On the History of Sufism in Australia: A Manuscript from the Broken Hill Mosque

Abstract

As scholarly interest in Australia’s cameleers has increased, there has been suggestions that some of these Muslim migrants were connected with Sufism. However, to date, there has been limited analysis and insufficient evidence to claim a strong connection between the cameleers and Sufism in Australia. This article attempts to rectify this by providing an analysis and translation of a handwritten manuscript found at Broken Hill’s historic cameleer mosque. The contents of this manuscript highlight a strong connection to the history of Sufism, tracing separate family and pedagogic genealogies back to ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166), the founder of the Qādiriyya Sufi order.