The Mystics of Islam

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This is the introduction to a scholarly book on Sufism — Islamic mysticism — written by R.A. Nicholson, drawing on twenty years of research into the history of Islamic mystical tradition. The work traces Sufism from its eighth-century origins as a fear-driven ascetic movement (practitioners wore wool garments, *suf*, in imitation of Christian hermits) through its ninth-century transformation into a rich inner philosophy organized around three keynotes: Light, Knowledge (gnosis), and Love. Nicholson argues that early Sufism evolved from simple quietism and world-renunciation into a pantheistic vision that effectively displaced Islam's transcendent God with a divine presence immanent in all creation, including the human heart. A distinctive claim is that Sufism's origins are irreducibly plural — he rejects then-popular theories attributing it to Aryan reaction against Semitic religion, or to Buddhist/Vedantic influence — insisting that the primary early influence was Hellenistic culture, not Indian thought. The book's six chapters then address the mystical path itself, ecstatic states, gnosis, divine love, sainthood, and the unitive state of union with God. It's aimed at readers of comparative religion who want a rigorous but accessible account of how Muslim mystics understood and practiced the interior life across more than a millennium.

The Mystics of Islam

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