Eric Geoffroy

A “Clash of Civilizations” ? The influence of Sufism in Europe

Conference at Columbia University


The middle ages
While the scientific, philosophical and theological contribution of Islamic civilization to medieval Europe is an established fact and enjoys relative recognition among Westerners, the influence of Sufism and Islamic spirituality in general, on the European continent is not acknowledged. We have some evidence in this field, but also a great deal of conjectures as for the way in which the transmission between the Orient and the West took place. This is mainly due to the fact that Sufism is a subtle science, an esoteric discipline that has often been kept secret (sirr, in Arabic). Let us take the example of Ibn Sab`în (13th century), who spent most of his life in Ceuta – a Spanish enclave in the north of Morocco. As a philosopher and a logician, he is known for having answered the “Sicilian Questions” of Frederic II of Hohenstaufen, the Germanic emperor and king of Sicily, who was prey to metaphysical concerns and sought solutions in Islamic thought. However, he was also a Sufi and an important spiritual master, even more daring than Ibn ‘Arabî concerning the Sufi doctrine of the "Unicity of being " (wahdat al-wujûd), that he called "absolute Unicity" (al-wahda al-mutlaqa).
It is necessary to point out that, unlike their Christian counterparts, who focused on Arabic-Islamic philosophy and theology, the Medieval Jewish authors showed great interest in Sufism. Notably, upon exploitation of the documents of the Cairo Geniza, researchers determined the considerable impact that Sufis like Hallâj, Ghazâlî or Suhrawardî may have had on the Medieval Jewish mysticism. The spiritual Jews, Spanish but also Syro-Egyptian, published and translated genuine Sufi treaties written in the Judeo-Arabic language, transposing the Islamic practice of the dhikr (invocation of the Names of God), or adopting the Sufi doctrines of the Perfect Man (al-insân al-kâmil) [1]. Their works reached the South of France, but the Islamic mark on them gradually diminished. We will study the role that the Jewish mysticism played in the transmission of Sufi themes to Christendom.
However, there has been direct, although discreet, contact between the spirituality of Islam and that of Medieval Christian Europe. The principal meeting points between the Islamic and Christian traditions in medieval times were the Middle East of the crusades, Sicily and the South of Italy and, of course, Muslim Spain. It is however necessary to distinguish between the Arab occult sciences and Sufism : even if they have tie bonds, they cannot be assimilated. The impregnation by Europe of occult sciences such as alchemy is not subject to doubt : this is proven by the English Roger Bacon, the Swiss Paracelse and others. Let us recall that the term ‘alchemy’ itself comes from Arabic al-kimyiâ and that several other sciences as the algebra owe also their name to the Muslim scientists.
In the proper field of Sufism, the evidence is less tangible. Let us first examine the aspects that do not pose a problem. We know from reliable sources that the "Golden Legend" of Râbi‘a ‘Adawiyya, one of the most prominent female saints of Islam, who lived in Iraq in the 8th century, reached the court of king Louis IX of France - or Saint Louis -, in the 13th century. So the sanctity of this Muslim Sufi woman touched the heart of Christendom. In the same way, it is now known that the Divine Comedy of the Italian Dante (died. in 1321) is significantly indebted to the Book of Muhammad’s Ladder, which disseminated a popular version of the account of the Ascension of the Prophet (Mi‘râj) in medieval Italy. It is more hypothetical, on the other hand, that the great Andalusian Sufi Ibn ‘Arabî inspired Dante, as has often been asserted.
Several European authors, including René Guénon, claim that the Christian initiatory organizations were inspired by Sufism. Various indicators show that this was the case of the Templers, this order of knights that was founded in Jerusalem in 1119. Their inspiration by Sufism and Islam in general is discrete but evident. They even were accused, during their trial by king Philippe Le Bel of France at the beginning of 14th century, of adoring an idol, Bafomet, which would have stood for Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. It was undoubtedly only a political pretext, but it shows the remote reminiscence of an initiatory Sufi ritual that I cannot develop here. As for Saint Francis of Assisi, he would have initially gone to Morocco before traveling to Egypt to meet the sultan of the Muslims in order to suggest his conversion to Christianity. But finally it was Saint Francis and the order of the Franciscans which he founded that bear the mark of Sufism rather than the contrary ! This merdicant order would have embraced, in its attitudes and clothing, the ethics of "spiritual poverty" (faqr), so essential in Sufism. What is there to say about the legend of the Grail, such as it appears in Parzival by Wolfran von Eschenbach, a text written at the time of the fourth crusade, and thus of the prolonged contact with the Muslim East ? Scattered elements, but whose recurrence is significant, testify to an Eastern initiatory source – Sufi but also mazdean.
This confirms, at the very least, that the Islamic and Christian esoteric organizations were in contact, but in a generally informal way. According to some scholars, the first would have even helped the latter, after the destruction of the order of the Temple in 1314, to maintain a living initiatory transmission. Such would have been the case, for example, of the Rosicrucian brotherhood, heirs to Templers, and one understands better why Christian Rosenkreutz (15th century), who is given credit for having founded this brotherhood, would have accomplished several trips in lands of Islam [2]. The Rosicrucian AMORC Order is a modern resurgence of the old European school ; it was stimulated in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century. At the time of their prolonged contacts in medieval times and in particular in the period of the crusades, Moslems and Christians did not only make wars ; they even formed alliances against their own respective co-religionists. In this medieval world where well-read Europeans spoke Arabic and attended the school of Arabic-Islamic sciences, it is logical that Muslim and Christian spiritualities coexisted.
Moreover, people who passed on the influence of Sufism are duly identified. The Catalan Raimon Lulle (from the 14th Century), who mastered Arabic and wrote books in this language, knew Sufism well, and was undoubtedly inspired by Ibn ‘Arabî [3]. He is likely to have attended the Sufi circles in the Balearic Islands, where he lived, or during his trips to the Maghreb (he is known to have visited Tunis). Before we leave the Orient, let us evoke the quasi symbiosis which existed, towards the 15th century, between the dervishes of Anatolia and the Balkans on the one hand, and the Greek monks on the other. According to some sources, it was sometimes impossible to distinguish between a Sufi and a monk, the exchanges being so fertile. These dervishes were mainly Bektachis, known for their openness on Christianity, and accused by certain Moslems of syncretism. They have this beautiful saying : "A saint is for everyone".
The true question about a plausible influence of Sufism on the Christian mysticism concerns Spain. This hypothesis is still largely the subject of debates, because it highlights the two great Iberian saints of the 16th century, or "Golden Century" : Theresa of Avila and John of the Crew, symbols of Catholic Spain triumphing over Islam. In the 1930’s, a Spanish priest noticed striking similarities between North African Sufi spirituality and that of the two saints and their disciples, the Carmelites. Mystical themes such as the obscure Night, the seven concentric castles of the heart, or intoxication as a symbol of the abandonment to God, (present both in Saint Theresa and in Saint John) betrayed the influence of Sufism. Subsequent research showed that this heritage, which, in the eyes of the priest Asin Palacios, came through the Hispano-North-African Sufi path of Shâdhilis (13th - 15th centuries), in fact goes back to an earlier substratum of Sufism. It should be noted that the contemporary order of the Carmelite friars globally seems to validate this historical legacy : I arrived at this conclusion in a conference of compared mysticism, organized by European Carmelite friars, in which I took part.
The problem is knowing how Saint Theresa of Avila and Saint John of the Crew had access to this Sufi theme. Rather than invoking the transmission by the “Moriscos”, these ex-moslems of Spain forced to convert to Catholicism, or the Arabic translations into Roman languages, translations of which we have no trace, it appears that our attention should be turned towards Spanish Jews. Many Jews had also converted to Islam, and Saint Theresa as well as Saint John were themselves of Jewish descent. The Sufi lineage of their doctrines would have been transmitted to them by these Spanish Jews who had been open to Sufism for centuries. Today this conclusion remains the more likely hypothesis. It is worth noting as well that certain European authors such as the Spanish Ignace de Loyola, “The spiritual Exercises” who founded the Jesuit society in the 16th century, bare himself the mark of Sufism.

Modern times
Sufism began to be highly regarded in European Orientalism in the 19th century. Studies and translations carried out by scientists and scholars have contributed to a greater knowledge of Sufism in Europe and thus the spreading of its practice. Though some Muslims criticize the European orientalists – often without discernment – there is evidence that firstly these orientalists knew the Islamic tradition better than these Muslims, and secondly that they were most likely not ill-intentioned. Famous scholars are to be found in the studies of Sufism, and those who had charismatic personalities involved themselves in spiritual quests, in Christianity or in Islam, or rather at the meeting-point between these two religions. This was the case for Annemarie Schimmel in Germany and, in France, for Louis Massignon, Henry Corbin, Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch and Michel Chodkiewicz. You won’t find such personal implication from scholars in the other fields of Islamic study. Many people in Europe, whether of European or Arabic origin, are still closely guided by the studies and the translations of these prominent academics and their current successors : we now have access to most major works of the universal Sufi legacy, in both French and English.
Islamic mysticism was thus no longer unknown to certain European intellectual or artistic elites. Other factors, however, contributed to its emergence in the West in the 20th Century, such as colonialism that has perhaps largely precipitated the meeting between Islam and the West, in an atmosphere often oscillating between fascination and repulsion. During the colonial period, Westerners fleeing mechanical civilization and the ideology of progress began to adhere to what was called the "mysticism of the desert". Deploring the secularization of Christianity, and its reduction to religious ethics that were well adapted to European imperialism, some sought metaphysical revival in Sufism. This was the case of the writer Isabelle Eberhardt and the Orientalist painter Etienne Dinet, who had found new sources in North African Sufism. But there were other Europeans in spiritual quest connected to the Sanûsis Libyan order, and perhaps in the entourage of the Algerian emir Abd El-Kader. Previously unpublished documents recently showed that the emir, at the time of his detention in France between 1847 and 1852, exerted great charisma by virtue of his holy spiritual humanism, and that he fascinated even the Christian monks who expressed their wishes to follow him into exile in Turkey, then Syria.
As a result of the spread of European colonialism there was a wave of Asian and African immigration in Europe, and from the 1920’s Sufism appeared in Europe. One of the first Sufi orders to emerge in Europe in that period was the Morroccan-algerian ‘Alâwiyya order initiated by the shaykh Ahmad al-’Alâwî (who died in 1934). Driven by the universalist spirit of the founder, his disciples became pioneers by quickly adapting themselves to the European context while ensuring, at the same time, a spiritual support to the immigrant workers. Shaykh ‘Alâwî himself visited France twice, and during one of his trips, in 1926, he took part in the inauguration of the Great Mosque of Paris, built in the Hispano-Morrocan style.
A certain number of Europeans seeking Sufi spirituality were sent to the shaykh ‘Alâwî by René Guénon, a French metaphysician who adhered to Sufism in Paris, and settled later on in Cairo in 1930. While in Cairo, René Guénon wrote a series of books on the various world spiritual traditions, and gave much advice to European correspondents and visitors. In the wake of Guénon, some Traditionalists moved to Islam, since they saw in it the last expression of Revelation for this age. It was the case of Frithjof Schuon, firstly affiliated to the ‘Alawiyya order. This Swiss author and artist who highlighted the universal character of the message of Islam, moved to the USA in 1981 and died here in 1998. He left behind him many successors in the field of Sufism and academic islamology alike, such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who currently teaches in Washington.
This universal Sufism considers that there is a "transcendent unicity of religions", according to the Schuon expression, underliying the various exoteric beliefs. This recognition of other religions is not new to Sufism, since it is based on the Koranic principle of Dîn Qayyim, the immutable Religion, the Religion of Adam in which all religions found their source. Ancient Sufis, like Hallâj, Ibn ‘Arabî or Rûmî, thus adhered to this religion of Love, Love not with a sentimental meaning but as gnostic knowledge (ma‘rifa), and proximity between God and man.
Let’s turn our attention to Ibn ‘Arabî, this Andalusian master who, in about the year 1200, moved from what is commonly called the Western part of the Moslem world (Andalusia and the Maghreb) towards the Middle East for various reasons which I cannot go into here. Nowadays, the universalist doctrines of Ibn `Arabî have gained a high profile in the West, because they provide a total answer - holistic, as we say - to the question of man’s place in the cosmos and his relation with the divine being. You may know the phrase attributed to the French author André Malraux : "The 21st century will either be spiritual or will not be". Many think that we are already in this configuration. This is why the metaphysics of Ibn `Arabî greatly interest many non Muslims.
Generally speaking, we have been witnessing a very rapid spread of Sufism in the West since the 1970’s. In the eyes of the "Eastern" sheikhs, this expansion is not due to chance nor even the simple consequence of immigration, for they have long regarded the West as a providential land. It is worth noting that because of the socio-political pressures of their native countries which prevent personal development – this does not apply of course to all muslim countries -, they saw in the West a free space for spirituality. Indeed, "disenchantment of the world" born out of Western materialism contributed to the appearance of a new wave of pilgrims... Some "Eastern" Masters were soon established in the West, while a small number of trained Westerners operated as representatives of ‘oriental’ Masters, or reached the status of sheikh.

European Islam
Today, about fifteen million Moslems live in Western Europe. At least five million of them are established in France alone, which makes it, quantity wise, the country in Europe with the highest number of Moslems. Although Islam is still perceived as a religion of immigrants, Moslem presence is gradually shaping the European landscape. The French authorities, for example, affirm today that they prefer to call it an “Islam of France” rather than an “Islam in France”. This does not prevent this country, however, from often handling the issue of Islam in a post-colonial manner ! European Islam is still confronted with several handicaps. Firstly, it carries the burden of religious ignorance of the first generation of immigrants, who did not know how to transmit the true values of Islam. Secondly, it suffers from the amalgam created between these essential values and the Arab, Berber, African or Turkish customs, etc.
Nowadays, some of the young European Moslem generation refuse the Islam handed down from their parents which would be reduced to "the licit" (halâl) and to "the illicit" (harâm), to a catalogue of prescriptions and prohibitions. As other groups of society, they need to attain an authentic spirituality, which is a source of awakening and of inner liberation.

The privileged role of Morocco
The Maghreb, and especially Morocco, obviously plays an avant-garde role in the beneficial presence of Sufism in Europe. Because of its proximity and its shared history with France in particular, this part of the Arab world serves, to some extent, as a bridge in the spiritual exchanges with Europe. Thanks to its tradition of tolerance and openness to other religions, Morocco enjoys a privileged position. This tradition was never undermined in history because, precisely, Moroccan Islam was imbibed with spirituality and sanctity. Let us recall that many Spanish Jews persecuted by the Catholic Reconquista in the 16e century took refuge in Morocco, and that during the French Vichy régime that collaborated with the German Nazis, Morocco, while under French protectorate, refused to stigmatize its Jewish population.
This benevolent spirituality thus is a shining force in Europe. Apart from the formerly established ‘Alâwiyya order, the Morrocan Qâdiriyya Butshîshiyya is one of the main brotherhoods present in Europe. These two Sufi orders are very active on the initiatory level, and are behind the conversion of many Europeans to Islam. But what is remarkable is their international reach amongst even non Muslims : they act as true bridges between religions and between cultures. They are both very involved in inter-religious dialogue and have created both in Europe and Morocco cultural and artistic events based, of course, on spirituality. The Fez Festival of “Sacred Music” directed by Fawzi Skali, is undoubtedly the best example. The "Spirit of Fez" aims to spread more peace and mutual comprehension in our world well beyond Morocco. Other Moroccan Sufi groups, descended from Darqâwiyya or Tijâniyya, have less of a following but they still figure in the European Sufi landscape.
The Moroccan authorities are well aware that Sufism, as a spiritual form of awakening and interiorwell-being, is the true antidote to Islamism and the various forms of extremism. Some regimes, in the Muslim world, discovered it a little late.
Globalization does not only concern economic or geopolitical dimensions , it has a more subtle side which is increasingly evident, that of spiritual, ethical and ecological consciousness that takes into account the interdependence between man and the cosmos. In a world where geographical distances as well as cultural differences are dwindling each day, does the distinction between Sufism of the East and Sufism of the West still have any meaning ? In all probability, Sufism will be soon neither of the East nor of the West, lâ sharqiyya wa lâ gharbiyya, as the Koran states in the "verse of Light" [4].