Although it has generally been recognized that Mecca served as an important
entrepôt in a broader economy of religious learning during what Marshall G.S.
Hodgson called the “Middle Periods” of Islamic history (i.e. 945-1258 and 12581503 CE),1 its bearing upon the development of Sufi sm remains unclear. As a
destination of largely seasonal pilgrimage far removed from the trend-setting
centers of Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Isfahan, or Delhi, it has long been assumed
that Mecca was of marginal signifi cance in contributing to the solidifi cation of
medieval Sufi institutions. In fact, quite the opposite seems to have been the case.
As evinced in a range of sources bearing upon this period, Mecca served as a
consequential meeting place for Sufi s from as far afi eld as Spain and Central Asia,
played host to no small number of locally entrenched Sufi communities, as well
as functioned as a cosmopolitan space in which new doctrines, texts, allegiances,
and mystical teachings were possessed of a potential for transregional diffusion
of a type not always afforded to Sufi s in other urban centers.
