Kings and dervishes : Sufi world renunciation and the symbolism of kingship in the Persianate world / Saïd Amir Arjomand.

Author/creator Arjomand, Said Amir author.
Format Book
PublicationOakland, California : University of California Press, [2025]
Copyright Date©2025
Description309 pages ; 24 cm
Subjects

Contents Introduction -- The emergence and development of Persianate Sufism in the Greater Khorasan -- Persianate Sufism from ascetic world renunciation to divine love -- The development of Persianate Sufism in Iran, Seljuq Rum Kingdom and Northern India -- Persianate kingship, its philosophical recasting and symbolic contestation -- Sufi love mysticism and its antinomian and gnostic turns in Anatolia -- Emergence of the Sufi orders in Iran and the age of Sufi sainthood -- Persianate kingship in the Turko-Mongolian empires and the political ethic of world-accommodating Sufism -- The Fotovvat movement and symbolic popular contestation of Turko-Mongolian domination -- Urban confraternities and cultural democratization in the Age of Hāfez -- Sufi sainthood and world-accommodation in the Timurid age -- Origins and development of counter-millenial sovereignty in Safavid Iran -- Conclusions.
Abstract "Saïd Amir Arjomand's Kings and Dervishes is a pioneering study of the emergence and development of Sufism during the formation of the Persianate world. While the Sufi doctrine was expressed in the New Persian language, its social organization was detached from the civic movement among the urban craftsmen and artisans known as the fotovva(t) and politically shaped by multiple forces--first by the revival of Persian kingship, and then by the coming of the Turko-Mongolian empires. The intermingling of Sufism's developmental path with the transformation of the Persianate political regimes resulted in the progressive appropriation of royal symbols by the Sufi shaykhs. The original Sufi world-renunciation gave way first to world-accommodation and the medieval love mysticism of Jalāl al-Din Rumi and Hāfez of Shiraz, and then to world-domination. This comprehensive work of historical sociology traces these spiritual and political evolutions over the course of some six centuries, showing how the Sufi saints' symbolic sovereignty was eventually made real in the imperial kingship of the Persianate world's early modern empires"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in other formOnline version: Arjomand, Saïd Amir. Kings and dervishes Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2024] 9780520401693
LCCN 2024029766
ISBN9780520401686
ISBN0520401689 hardcover
ISBNelectronic book

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