"The continued vitality of Sufism as a living embodied postcolonial reality

The continued vitality of Sufism as a living embodied postcolonial reality challenges the argument that Sufism has 'died' in recent times. Throughout India and Bangladesh, Sufi shrines exist in both the rural and urban areas, from the remotest wilderness to the modern Asian city, lying opposite banks and skyscrapers.

This book illuminates the remarkable resilience of South Asian Sufi saints and their cults in the face of radical economic and political dislocations and breaks new ground in current research. It addresses the most recent debates on the encounter between Islam and modernity and presents important new comparative ethnographic material.

Embodying Charisma re-examines some basic concepts in the sociology and anthropology of religion and the organization of religious movements.

Basu, Helene  and Pnina Werbner, eds., Embodying Charisma: Modernity, Locality and the Performance of Emotion in Sufi Cults. (New York and London: Routledge, 1998).

[Going to try to link to worldcat instead of amazon from now on, God willing! #money matters #use a library :)]

Medieval Muslims treated Greek philosophy

Medieval Muslims treated Greek philosophy rather as modern theologians treat modern secular philosophy. They recoiled at some of its conclusions, and enriched their thought-worlds by constructing imaginative refutations, but they displayed an abiding fascination with its mindset and its methods.

-Tim Winter, Cambridge Companion, p. 14