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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Sufism and the rural and urban reality of Argobba mysticism
Author:Kifleyesus, AbebeISNI
Year:1995
Periodical:Islam et sociétés au Sud du Sahara
Issue:9
Pages:27-46
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:Sufism
Argobba
Abstract:Recent interpretations of differences between rural and conurban Muslims presume a dichotomy between the literate, legalistic conurban style of religiosity and the mystical style of rural illiterate Muslims. However, these interpretations seem to ignore the importance of Sufism, which presents a synthesis between intellectual learning and mysticism and which should not be relegated to the realm of an illiterate folk tradition separate from the literate legacy of Islamic urban polity. This article examines the tradition of rural and conurban mysticism of the Argobba Muslims of Ethiopia, and notably addresses the question of why Argobba Sufism failed to accommodate to processes of change in regional economic patterns in the 1970s and 1980s. In the stable social world of the Argobba heartland villages, the Sufi capacity to link legalism and mysticism provided a framework for both the spiritual and social leadership of the Sufi sheiks. However, as a result of demographic and economic processes which led to the migration of large parts of the population towards the town and the development of commercial activities, the social function of Sufism disintegrated. As social differentiation increased, the Sufi sheiks lost functions which were once reserved for them and their special role as mediator between the human and the divine was deemphasized. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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