ʿUmar al-Suhrawardi (1144 or 1145–1234) has long been recognized as a seminal figure in Islamic mysticism. The author of the popular Sufi guide book, the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, al-Suhrawardi was a key figure in the emergence and perpetuation of recognized Sufi orders during the 13th to 14th centuries. Building on earlier scholarship, particularly that of Marshall Hodgson, Angelika Hartmann, and Richard Gramlich, Eric Ohlander has made a new and substantial contribution to the study of this important figure. Ohlander begins by summarizing Hodgson's view of the rise of the Sufi orders, which combined jamāʿī-sunnī communalism with ascetic and pietistic trends of the time. The largely tolerant and inclusive attitude of many Sufi masters, including al-Suhrawardi, enabled them and their disciples to reach out to the larger population and bring many Muslims into the Sufi fold in one capacity or another whether as disciples, aspirants, or lay-affiliates. Ohlander appreciates Hodgson's model but aims to refine and correct it in light of new sources and points of view, especially regarding the ruling elite's systemic patronage of Sufis, the ʿulamaʾ culture of learning and transmission of knowledge, and the organization and praxis of the important urban institution of the ribāṭ/khānaqāh. By carefully reconstructing al-Suhrawardi's biography and closely reading his extensive writings, Ohlander “endeavors to uncover the dynamics operating in the life and career of such a key figure [and to] illuminate just how such a figure was able to go about successfully negotiating the complex and interrelated social, political, and religious milieux which constituted the setting of his activities in the first place” (p. 12).

In Chapter 1, Ohlander situates al-Suhrawardi in a political and cultural landscape dominated by the efforts of the caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah (1180–1225) and his religio-political propaganda to expand and legitimate his authority. Al-Nasir was a great patron of madāris, rubuṭ, and futuwa organizations, whose overseers, including al-Suhrawardi, were indebted to him. This patronage and its resulting institutions served the ʿulamaʾ, especially the Sufis among them, and led to the development of communities of like-minded individuals increasingly regulated by a code of conduct (adab) and a religious and administrative hierarchy emanating from the central shaykh. In Chapter 2, Ohlander carefully sifts through biographical notices and related sources to reconstruct al-Suhrawardi's early life and education as a hadith scholar and member of the Shafiʿi law school and to trace his mystical lineage. Having attained the rank of Sufi master, al-Suhrawardi was appointed as director to a series of rubuṭ in Baghdad by the caliph al-Nasir, who called upon al-Suhrawardi on several occasions to serve as his ambassador to various sultans. In addition, Ohlander reviews hagiographies and tales of al-Suhrawardi's meetings with other saints and Sufis and how these accounts may have served to foster and preserve his saintly reputation among later generations of disciples and admirers.

Chapter 3 focuses on al-Suhrawardi's writings and his distinction between “worldly ʿulamaʾ” and “the world-renouncing scholars and the Sufi masters.” Of course al-Suhrawardi and his disciples fell into this second category, being the heirs to the Prophet because they combined correct praxis with true gnosis. Ohlander then thoughtfully reviews some of al-Suhrawardi's mystical teachings, particularly those involving the psychospiritual body, in which the heart (qalb) links concupiscence (nafs) to the spirit (ruḥ). He also carefully delineates some of the mystical states and stations discussed by al-Suhrawardi, which will enable the dedicated mystic to reach the truth of certainty. In Chapter 4, Ohlander considers the praxis and organization used by al-Suhrawardi that would eventually lead to the rise of his order. Essential here were the master–disciple relationship, rule of conduct, dhikr, seclusion, the Sufi habit, the patched frock, and chain of masters, which would become important markers of identity. Poverty (faqr), travel, and mystical audition (samāʿ) were also vital to the Sufi life, though they, too, required strict supervision. Within both his rubuṭ and writings, ʿUmar al-Suhrawardi drew from the rule of order established by his famous Sufi uncle Abu Najib while claiming spiritual descent from the mystical tradition of the great 9th-century master al-Junayd. In this way, al-Suhrawardi consciously established and formalized his own system of mystical doctrine and practice through permission (ijāza) to transmit his writings, mystical formulas (dhikr), and Sufi habits (khirqa).

In the fifth chapter and the conclusion, Ohlander returns to al-Suhrawardi's projects on behalf of al-Nasir and his successor, particularly those involving the futuwa or chivalric organizations. Here again, al-Suhrawardi organized them in such a way so as to serve as lay-oriented extensions of the Sufi ribāṭ organized around a master and a set of rules and allowing for a range of affiliations based on one's level of commitment. Though al-Suhrawardi's efforts to regulate Sufi and futuwa life may have been useful to his patrons, Ohlander argues that al-Suhrawardi's main aim was to present himself and his disciples, or his group (ṭā'ifa), as the rightful heirs to the Prophet and to construct a system (ṭarīq) in which his writings might “serve as repositories of memory and authority . . . and, ultimately, salvific patterns of behavior which could be replicated in the present” (p. 311).

Ohlander rounds out his study with an extensive bibliography including many manuscripts, and a series of indexes for persons and places, book titles, and terms and concepts. Sufism in an Age of Transition is a work of extensive and solid scholarship, though Ohlander's writing would have profited from a firmer editorial hand. His style is often dense, and his many excruciatingly long sentences require patience and diligence to unpack their meaning and significance. Yet readers who persevere will be rewarded, and Erik Ohlander is to be commended for his contribution to the study of Islam and its mystical tradition.