This eye-opening, insightful exploration of Sufism, the spiritual tradition that has supported Islam for more than a thousand years, shows why it offers a promising foundation for reconciliation between the Western and Muslim worlds.
Many Americans today identify Islam with maniacal hatred of the West. The Other Islam transforms this image and opens the way to finding common ground in our troubled times. Sufism, a blend of the mystical and rational tendencies within Islam, emerged soon after the revelation of Muhammad. A reforming movement against the increasing worldliness of Muslim society, it focuses on Islam’s spiritual dimension. Described as “Islam of the Heart,” Sufism has attracted adherents among both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, as well as Jews, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists.
In The Other Islam, Stephen Schwartz traces the origins and history of Sufism, elucidates its teachings, and illustrates its links to the other religions. He comments on such celebrated Sufi poets and philosophers as Rumi and Al-Ghazali, and narrates their influence on the Kabbalah, on the descendants of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, and on Christian mystics like Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Ávila as well as the American transcendentalists.
Furthermore, Schwartz presents a fresh survey of Sufism in today’s Islamic world, anticipating an intellectual renaissance of the faith and alternatives to fundamentalism and tyranny in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran.
The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Schwartz, a journalist and convert to Islam, offers Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, as an aid to the United States' efforts to fight extremism. He provides an incomparable history of Sufism, covering in one short book all the major Sufi saints, schools, and the persecution of Sufis by Wahhabis. Deeply anti-Wahhabi, Schwartz encourages U.S. policymakers to ally with Sufis to undermine the Wahhabi influence. Schwartz believes the Wahhabi philosophy, which is literal and extreme in its interpretation of the Islamic faith, to be the motivation behind Muslim terrorism, with Wahhabi Saudis providing the financing. Wahhabis abhor Sufis for centuries-old traditions they label as idolatrous. Schwartz critiques the Western media for inaccurately dismissing Wahhabi attacks on Sufis, including the insurgency in Iraq, as Sunni-Shia disputes. In reality, Schwartz argues, they are part of the centuries-long Wahhabi campaign to destroy Sufism and moderate Islam. Schwartz's opinion—that Sufis are the natural allies of the U.S. in the ongoing war on terror—is well presented and worth considering. (Sept. 16) ""
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved."
Review
Advance Praise for The Other Islam
Stephen Schwartz is internationally known as a serious student of Islam and its mysticism and as a special friend of the Bektashi Sufi order. The Other Islam is an important work that will, I sincerely hope, open the minds of non-Muslims as well as Muslims to the heritage and present reality of spiritual Islam. Let this book help spread the message and enlightenment of Hajji Bektash Veli throughout the world. —H.E. Hajji Dedebaba Reshat Bardhi, World Supreme Head of the Bektashi community
The Other Islam is more than an engaging introduction to Sufism in full. Stephen Schwartz has also sketched a suggestive roadmap for the kind of inter-religious dialogue that can move the world beyond the clash of civilizations to a mutually enriching encounter of noble religious traditions. Schwartz’s Sufi-inspired conviction that it is, finally, God’s world, not one in which nihilism married to distorted monotheism will have the final word, can and should be embraced by serious Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. —George S. Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, and biographer of Pope John Paul II
The Other Islam presents a different side of the Muslim world and Islam, at a time when Islam is identified in the West with militancy, violence, radicalism, and terrorism. Stephen Schwartz gives readers a good picture of how we should look at Islam’s full spectrum of doctrines and interpretations, and understand that Jihad can be interpreted and implemented by peaceful and spiritual ways. His contribution to the understanding of the other dimensions of this worldwide religion and culture, especially now, is very significant. We should all wish for a greater role for the various Sufi orders in the socio-political culture of the Muslim world. —Reuven Paz, Director, Project for the Research of Islamist Movements (PRISM) of The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Stephen Schwartz is internationally known as a serious student of Islam and its mysticism and as a special friend of the Bektashi Sufi order. The Other Islam is an important work that will, I sincerely hope, open the minds of non-Muslims as well as Muslims to the heritage and present reality of spiritual Islam. Let this book help spread the message and enlightenment of Hajji Bektash Veli throughout the world. —H.E. Hajji Dedebaba Reshat Bardhi, World Supreme Head of the Bektashi community
The Other Islam is more than an engaging introduction to Sufism in full. Stephen Schwartz has also sketched a suggestive roadmap for the kind of inter-religious dialogue that can move the world beyond the clash of civilizations to a mutually enriching encounter of noble religious traditions. Schwartz’s Sufi-inspired conviction that it is, finally, God’s world, not one in which nihilism married to distorted monotheism will have the final word, can and should be embraced by serious Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. —George S. Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, and biographer of Pope John Paul II
The Other Islam presents a different side of the Muslim world and Islam, at a time when Islam is identified in the West with militancy, violence, radicalism, and terrorism. Stephen Schwartz gives readers a good picture of how we should look at Islam’s full spectrum of doctrines and interpretations, and understand that Jihad can be interpreted and implemented by peaceful and spiritual ways. His contribution to the understanding of the other dimensions of this worldwide religion and culture, especially now, is very significant. We should all wish for a greater role for the various Sufi orders in the socio-political culture of the Muslim world. —Reuven Paz, Director, Project for the Research of Islamist Movements (PRISM) of The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
good Survey of Sufism in Islam,
By
This review is from: The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony (Hardcover)
Book reviews should be about what a book actually says, not what the reviewer wishes the book was about. Schwartz has written an illuminating survey of some modern trends in Sufism in the Balkans, central Asia and how it stands up to the notorious developments of radical Islam.
I have decided to update this review by appending a review by Gëzim Alpion Illyria [New York], December 14, 2010. He is Lecturer in Sociology, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, UK, and his point-of-view fairly speaks to maligned minority Sufi and ethnic Islams that are so sorely attached by Islamicists and fundamentalistic trends well-financed by Saudi pertrodollars that pretend to speak for normative Islam. It is apparent that Schwartz decided not to address trends in Sufism in the west that are non-Islamic and also not to bring up the so-called "Traditionalist" conceit of a universalist core of esoteric and elitist doctrines in all religions. Cliffu rankles on publicist hyperbole that The Other Islam is "an incomparable history of Sufism, covering in one short book all the major Sufi saints, schools." Because it does not mention Ahmad al-Alawi, of Algeria, whose life was handsomely chronicled in Martin Lings' classic, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi . I agree that al-Alawi was an interesting Sufi but Cliffu exaggerates his importance and the actual number of his followers. Likewise by characterizing Sufism as "mostly about love and spiritual gnosis," Cliffu succumbs to normalizing western Traditionalist representations of Sufism as true Sufism. Schwartz at least allows for a wider scope to ethnic Sufisms than reducing it to elitist posturing. Schwartz's book could in no way cover the intricate and complex histories of all Sufi schools. But many that he does chronicle are little mentioned in the common books about Sufism. The Other Islam is a popular contribution to how Sufism functions within Islamic societies and its social and political consequences. The Other Islam also is explicit about the systemic assault on indigenous ethnic Islams by Wahhabis and other militant fundamentalisms. Cliffu does not deny this threat but seems disturbed that Schwartz shows just how besieged many indigenous Sufis are. Ordinary, mainstream Muslims would side with Schwartz. Perhaps we in the west could maintain a quietist and passive stance to such pervasive evil because if it did not fit into our out-of-context and over-idealized view of Sufism. Unfortunately this smugness is an obscenity in the experience of Balkan Sufis, Sufis in Iraq, Iran; Afghanistan and China. This discomfiture moves Cliffu into rank personal abuse of Schwartz. If real Sufism is as Cliffu claims about love such scurrilous attacks are unseemly. It is certainly strange that Cliffu accuses Schwartz of harboring as "hidden agenda" when Cliffu apparently wants to smuggle so-called "Traditionalism" into the mix. And by the way, Schwartz was fired from the Voice of America for his anti-Saudi stance so is hardly a tool of the State Department. Mr. Schwartz views on a variety of issues are freely available at [...]. They lack the rancor that Cliffu himself cannot resist. Addendum: Review of Stephen Schwartz, The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony, New York, Doubleday, 2007 By Gëzim Alpion Illyria [New York], December 14, 2010 The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony is an inspired intellectual endeavour on many levels. In this work Stephen Schwartz undertakes to encapsulate on an ambitious scale the story of Sufism, one of the most fascinating and so far relatively unknown and largely ignored, underestimated, abused and often persecuted `sects' of Islam both in the Muslim world and globally, covering almost everything of importance regarding its achievements and setbacks from its inception in the twelfth century (or perhaps earlier) until the start of the twenty-first century. Academics interested in religion (especially comparative religion), theologians and general readers alike will find in this meticulously researched study more than just dates and impressive details about Sufism. The wealth of information on the time and place as well as historical, political and spiritual circumstances when Sufism emerged, flourished and was oftentimes defeated but never eliminated, is not presented as dry facts. Whether he catalogues main Sufi orders/tariqas and related phenomena (such as Qadiri, Mawlawi, Nimatullahi, Rifa'i, Ba'Alawis, Alevi, Naqshbandi, and Bektashi), important Sufi saints since the eleventh century (including Husain bin Mansur Hallaj, Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Muhyid'din Ibn Arabi, Hajji Bektash), renowned Sufi scholars, mystics and poets (from Rabiya Al-Adawiyya in the eighth century, Rumi in the thirteenth century, and Abd Al-Qadir Al Jazairi in the nineteenth century), Schwartz offers an engaging account of the crucial though often thwarted and largely unacknowledged impact Sufism has traditionally played in a global Islamic context and beyond: Judaic, Christian, Ottoman, Asian, Balkan and Western. A religion is not created overnight and no faith is revealed or delivered as a `finished product'. It took Christianity at least five centuries to have something resembling an official doctrine on the Virgin Birth, Jesus Christ's divine humanity, Incarnation and Trinity. This does not mean that Christians have stopped wondering about these and other key aspects of their faith. Christian dogma is the outcome of an on-going exchange of `heretical' ideas over centuries in numerous synods and councils, a large number of them finally becoming part of the official canon, which is in constant need of updating to reflect better the society in which it operates and whose spiritual needs it purports to cater for. The general perception in the West is that Islam has yet to undergo a necessary reformation process similar to what Christianity went through mainly from the fourteenth century onwards. Schwartz's account of Sufism indicates otherwise though. Islam, it seems, is neither immune nor hostile to reforming. On the contrary, given the reasons why and the time when Sufism apparently emerged and flourished, one could conclude that Islamic faith was faced with the reformation issue not very long after it was revealed in the seventh century. To Schwartz, Sufism has contributed considerably in spreading Islam perhaps from the time of the Prophet Mohammed and the four Caliphs. Whether in the olden days Islam spread across the globe primarily through peaceful means, as Schwartz often claims, is debatable. Schwartz makes a strong case in this book, however, in support of his view that Islam owes much of its expansion to the peaceful preaching of Sufis orders. So, for instance, he holds that following the destruction of the Baghdad caliphate in 1258, it was mainly by the Sufi path that, like their ethnic Turkic cousins, the Mongol rulers of Iran and Iraq came to Islam (pp. 123-4). North African scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) predicted that urbanization would result in the replacement of the original Arab embodiment of Islam by `new Islams'. Reading Schwartz's book, one could conclude that Sufism presented the original Arab embodiment of Islam with the first serious challenge. Sufism was perhaps the first attempt to articulate and resist, mainly peacefully, early attempts on the part of some Arab `purists' to appropriate, `Arabize' and present Islam as being fundamentally different and as such in direct conflict with other religions, cultures and traditions. Schwartz identifies two key Arab Muslim `prosecutors' of Sufism. The first such prosecutor was Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328), a former Sufi, who was in favour of applying Shariah to the letter and remained opposed to any foreign influence in Islam. Schwartz tends to present Ibn Taymiyyah more as `a confused individual, of a type known throughout history' (p. 126). The second prosecutor of Sufis, Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab (1703-1792), argues Schwartz, is a much more controversial and dangerous figure. As in his 2002 book, The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror (the subtitle of this work was subsequently changed to Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role in Terrorism), in The Other Islam Schwartz holds Wahhabism, the official Islam inspired by Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab and currently practiced in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, accountable for the `unrestrained war' that Sufism, this metaphysical form of Islam, has been suffering for over 250 years. Schwartz is equally keen to emphasise the risks that, according to him, Wahhabism poses to the West with its alleged links to Islamic terrorism. Schwartz is critical of the West in general, especially of `military and political planners in Washington, ever concerned not to offend the Saudis', seek to `evade' (p. 180) apparently obvious information implicating Saudi clerics and volunteers in preaching openly in favour of planning and carrying out suicide attacks on Coalition forces in Iraq as early as April 2003. In this context, the Wikileaks disclosures are not `news' to people familiar with Schwartz's oeuvre. Schwartz provides several reasons why, in his view, Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab was keen to target `dissenters' of his version of Islam, especially Sufis. For someone like Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab, who apparently had a phobia against anything foreign and `a deranged talent for heresy hunting' (p. 131), Sufism's `cosmopolitan' nature, favourable attitude to science, willingness to adapt to modernity, and readiness to benefit other cultures and religions as well as learn from them, apparently made its followers, in the eyes of Ibn Abd... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Clear-eyed and Informative,
By J-Mul "J. Mul." (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony (Hardcover)
I find Stephen Schwartz's work compelling. He is a converted muslim sufi, yet he is clear-eyed and hard-headed in his criticisms of the Islamic world.
His earlier book, The Two Faces of Islam, came out less than a year after 9/11. It explained the bifurcation in the Islamic world between fundamentalists, particularly Wahhabists, and the manifold sufi sects. The Wahhabists and other fundamentalists are obsessed with combatting bida (innovation in Islam) and shirk (worshipping anyone or thing other than Allah). The sufi sects, who have intertwined their own cultures with Islam, and who explore the mysteries at the heart of all faiths, are regarded skeptically, even with hostility by fundamentalist sects. The remarkable success of fundamentalists in expanding into foreign lands, largely aided by oil money, has put the sufi world on the defensive. This is a loss to the greater world, in that the sufi sects have much to offer re: faith and it's integration into the life of the individual and the community. The Other Islam expands upon the message above with a survey of the sufi world. The book is full of fascinating and informative stories of the principal sufi sects. Their histories and the roles they play currently in their respective countries are summarized. Moreover, Schwartz revisits the theme of aggression from the fundamentalists and how it plays out in the sufi world. There is no compunction among Wahhabists in employing violence to remedy what they see as unacceptable practices. This aggression is ongoing and virile in many nooks and crannies in the Balkans and elsewhere. This book is to be commended in highlighting such off-the-radar conflicts. On the basis of readability and organization, the book seemed less well-edited than The Two Faces of Islam and for that reason only I withheld the fifth star. Schwartz is a strange breed. Some of the markers in his past suggest he's a spiritual shopper, an impractical idealist. But read him and you will feel you are being briefed by an insider with no illusions. I would also recommend visiting a website he has been associated with: [...]
22 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too Much Omitted or Ignored, or is There Another Agenda?,
By Cliffu (Virginia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony (Hardcover)
This book will have some value to people who know nothing about Sufism, and also for those who want to get some sense of what is happening in modern Sufism. But there are are better books out there for the former purpose, and for the latter, five minutes of googling will put you in touch with many book's worth of Sufi groups than you would have any idea existed if you relied on this book alone. This book seems especially weak in providing at least a minimally complete account of historical and modern Sufism, yet the publisher hypes this book as "an incomparable history of Sufism, covering in one short book all the major Sufi saints, schools." I don't think so. How could a book for which such grandiose claims be made completely omit any mention, for example, of the contemporary sheik, Ahmad al-Alawi, from Algeria, who died in 1934, and whose life is chronicled in Martin Lings' lovely book, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi (Golden Palm Series)? This particular Sufi master had hundreds of thousands of followers, and he spawned various Alawiyya tariqas whose followers trace their lineage back to him to this day? Anyone can find many other significant omissions by checking out this site: http://www.haqq.com.au/~salam/sufilinks/ or Professor Alan Godlas' very nice site: http://www.uga.edu/islam/Sufism.html.
Another irritant in this book is the unending, vehement denunciation of Wahabi Islam. This highly literalist-fundamentalist form of Islam indeed has persecuted Sufis, and the Wahabis are indeed awful for various reasons, but does the reader have to be constantly reminded of this? Real Sufism is mostly about love and spiritual gnosis, yet the author's anti-Wahabi agenda seems to at times position Sufism as a Western-approved Islamic proxy movement to be launched against the hated Darth Vader-like Wahabis, as if implying that the need for fighting against the latter is the real point of this book. It is not that of Sufism, from what I have read and seen. Compulsively focusing with fear and loathing on something as negative as some form of extreme religious fundamentalism is an obsession no form of even a halfway-sincere mysticism and spirituality would encourage or approve of that I have ever witnessed, and I have seen quite a few. The sense that Schwartz is on a jihad against Wahabis much more than he is in favor of mystical transcendence via the Sufi path is reinforced from some research on his background. According to conservative-libertarian author Justin Raimondo, for example, Schwartz is a rank neoconservative, "who still defends the "glorious" heritage of Leon Trotsky, and in the pages of National Review, yet!" He has been known also by the names "Suleyman Ahmad, aka "Comrade Sandalio," according to Raimondo. http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=5226 Schwartz's writing has appeared on the web site of David Horowitz, another rank or ranking neocon. Noticing this makes one wonder if Schwartz still is a follower of the loathsome communist founder of the Red Army, Trotsky, in spirit, if not obvious expression, and ultimately, with this book, if he is covertly offering another agenda with goals at the opposite end of that of Sufism.
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