ABSTRACT
This chapter discuses Iran at the heart of the Sufi story, but as part of the experience of Asia. Sufi political thought emerges in the context of Islam in Asia. The Islamisation of the Asian continent produced new layers on top of northern Arab understandings of religion. It also gave rise to the variety of interpretations of the religion of Muhammad across new lands already colonised with centuries-old religious traditions of their own. Beginning in Baghdad, the political centre of the Muslim world, movements and ideas spread to all regions of the empire’s reach. Sufism was one of these movements with its own political ideology. What comprised Sufi political thought was a newly developed mystical theological doctrine accompanied by a political philosophy.
