In four substantive sections, I consider the personalities and processes that between the late 1800s and 1920s contributed to the Ahmadiyyah-Idrisiyyah established a presence in the Thai/Malay Peninsula. I begin with a prolegomena pointing out that despite its long history in South Thailand, sufism has almost been entirely neglected by scholars. Although in some parts of the country some still resemble secret societies, in others they engage through websites, social media, and TV channels. In Thailand sufi practitioners lack the numbers found in other parts of Muslim Southeast Asia, and most sufi tariqa are now marginal to the Muslim mainstream. In contrast to the modernist, reformist, and revivalist Islamic movements firmly embedded in Thailand’s religious landscape, next to nothing is known about these movements, for a variety of reasons. This paper is part of a historical ethnography of sufi orders (turuq) between the Thailand’s Central plains and Malay far-south.
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