This chapter examines the “pioneers” of Sufism in contemporary France and Italy, such as the migrants coming from Algeria between the 1950s and the 1970s to France, and from Morocco in the 1990s to both France and Italy. The second “pioneers” of Sufism in Europe have been European esotericists, who were looking for a living esoteric tradition and found one in Sufism. The third “pioneers” are...
This chapter proposes an archeology of the category mysticism, showing its different meanings in the Christian religious context, and then in human and social sciences. It argues that despite its essentialist uses in the 20th and 21st centuries, this category can still be relevant and effective. Instead of considering mysticism as a phenomenon separated from religion, limited to the private...