Spiritual Wayfarers, Leaders in Piety: Sufis and the Dissemination of Islam in Medieval Palestine.

• Author: Tamari, Steve
• Position: Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs, vol. 40 - Book review

Spiritual Wayfarers, Leaders in Piety: Sufis and the Dissemination of Islam in Medieval Palestine. By DAPHNA EPHRAT. Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs, vol. 40. Cambridge, Mass.: CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 2008. Pp. 223. $19.95.

Daphna Ephrat has written a history of the development of Sufism in Palestine between the Islamic conquest and the advent of Ottoman rule. Her central thesis is that the creation of locally rooted Sufi-inspired communities and institutions between 1000 and 1250 C.E. was part and parcel of the Islamization of Palestinian society and of the landscape of Palestine. This conclusion is based on a discussion of a host of contributing factors that relate to the peculiarities of Palestine and to the evolution of Sufism in the wider Muslim world. Ephral's main sources are biographical, and she relies heavily on the collection of biographies of Sufis in Mujir al-Din al-'Ulayrmi's (d. 1521) al-Uns al-jalil bi-tarikh al-Quds wa-l-Khalil.

To the extent that Ephrat aims to explain the process of Islamization during the medieval period in a specific geographical space, she has achieved her goal. This book represents an important contribution to Islamicist scholarship. As a contribution to our understanding of the history of Palestine and Palestinians, however, the work is less successful. Palestine is not, of course, just a geographical space. In addition to its religious significance (which the author recognizes), it is a place brimming with historical and political meaning for its inhabitants. Unfortunately, the author does not explain or explore the significance of her choice of Palestine as a unit of analysis. The result is a missed opportunity to make a significant contribution to the literature on pre-modern Palestine.

Spiritual Wayfarers, Leaders in Piety is organized around Marshall Hodgson's periodization of pre-modern Islamic history. Three chapters form the core of the book: "Beginnings" treats the classical age from the beginning of Islam to the mid-tenth century; "Integration" the early middle period from the mid-tenth to the mid-thirteenth: and "Expansion" the later middle period, which corresponds to Mamluk rule in Palestine from the mid-thirteenth to the early sixteenth century. An epilogue touches on the re-emergence of Qadiriyya Sufi congregations among Palestinians in the Galilee today.

During the classical period, asceticism rather than mysticism was typical of those known as zuhhad...