Book review of "Sufism: the formative period (The new Edinburgh Islamic surveys)" by Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

[Extract] This book is a compact, authoritative survey of the development of Sufism in Islamic countries from the ninth to twelfth centuries C.E. For readers outside Islam attracted by Sufism's passionate poetry, stories and spirituality, the author's historicist approach, which positions the movement in social and cultural contexts that include theology and jurisprudence, will prove as sobering as it is educational. For scholars, and for devotees within Islam, the book will be of lasting value as a reference work. For all its readers, it will reaffirm the abundance, depth and intellectual sophistication of early Sufi traditions