Family Archive of Sufi Narratives, 2024-2026

Üzümcü, Hamide Elif (2026). Family Archive of Sufi Narratives, 2024-2026. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-858709

The project explores the Sufi perspectives on morals of socio-ecological interactions through narrative interviews with children and their parents in the UK. Sufism (tasawwuf), a mystical and esoteric Islam, offers an ‘ethics of the environment,’ that considers the environment as a reflection of the Oneness of Being (tawhid). This holistic view of the environment is often negotiated by Sufi families and children through the Islamic culture of storytelling.

The project documents and archives contemporary Islamic environmental anecdotes and sayings, from Hadith and Quranic parables to centuries-old Sufi literary heritage, exploring the contexts in which this oral culture is involved in everyday child-parent relationships in Sufi families. It contributes to making visible the intangible, living cultural heritage of Sufism in a contemporary Western context.

Data description (abstract)

The Family Archive of Sufi Narratives is an oral history collection of Sufi literature shared by parents and children in the United Kingdom. These narratives were recorded through interviews with parents and children conducted as part of a broader social science research project led by Dr Hamide Elif Üzümcü at the University of Edinburgh.

The Family Archive of Sufi Narratives comprises two collections: (1) Sufi stories and (2) Sufi concepts.

The Sufi Stories collection includes individual stories accompanied by detailed metadata, including 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 referencing the story.

The Sufi Concepts collection includes individual concepts 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.

The files are provided in PDF format.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Üzümcü Hamide Elif	University of Edinburgh	https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9475-2315

Sponsors:

Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World at the University of Edinburgh, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, TÜBİTAK 2219 International Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye

Topic classification:

Society and culture

Keywords:

CHILDHOOD, CHILDREN, FAMILIES, FAMILY ENVIRONMENT, ISLAM, ENVIRONMENT, NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, LITERATURE, ETHICS, CULTURAL HERITAGE, CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS, RELIGION, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, RELIGIOUS PRACTICE

Project title:

‘Storytelling and Imaginal in Sufism: Narratives of Islamic Environmental Ethics from Children and Parents in Sufi Families,’ & ‘Construction of Islamic Environmental Ethics through Sufi Narrative Traditions in Family Life’

Grant holders:

Hamide Elif Üzümcü

Project dates:

From	To
2024	2026

Date published:

15 Sep 2026 08:20

Last modified:

16 Sep 2026 10:05

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
2024	2026

Geographical area:

United Kingdom

Country:

United Kingdom, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales

Data collection method:

Methodology:
Research technique: The archived stories and concepts were collected through narrative interviewing, an approach that recruits participants as storytellers and encourages them to share their experiences through open-ended prompts and questions (Gubrium and Holstein, 2012). It provides access to highly contextualised accounts of lived experience and helps reveal the intersections between biography and storytelling (Bernhard, 2015).

Interviews were conducted online and separately with parents and their children, providing each participant with dedicated time and space to express their experiences, reflections, and interpretations. This approach also reflects the project’s commitment to recognising children as agents, with distinct perspectives and interpretative approaches to their experiences and the stories they share.

Sample: The sample comprised 11 families living in the United Kingdom who engage with Sufi-related traditions or are part of a Sufi order. The target participants were parents and children aged 11–15 years. The current collections draw on data from 19 encounters with these families, comprising 11 parent interviews and 8 child interviews.

Observation unit:

Individual, Organization, Family, Event/Process, Geographic unit, Time unit

Kind of data:

Text, Audio, Video

Type of data:

Qualitative and mixed methods data

Resource language:

English

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