Living tradition
The path today
The Rifāʿī path is a family of historically connected, locally different traditions — lodges and shrines, teaching circles, cultural associations and online communities — from Iraq and Egypt to the Balkans, South Asia and the Americas.
The teacher who inspired this site Sheikh Sherif Baba Çatalkaya A sheikh of the Rifāʿī-Maʿrifī path from Istanbul, whose students carry his teaching in Türkiye, the United States and Canada. → Branches around the world
A page for each branch or country: its history, its practice, its line and its life today. To contact or visit a community, see Find a community.
- The circle of Kenan RifâîWomen teachers, sohbet and cultural foundationsIstanbul · Plovdiv · Chapel Hill · Toronto
- Sherif Baba and the Rifāʿī-MaʿrifīThe Maʿrifī line in North AmericaTürkiye · Seattle · Vancouver · Montreal
- The Ansari Qadiri Rifai networkA Qādirī–Rifāʿī order on five continentsNew York · London · Sydney · Mexico
- The Rufai tekkes of the BalkansLodges that never closed; Sultan NevruzSkopje · Gjakova · Prizren · Rahovec · Berat
- The Rifāʿiyya in EgyptThe General Sheikhdom of the Rifāʿī SādātCairo
- Iraq: the Pîr’s countryThe shrine, its buildings and its visitorsUmm ʿUbayda
- Sri Lanka and South IndiaThe Rifai Thareeq and the rātibColombo · Malabar
- Indonesia and the Malay worldRapa’i and debus — and a name that is not a branchAceh · Banten · Central Java
- The Maʿrifiyya in TürkiyeThe Entekkeliler lodge and the milk mevlidKartal · Manisa · İzmir
Find a community
Websites, social accounts and gathering places, listed only where the community itself endorses them: Find a community →
Earlier accounts
Communities as the books on the tradition describe them, with the year each account dates from.
| Where | Line | What is recorded | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Istanbul | Circle of Kenan Rifâî | Led after 1950 by Sâmiha Ayverdi and later Cemalnur Sargut, working through cultural foundations such as the Kubbealtı Academy. | 2007 |
| Ankara | Traditional Rufâî ceremonies | A group under Sheikh Galip Kuşçuoğlu keeping the traditional ceremonies. | 1988 press report |
| Sivas | Sayyâdiyya | The lodge of the Arap Şeyh, endowed in 1913 to his sons in succession. | 1913 |
| Kosovo and Albania | İzzeddîniyya and Sayyâdiyya | Lodges at Prizren and Gjakova revived under Sheikh Jamālī Jamāladdīn (d. 2004); lodges in Albania founded by Sheikh Âdem Nuri. | 2007 |
| Chicago | Rifāʿī-Sayyâdī and Qādirī | A community whose sheikh received both lines from Sheikh Jamālī in 1999; publisher of the Risale-i Rifaiyye. | 2007 |
| Toronto | Circle of Kenan Rifâî, through Cemil Aksoy | The Rifai Order / Canadian Institute of Sufi Studies under Shaykh Murat Coşkun, taught by Cemil Aksoy (d. 2018), grandson of Kenan Rifâî; biweekly mixed-gender zikr with turning, open to all; building a dargah outside the city. | 2018–2023 fieldwork |
| Vancouver · Seattle · Montreal | Rifāʿī-Maʿrifī, circle of Sherif Baba | Vancouver Rumi Society and monthly Unity Zikr (from 1998); United States branch in Seattle since 2008 with an annual Rumi Fest; Sema Space Montreal. | 2018–2023 fieldwork |
| California | Qadiri Rifai Tariqa of the Americas | Founded on the authority of Shaykh Muhyiddin Ansari of Istanbul, through Shaykh Nuruddin Ozal. | 2000 |
Is your community missing?
Every community is described here in its own words, with its own website linked, and never ranked against another. More branches — Iraq, Syria and the Levant, Pakistan, Bosnia — are being added. Corrections and additions are warmly welcome.