Turkish Sufism as Seen by Western Esotericists in the 20th Century

This chapter examines how four Western esotericists—R. von Sebottendorf, G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, and C. Wett—engaged with Ottoman Sufism. All traveled to the East to adopt Sufi teachings without converting to Islam, seeking spiritual exchange between Western and Eastern esoteric traditions. The author argues that these figures were inspired by a literary model termed the “Rosicrucian paradigm,” based on Christian Rosenkreutz's early 17th-century journey East in search of truth. This paradigm, reflected in their writings, produces an entanglement between Western esotericism and Eastern Sufism.

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Abstract

This chapter aims to analyse the interest shown by four contemporary representatives of Western esotericism (R. von Sebottendorf, G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, and C. Wett) towards Ottoman Sufism. All travelled to the East to adopt Sufi teachings, though they never converted to Islam. They were actually more interested in spiritual exchanges between Western and Eastern esoteric traditions in order to make them learning from each other. All were directly or indirectly inspired by a literary model I call the “Rosicrucian paradigm” after Christian Rosenkreutz (early 17th century), that is the journey to the East in search of the truth. Such a paradigm reflected in the writings of the above-mentioned characters leads to an entanglement between “Western” Esotericism and “Eastern” Sufism.