What can a popular fatwa collection teach us about the practice and beliefs of Sufis in Mecca and Medina in the tenth/sixteenth century? With the aim of answering this question, this paper analyzes a portion of the fatwa collection of the Egyptian legist Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (d. 974/1567), “the mufti of the Hijaz,” who until today remains one of the two most authoritative scholars within the later Shafi'i madhhab. Specifically, this paper examines al-Haytami’s fatwas on Sufism in order to paint a picture of Hijazi Sufism as it existed during the second half of the author’s life when he lived and taught in Mecca. Al-Haytami’s well-known fatwa collection was arranged by a student who may have been acting on the orders of the author. In any case, al-Haytami appears to have been well aware of the collection process that was taking place, though the final arrangement of the collection may have postdated his death. The collection itself comprises a large assortment of legal fatwas in addition to a separate volume of miscellanea that carries the independent title al-Fatawa al-hadithiyya (“hadith fatwas”), which the arranger describes as “a concluding section (khatima) of miscellaneous matters that have no connection to the preceding chapters.” It is in this latter volume that we find, among other things, al-Haytami’s numerous fatwas on Sufism, which prove the author to be far more outspoken in his sympathies for the Sufis than any of his Egyptian teachers. Through an analysis of the published edition of al-Fatawa al-hadithiyya, this paper aims to identify the controversies and debates that defined Sufism during al-Haytami’s lifetime. What aspects of Sufi belief and practice were the detractors of Sufism criticizing? What elements of popular Sufism demanded the interventions of a mufti like Ibn Hajar? What were the essential elements of Sufism that people had grown ignorant of in the eyes of Ibn Hajar? Moreover, what aspects of Sufi belief and practice lent themselves most readily to the legal discourse as it appeared in the fatwa literature. In the final analysis, this paper also aims to shed light on the historiographical value of fatwa texts and assesses their capacity to aid contemporary historians in reconstructing both intellectual AND social history.