A Sufi Controversy: The Arberry- Zaehner Polemic about Bāyazīd’s Hindu Influence

This article revisits the Arberry- Zaehner polemic to highlight persisting problems in the academic study of Sufism. The controversy is important in showing how serious scholarship can quickly descend into tribal polemical apologetics and how this partisanship masquerades as legitimate research and academic comment. The study of Sufism, or sometimes referred to as “Sufi studies,” is enormously important for understanding Islam’s mystical tradition. Yet questions remain about the constitution of research on Sufism as to it being either serious scholarship or merely apologetics. This issue came to a head in the historical debate between Robert C. Zaehner of Oxford and Arthur J. Arberry of Cambridge over the question of Hindu influence on Sufism. It continues to have broader ramifications for question of the origins of Sufism.