1999/01/01 by Reuven Amitai-Preiss, Reuven Amitai · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Eurasian Exchange Networks #Historical Studies of Medieval Iberia #Islamic Studies and History
paper · doi:10.1163/1568520991445605
crossref issued 1999/01/01 · crossref published 1999/01/01 · crossref published-print 1999/01/01 · openalex publication_date 1999/01/01 · crossref created 2004/07/20 · crossref deposited 2021/10/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15 · crossref indexed 2026/07/27
Abstract Some scholars have argued that sufis, Muslim mystics, played a decisive role in converting the Mongols in Iran to Islam in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, mainly because of the similarity between the extreme sufis (the dervishes) and the shamans of the traditional Mongol religion. This paper maintains that it was primarily some moderate, "institutional" sufis who were close to Mongol ruling circles and thus played a part in their conversion. This, however, had little to so with any resemblance between shamans and sufis, since it is suggested that Muslim mystics, even of the dervish variety, are basically dissimilar to the Inner Asian shamans. If, indeed, both kinds of sufis were successful in influencing the Mongols, it would appear that this is due to other reasons suggested at the end of the paper.