“I tasted sweetness, and I tasted affliction”: pleasure, pain, and body in medieval Sufi food practices

Abstract

ABSTRACT Attitudes toward food and eating are an often-neglected area of Sufi thought and practice. In this article, I analyze medieval Sufi food practices as a mode of piety. In doing so I focus on distinctions between pleasure and pain brought on by food consumption and abstention, and the gestures that accompany these experiences. By focusing on Sufism from the 11th-13th centuries CE, this article traces Sufi approaches to food through theoretical, practical, and hagiographical texts over time. I first detail the interconnection between the body and mystical experience in Sufi theory, before moving on to a discussion of more practical approaches to food consumption. I then consider Sufi narratives involving food and its connection to sex and gender before turning to questions of food habits and belonging. In doing so I intend to highlight how Sufi food practices played a significant role in embedding pious bodily habits within Sufi communities.