In classical books in anthropology of islam the categories of «great and little traditions» set up a dichotomy between an orthodox, official, scripturalist, puritanical, urban islam and an heterodox, popular, oral, saint-worshiping, ritualistic, tribal Islam. This essen¬tializing theory, criticized in Islamic studies, lasted for a long time in anthropology for mul¬tiple reasons: failed dialogue with religious (and islamic) studies, ethnocentrism, political circumstances. The ‘invention’ of an ‘authentic orthodox islam’ seems to be a recurrent pat-tern in history, functional to serve ideologies and interests of different subjects: islamic do-minant élites, colonizers, islamists (moderate and radicals) and, finally, scholars apologists of islam after 11/9.
Keywords: Anthropology of islam, islamic studies, religious studies, orthodoxy, sufism.