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Karn Jronet, Sufi Mystcsm nto the West: Le and Leadershp o Hazrat Inayat

Khans Brothers 1927-1967 (Leuven: Peeters, ), pp. ISBN: -

(paper), .

Inayat Khan s one o the key igures n the development o a dstnctly Western

Suism. Ths now comes n many varetes, some more Islamc and some less

Islamc, or not Islamc at all, and s ound across Europe and North Amerca, wth a

presence n other regons, ncludng n the Islamc world. Inayat Khan was not the

irst Sui n the West, but was the irst person to establsh a successul Sui organza-

ton there, startng n wth what was nsttutonalzed as the Sui Order. Ths

then became the Internatonal Sui Movement, and gave rse to three ndependent

organzatons: the Sui Order Internatonal, the Sui Ruhanyat Internatonal, and

the Sui Way. All o these Inayatan organzatons are stll actve today. They are o

nterest n themselves, and because ther actvtes n the s and beyond set the

scene or later Sui arrvals on the European, North Amercan, and global stages.

Many o these later arrvals passed through the mleu o Inayatan Suism, and all

had to address wdespread understandngs o Suism as unversal rather than

Islamc that Inayatan Suism had done much to establsh.

The hstory o Inayatan Suism alls nto three parts: rom untl Inayat

Khans death n , rom onwards wthn the ramework o the Internatonal

Sui Movement, and rom onwards wthn the ramework o the Sui Order

Internatonal, the Sui Ruhanyat Internatonal, and the Sui Way. Karn Jronet hasalready publshed a book on the earlest o these parts, The Image o Sprtual

Lberty n the Sufi Movement Followng Hazrat Inayat Khan (Leuven: Peeters, ),

based on her doctoral dssertaton. The book under revew now deals wth much o

the second part. It covers a perod that s mportant because t saw the routnza-

ton o the Sui Movement rom an organzaton that was very much personal to ts

ounder nto a dferent and more nsttutonalzed type o organzaton, and

because t s the perod that gave rse to the three other ndependent Inayatan

organzatons already mentoned.

Jronets declared purpose n ths book s to see how the irst three successors o

Inayat Khann act, two brothers and a cousncoped wth ther tasks (p. xv).

The book ocuses on these three successors and ther leadershp o the Interna-

tonal Sui Movement, not on the three ndependent Inayatan organzatons. The

book does what t sets out to do, n amazng and valuable detal, the rut o Jronets

numerous ntervews wth partcpants and o her use o the archves o the

Internatonal Sui Movement and o Johannes Wtteveen, the ormer head o the

Internatonal Monetary Fund who s currently the Internatonal Sui Movements

Executve Supervsor.

The very dferent leadershp styles o Inayat Khans irst three successors, and

ther very dferent personaltes, emerge clearly, as does somethng o the mpacto these dferent styles and personaltes on the development o the Internatonal

Konnkljke Brll NV, Leden, DOI 10.1163/18748929-00504007

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Book Revews / Journal o Relgon n Europe 5 (2012) 521533

Sui Movement and, thus, o Western Suism as a whole. The book also llustrates

very ncely some o the dlemmas acng those tryng to ntroduce Suism nto the

West. On one occason, or example, Al Khan, who led the Internatonal SuiMovement rom to , tred to persuade hs Dutch Sui iance that Islams

rtual ablutons were stll approprate beore prayer, despte the nventon o the

mornng shower. He aled to persuade her.

The book, however, has aults. Jronet s partsan, both n avor o Inayat Khan

(a very advanced mystc, p. ), and n sdng wth the leaders o the Internatonal

Sui Movement aganst ther rvals, Raba Martn, ounder o what became the Sui

Ruhanyat Internatonal, and Vlayat Inayat-Khan, the eldest son o Inayat Khan

and ounder o what became the Sui Order Internatonal. Fazal Khan, ounder o

what became the Sui Way, s not consdered n the book. Hs actvtes, whch

started n , all beyond ts scope. Jronet occasonally tres to be ar to Raba

Martn and Vlayat Inayat-Khan, but does not really succeed. A related problem s

that the tone o the book sometmes tends towards hagography (see ce-cream

epsode, p. ). Another related problem s that the book s not very analytcal, and

that such analyss as there s oten dsappontng. When premsedas t oten s

on Jronets commtted poston, the analyss sometmes makes more sense n the

context o the world o the Internatonal Sui Movement than n the context o the

world o scholarshp. There are also some problems wth organzaton, and wth

source ctaton. We are told, or example, that Inayat Khans testamentn whch

he mght have apponted hs successor, the testament ever exsteddsappearedbecause someone accdentally burnt t (p. ). No source s gven or ths norma-

ton, but when the lkely source becomes apparent later n the book, t also becomes

clear that the burnng o the testament s very much conjectural. Fnally, there s a

problem wth producton: two pages o text seem to have vanshed behnd photo-

graphs (pp. and ).

Despte these aults and problems, however, the book s both valuable and

hghly readable. In terms o readablty, one o the hgh ponts s the arrval at the

Egyptan embassy n Span n o Musharra Khan, Inayat Khans youngest

brother, wth two emale Suis, one Dutch and one South Arcan. The Egyptan

ambassador regretted that he could not marry Musharra to the South Arcan Sui

whle he remaned marred to the Dutch Sui, so the three then moved on to Angola.

It s, however, unortunate that ths ncdent represents most o what the book

has to say about the mpact on the Internatonal Sui Movement o the Second

World War.

The book, then, s a valuable source or an mportant stage n the development

o Inayatan Suism and o Western Suism n general, but s not the deintve treat-

ment o ts topc.

Mark SedgwckAarhus Unversty, Denmark