Studying the Historic Spread of Sufism in the Early and Middle Islam Era and the Expansion of Sufi Literature in Iran

Is the appearance of Sufism in its modern meaning and in turn Sufism literature an abrupt event or a result of historical processes and evolution of social trends which led to such an extensive phenomenon? Though it is true that gnostic thoughts and also Sufism in its general meaning date back to the beginning of the human history, but except for a few ambiguous images on the cave walls and/or myth stories attributed to the ancient people after invention of writing systems, nothing has remained from the vast sea of the ancient people thoughts and ideas. Identification of Sufism phenomenon and its effects on the Islamic societies and also on the non-Islamic ones in later times is subject to the same above-mentioned constraints and limitations. Acknowledging the inevitable deficiencies, the author tries to present a picture of the appearance of Sufism and some examples of its various influences on the society based on the remaining relevant books and literature as accurate as possible.