The Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt, 1173-1325

A social, political and religious history of Sufism in Medieval Egypt After the fall of the Fatimid Empire in 1171 and the emergence of a new Sunni polity under the Ayyubids, Sufism came to extraordinary prominence in Egypt. The state founded and funded hospices to attract foreign Sufis to Egypt; local charismatic Sufi masters appeared throughout Upper and Lower Egypt; organised Sufi brotherhoods emerged in the urban centres of Cairo and Alexandria; and even Jews took up the doctrines and practi