Sufism

A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations

Edited by Deepshikha Shahi

Publication date:

22 June 2020

Length of book:

248 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781786613851

In an effort to attain a ‘global’ character, the contemporary academic discipline of International Relations (IR) increasingly seeks to surpass its Eurocentric limits, thereby opening up pathways to incorporate non-Eurocentric worldviews. Lately, many of the non-Eurocentric worldviews have emerged which either engender a ‘derivative’ discourse of the same Eurocentric IR theories, or construct an ‘exceptionalist’ discourse which is particularly applicable to the narrow experiential realities of a native time-space zone: as such, they fall short of the ambition to produce a genuinely ‘non-derivative’ and ‘non-exceptionalist’ Global IR theory.

Against this backdrop, Sufism: A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations performs a multidisciplinary research to explore how ‘Sufism’ – as an established non-Western philosophy with a remarkable temporal-spatial spread across the globe – facilitates a creative intervention in the theoretical understanding of Global IR.

Introduction

1. The Entry of Sufism into Global IR: A Move Beyond the State-of-the-Art, Deepshikha Shahi

Part I: Sufism and Global IR

2. Al-Ghazālī, Ibn al-Arabī and Global IR: A Sufi Re-reading of Knowledge-Power Nexus, Ali Balci

3. Rūmī and Global IR: A Sufi Review of Epistemology, Ontology and Methodology, Deepshikha Shahi

Part II: Debating Sufi ‘Oneness of Reality’: Insights from the Non-Western Worlds

4. The Potentials of the Sufi Idea of ‘Oneness of Reality’ in Global IR, Fait Muedini

5. Sufism and the Preservation of Syrian Spiritual Identity, Omar Imady

6. The Limits of the Sufi Idea of ‘Oneness of Reality’ in Global IR, Giuseppe Cecere

7. The Sufi Rhetoric in Contemporary Turkey: Find Peace in My Hegemony! Ayse Cavdar

8. ‘Textual-Contextual Tension’ in the Sufi Study of Global IR: Learning from Sudan, Meir Hatina

Part III: Analysing Manifestations of Sufism: Encounters with the Western Worlds

9. The American Discourse on Sufism: On the Resilience of Mystical Islam, Elena Furlanetto and Deepshikha Shahi

10. The European Discourse on Sufism: On the Appeal of Moderate Islam, James Ferguson

Part IV: Revisiting Sufism as a Global IR Theory

11. The Sufi Gobal IR Theory: Promises and Perplexities, Deepshikha Shahi

Index

Sufism: A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations is a valuable and timely contribution to the increasing interest in non-Western traditions of thought. It will be of interest to IR theorists as well as scholars in other disciplines who are interested in non-Western traditions of thought and is sure to motivate further research in IR that is inspired by Sufism.