Préserver le Charisme. Les conséquences de la mort d'Ahmad Kaftaro sur la mosquée-complexe Abu al-Nur

Following his father's death in 1938, the young Muslim scholar Ahmad Kaftaro inherited the position as a sheikh of a Naqshbandi tarîqa and as a preacher of the Abu al-Nur mosque. In the beginning of the 1950s he was appointed Mufti of Damascus and in 1964 he became the Grand Mufti of Syria, a position he held until his passing away in September 2004. During the reign of Ahmad Kaftaro, his small mosque developed into a large, multi-purpose Islamic complex. The recent developments at the Sheikh Ahmad Kaftaro Foundation demonstrate an aspiration to develop a modern organization. One question is how the ambition to build an Islamic educational institution and NGO focused on welfare corresponds with the "traditional" values and ideas of a Naqshbandi tarîqa. Hence, questions concerning transmission of charisma and changes in rituals due to the death of Kaftaro will be discussed in the paper.