Circulation and networks: the role of Cairo and al-Azhar explores the geographical dimensions of Sufism from several angles: it looks at Cairo, Upper Egypt, the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb, and examines the integration of Sufism into Cairene urban spaces, principally the al-Azhar mosque. This mosque welcomed students from many different provinces (wilāyāt) of Egypt, and from abroad, as well as foreign scholars (some of great renown) who offered their teachings. Particular attention is paid to visitors from the Maghreb, for whom it was necessary to pass through Cairo on the way to the Holy Places. The networks and ties that were formed thanks to this new mobility allowed a branch of the Khalwatiyya, brought from Anatolia via Syria by Mustafā al-Bakrī, to spread from al-Azhar across the whole country. This context, so favourable to intellectual exchange and spiritual transmission, brought with it a proliferation of Sufi handbooks, one indication of the growing number of disciples for the masters of the period.