An Examination of the Condifions of the Restoration and Renewal of Sufism in the Zandih and Qajari’s Periods

Despite the fact that before the Safavid dynasty, Sufism was widespread in Iran and was a vibrant and influential culture, and its cities witnessed the existence of hundreds of monasteries, angles, anchors, as well as hundreds of Sufis and mystics who, at these places, concerned with worshiping, austerity, teacjing the disciples, the preaching and performing Sama’ (mystical dance), while composing works, both in poem and prose on ethics and mysticism and Sufism, after the formation of the dynasty, as a result of the policy of the Safavid kings, despite the fact that their ancestors were Sufis, that engaged in the teaching of disciples, as well as the opposition of some Shiite scholars, whom were seriously supported by the kings, many of the Sufi orders in Iran were vanished or severely weakened. However, some elders of Nematollahiyya and Zahabiyah, especially Ma’soum ‘Ali shah Dekani, Nur’ali shah Isfahani, and also Ghotb al-Din Nayrizi, were traveling to various Iranian cities, and by promoting Sufism and preaching  the initiators started a movement which after the decline of Sufism in the late Safavid, revived it in Zandiyya and early Qajar era. The revival of Sufism in addition to the activities of the elders has probably been influenced by some social, economic, and political crises, so that the affairs may be the reason for the people’s attention to somehow be spiritualized (referring to the elders and initiating to Sufism). Also, the influence of the political elites of some rulers and princes of the Qajar period, especially in the case of the Shah and his grand vizier, either Sufi orientated or officially Sufi, should not be discounted in the revival of Sufism. The aforementioned activities of the elders during a certain period of time that the crises in the material field challenged the living conditions of the Iranian people and in the spiritual domain, were inclined to some kind of spirituality in the form of referring to the elders of mysticism and Sufism, finally, in the middle of Qajar era, led to initiating a large number of people, from ordinary people to political and scientific elites, to Sufi orders, such as Nematollahiyya, Zahabayya and Khaksariyah, and in many cities of Iran, such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Kermanshah, were constructed monasteries, which made it possible for Darwishes to do their rites freely.