Source books · Traditionalism
Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements
How this book fits
- Traditions
- Traditionalism The Fourth Way Islamic esotericism
- Role in the tradition
- Secondary source A study of the tradition from outside it: history, scholarship, anthropology or reference.
- Public attention
- Unmeasured No Wikidata entry could be matched to this book with confidence, so no attention label was assigned.
Read it
- Library of Congress open-access PDF ↗ tile.loc.gov checked October 20, 2026
In this study
A multidisciplinary handbook on the histories, ideas and institutions of Islamic and related movements, including chapters on Sufism, René Guénon and Gurdjieff.
William Rory Dickson's chapter, ‘René Guénon and Traditionalism’ (pp. 589–611), follows the movement through both ideas and institutions. It explains Guénon's Primordial Tradition as a metaphysical claim while also tracing how Guénon, Frithjof Schuon and later Traditionalists shaped Western writing about Islam and established Sufi communities.