A Confronting of the Gaze: A Study of the Shadhiliyya Yashrutiyya Sufi Order, and its Communities in Amman, Jordan and Calgary, Canada

This study focuses on the history, teachings and culture of the Shadhiliyya Yashrutiyya Sufi order whose roots in North Africa emerge in mid-19th century Palestine with the arrival of its founder, Shaykh Ali Nur al-Din al-Yashruti. To this end, this thesis constructs the biographies of the founder of this Sufi order, as well as the successive shaykhs that followed him, all of whom were the eldest son of the preceding shaykh – Shaykh Ibrahim al-Yashruti, Shaykh Muhammad al-Hadi al-Yashruti, and Shaykh Ahmad al-Yashruti, respectively – as well as the life of Shaykh Ali Nur al-Din’s daughter, Sayyidah Fatima al Yashrutiyya. Through these biographies, four elements that characterise this Sufi order’s teachings and culture become prevalent, and address the focus of this thesis; these four elements include an affinity towards: evolving with the currents of society, open mindedness, attainments of worldly and spiritual knowledge, and finally, encouraging women to fulfil both their worldly and spiritual potentials. Using the characteristics of this Sufi order’s teachings and culture as a point of reference, two case studies are presented which seek to understand how significantly contrasting sociocultural environments impacted the formation of transregional communities belonging to this Sufi order, which include the Amman, Jordan community of the Shadhiliyya Yashrutiyya Sufi order, and its Calgary, Canada community, both of which formed in the mid-20th century. These case studies exemplify the significance of language in relation to one’s access to written accumulations of Sufi heritages and knowledge. While valuable contributions to knowledge have been published addressing various facets of this Sufi order, a review of existing literature shows that scholarship has largely failed to, or made ineffective use of primary sources which has led to a propagation of inaccurate and or incomplete information pertaining to this Sufi order. Through the use of the Indigenous approach, which is inexorably linked to decolonisation, this thesis privileges insider primary sources to achieve its stated aims, and in doing so, will provide a discourse allowing greater contextualisation of previous research on the Shadhiliyya Yashrutiyya Sufi order, as well as provide a source for further research to take place.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Ali Fares (21037763)

• Islamic Studies
• Religious Studies
• Sufi Studies
• Sufism
• Islamic mysticism
• Contemporary Sufism
• Shadhiliyya Yashrutiyya
• Shadhiliyya Yashrutiyya Sufi Order
• Yashrutiyya
• Shadhiliyya
• Tariqa
• Yashruti Path
• Transregional Sufism
• Transnational Sufism
• Global Sufism
• Lived religion
• Vernacular religion
• Sufi community formation
• Ottoman Palestine
• Palestinian Sufism
• Sufism in Palestine
• Sufism in Jordan
• Sufism in Canada
• Sufism in North America
• Muslim diaspora
• Migration and Sufism
• East African Sufi networks
• Comoros Islands
• Sufism in Brazil
• Ali Nur al-Din al-Yashruti
• Fatima al-Yashrutiyya
• Ibrahim Nur al-Din al-Yashruti
• Muhammad al-Hadi al-Yashruti
• Ahmad al-Yashruti
• Ali al-Yashruti
• El Hadi El Yashruti
• Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili
• Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi
• Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Hamza Zafir al-Madani
• Ibn Arabi
• Abd al-Karim al-Jili
• Muhammadan Light
• Josef van Ess
• Mary Ajami
• Ibtihaj Qaddoura
• Anbara Salam Khalidi
• Women in Sufism
• Female religious authority
• Female authorship
• Female sainthood
• Muslim women’s authority
• Ethnography
• Fieldwork
• Multi-sited fieldwork
• Case study methodology
• Insider/outsider debate
• Indigenous approach
• Indigenous methodology
• Decoloniality
• Decolonisation
• Decolonising Islamic Studies
• Colonial gaze
• Reflexivity
• Ethics of representation
• Zawiya

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Identifier

10779/exe.32400183.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32400183