In Islamic Sufism and its history

Work in the field of Sufi studies is still in its early stages despite the great valuable efforts made by a group of Western scholars since the early 19th century until today. Their efforts have yielded the best results in the areas they addressed — which, unfortunately, are few compared to the many other areas that have not yet been uncovered. Nicholson was unique among Orientalists of his country in focusing on that particular aspect of the history of Islam — the aspect of Sufism — because he saw it as the most distinctive manifestation of the spiritual life among Muslims and its most prominent. He dedicated his long life, or more than fifty years of it, to studying the sources of Arabic and Persian Sufism, and the factors that contributed to its emergence and growth. He realized that studying Sufism is an indispensable part of the history of comparative religions, as this study sheds light on some Christian problems and issues in the Middle Ages. Perhaps this was among the motivations that led him to undertake this task, to fill a gap in history that researchers before him had long neglected and did not attempt to address.