Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria

This article aims to analyze Sufism as a religious framework for social action in contemporary Syria. Sufism in Syria has been on the rise during the last two decades, in response to a growing demand for Islamic forms of personal piety. The focus of the Sufi tradition on the moral reform of the indi...

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Main Author: Paulo G. Pinto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université de Provence 2006-12-01
Series:Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/3026
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author Paulo G. Pinto
author_facet Paulo G. Pinto
author_sort Paulo G. Pinto
collection DOAJ
description This article aims to analyze Sufism as a religious framework for social action in contemporary Syria. Sufism in Syria has been on the rise during the last two decades, in response to a growing demand for Islamic forms of personal piety. The focus of the Sufi tradition on the moral reform of the individual and on the reconfiguration of the self according to religious principles generates religiously informed social agents. The expression of Sufi identities in the public sphere is done through various forms of moral performance, i.e. the enactment of embodied religious principles as the framework for social practices. This continuous mobilization by the Sufis of embodied religious principles has the effect of inscribing them in the processes that shape and constitute the Syrian public sphere. The ethnographic data analyzed here was collected during my fieldwork among Sufi communities in Aleppo and the Kurd Dagh between 1999 and 2001 and again in May 2002.
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spelling doaj.art-1f70dabe39054b64bcf19f63febe42732024-02-13T15:20:12ZengUniversité de ProvenceRevue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée0997-13272105-22712006-12-0111515517110.4000/remmm.3026Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in SyriaPaulo G. PintoThis article aims to analyze Sufism as a religious framework for social action in contemporary Syria. Sufism in Syria has been on the rise during the last two decades, in response to a growing demand for Islamic forms of personal piety. The focus of the Sufi tradition on the moral reform of the individual and on the reconfiguration of the self according to religious principles generates religiously informed social agents. The expression of Sufi identities in the public sphere is done through various forms of moral performance, i.e. the enactment of embodied religious principles as the framework for social practices. This continuous mobilization by the Sufis of embodied religious principles has the effect of inscribing them in the processes that shape and constitute the Syrian public sphere. The ethnographic data analyzed here was collected during my fieldwork among Sufi communities in Aleppo and the Kurd Dagh between 1999 and 2001 and again in May 2002.https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/3026
spellingShingle Paulo G. Pinto
Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria
Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
title Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria
title_full Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria
title_fullStr Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria
title_full_unstemmed Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria
title_short Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria
title_sort sufism moral performance and the public sphere in syria
url https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/3026
work_keys_str_mv AT paulogpinto sufismmoralperformanceandthepublicsphereinsyria