About the Story Archive
The Family Archive of Sufi Narratives is an oral history collection of Sufi stories told by parents and children in the United Kingdom. The archive emerged from narrative interviews conducted with them as part of the Sufi Storytelling Project, carried out by Dr Hamide Elif Üzümcü at the University of Edinburgh.
The archive contributes to contemporary understandings of Sufi storytelling traditions within family life. It aims to preserve and make accessible the ways in which Sufi stories are used to explore relationships between humans, nature, and wider ethical and spiritual worlds.
Archived in ReShare, UK Data Service’s Repository, the dataset offers two collections:
(1) Sufi Stories
(2) Sufi Concepts
The Sufi Stories collection comprises 55 stories shared within family life across 11 families. Each story is accompanied by detailed metadata, including the Story ID, storyteller, date and place of collection, keywords, storytelling context, moral and ethical teachings identified by the storyteller, source tradition, and an archival citation for reference.
The Sufi Concepts collection comprises 30 Islamic concepts shared within family life across 11 families. Each concept is accompanied by detailed metadata, including Concept ID, storyteller, date and place of collection, theme, context in which the concept was shared, the conceptual meaning described by the storyteller, and an archival citation.
Both collections are organised by family, allowing the stories and concepts to be explored within their respective family contexts.
The Family Archive of Sufi Narratives complements the Digital Museum of Sufi Stories and Art by Children and Families.
Browse Stories
Currently pending final approval from the UK Data Service. A link to browse the collections will be added once they become available in the coming days.
