Spiritual Practice and Corporate Identity in Medieval Sufi Communities of Iran, Central Asia, and India: The Khalvatī/'Ishqī/Shaṭṭārī Continuum

Abstract

The problem of the corporate identities of medieval Sufi communities in the eastern Islamic world, from the Mongol conquest through the Timurid era, is a central issue for understanding the emergence of important Sufi ‘orders’ that dominated Sufi thought and organization in subsequent times. As such, this problem is of significance for the history of Sufism in general, and for the social history of the Muslim world since the 15th century, but the problem has not received sufficient attention.