Turkish Sufism as Seen by Western Esotericists in the 20th Century
January 12, 2026 DOI: 10.4324/9781003622406-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Keywords | Sufism Turkish Orientalism Order exchange Middle east Christianity Ancient history |
| Key points | Argues that four Western esotericists' engagement with Ottoman Sufism was shaped by a “Rosicrucian paradigm” of a journey East in search of truth, creating an entanglement between Western esotericism and Eastern Sufism. |
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.