Review of: "Before Sufism: Early Islamic Renunciant Piety" by Christopher Melchert

This review of Before Sufism: Early Islamic Renunciant Piety by Christopher Melchert highlights the book as a synthesis of the author’s extensive scholarship on early Islamic asceticism and its historical development. Melchert challenges the notion of Sufism as a continuous tradition from the Prophet’s time, instead situating its emergence in the third/ninth century while focusing on the preceding renunciant piety. The review commends Melchert’s historical approach but critiques his classification of sources and the rigid separation of adab, ḥadīth, and Sufi traditions. It also notes the absence of engagement with literary tropes and later renunciant texts. Despite some methodological concerns, the book is praised as a comprehensive reference for scholars of Islamic mysticism and asceticism.