feared their new lords. Deep in Sami’s DNA and heart was the mysticism of Sufism, a deeply spiritual practice of Islam combining intense, almost transcendental devotion and asceticism, a practice as old as Islam itself, common to Sunnis and Shias and ingrained in the history of Mecca. For Wahhabis, Sufi practices, including melodious incantations and especially prayers to the shrines of saints, were heresy.
