Religious ecstasy in classical Sufism
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis January 16, 2019 Göran Ogén
In classical Sufism (roughly 850–1100 A.D.), religious ecstasy was described through a differentiated terminology, but no single generic term existed for these states. Sufis often used the plural "mawagid" (from "wagd") to refer to ecstasies, a construction unique to Sufi vocabulary. The primary external method for inducing ecstasy was psalmody based on Koranic vocabulary, sometimes combined with listening to psalmody. The darwish-dance only became a deliberate technique for inducing ecstasy in the thirteenth century with Rumi; before that, it was a controversial expression of ecstasy rather than a means to achieve it.