ABSTRACT
Despite the abundance of texts about Sufi orders, their place in the emergence of Islamic civilization remains unclear. It is this question that this present chapter addresses. The absence of a simple, coherent and believable answer to this question is indicative of the complexity of the problem. The chapter proposes that the development and emergence of the Sufi tariqa by the end of the thirteenth century is best explained with reference to several factors; there was not just a single, simplistic cause. The chapter serves as an introduction to the turuq that came to prominence in the Islamic world during the medieval period that is from about the thirteenth century until the appearance of the Gunpowder Empires, the Safavids (1501—1722), the Ottomans (1453—1922) and the Moghuls (1526—1857), by the early sixteenth century. The focus on the turuq in the chapter is the large popular variety, many of which encompassed huge swathes of territory.
