Journey to God : Sufis and Dervishes

 Journey to God : Sufis and Dervishes in Islam,
[A5] Hardback - 238 pages, (38 Colour Plates/Images),
by Jurgen Wasim Frembgen,
Translated from German by Jane Ripken.
Published by Oxford University Press, Pakistan.



Description :


The Sufi tradition as the 'other face' and 'soft core' of Islam represents a particular creative and liberal facet characterized by tolerance, humanism and the accommodation of differences. That is why inspirational Sufi religiosity is inclusivist in nature.


This book, which understands Sufi Islam as being embedded in wider social and cultural contexts, surveys the whole of the Muslim world from Sub-Saharan Africa across the Middle East to Eastern Turkestan and South Asia, with particular emphasis on Pakistan and India as its demographic centre. What distinguishes this study most clearly from the considerable number of introductions to Sufism currently available is that it offers an account of Sufi Islam from the perspective of the ethnographer as much as that of the historian of religion.


Focusing on its concrete, practiced and lived forms, it shows how popular Sufism developed into the almost ubiquitous mass movement, present at all levels of Muslim society as a dynamic force until modern times. This book is a revised translation of the original German edition.



About the Author : Prof. Dr. Jürgen Wasim Frembgen, Islamicist, anthropologist and writer, is Senior Curator (Hauptkonservator) and Head of the Islamic Collection at the Munich Museum of Ethnology as well as Professor for History of the Religion and Culture of Islam at the Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies/University of Munich. Since 1981 he is teaching anthropology and Islamic Studies at different universities in Germany; in addition he had been a visiting professor at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad (National Institute of Pakistan Studies), National College of Arts in Lahore as well as Ohio State University in Columbus, OH/USA.

Since 1981 he is annually conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Pakistan (in Punjab and Sindh as well as in the Karakoram and in Indus Kohistan). Currently he is doing research on the popular Sufi cult of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and his devotees in Sehwan Sharif (Sindh) and in Lahore as member of an interdisciplinary French research team as well as a Norwegian circle of scholars. In addition, he has curated more than 30 exhibitions dealing with cultures of the Muslim world, recently “The Aura of Alif. The Art of Writing in Islam” (Munich 2010/Prestel). Prof. Wasim Frembgen reverted to Islam many years ago.



Table of Contents :

---Preface,

---[1] The Holy Journey in Islam,

---[2] The Sufi Tradition -The Foundations of Dervish Life,
------Notes.

---[3] Sufi's and Dervishes,
------Notes.

---[4] Mystics and Saints in the Modern World,
------Friends of God and Spiritual Leaders,
------Islamisation by Sufi's,
------Major Sufi Saints and Mystical Schools,
------Sufi's and Craftsmen,
------Miracles of Saints,
------The Pir and the Institution of the Shrine,
------Saints, Sufis and Shrines,
------Everyday Life of Dervishes and Ways of Livelihood,
------Sufi's as Artists and Calligraphers,
------Notes.

---[5] Orthodox Sufi Orders (ba-shar'),
------Note on Terminology,
------Development of the Orders,
------Important ba-shar' Orders,
------Sufi Lodges - Life in the Community,
------Women in the Sufi and Dervish Tradition,
------Sultans and Sufis: The Political Role of the Orders,
------Notes.

---[6] 'Free' Sufi Orders (bi-shar') and Ecstatics,
------Malamati,
------Majdhub (Majzub),
------Qalandar,
------Khaksar/Haidari and Jalali,
------Malang,
------Other bi-shar' Orders,
--------Husain Shahi,
--------Rasul Shahi,
--------Sidi Fakirs,
--------Diwana,
--------'Abdalan-i Rum,
--------Bektashi,
--------Rifa'i,
--------'Aisawa,
--------Hamadsha,
--------Gnawa,
--------Haddawa,
--------Bay Fall (Sengalese Muridiyya),
------Wandering Dervishes as 'Holy Travelling Entertainers' and Peripatetics,
------Excursus : Companion with the Ancient Cynics,
------Notes.

---[7] The Way of the Mystics and Ascetics,
------Master and Disciple,
------Dervish Costume and Paraphernalia,
--------The Robe or Patched Frock (Khirqa),
--------The Dervish Cap,
--------The Begging Bowl,
--------Jewellery,
--------Other Paraphernalia,
------Lifestyles and Codes of Conduct,
--------Marriage and Celibacy,
--------Poverty and Begging,
--------Fasting and other Ascetic Practices,
------Prayer and Recollection,
--------The Dhikr,
--------Sufi Music and Dervish Dance,
------Unusual Forms of Ecstasy,
--------Hallucinogenic Drugs and Stimulants,
------Notes.

---[8] Epilogue,
------Notes.


---Bibliography,
---Photo Credits,
---Index.

---

Book Dimensions:  216 x 138mm.

Also see, Nocturnal Music in the Land of Sufis :  Unheard Pakistan,