ABSTRACT
This chapter traces non-Muslim encounters with Sufism, especially of European Orientalists’ experiences of Sufism through travel and poetry. Orientalists, such as Sir William Jones, helped transmit Sufi poetry beyond the Muslim societies, which then influenced the development of literary movements like Romanticism in Europe and the spiritual movement of Transcendentalism in America. These encounters, however, tended to frame Sufism in a universal register, and thus one that was outside the framework of Islam. These cross-cultural literary exchanges would set the stage for Rumi’s popularity in America.
