ABSTRACT
The followers of the original tradition share several features in common more or less explicitly. They are markedly attached to the restoration, transmission and exegesis of the original tradition and display a resistance to the rationalistic approach, if not an openly contrary orientation; indeed, they display an avowedly mystical sensibility. Under the domination of the rationalist juridical-theological tradition, the followers of the original tradition adopted a more discreet attitude, especially given the increasingly obvious success of the Usuli tradition. During the period known as "the Interval" – between the Mongol invasion and the fall of the Abbasid caliphate at one end and the establishment of the Sunni Ottoman caliphate and the Shi'i Safavid dynasty at the other – there occurred a phenomenon of signal significance: a gradual rapprochement between traditionalist Shi'ism and Sufism. Strictly speaking, the traditionalist school made a brief but remarkable appearance in the 11th/17th and 12th/18th centuries.
