ABSTRACT
Despite the vast scale of violence that Muslims experienced during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, cultural life continued to flourish. In large part, this was due to the stabilizing effect that the Shari‘a and Sufism had on social life. Because the Shari‘a was devised by private scholars rather than by governments, it continued to operate despite the upheavals of the era. Sufism, organized into orders, had evolved into an institution that provided emotional and physical security during periods of turbulence.
