Islam as a Cult of Love

This chapter traces the influence of female saints on popular religion across the Islamic world. It highlights the careers of Rabi’a al-Adawiyya and her mainly Persian soul sisters, showing how they inspired and shaped the Sufi movement, with its massive influence on Persian poetry and popular religion from India to Spain. The chapter traces the development of Rabi’a’s legend among female followers and the adoption of her “doctrine of divine love” by male Sufi leaders. It shows how teaching among female Sufis was increasingly privatized, so that male teachers such as Farid al-Din al-‘Attar or Rumi became the public voices of this spiritual movement. The chapter also shows how this version of Islamic spirituality influenced the spiritualization of romantic love in medieval European folklore.