First Paragraph: Sufism as we know it today – the Sufism of organized brotherhoods and the veneration of saints – was formed in the later Middle Ages, specifically during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was then that Sufism became also a mass movement, not on the margins of the religious and social landscape of medieval Muslim societies but capturing a central role in the experiences of Islam for a majority. In the context of Egypt and Syria, it was under the Ayyūbids and the early Mamlūks that Sufism truly became popular.
Rapoport, Yossef. “The Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt, 1173-1325, by Nathan Hofer”. Ilahiyat Studies 7/2 (Şubat 2017), 306-308. https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2016.72.155.