The ‘Īsāwiyya of Tunis

Sufism provides believers with an enhanced, more immediate religious experience through devotional practices such as music, the repetition of sacred formulas, the manipulation of breath and body movement, and trance. There are analogous and not unrelated movements within Christianity and other religions. The generally acknowledged derivation of the term Sufi is that it relates to the wool (ṣūf) traditionally worn by adepts. Tunisian ‘Īsāwiyya still wear a body shirt of coarse white wool, often over...