Sufism: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Sep. 21, 2026

Facts

Also Known As	ahl al-haqiqah • Ṣūfiism

Did You Know?

Sufi orders have influenced Islam in the Balkans from the time of the Middle Ages.
Sufis are sometimes targets for fundamentalists and extremists such as the Islamic State, who see Sufism as heretical.
Most Sufis are Sunni Muslims.

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Whirling dervishes in white robes perform the Sema ritual in a circular hall with a wooden floor, as a large audience watches from balconies in Yenikapi Mevlevihanesi, Istanbul.

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ʿAlī: Sufism

Key People

al-Mahdī

Sudanese religious leader

Rūmī

Sufi mystic and poet

Baba Mondi

Albanian religious leader

al-Ḥallāj

Islamic mystic

al-Muḥāsibī

Muslim theologian

al-Ghazālī

Muslim jurist, theologian, and mystic

Aşık Paşa

Turkish author

Sayyid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan

Somalian leader

Ahmed Yesevi

Turkish author

Saʿd od-Dīn Maḥmūd Shabestarī

Islamic mystic

Jāmī

Persian poet and scholar

ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī

Syrian author

ad-Damīrī

Muslim theologian

Bedreddin

Ottoman theologian

Yunus Emre

Turkish poet

ʿAbd al-Salām Yāsīn

Moroccan religious leader

Reynold Alleyne Nicholson

British scholar

Islam

Sufism: Quick Facts

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