Ahmad-i Jam’s gnosticism, as Shafiʿi Kadkani said, has a “unique flavor” (taʿm-i wizha). Ahmad’s progeny attempted to describe his gnostic (ʿirfan) and religious concepts in their books, namely, Hadiqat al-haqiqa and Khulasat al-maqamat (both still valued at Jam). However, a Sufi methodology (suluk or tariq) attributable to Ahmad was not articulated. With novel or revived Sufi concepts wafting through Khurasan in the eighth/fourteenth and ninth/fifteenth centuries, the doctrines and practices of the Sufis of Jam shifted. The Khwajagan-Naqshbandiyya offered them fresh and exciting mystical theories and models.Examined closely here are dhikr (recollection of God), khalwat (seclusion), samaʿ (auditory stimulation), and rabita (bonding one’s heart with the shaykh’s heart), which remain popular ʿirfan exercises. A case study of ʿAziz-Allah Jami, who was drawn to the Naqshbandiyya, demonstrates how Jamis borrowed and adapted, but remained faithful to their saint by focusing their devotion on Ahmad-i Jam. By focusing on Ahmad, sometimes through the practice of rabita, the fissiparous Sufi components of the cult avoided conflict over doctrines. Jami Sufis were a “broad church,” bound together by love for Ahmad of Jam.

Chapter 3 presents and discusses the diverse prayer practices encountered in the zongos. Drawing on ethnographic descriptions and providing people’s varied interpretations of them, I discuss the diversity of Islamic prayer practices in relation to the anthropological literature on prayer. As I argue, Islamic prayer practices are fundamental to the formation of the Islamic community of the zongos, but they also provide the people of these wards with practical means to (re-)actualise their religious distinctions and dissent. The chapter first describes the separate ʿid prayers in Kokote Zongo and discusses the literature on prayer. I go on to describe the ṣalāt, the daily Islamic prayer, and discuss how the people of the zongo (re-)actualise their Islamic community and their religious differences through it. Then, I address the specific dhikr practices by which the Tijaniyya distinguish themselves from other Islamic groups and offer a panoramic view of the diverse personal prayer practices encountered in the zongos. I argue that the people of the zongo relate to the divine, the Islamic tradition, and each other as Muslims in their diverse religious practices. They are and become Muslims in diverse ways, as they (re)make, engage with, and embody the irreducible diversity of their religion.