Post-Socialist Sufi Revival in Albania

Abstract

Abstract This work analyses the case of Sufi revival in post-socialist Albania, where the religious field has been fragmented by the competing actions of different actors (local, regional and foreign) and by the critical and individualised religiosity of the faithful. Sufi public life is substantially marginalised by the monopoly of the esoteric Baktashis and Sunni political strategies. Thus, many Sufi faithful prefer to live their religious experience and express their practice in inner, private and virtual spaces. This dynamics has transformed the Sufi path and the charismatic authority of the Shaykhs.