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This paper explores Indian Sufi influences in Shye Ben Tzur's music. Ben Tzur is a Jewish Israeli musician who composes Sufi poetry in Hebrew and plays it to qawwālī music, the traditional North Indian Sufi music. Ben Tzur's songs are devotional and there are many Sufi references that invoke Islamic terminology. His music has been reviewed in numerous newspapers and his Jewish identity, coupled with Sufi themes, evokes questions regarding religious belonging. Even though Ben Tzur openly discusses Sufi influences, his music has remained uncontroversial. This article interprets this as a sign that the symbolic repertoire of Ben Tzur's music evokes associations with India and not with Islam and more specifically with India as a spiritual rather than religious space. The image of India as a spiritual land manages to subsume references to Islam and render them part of the "mystical East" allowing Ben Tzur's audience to consume Muslim themes outside Middle Eastern politics. ; Dieser Aufsatz fragt nach Einflüssen des indischen Sufismus auf die Musik von Shye Ben Tzur. Ben Tzur ist ein jüdischer Israeli, der auf Hebräisch sufistische Poesie schreibt, welche er zu qawwālī Musik, der traditionellen nordindischen Sufi-Musik spielt. Ben Tzurs Lieder haben devotionalen Charakter und spielen mit sufistischen Referenzen und islamischen Konzepten. Obschon die sufistischen Elemente in Ben Tzurs Musik deutlich sind, hat seine Musik zu keinen Kontroversen geführt. Dieser Aufsatz interpretiert diesen Umstand als ein Zeichen dafür, dass Ben Tzurs Musik nicht in erster Linie mit dem Islam, sondern mit Indien, und zwar mit Indien als einem spirituellen Land assoziiert wird. Das Bild des mystischen Indiens schließt dabei islamische Referenzen ein. Diese Spiritualisierung der Musik Ben Tzurs hat einen entpolitisierenden Effekt auf die Musik und ermöglicht damit einer jüdisch-israelischen Zuhörerschaft den Kontakt mit dem Islam außerhalb des Nahost-Konfliktes.

Sufism, the mystical or aesthetic doctrine in Islam, has occupied a very specific place in the Islamic tradition, with its own history, literature and devotional practices. Its development began in the seventh century and spread throughout the Islamic world. 'The Cambridge companion to Sufism' traces its evolution from the formative period to the present, addressing specific themes along the way within the context of the times. In a section discussing the early period, the devotional practices of the earliest Sufis are considered. The section on the medieval period, when Sufism was at its height, examines Sufi doctrines, different forms of mysticism and the antinomian expressions of Sufism. The section on the modern period explains the controversies that surrounded Sufism, the changes that took place in the colonial period and how Sufism transformed into a transnational movement in the twentieth century. This inimitable volume sheds light on a multifaceted and alternative aspect of Islamic history and religion

Today there is a substantial and rapidly growing Muslim population in Europe and North America. Here, as elsewhere, many of the Muslims are Sufis. This book focuses mainly on issues of inculturation or contextualisation of Sufism in the West.

Résumé Le soufisme est un courant mystique de l'islam, une voie spirituelle basée sur l'élévation de l'esprit et de l'âme et la recherche de la purification du cœur. Il a joué un rôle prépondérant dans la propagation de l'islam en Afrique subsaharienne, dont le Mali. Sa résistance au colonialisme, armée puis pacifique, le crédite pour jouer un rôle politique et social dans le Mali indépendant, bien que parfois contre le développement des mœurs sociales. L'objectif de cet article est de montrer la centralité du soufisme dans la propagation de l'islam dans le Mali précolonial, sans avoir eu nécessairement recours au « djihad ». La problématique de cette recherche s'articule autour de la rapidité et l'assertivité avec laquelle les Maliens ont adopté l'islam populaire. Nous émettons l'hypothèse que c'est d'abord la simplicité de la foi musulmane prônée par le soufisme par rapport à l'islam institutionnel et scripturaire qui en est la cause principale. Nous postulons ensuite que c'est également la forte ressemblance entre l'organisation hiérarchique des zaouias soufies et l'organisation hiérarchique païenne qui existaient au Mali qui ont affirmé la place de l'islam populaire dans les mœurs maliennes. Mots clés : Mali, soufisme, colonisation, indépendance, laïcité, charia. Abstract Sufism is a mystical current of Islam, a spiritual path based on the upliftment of mind and soul and the pursuit of purification of the heart. It played a major role in the spread of Islam in subSaharan Africa, including Mali. Its resistance to colonialism, armed at first then peaceful, gives it credit for playing a social and political role in independent Mali, although sometimes going against the development of social mores. The aim of this article is to show the centrality of Sufism in the propagation of Islam in precolonial Mali, without necessarily resorting to "djihad". The problematic of this research revolves around the speed and assertiveness with which Malians adopted popular Islam. We hypothesize that it is mainly due to the ...

Sufism has evolved from time to time and from society to another by presenting itself in various forms and ways. By virtue of its tenets, Sufism has influenced many societies and different cultures. Sufis have played a significant role in their respective societies as religious mentors or else as political advisors. Many of them have otherwise stood in opposition to the political authority and proposed a better way of running the society. Across history, Sufism has shown itself as a dynamic and innovative social and religious force. In the final analysis, Sufism cannot be ignored as the major contributor to the structure of Islamic civilization. In the meantime, the social and religious malaises that we witness in modern time have called Sufism into play. Modernism has produced an unbalanced life, triggering the absolutistic way of life where a man is aware only of his physical dimension and ignoring his spiritual inner being. Here, Sufism can play its important role. The modern intellectual paradigm that puts more emphasis on empiricism and rationalism and produces as a result the positivistic mode of thinking has paved the way for Sufism to occur and recur as the dominant player in the domain of man-personality building. This paper is concerned with this issue and other related problems. Putting in mind that Sufism has its social dimension the paper believes that it has something to offer for modern men living in time of great uncertainty.