Sufis and Saints' Bodies

“A superb scholarly work which is animated by a passionate sympathy for the world it studies.” — Muslim World Book Review

“Groundbreaking and sets a high standard for any future work on the topic. . . . A milestone in the comparative study of Sufi traditions and a major contribution to the field of religion and the body.” — Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“[An] intriguing, well-researched book. . . . Highly recommended.” — CHOICE

“A brilliant and important book.” — Elixir

“Glistening with the author’s immense learning and passion for the material and his clear linguistic and historical expertise in the Muslim literatures of the pre- and early modern Arab and Indo-Persian worlds. . . . This book is truly a joy to read. . . . Essential reading for scholars of premodern and contemporary Islam alike.” — Journal of Religion

“A magnificent work manifesting all the features of a morally engaged scholarship: an intimate embrace of the human body within a kind of ‘muted universalism’; a powerful focus on transgressive Sufi saints as countercultural actors; a radical queering of all those potentially violent and finally unbelievable binarisms (male/female, sexuality/spirituality, orthodox/heterodox); and a constant widening of the analysis into the comparative erotics of mystical literature in both the Christian West and Hindu South Asia. Many a reader will find real hope, and real heart, here. I certainly did.” — Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism

“A magnificent work manifesting all the features of a morally engaged scholarship. Many a reader will find real hope, and real heart, here. I certainly did.” — Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism

“This book addresses a significant lacuna in the study of Islam. Combining academic methodologies with an internal religious approach, Kugle argues for a new, body-centered phenomenology of Sufism that highlights its distinctive characteristics as an Islamic perspective. The book’s in-depth discussions of individuals who lived as far afield as Morocco and India provide many new insights into Islam as a complex living tradition that is as concerned with the body as it is with the mind.” — Shahzad Bashir, Carleton College

“Sufis and Saints’ Bodies is a pioneering endeavor that links the study of Islam to major research agendas in religious studies. Using a rich body of previously untapped sources in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu from late medieval and early modern Islamic history, Kugle explores the theoretically fertile concept of ‘embodiment’ with methodological rigor and analytical depth. He tackles questions of social identity, religious allegiance, and cultural modernity in exemplary fashion and succeeds in opening new vistas in the study of Sufism. A rare achievement.” — Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Washington University in St. Louis