ReporterFTONAGA Yasushi@

On Saturday July 4th from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. a study group meeting on the study of Sufism was held with 22 participants at Sophia University in Yotsuya, Tokyo, and a stumulating discussion took place. As always, this meeting was held in the form of a reading circle to form common understanding among the researchers specializing in different fields and different regions. The texts adopted and the presenters were as follows:

1. Th. Zarcone, "L'Iran," A. Popovic & G. Veinstein (eds.), Les voies d'Allah, Paris: Fayard, 1996, pp. 309-321 (Mr. YAMAGUCHI Akihiko , the University of Tokyo)
   
2. A. Schleifer, "Sufisum in Egypt and the Arab East," S. H. Nasr (ed.),Islamic Spirituality II: Manifestations, New York: Crossroad, 1991, pp.194-205 (Mr. OHTSUKA Kazuo , Tokyo Metropolitan University)

The first is about "tracing the history of Sufism by dividing times into 3 periods of which the middle one is the Safavid Dynasty, introducing the main orders, and finally pointing out the characteristics of Sufism in Iran" (from the resume), and (it) has been written carefully with a lot of information on Tariqa, however, the comments from the presenter included;1) the explanation on the relationship with social conditions is insufficient, 2) the explanation on the Safawi Order itself is missing. The following discussion was also active and a variety of views regarding the essential issues, what is Sufism and what is Tariqa in the first place were stated. It is planned that this issue will be discussed again at the general meeting on July 20th, but it needs to be noted in advance that the status quo of a common understanding has not yet been reached at present as there are hundreds of discussions going on.

Regarding the second text, a detailed resume close to a complete translation was prepared, and the visions of Egyptian Sufism mainly in modern and close to modern times were described. The careless terminology and concepts that the author uses in his sentences (such as modernism and patron saint) were rigorously pointed out by the presenter. Another issue noted was unlike what the title suggests, Egypt is actually almost the only subject discussed and study on other Mashriq regions is minimal. During the following discussion many issues peculiar to Egypt came up and it became somewhat difficult for the participants specializing in other regions to understand. This made us reaffirm the difficulty in managing an interdisciplinary study group.

During the business announcement, it was reported that a joint study camp with the "Study Group on Saint Cults and Sufism" sponsored by 5-a had been confirmed to be held as the previous year, and it is planned (to be held) at the end of August.

It is to be added that participation of many generations of resarchers from professors to students taking Master's courses is the source of vitality for this study group.

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