Expansion of Sufi Brotherhoods across the Islamic World (c. 1405)

Timeline

1. 1405–1410Cairo · EgyptBrotherhoods such as the Qadiriyya and Shadhiliyya within the Mamluk sultanate spread their lineages through urban zawiyas and rural networks of sheikhs, participating in education, relief, and the organization of pilgrimages, consolidating Sufism's social foundations in the Nile and Levant regions.
2. 1403–1408Bursa · Ottoman EmpireDuring the early Ottoman expansion into Anatolia, Sufi brotherhoods spread along trade routes and military garrisons into newly conquered regions, providing religious resources of legitimacy for local Islamization and Ottoman state-building.
3. 1405–1410Herat · KhorasanAfter the breakup of Timur's empire, cities such as Herat became centers of transmission for brotherhoods like the Naqshbandiyya, with sheikhs extending the Sufi lineage to the Indian subcontinent and the Central Asian steppe through chains of master and disciple (silsila) and literary works.