Sufism in Ottoman Damascus: Religion, Magic, and the Eighteenth-Century Networks of the Holy

This book analyzes thaumaturgical beliefs and practices prevalent among Muslims in eighteenth-century Ottoman Syria. The study focuses on historical beliefs in baraka, which religious authorities often interpreted as Allah’s grace, and the alleged Sufi-ulamaic role in distributing it to Ottoman subjects.

Nikola Pantic is Postdoc Assistant at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna, and Permanent Fellow of the Center for Religious Studies, Central European University, Vienna.