SUFI AESTHETICS IN POST 9/11 CINEMA: RESISTANCE THROUGH MYSTICAL IMAGINATION

Author

• Pervez Khan, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

8-1-2026

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Mass Communication and Media Arts

First Advisor

Kapur, Jyotsna

Abstract

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, mainstream media, much of it based in the U.S. and Europe, was flooded with Islamophobic content. Cinematic tropes, already in existence, of Muslims as terrorists, fundamentalists, patriarchal misogynists, and villains got a second wind. This study traces how certain filmmakers offered Sufi aesthetics, derived from mystical Islam and comprising music, poetry, calligraphy, parables, symbolism, and allegory as a counter-response to Islamophobic rhetoric and war. I also explore how such aesthetics respond to homegrown fundamentalism. Relying on textual analysis, I interpret the cinematic forms through which Sufi poetry, visuals, allegory, and narratives are projected to create a transcendent and ultimately resistant experience for the spectator. My readings are informed by Andre Bazin’s theory on cinema’s ability to create a luminous experience of reality, Ibn Arabi’s philosophical ruminations on the unity of being and the imagination, and the poetry of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Farid al-Din Attar, and the Sufi feminist poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah. The study finds that these films, through Sufi aesthetics and artistic elements, serve as a powerful cinematic response to counter stereotypical and hegemonic imagery of the cultural “Other”. The study also finds that Sufi films, through their powerful feminist themes, offer women resilience and agency in their regional settings and elevate cinema’s potential as a meditative space in raising higher consciousness.