Development of Sufism

Sufism arose from within Islam in the 8th-9th centuries C.E.
Some scholars suggest that the ascetic movement of early Islam was a reaction to the new wealth pouring into the Muslim community as Muslims took over the riches of the Roman Empire and Persian Empire.
It is more likely that other monotheistic ascetics, especially Christian monks, provided Muslims with a model of ascetic practice.
Throughout the ninth century, the character of Sufism developed by contributions from various masters.
The Sufi Dhu al-Nun al-Misri conducted wide-ranging travels and became a master with many disciples in Egypt.
For him, a kind of divine personal intuition or interior knowledge was most important for any mystic or ascetic.
Abu Yazid al-Bistami was the founder of the "drunken school" of Sufis. The name referred to the ecstatic state its adherents reached as they felt themselves coming nearer to God.
Like Dhu al-Nun, Abu Yazid exalted inner knowledge unreceived from any human source, but he went further.
He taught his disciples that the Sufi needed no eyes to see God, no ears to hear him, no brain to think of him, no tongue to praise him. Instead, devotion should take place within, as aspects of the eventual joining with God, when there would be no distinction between the Sufi and the deity.
Most Sufis in the world today are Muslim and many of them would consider a non-Islamic Sufism impossible