movement
(10th-12th Century)
Sufism began to acquire the form of an
organised movement with the establishment of
the Turkish rule under the Ghaznavis and then
under the Seljuqs in various parts of central Asia
and Iran in the later 10th and 11th centuries.
The period marks the development of two
parallel institutions in the Islamic world-the
madarasa system (seminary, higher religious
school) in its new form as an official institution
of orthodox Islamic learning and the Khanqah
system as an ogranised, endowed an permanent
centre for Sufi activities.
This stage is also characterised by the
appearance of Sufi literary texts which argued
and codified the Sufi ideas and doctrines. Al-
Ghazzali was the most outstanding sufi author.
One of the most authentic and celebrated manual
of sufism was Kashful Mahjub written by Al-
Hujwiri.
Another salient feature of Sufism during this
period was the emergence of Sufi poetry in
Persian. While Arabic literature on mysticism is
in prose, Persian literature is in poetry. Sufi
poetry in Persian in the form of narrative poems
(mannavis) reached its peak during the 12th and
13th centuries.
