In the preceding pages I hope to have offered an alternative, however modest, to what I call the reactionary paradigm concerning the growing popularity of Sufism in medieval Egypt. According to this paradigm, the widespread popularity of Sufism after the sixth/twelfth century occurred as a reaction to the socio-political upheavals of the time and/or because of the inadequacy of certain forms of Islam to meet the religious needs of the populace. The latter explanation relies on anachronistic assumptions about religion and is simply untenable. If the former events played any role in the spread and popularisation of Sufism, they were not the cause per se, but rather they facilitated the spread and diffusion of several different populations into Egypt: Persian-speaking Sufis seeking a better living, Maghribi Sufis escaping the instability of the Almoravid–Almohad struggle for power, Andalusians fleeing the Reconquista, and the movement of Iraqi Sufis after the Mongol conquest of Baghdad. In none of these cases is there evidence that the disruptions drove the population to Sufism. Rather, we might say somewhat anthropomorphically that these events conspired to produce a situation in which Sufis from East and West came to Egypt in large numbers and at roughly the same time. In addition, the Ayyubid and Mamluk states were able to provide a measure of stability and security that allowed multiple groups of Sufis not only to exist but to flourish within their territory. In this perfect storm of socio-political conditions, the prior institutionalisation of Sufism enabled and facilitated the mass production and organisation of multiple cultures of Sufism. It was through the creative and regular performance of these institutions that Sufis continually reproduced the means of cultural production on a wide scale across the Egyptian landscape. To put this another way, it was the Sufis who brought Sufism to the populace, and not the populace who sought it out. It was in individual quotidian social interactions, within what Anthony Giddens calls ‘the flow of day-to- day conduct’, that the Sufis themselves popularised Sufism in Egypt.

On a regular basis the populace engaged with the increasing numbers of individuals in Egypt claiming some kind of saintly authority. Of course, such claims were not in and of themselves enough to qualify one as a saint.