Sufism of the Middle Asia Turks during the Karakhanid period (XI–XIIth centuries): the main features and representatives

Abstract

This article covers the main schools, trends and representatives of the mass ascetic and mystical Islamic doctrine — Sufi sm, in the Middle Asia of the 11–12th centuries. During the period in question, when the very fi rst Turkic Sufi scholars (Khoja Ahmat Yasawi (died in 1166), his predecessors and followers) lived and preached, the Islamic Mysticism, developing as the doctrine of the spiritual intercourse and the reunion with the Singular God (this way conserving the monotheistic nature) turned into “the mass Islamic religion” (J. S. Trimingham). Many of the Islamic mysticism representatives had been working as the Islamic missionaries amongst Turkic nomads. In general they were the Junaid al-Baghdadi’s (died in 910) “moderate” school followers and, strictly observing the Sharī‘ah laws, aimed at the conciliation of the Sufi sm and the normative Islam. In the Middle Asia of the 12th century the school — and in the future The Yasawi Order (fellowship) — was formed as the first purely Turkic trend of the Islamic Mysticism.

Keywords:

The Middle Asia Sufism, Islamic Mysticism, Sufi schools, Sufi Orders (fellowships), “moderate” Sufism, asceticism, normative Islam, Sharī‘ah