The Revival of the Mesnevihan in Sarajevo Entanglements of “Urban Sufism”

This contribution explores non-tariqat, urban intellectual Sufism in the Balkans, particularly Bosnia, focusing on the mesnevihan tradition of reading, translating, and commenting on Rumi’s Mesnevi . Practiced by educated elites, it was disrupted in the 19th century but revived by modernist scholars like Dželaluddin Čaušević. During Communist rule, the tradition persisted through charismatic figures, both Sufi and non-Sufi. The study emphasises the post-2000 period, when this tradition became institutionalised, historicised, and entangled in local and regional Islamic politics, reflecting broader trends in the evolution of Islamic spirituality and identity in the contemporary Balkans.