Uncertain futures: Memory, performance and temporality among Syrian Sufis

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyzes how two Sufi communities in Aleppo which were deeply impacted by revolution and war in Syria were able to recreate themselves in new contexts, producing new temporalities and orientations towards the future in this process. The members of the Zawiya al-Hilaliyya used their ritual performances to recreate continuity between past and present, and to restore their capacity to anticipate to the future. The members of the Zawiya of shaykh Aminu who were scattered in exile across different countries had in the dreams and visions of their deceased shaykh a mythical temporality in which an unlikely future of return to Aleppo could be experienced in an oneiric present. The mobilizations of memory by the members of these communities create specific temporalities in which are conjured futures that are imagined, hoped and anticipated both for them and for Syria.