In this first module, the subject of Sufism and yoga will be placed methodologically in the context of Orientalist scholarship, which has long combined a hostility to Islam with attraction toward Sufism, an attitude that encouraged speculation about India as the possible source of Islamic mysticism. This presentation, in contrast, will avoid all-or-nothing generalizations of this type, focusing instead on categories as "family resemblances" defined by individual encounters rather than essential characteristics. The scope of investigation will be defined to some extent in terms of yoga both as a classical archive of Sanskrit texts beginning with Patañjali, but more often as a long history of ascetic movements at the margins of Brahmanic authority. Sufism will likewise be defined as a tradition of spiritual and ethical practice that has been prominent in Muslim societies for over a millennium. The term "Islamicate" is introduced as signifying cultural productions linked to societies where Islam is a factor, but where non-Muslim actors have important roles.

The survey of Muslim imaginings of India begins with mythic accounts of Adam's descent to earth on Sri Lanka, a story enhanced by travelers' tales of India as part of the wondrous East, and by the prestige of Indian wisdom as transmitted from the moral tales of the Pañcatantra into Arabic and numerous other languages. The scholarly study of Indian religions, framed by an ambassador's account prepared for the Umayyad Caliphate around 800, set in motion inquiries culminating in Al-Bīrūnī's study of Indian thought based on intensive study of Sanskrit texts. As Muslim rulers extended control over major portions of the South Asian subcontinent, the fascination with Indian ascetics and sorcerers led to the production of text forgeries that presented both refutations and affirmations of Indian religious thought and practice. All this took place as Muslim intellectuals used the tools of Islamicate sciences to explain India.

This second module will introduce two important texts. The first is The Fifty Kamarupa Verses (Kāmarūpañčāšikā), composed In Persian sometime before 1350. This will be discussed in terms of its composite structure, esoteric features such as use of secret codes, and the attempt of Persian scribes to represent the Sanskrit alphabet and mantras. The role of divination by breath, and the subjugation of yogini goddesses, will be explored, as well as the importance of later abridged versions of the text that circulated primarily in Iran. Ultimately this appears to be the work of a magician interested in collecting recipes for the practical results. 

The second text is The Pool of Life, an Arabic work ostensibly translated from a Sanskrit text called Amrtakunda, probably dating from the late 15th century. Internal evidence and notes in some manuscripts indicate the reliance of this text on The Fifty Kamarupa Verses,  particularly in the chapters on yoga postures, cakras, and the mantras associated with the yogini goddesses. But this text seems to have been put together by someone trained in the Neoplatonic Illuminationist school of philosophy in Persia, since the text is framed by narratives from Near Eastern Gnostic and philosophical writings, as well as a problematic origin story. The fact that over one third of the text has nothing to do with Indic materials raises questions about the underlying notion of translation.

This module takes a further step into the Sufi adaptation of yogic materials, by discussing first, the Shattari Treatise, composed in the late 15th century by Baha’ al-Dīn Anṣārī,  an author belonging to the Shaṭṭārī and Qādirī Sufi orders. In this treatise on meditation, the Sufi practice of reciting or recollecting the Arabic names of God (dhikr or zikr)is extended to include not only Arabic but Persian and Hindi words and phrases. Sometimes this includes specific semantic content viewed as translation between one language and another, particularly with Hindi phrases attributed to Sufi masters. This treatise also includes meditation on cakras that visualize the mantras in these locations, a practice already found in the Pool of Life, of which several translations in Persian exist.

The second major example is The Ocean of Life (Baḥr al-ḥayāt), compiled by Muḥammad Ghawth in 1550 on the basis of a Persian translation of the Pool of life. This "translation" is nearly 4 times as long as its original, and it has been drastically revised by adding extensive new Indic materials on divination by breath (chapter 2) and yoga postures (expanding chapter 4 from 5 to 22 postures), and by replacing the entire contents of the 9th and 10th chapters with Shattari meditations and creation myths that are both Qur'anic and Puranic. Attention will focus on reconciliation of Indic and Islamicate concepts of the body, and the adjudication of conflict between these perspectives, as well as the splendid illustrations of yoga postures found in several manuscripts.

In the last module, consideration will be given to the Persianate adaptations of yoga practices that did not entail Islamic explanations. One source is Abu al-Fazl, the chief minister to the Mughal Emperor Akbar, who described some yogic practices in his massive treatise on India, the  Regime of Akbar (A'in-i Akbari). Another formidable contribution is the treatise on religions of the world by an esoteric Zoroastrian author, Mir Zul-Fiqar Sasani, in The School of Religious Teachings (Dabistān-i madhāhib, 1650). This ingenious treatise combines an extensive account of yoga in the context of a lengthy description of Indian religion, complicated by his conviction that ancient Persian kings practiced yogic meditation and vegetarianism and were the fundamental teachers of the Indians. The rise of Persianate learning among Hindu secretaries in the administration of numerous Indian kingdoms also led to a series of Persian writings that described Indian ascetics in terms of Sufi orders and the concept of the dervish or faqir, and further Persian texts on these topics by Hindu authors were commissioned by British colonial officials. Finally, attention will be given to the Islamized understanding of yoga as a form of Sufism in Ottoman Sufi orders, the development of European images of yogis as dervishes and faqirs, and the recent popularity of yoga in majority Muslim countries such as Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey.