Commemoration and devotion in the resurgence of contemporary Sufi communities in their homeland and western settings: descendants and followers of a medieval Sufi Saint in Syria and Cambridge, Ontario

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the resurgence of contemporary Sufi communities in Islamic and Western settings. Focusing on the descendants and followers of Shaykh ʿAqīl al-Manbijī, a medieval spiritual master and saint (d. 1155) in their Syrian homeland and Cambridge, Ontario, the examination offers insights into the confluence of three dimensions. The first refers to the hagiographical and historical traditions that perpetuate the memory and legacy of the long-gone shaykh and nourish the sacrality of his shrine. The second highlights the significance of the rituals performed by communities of the shaykh’s descendants and their followers in Syria to revitalise the spiritual tradition that centres on him and evoke a sense of collective identity. The third dimension, spatiality, fleshes out the role of the devotional spaces as arenas for commemorating the venerated shaykh and manifesting the beliefs and traditions that hold the homeland communities together. The form and location of the mosque established by his descendants in Cambridge and its use as a public devotional space and an Islamic learning centre allow us to see how the saint’s memory is inscribed, his spiritual tradition perpetuated and disseminated as an integral part of Islamic religiosity in a Western environment.