Sunni Islamists: From Syria to the Umma, and Back

International audienceContrary to a widespread belief, Arab nationalism did not emerge in Syria as a purely secular ideology, considering that proto-Islamists played a key role in popularizing it from the late Ottoman era onward. This emphasis on Syria’s Arabness was perpetuated after independence by the Muslim Brotherhood: first, out of a quest for relevance in the country’s parliamentary system, notably after Nasser’s popularity grew among the conservative opinion; second, because after it was banned by the Baathist regime in 1963, the Brotherhood considered that returning to Syrian politics required to remain in tune with Arab nationalist ideas, despite the fact that the latter were increasingly vilified by conservative ulama and Islamist militants in the name of Pan-Islamic unity. The 2011 revolution and ensuing conflict had ambivalent consequences in that respect: On the one hand, alignment with the popular uprising encouraged a focus on Syrianhood as opposed to transnational identities, not only on the part of the Brotherhood, but also among hardliners like Ahrar al-Sham and, more ambiguously, the formerly al-Qaeda affiliated Hay’aTahrir al-Sham; on the other hand, the Islamic State’s unrepentant Pan-Islamists seized the new opportunity structure to proclaim the restoration of the Caliphate

Sufism

While the term\u201cSufism\u201d has long been used within the academic literature to define themystic dimension of Islam, later works have questioned the orientalizing tendencies ofsuch a definition and have shown the deep interconnectedness of the phenomenon withsocial and political change in modern times. After an overviewof the history of the termand how it has been employed in seminal sociological and anthropological scholarship,the entry illustrates how a new body of literature has explored the interconnectednessbetween Sufism and modernity from different perspectives. It mainly explains Sufism\u2019sresilience as a result of the flexibility of its foundational pedagogical and intersubjectivepatterns. Moreover, it highlights this particular tradition\u2019s capacity for recreatingconnectivity at a translocal level, as well as for offering replies to questions that, thoughframed partly in new ways, address long-standing human problems

Sufismo e confraternite nell'islam contemporaneo. Il difficile equilibrio tra mistica e politica

Il volume presenta un’analisi approfondita del vasto mondo del sufismo- l’espressione mistica dell’islam -e delle confraternite che ad esso si ispirano, diffuse in tutto il mondo musulmano, per valutare in che misura tale fenomeno socio-religioso svolga oggi un ruolo efficace in tal senso.- Indice #9- Introduzione, Marietta Stepanyants #11- La nascita e lo sviluppo del sufismo nell’islam, Alberto Ventura #19- L’amore come Via alla Verità nella tradizione sufi, William C. Chittick #29- Il concetto di “essere” nel sufismo: quale spazio per una tolleranza universale? Il problema della diversità religiosa, Andrey Smirnov #43- Il sufismo e le confraternite in Senegai, Adriana Piga #65- Il ruolo del sufismo e delle confraternite musulmane nell’India contemporanea, Marc Gaborieau #87- Sufismo e confraternite nell’area siriana: strategie religiose e implicazioni politiche, Itzchak Weismann #119- Sufismo e confraternite in Turchia nel secolo XX, Thierry Zarcone #139- Vitalità e influenza delle confraternite e del sufismo nella regione del Caucaso, Alikber K. Alikberov #177- Le confraternite sufi nella regione balcanica, Alexandre Popovic #197- Spazi di dialogo tra sufismo e cristianesimo: una prospettiva cristiana, Giuseppe Scattolin #225- Il contributo del sufismo al dialogo interreligioso: una prospettiva musulmana, Kenan Gürsoy #269- Sufismo e hinduismo: reciproche influenze nella storia e prospettive di convergenza culturale, Mohammad Rafique #281- Sufismo e neoconfucianesimo, Sachiko Murata #301- Il sufismo nel mondo musulmano contemporaneo: la “divulgazione del segreto”, Carl W. Ernst #317- Il sufismo nel contesto delle dinamiche politiche contemporanee, Marietta Stepanyants #341- Bibliografia generale #35