ABSTRACT
The question of the origins of Sufism (taßawwuf ), the mystical aspect within Islam, and its devotees, the Í¥f•s, seems to have attracted its own particular type of dispute within the academic study of Islam. The reason for this dispute would appear to go back once again to a memory of medieval (and later) polemic between Christians and Muslims. Christians have often pictured Islam as a very sensually based religion: Mu˙ammad’s multiple marriages, the Qur<ån’s very physical and sensual portrayal of heaven and its rewards, and Islam’s permitting of polygamy and enjoining holy war ( jihåd ) have all been featured in these kinds of characterizations. At the same time, however, Christians have been very well aware of a profound asceticmystical trend in Islam. Ab¥ Óam•d al-Ghazål• (d. 1111), for example, one of the most famous of all Í¥f•s, became well known in the medieval west especially in his philosophic guise; this was true of a variety of other mystically inspired writers also. In trying to reconcile the two natures perceived within Islam, the implicit suggestion given by some early writers on the subject was that the mystical trend could not be inherent in Islam but must have come from Christianity, a far more elevated religion in their view.
