The presence of Sufi orders in the Balkans is closely linked to Ottoman rule over this ethnically mixed peninsula between the fourteenth and early twentieth centuries. The diversity and number of Sufi orders indicate that most of the peninsula provided receptive grounds for the dissemination of Sufi ideas and practices. Indeed, it would be impossible to imagine the high conversion rate to Islam in many areas without an active Sufi presence. Balkan Islam, then, has been neither fully defined by S…