Appropriating the Salikīn's Journey: The Sufi Aesthetics Between Politics, Art, and Popular Culture, in Post-Arab-Spring Egypt
Publikation: Beitrag in Buch/Konferenzbericht/Sammelband/Gutachten › Beitrag in Buch/Sammelband/Gutachten › Eingeladen › Begutachtung
Abstract
Since the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2013, Sufism has maintained an explicit presence in politics, the arts, and popular culture. While some scholars argue that Sufis have traditionally remained aloof from politics, significant Sufi figures have taken on important political, parliamentary, and party roles. Sufi scholars and heads of Sufi orders were invited to major political conferences, and Sufi shaykhs even preached to soldiers at military events. Likewise, artists and intellectuals were encouraged to produce works that celebrated the aesthetics and morals of Sufism. The Egyptian drama series Khawaja Abd-al Qādir (2012) and Jazīrat Ghamām: Wāqiʿ Ṣanaʿah al-Khayāl (Cloud Island Island: A Reality Made by Imagination) (2022) coincided with the rise of the musical adaptations of the poems of al-Ḥallāj and Ibn al-ʿArabī, and echoed the colors representing the conflict between light and darkness, and the symbolism in the works of artists such as Emad Rizq (b.1968), Amr Fekry (b. 1978), and several other artists. Accordingly, this chapter examines how, in post-Arab Spring Egypt, the state, out of concern for the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islam groups, has supported a paradigm for the promotion of Sufi aesthetics in art and popular culture, and how this support has cast its shadow over the visual and artistic qualities of these works.
Details
| Originalsprache | Englisch |
|---|---|
| Titel | Art Aesthetics and Islamic Mysticism |
| Herausgeber (Verlag) | Palgrave Macmillan |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-032-09955-6 |
| Publikationsstatus | Angenommen/Im Druck - 1 Mai 2025 |
| Peer-Review-Status | Ja |