Mystiques, Etat et Societe is the first study to treat of the history of a mystical Muslim brotherhood--the Halvetis, the most widespread brotherhood in southeastern Europe--from its introduction to the region until the present day. The study is based on very diverse written sources, including unedited manuscripts, as well as on fieldwork. In the book are examined the role of the Halvetis in the spread of the ideology propagated by the Ottoman political authorities ("Sunnitization," conquests, colonization, Islamization) and in the uniting of the Muslim populations; the expansion and...

Reprenant a nouveaux frais la question de l'autorite religieuse, ce livre presente differents cas d'etude en Asie centrale, a travers l'Empire ottoman, dans les Balkans et en Turquie. Sont examines les rapports complexes qu'entretiennent, avec le pouvoir politique, cheikhs soufis, oulemas, sheikh ul-islam, hegoumenes, ou encore clerge latin a l'epoque premoderne. Les XXe et XXIe siecles sont analyses du point de vue des transformations de l'autorite religieuse, certes fragmentee mais vigoureuse, en particulier chez les reformistes musulmans bosniaques et les Bektashis albanais,...