ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 offers an historical overview of anti-Sufi tendencies among Muslims, highlighting their early origins in opposition to Sufi modes of thought and practice, their later crystalization in the works of Ibn Taymiyya, and finally their resurrection and amplification by Ibn ’Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century. Wahhabi anti-Sufism gained ground in Muslim contexts in the 19th century as the Salafiyya reformers utilized print technology to promote critiques of Sufism; the Wahhabi takeover of Arabia gave this anti-Sufi understanding of Islam a base to develop from, setting the stage for the growth of anti-Sufism in the 20th century.
