As stated earlier, the Shaykh combined in his person the twin roles of a mystic mentor and a college teacher, but after him the two functions became separated. His son 'Abd al-Wahhāb (552/ 1151-593/ 1196) succeeded him in the madrasah, and his other son 'Abd al-Razzāq (528/ 1134-603/ 1206-7) turned to spiritual discipline and looked after the ribāṭ. It was he who built near the grave of his father a mosque with seven gilt domes. Hulagü's sack of Baghdad (658/ 1258) brought to an end both the madrasah and the ribāṭ, and the Shaykh's descendants became scattered and dispersed. Thereafter, those associated with his family turned their attention to organizing the order in different regions. Those of his family members who remained in Baghdad constituted what has been called "the moral center of the order"; others settled in Cairo and Aleppo. 'Alī ibn Ḥaddād carried his mystic ideas and his discipline to Yemen. In Syria, Muḥammad al-Baṭā'inī of Baalbek popularized his religious ideas. In Egypt, Muḥammad 'Abd al-Ṣamad worked for the propagation of the order. According to E. Mercier, the order was prevalent in Berbery in the sixth/ twelfth century and was in close contact with the Fāṭimids, who ruled there until 566/ 1171. ⁵ A. Le Chatelier says that the Shaykhs religious and mystical ideas were taken to Morocco, Egypt, Arabia, Turkestan, and India during his own lifetime by his own sons, ⁶ but this assertion has not been confirmed by contemporary sources. It took several centuries for the order to reach some of these countries.

In India, for instance, the order did not make any significant impact before the tenth/ sixteenth century. North Africa saw the rise of the Jilālah communities, which attributed great spiritual and supernatural powers to the saint. Such developments were criticized by Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibrāhim al-Shāṭibī. ⁷ The order was introduced in Fez by the descendants of the Shaykh, Ibrāhīm (d. 592/ 1196) and ' Abd al-'Azīz. Their descendants later migrated to Spain, but before the fall of Granada in 897/ 1492 all of them returned to Morocco. In Asia Minor and Istanbul, the order was introduced by Ismā'īl Rūmī (d. 1041/ 1631). He founded some forty takiyyahs (Sufi centers in Turkish) in that region and a khānqāh (Sufi center in Persian--also transliterated as khānaqāh) known as Qādirī-khānah. In Arabia zāwiyahs (Sufi center in Arabic) were set up at Jedda, Madina, and Mecca. There was a time when the entire Nile Valley was studded with Qādirī centers, and Cairo was an important center of the Qādirlyyah Order. In Africa, Khartoum, Sokoto, and Tripoli had numerous zāwiyahs of the Qādirīs. The Qādirī missionary activity has been particularly noticed among Berbers. In fact, the sack of Baghdad by Hulagū in 658/ 1258, the fall of Granada in 897/ 1492, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire in 923/ 1517 are the three major developments of the Islamic world in the background of which the history of the Qādiriyyah Order may be traced in Africa, Central Asia, and Turkestan.

As the order spread out in different regions, many sub-branches and offshoots also appeared, but these were designated by the name of the local Qādirī saints. For instance, in Yemen, the 'Urabiyyah after the name of  'Umar ibn Muḥammad al-'Urabī (tenth/ sixteenth century), the Yāfi'iyyah after the name of 'Afīf al-Dīn 'Abd Allāh al-Yāfi'ī ( 718/ 1318-768/ 1367), and the Ahdaliyyah after the name of Abu'l-Ḥasan 'Alī ibn 'Umar alAhdal; in Syria, the Dā'ūdiyyah after the name of Abu'l-Bakr ibn Dā'ūd (d. 806/ 1403); in Egypt, the Fāriḍiyyah after the name of 'Umar ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 632/ 1235); and in Turkey, the Asadiyyah after the name of 'Afīf al-Dīn 'Abd Allāh ibn 'Alī al-Asadī. These offshoots of the Qādiriyah Order became known after the names of their immediate founders but retained their affiliation with the central figure of the silsilah.

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