Rifāʿiyya

, the name of one of the most prominent Ṣūfī orders from the period of the institutionalisation of the ṭarīḳas [q.v.], and one which came to be noted in pre-modern times for the extravagance of some of its practices.

It is unclear whether the founder, Aḥmad al-Rifāʿī [q.v.], was a mystic of the thaumaturgie, miracle-mongering type, but the order which he founded and which was developed by his kinsmen certainly acquired its extravagant reputation during the course of the 6th/12th century; it may not be without significance that the o…