This is a rare outsider's glimpse into one of Egypt's most influential Sufi orders. Founded in the sixteenth century, the Demirdashiya Sufi order in Cairo has played an influential role in Egypt's public life, and through a line of family sheikhs has channeled the impulses of its Sufi origins into different types of reform. Practicing a visionary form of piety, the Demirdashiya - once legendary for its wealth and secrecy - continues to influence a small but important segment of contemporary Cairo's inhabitants. In this ...
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This is a rare outsider's glimpse into one of Egypt's most influential Sufi orders. Founded in the sixteenth century, the Demirdashiya Sufi order in Cairo has played an influential role in Egypt's public life, and through a line of family sheikhs has channeled the impulses of its Sufi origins into different types of reform. Practicing a visionary form of piety, the Demirdashiya - once legendary for its wealth and secrecy - continues to influence a small but important segment of contemporary Cairo's inhabitants. In this fascinating study, scholar Earle S. Waugh highlights the Demirdashiya's sophisticated and complex relationship with both politics and Islamic culture. As part of his research, Waugh attended the order's liturgies - the dhikrs (remembrance) and khalwa (retreat) - normally closed to outsiders. During an annual khalwa, the adept silently meditates for three days in his own cell. More than giving up human discourse, the mandated silence is a re-ordering of sensitivities to the divine, and a path to insight into the many ways that God conveys Himself to humans. Examining the role of the Demirdashiya in Egypt's history as well as its visionary piety, "Visionaries of Silence" explores the dialectic between reform and vision in a stable Sufi order. It also probes how these competing ideals were incorporated into the physical world of the zawiya, mosque, and living quarters, and the extension of its influence in Europe through its most famous daughter, Qut al-Qulub, noted visionary author and mother of the order's current sheikh.
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Add this copy of Visionaries of Silence: the Reformist Sufi Order of the to cart. $83.00, very good condition, Sold by Expatriate Bookshop rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Svendborg, DENMARK, published 2008 by American University in Cairo.
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4pp photoplates. Minor rubbing. VG., dustwrapper. 24x15cm, x, 203, (4) pp. Contents: History & Religious Backround of the Demirdashiya; The Khalwatiya & Social & Political Institutions; Reform through the Liturgical & Religious Life of the Tariqwa; A Dermidash Reformist Writer: Qut al-Qulub in Cairo & Europe; Constructing a Place for SIlence: Architecture & the Khalwatiya Sense of Religious Space; Amid the Storm: The Return of Shaikh Ahmad al-Dermidash & the Reformist Evolution; Glossary; Appendices.
Add this copy of Visionaries of Silence: the Reformist Sufi Order of the to cart. $43.94, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by American University in Cairo Press.
Add this copy of Visionaries of Silence: the Reformist Sufi Order of the to cart. $83.04, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by The American University in Cai.
