Following on Professor Boaz Huss’s essay on “The New Age of Kabbalah: Kabbalah and its Contemporary Manifestations,” this essay surveys Islamic Mysticism and Neo-Sufism. It does not quite parallel the essay of Professor Huss, as it does not discuss all the contemporary manifestations of Sufism, of which there are very many. Neo-Sufism is one form of modern Sufism, distinguished by being transregional, eclectic and hybrid. I will start with a discussion of the possible meanings of the term mysticism in an Islamic context, and then move on to a discussion of classic Islamic Sufism. These two parts of this essay will serve as the basis for the third part, in which Neo-Sufism itself is discussed, looking at its origins, its development, and its current forms.
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