ИСТИНА

THE SUFI HERITAGE IN EURASIA ABSTRACT The concept of culture in the Eurasianism traditionally has been viewed as a complex system, in which religious factor is of significant importance. The function of religion in this context has been perceived as socio-organizing. Emphasizing cultural and religious complementarity of the peoples of Eurasia, Christianity was mainly discussed, meanwhile Islam and Buddhism were not widely examined. However, it should be noted that the ideas of Muslim mysticism (Sufism) has always played an important role in the process of cultural/religious identification of many peoples of Eurasia. This paper focuses on main aspects of the history of Sufism and, particularly, describes the Sufi order Yasawiyya, which had a great influence on the development of religious outlook of Turkic peoples of Eurasia, as well as on Muslim mysticism in Asia Minor.