ABSTRACT
Sufism has been transregional for a long time. Sufis have always travelled to non-Muslim countries for missionary reasons, as we know from the histories of Indonesia, China and other countries. Thus, transethnic Sufism is neither a modern nor a Western phenomenon. The early establishment of Sufism in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Indian Chisti Shaikh Hazrat Inayat Khan, for example, could be perceived as missionary work, but transethnic Sufism in the West has not only been a matter of establishing traditional brotherhoods with a mixed ethnic clientele. It is also a story of individual travellers and ‘converts’ who have established and transformed Sufi ideas in non-Muslim lands by publishing literary works, performing Sufi music and dance, or opening centres of Sufi healing.
