Book by Alix Philippon: «The Qadiriyya Sufi Order: Saints, Shrines and Politics in 21st-Century Iraq and Beyond»
Alix Philippon, The Qadiriyya Sufi Order: Saints, Shrines and Politics in 21st-Century Iraq and Beyond, Routledge, 2026, 294 pp. (DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032658650 – eBook (ISBN 9781032658650)
Description:
The Qadiriyya Sufi Order: Saints, Shrines and Politics in 21st-Century Iraq offers the first comprehensive, field-based examination of contemporary Iraqi Sufism through the lens of one of Islam’s most influential mystical brotherhoods.
Based on extensive ethnographic research conducted between 2021 and 2023, this groundbreaking study sheds light on the resilience and adaptation of Sufi traditions across Iraq’s turbulent post-2003 landscape, revealing complex intersections of religion, identity and political power. Through immersive case studies centred on the shrine of Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani and associated Qadiriyya networks, Philippon meticulously documents how Sufi communities reinvent their religious identity through public rituals, pilgrimages and practices of saint veneration. The book explores how sacred spaces function as dynamic sites where personal belief systems intersect with broader power relations, examining how religious festivals serve as tools for the formation of territorial identity and how transnational flows – particularly from South Asia – reshape the meanings and functions of spiritual centres. By analysing these processes against the backdrop of Iraq’s shifting political landscape, the work reveals how Sufi networks and practices remain central to Sunni religious life despite decades of sectarian conflict and social upheaval.
A vital contribution to Islamic studies, religious anthropology and Middle Eastern politics. By offering unprecedented insights into how religious traditions cope with uncertainty and change, Philippon’s work will prove essential reading for scholars of Sufism, sacred space, religious adaptation and post-conflict spirituality in the modern Middle East.
Table of contents:
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
PART ONE. Sufism and politics in Iraq: A fragmentation of identity
Chapter 1. The politicisation of Sufis, from the founding of the modern Iraqi state to the American invasion
Chapter 2. After 2003, (dis)connections with the institutional political sphere: Sufism between the democratic option and jihadism
Chapter 3. Sectarian competition and the role of Sufism
PART TWO. The saint ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani and his shrine in Baghdad: Symbols of Iraqi Sufism, from the local to the global
Chapter 4. A material and symbolic heritage under pressure
Chapter 5. The annual pilgrimage between communitas and protest
Chapter 6. A Sufi scandal: The protests in defence of the saint Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani
PART THREE. The Kasnazaniyya: Performing a post-sectarian Sufi identity
Chapter 7. The Making of an Emotional Community: Charisma, Ecumenism, and Forms of Belonging in the Kasnazaniyya
Chapter 8. Celebrating Imam ‘Ali and the Prophet Muhammad in Suleimaniyya
Chapter 9. Miracles: Authority, controversy and Muslim politics
Conclusion
Glossary of Arabic and Urdu Terms
