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	<title>Sindhi Studies Group</title>
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	<description>Society, Culture and Territory in India and Pakistan</description>
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		<title>Workshop: Muslim Saints, Dreams, and Veneration of Shrines (EASA 2012)</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/909</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/909#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:36:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News & Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saints]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shrines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sufism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sindh.hypotheses.org/?p=909</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We made an announcement in a previous post about the 12th EASA biennal international conference held in Nanterre University in France (10-13 July 2012). In the workshop entitled “Muslim Saints, Dreams, and Veneration of Shrines”, organized by Dr.I.Edagr (Dept. Anthropology, University of Durham, UK) and Dr.P. Khosronejad (Dept. Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, Scotland), there will be several interesting papers: Dream visions of the saints In Khōjā kahaṇī literature Iqbal Akhtar (University of Edinburgh) The kahaṇīō were popular narrative prayers of the Khōjā [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify">We made an announcement in a previous post about the <a href="http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2012/index.htm">12th EASA biennal international conference</a> held in Nanterre University in France (10-13 July 2012). In the workshop entitled<a href="http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2012/panels.php5?PanelID=1192"> “Muslim Saints, Dreams, and Veneration of Shrines”</a>, organized by <strong>Dr.I.Edagr</strong> (Dept. Anthropology, University of Durham, UK) and <strong>Dr.P. Khosronejad</strong> (Dept. Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, Scotland), there will be several interesting papers:</p>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<p><span style="color: #993300"><strong><em>Dream visions of the saints In Khōjā kahaṇī literature</em></strong></span></p>
<p><em></em> Iqbal Akhtar (University of Edinburgh)</p>
<div>
<p>The kahaṇīō were popular narrative prayers of the Khōjā related to specific saints of the Imāmī Shīʿī. This literature was primarily employed by Khōjā women and commonly featured a female protagonist who comes to a point in her predicament where there appears to be no hope or clear answer. The night dream, which entails a metaphysical pilgrimage to a shrine or meeting with the saint corporeal, then, reveals the solution.</p>
<p>Night visitations figure prominently in the kahaṇī for according to Muslim tradition the spirit escapes the body with sleep. This allows a literal spiritual encounter with and obeisance to the saints. For Asian and African Shīʿī Muslims in the geographical periphery of the physical Near Eastern shrines, the dream state allowed an egalitarian opportunity for all to make pilgrimage. Pilgrimages in dreams were based on religious merit, rather than the physical journey which required wealth. The dreams of saints allowed devout Khōjā women of modest means to circumvent modalities of communal religious institutions to achieve spiritual gnosis.</p>
<p>The kahaṇī, originally of South Asian origin, provides and deeper understanding of how Imāmī Shīʿī, in the periphery of Islamic civilization, envisioned and related to the saints of the Near East in a localized context while retaining the Indic legends and narrative structures of their indigenous devotional literature.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify">
<p><span style="color: #993300"><em><strong>Dreaming Baba, Restituting Memory: Popular Sufi Shrines in Contemporary (East) Punjab</strong></em></span></p>
<p><em></em>Yogesh Snehi (Ambedkar University, Delhi)</p>
<div>
<p>The partition of Punjab in 1947 divided the province into a Muslim-majority Pakistani Punjab and Sikh-Hindu dominated Indian Punjab. This happened after catastrophic sharing of populations on the either side and irrepairably divided the region on communal lines, seriously underming those traditions of shared popular veneration of sufi shrines which had over the centuries emerged as the dominant element of Punjabi society. This process had, however, begun in the late nineteenth century and what followed was a sustained onslaught on the popular veneration of pirs by reformer in the early twentieth century and Sikh militancy in the late twentieth century.</p>
<p>Thus, it becomes significant to probe the ways in which such practices reconfigured themselves in East Punjab when the larger centres of Sufism were left behind in the West Punjab. Taking account of selected popular sufi shrines in contemporary (East) Punjab this paper seeks to foreground the role played by dreams in recovering popular memory of pre-partition Punjabi society, the centrality of saint veneration in its social formation. Significantly, this process has translated in the emergence of a new set of shrines, particularly in the post-militancy phase, which have been constructed through donations from non-Muslims. This process has led to emergence of new forms of dissenting associative (popular) identities based on the rejection of caste and religious hierarchies. These narratives appropriate and interweave the medieval liberal discourse of the Chishtis with the Nath and Bhakti tradition, and emphasise the continued relevance of these articulations in contemporary social formation.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify">
<p><span style="color: #993300"><em><strong>Encountering Hizir and Elijah: Dreaming and Healing in the Muslim and Alawi Traditions of Hatay</strong></em></span></p>
<p><em></em>Jens Kreinath (Wichita State University)</p>
<div>
<p>Healing in conjunction with dream and vision quests at sacred sites is well-documented and play a major role in the Muslim tradition. This paper presents a local account of this tradition in the worship of Saint George (Hızır or Khiḍr) as commonly practiced at various pilgrimage sites in Hatay, Turkey. It aims to demonstrate how Muslims and Alawis visit these pilgrimage sites for purposes of healing, praying, and wish-making. I argue that the dream request as a key element in visiting these sites is viewed as a reshaping of reality and transformation of agency. By engaging in the work of Bakhtin and and Deleuze, I ponder upon how concepts such as the &#8216;chronotope&#8217; and &#8216;virtuality&#8217; can allow analyzing the interrelatedness of the visits at these sacred pilgrimage sites in conjunction with oral traditions blending encounters with Hizir as well as Elijah and with personal accounts of those who visit these sites and experience dreaming and healing. By way of conclusion, I contrast these accounts with the veneration of other Muslim saints in that area.</p>
</div>
</div>
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<p><span style="color: #993300"><em><strong>Flashes of Ultimate Reality: Dreams of Saints and Shrines in a Contemporary Pakistani Sufi Community</strong></em></span></p>
<p><em></em> Robert Rozehnal (Lehigh University)</p>
<div>
<p>In today&#8217;s Pakistan, Sufi ritual practice takes place at diverse times and in myriad locations—from private homes to large, public tomb-shrines. It even extends into the dream world of sleep. For Muslims both past and present, dreams are much more than nocturnal hallucinations. As a medium for both revelation and inspiration, they impart vital ontological, epistemological and spiritual truths. Sufi dream theory draws on a rich premodern heritage. Even so, its logic and practice diverges sharply from the classical science of Islamic dream interpretation (ta&#8217;bir). As flashes of ultimate reality (bushra), Sufis view dreams as a litmus test of a seeker&#8217;s spiritual potential.</p>
<p>In twenty-first century Pakistan, the Chishti Sabiri order (tariqa) is a living Sufi tradition that traces its teachings and lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad. Grounded on the intimate relationship between a master (shaykh) and disciple (murid), the order&#8217;s pedagogy rests on a detailed and disciplined routine of ritual practices. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and textual analysis, this paper explores the importance of Sufi saints and sacred shrines in Chishti Sabiri dream work. I argue that dreams and dream interpretation serve as models for Muslim selfhood and sainthood, tools for spiritual development and markers of spiritual attainment. My analysis examines Sufi dream theory, the ritual use of dreams in both private and public spaces (including Sufi tomb complexes), and the techniques for interpreting dreams as both a sign of individual psychology and a window to the realm of divinity.</p>
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<p><span style="color: #993300"><em><strong>Sacred Sites, Severed heads and Prophetic Visions</strong></em></span></p>
<p><em></em>Claire Norton (St Mary&#8217;s University College)</p>
<div>
<p>My paper will examine the convergence of sacred geographies and prophetic visions in early modern Ottoman gazavatname (campaign narrative) accounts of the sieges of Nagykanizsa castle. In these narratives Tiryaki Hasan Pasha experiences a prophetic vision at the grave site of a martyred Muslim soldier. The martyrdom of the soldier was itself an unusual and heterodox mystical event. While fighting valiantly against the infidel, the soldier was beheaded by the enemy who fled with his head. The martyred soldier&#8217;s body cried out and gave chase killing the infidel and reclaiming his head. The martyred solider is subsequently buried and his grave becomes a site where mystical dreams occur. Both a local judge and another soldier dream that they see the inside of the tomb filled with light and huris congratulating the martyr on his bravery. Seventy years later Hasan Pasha, while at the grave site, experiences a strange natural phenomena &#8211; flocks of birds whirl and fight &#8211; and he interprets this as providing divinatory knowledge of a future Habsburg attack on nearby Nagykanizsa castle which will end in defeat for the Habsburgs. Somewhat later Hasan Pasha has another dream in which the four &#8216;choice friends&#8217; appear and help the Ottomans defend the castle. This congruence of spiritually significant external spaces and inner prophetic visions helps to create a cultural and spiritual map that reinforces the depiction of Hasan Pasha as spiritually powerful while also figuring him as a religiously-liminal mystic with supernatural powers akin to those possessed by some dervishes.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify">
<p><span style="color: #993300"><em><strong>Sufi shrines and dreams in Palestine</strong></em></span></p>
<p><em></em>Aref Abu-Rabia (University of the Negev)</p>
<div>
<p>This paper will describe the common Sufi beliefs regarding dreams and shrines. These beliefs developed during joint and private seasonal visits (ziara) during the twentieth century in Palestine. Gaining insight into the sociology of the Sufi cult of saints can enrich our understanding of similar cults in other places and shed light on the reasons for their absence in other societies. I will examine the phenomenon of true dreams at saints&#8217; shrines, particularly among the various Sufi orders in Palestine, and explore the historical and contemporary extent of dream pilgrimages to these shrines.</p>
<p>Ceremonies that involve visiting saints&#8217; shrines have encouraged a relationship of socio-cultural and psychological-therapeutic dependence of the pilgrims with regard to these shrines. This dependence is deeply rooted in their collective psyche and reinforced and legitimized through Palestinian folklore. This paper will be based on primary and secondary sources, interviews with Sufis, including their leaders, and, key people who have been active in participating in these rituals, as well as archival and documentary material, a review of published and unpublished materials, books, and scientific journals.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify">
<p><span style="color: #993300"><em><strong>The &#8220;Sleeping women&#8221;, the Dead and the Saints: Dreaming, Dreamsharing and Dream Interpretation as women´s power in Northern Morocco</strong></em></span></p>
<p><em></em>Araceli Gonzalez-Vazquez (Collège de France)</p>
<div>
<p>In Magie et religion dans l´Afrique du Nord, Edmond Doutté writes on the figure of the «sleepers»: &#8220;(…) dans le Rif il y avait des individus appelés er reqqada, c´est-à-dire les dormeurs qui tombaient en léthargie, restaient plusiers jours dans cet état, puis è leur réveil, faisaient les plus étonnantes prophéties&#8221;. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Ghzawa (Western Rif, Morocco), we examine two types of oneiric experiences. On one side, we reflect on the figure of &#8220;the sleeping women&#8221; (er-reqqada) and their uses of dreams as forms of divination. We also study the roles of peasant women as interpreters of dreams. On the other side, we analyse the quest for visionary dreams and dream incubation (istikhara) in the shrine of Sidi Belghassem al-Hajj (Ghzawa), a significant place for the Baqqaliyya Sufi brotherhood.</p>
<p>In peasant women and in the &#8220;sleeping women&#8221;´s dreams and visions, we usually find human selves interacting with the dead and the saints (awliya) in very specific ways, some gender-specific. Dreaming, dreamsharing and dream interpretation become a significant source of power for women, as long as they make possible a feminine management of the dead and the saints´ actions. Sleeping at Sidi Belghassem´s shrine makes possible the transmission of the saint´s Baraka in dreams, particularly with therapeutic purposes. In examining contexts of dreaming, dreamsharing and dream interpretation, we will take into account issues related to the gender and rank of the dreamer. We will also try to reflect on the fluidity of the different forms of being.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify">
<p><span style="color: #993300"><em><strong>To sleep or not to sleep on a mazar? (Some beliefs regarding sleeping on saint&#8217;s shrines among peoples of Central Asia)</strong></em></span></p>
<p><em></em>Nikolay Terletsky (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of Russian Academy of Sciences)</p>
<div>
<p>The dream is an important component of the Islamic shrine pilgrimage (ziyarat). The capability and permissibility of visiting the shrine is often associated with the dream the pilgrim have seen on the previous night. Certain ideas about the places where the pilgrim can sleep circulate among the inhabitants of Central Asian region. Among the most important and interesting items is the question of desirability or, on the other side, undesirability of spending the night on the shrines (mazars). According to some beliefs sleeping on mazars provides the better tie with the buried respected righteous person, and therefore more chances to gain a spiritual contact with the saint in the dream and acquire the blessing (baraka) emanating from him. On the other hand some people talk about inadvisability of sleeping on mazars (that are burial places) because this can pose a threat for a pilgrim. This belief is more common in mountainous regions and concerns with more archaic ideas of the danger of the world of the dead for the world of alive. The paper is set up on the materials of field research work collected by the author during the expeditions to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2007-2010.</p>
<p>All details about the conference <a href="http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2012/index.htm">here</a>.</p>
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		<title>Book: Central Asian Pilgrims and Hajj Routes</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/897</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/897#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:03:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[New books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Central Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hajj]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pilgrimages]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sindh.hypotheses.org/?p=897</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Alexandre Papas, Thomas Welsford, Thierry Zarcone (eds), Central Asian Pilgrims. Hajj Routes and Pious Visits between Central Asia and the Hijaz, Islamkundliche Untersuchungen 308, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2011. &#8220;Striving to fulfil one of the five pillars of Islam, Central Asian believers covered considerable distances to reach Mecca. This book is the story of their endeavours and their successes. Based on the proceedings of an international conference held in Tashkent, the collection brings together ten essays on hajj pilgrims and networks, each written by a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #993300"><strong><a href="http://www.klaus-schwarz-verlag.com/coverpics/IU308.jpg"><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.klaus-schwarz-verlag.com/coverpics/IU308.jpg" alt="" width="216" height="334" /></a>Alexandre Papas, Thomas Welsford, Thierry Zarcone (eds), <em>Central Asian Pilgrims. Hajj Routes and Pious Visits between Central Asia and the Hijaz</em>, Islamkundliche Untersuchungen 308, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2011.</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">&#8220;Striving to fulfil one of the five pillars of Islam, Central Asian believers covered considerable distances to reach Mecca. This book is the story of their endeavours and their successes. Based on the proceedings of an international conference held in Tashkent, the collection brings together ten essays on hajj pilgrims and networks, each written by a leading scholar in the field of Islamic and Central Asian studies and drawing upon new material and sophisticated theoretical approaches.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">The volume covers a long period of history, from the sixteenth century to the present, and a wide territory ranging from Western China to Arabia, passing via Russia, Uzbekistan, India, Iran, and the Red Sea.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Contributions are arranged within four sections. In view of the high piety and the religious passion of Central Asian Sufis, and of Naqshbandis in particular, the first section of the book, ›Sufis on Hajj‹, examines the history and the theory of Sufi pilgrimage between Turkestan and the Haramayn. Besides mystics, »common« pilgrims from various backgrounds undertook and still undertake the long journey: in the second section, ›The Hajj Trajectories‹, three case studies – relating to Turkestanis in the 16th and 17th centuries, Volga-Ural Muslims in the late 19th century, and Tatars in the early 20th century – illustrate their itineraries, travel conditions, and their activities during the journey. Contributions to the third section, ›Books of Hajj‹, accord particular attention to events in the 19th century, when a range of new opportunities for Central Asian hajjis allowed the proliferation of new kinds of travelogues inspired by Reformist ideas. Finally, the papers in the fourth section, ›From Hajj to Pious Visits‹, remind us that, despite this Jadid influence and the development of hajj thanks to modern transportation, secondary pilgrimages – i.e. pious visits to shrines – are still extremely popular, functioning either as a substitute for hajj or as an addition thereto.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Centres and Peripheries in Ottoman Architecture: Online conference proceedings</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/890</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/890#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:57:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[E-Resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[architecture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eastern Europe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[material culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ottoman period]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sindh.hypotheses.org/?p=890</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is to inform you that the proceedings of the conference &#8220;Centres and Peripheries in Ottoman Architecture: Rediscovering a Balkan Heritage&#8221;, which was organized at the University of Sarajevo in 2010, have been made accessible online. For more information about the conference (venue, convenors, concept note&#8230;), click here You can download it as a pdf file from these two addresses: http://www.scribd.com and http://www.chwb.org Table of contents Maximilian Hartmuth The history of centre-periphery relations as a history of style in Ottoman provincial architecture Historija odnosa [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify">This is to inform you that the proceedings of the conference <strong><span style="color: #993300">&#8220;Centres and Peripheries in Ottoman Architecture: Rediscovering a Balkan Heritage&#8221;</span></strong>, which was organized at the University of Sarajevo in 2010, have been made accessible online.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">For more information about the conference (venue, convenors, concept note&#8230;), <a href="http://islamicartsmagazine.com/blog/view/the_conference/" target="_blank">click here</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">You can download it as a pdf file from these two addresses: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/76668484/Centres-and-peripheries-in-Ottoman-architecture-rediscovering-a-Balkan-heritage-ed-Maximilian-Hartmuth-Sarajevo-Stockholm-Cultural-Heritage-witho" target="_blank">http://www.scribd.com</a> and <a href="http://www.chwb.org/regional/publications/Centres%20and%20peripheries%20in%20Ottoman%20architecture-%20Rediscovering%20a%20Balkan%20heritage.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.chwb.org</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Table of contents</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Maximilian Hartmuth</span></strong><br />
The history of centre-periphery relations as a history of style in Ottoman provincial architecture<br />
Historija odnosa centar-periferija kao historija stila u arhitekturi osmanskih provincija</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Johan Mårtelius</span></strong><br />
Ottoman European architecture<br />
Osmanska europska arhitektura</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Grigor Boykov</span></strong><br />
Reshaping urban space in the Ottoman Balkans: a study on the architectural development of Edirne,<br />
Plovdiv, and Skopje (14th-15th centuries)<br />
Transformacija urbanog prostora na osmanskom Balkanu: studija o arhitektonskom razvoju Jedrena,<br />
Plovdiva i Skoplja (od 14. do 15.vijeka)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Ibolya Gerelyes</span></strong><br />
Ottoman architecture in Hungary: new discoveries and perspectives for research<br />
Osmanska arhitektura u Ma!arskoj: nova otkica i perspektive za istraživanja</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Machiel Kiel</span></strong><br />
The campanile-minarets of the southern Herzegovina: a blend of Islamic and Christian elements<br />
in the architecture of an outlying border area of the Balkans, its spread in the past and survival until our time<br />
Zvonici-minareti u jugoistocne Hercegovine: spoj elemenata islama i krišcanstva u<br />
arhitekturi pogranicnog pojasa Balkanskog poluostrva, njihovo širenje u prošlosti i opstanak do sadašnjeg vremena</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Marianne Boqvist</span></strong><br />
“Centre” and “periphery” in the Syrian countryside:<br />
the architecture of mosques in governmental foundations on the Ottoman imperial roads<br />
“Centri” i “periferije” u Sirijskoj pokrajini:<br />
arhitektura džamija u zadužbinama upravitelja na sultanskim cestama<br />
Federica Broilo<br />
The forgotten Ottoman heritage of Florina on the River Sakoulevas,<br />
and a little known Ottoman building on the shore of Lake Volvis in Greek Macedonia<br />
Zaboravljeno osmansko naslije!e Florina na rijeci Sakoulevas i manje poznata<br />
osmanska gra!evina na obali jezera Volvis u Egejskoj Makedoniji</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Vjekoslava Sankovic Simcic</span></strong><br />
The restoration of the mosque of Hadži Alija in Pocitelj<br />
Restauracija Hadži Alijine džamije u Pocitelju</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Zeynep Ahunbay</span></strong><br />
Ottoman architecture in Kosova and the restoration of Hadum Mosque in Gjakovo (Ðakovica)<br />
Osmanska arhitektura na Kosovu i restauracija Hadum džamije u &#8216;akovici</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Nenad Makuljevic</span></strong><br />
Država, društvo i vizuelna kultura: poznoosmanska arhitektura u Srbiji, Makedoniji i Bosni i Hercegovini<br />
State, society, and visual culture: late Ottoman architecture in Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Lejla Bušatlic</span></strong><br />
Transformacije gradske kuce orijentalnog tipa u postosmankom periodu na podrucju Bosne i Hercegovine<br />
The transformation of the oriental-type urban house in post-Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Mirza Hasan Ceman</span></strong><br />
Urgentne urbane intervencije osmanske vlasti na podrucju Bosne i Hercegovine nakon 1860. godine<br />
Urban interventions by the Ottoman state in Bosnia-Herzegovina after 1860<br />
Cazim Hadžimejlic<br />
Mihrabi u Bosni i Hercegovini<br />
Mihrabs in Bosnia and Herzegovina</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="color: #993300">Mehmet Z. Ibrahimgil</span></strong><br />
Jedan osvrt na objekte kompleksa Murad Reis-a na Rodosu<br />
A survey of objects within the Murad Reis compound in Rhodes<a><br />
</a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Call for papers: 12th EASA Biennial Conference, Nanterre, France</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/876</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/876#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:55:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News & Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anthropology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conference]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[12th EASA Biennial Conference Nanterre, France 10-13th July 2012 Uncertainty and disquiet The European Association of Social Anthropologists is holding its biennial conference next year in Nanterre, Paris. The Call for Paper is now open. It will close soon on November 28th but you can still propose a paper here. Note that there will be a workshop entitled &#8220;Muslim Saints, Dreams, and Veneration of Shrines&#8221;, organized by Dr.I.Edagr (Dept. Anthropology, University of Durham, UK) and Dr.P. Khosronejad (Dept. Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: large;color: #993300"><strong><a href="http://www.easaonline.org/images/logo.png"><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.easaonline.org/images/logo.png" alt="" width="150" height="140" /></a>12th EASA Biennial Conference</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: large;color: #993300"><strong>Nanterre, France 10-13th July 2012</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: small"><strong> Uncertainty and disquiet</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">The European Association of Social Anthropologists is holding its <a href="http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2012/index.htm">biennial conference next year in Nanterre</a>, Paris. The Call for Paper is now open. It will close soon on November 28th but you can still <a href="http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2012/paperproposal.php5?PanelID=1192">propose a paper here.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Note that there will be a workshop entitled<a href="http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2012/panels.php5?PanelID=1192"> &#8220;Muslim Saints, Dreams, and Veneration of Shrines&#8221;</a>, organized by <strong>Dr.I.Edagr</strong> (Dept. Anthropology, University of Durham, UK) and <strong>Dr.P. Khosronejad</strong> (Dept. Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, Scotland). Here as follows is a description of this workshop:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">&#8220;The human need to orientate their inner quest for wisdom guidance and healing with outer spatial settings is well manifest in the many traditions of pilgrimage to Saints’ tombs in the Islamic world, and in other major faith traditions (i.e. Crapanzano 1973). The particular tradition of dream questing at sacred sites is well documented in the ancient Greek tradition of healing dream incubation in the Aesclepian temples in Turkey and Greece. Such practices may have informed the present day ubiquitous Islamic dream incubation practice of istikhara (Aydar 2009; Edgar &amp; Henig 2010).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">The dream practices of the Prophet Mohammed sanctified the occasional possibility of al-ruya, the true dream or vision. Many of the defining events of Islam are dream related. The Prophet Mohammed is thought to have received 1/46 of the Qur’an in night dreams, many Muslims consider his night journey to Jerusalem to have occurred in a dream, and the Eshan, the call to prayer is recorded as being received by the prophet’s companion, Zaid, in a dream. The strongest hadiths i.e. Bukhari and Muslim all have a chapter on the teaching concerning dreaming by the Prophet Mohamed (Edgar 2011). Throughout the history of Islam, the night dream is thought to offer a way to metaphysical and divinatory knowledge, to be a practical, alternative and potentially accessible source of imaginative inspiration and guidance, and to offer ethical clarity concerning action in this world. Moreover dreaming seems to be similarly important across all Islamic groups, Sunni, Shia, Salafi and particularly amongst the various Sufi orders (Edgar 2011). Even amongst al-Qaeda and the Taliban (Edgar 2007) true dreams are considered as offering divine revelation and even strategic guidance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Such an ethical mandate for the occasional divine significance of dreams however does not explain why Muslims often practice pilgrimage to Saints’ tombs to facilitate the phenomena of a true dream. Humans dream each night in the interior space of their mind/brain for still unknown scientific reasons. Why then this historical and contemporary regard for spatial and geographical convergence of the outer body and self with the enhanced possibility of inner dream vision? This workshop will consider at least the following questions:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">- The historical and contemporary extent of dream pilgrimage to Saints’ shrines,<br />
- Perceptions of hierognosis within reported dream imagery at Saints’ tombs,<br />
- Comparisons between pilgrimage per se and dream quests to Saints’ tombs,<br />
- Interior and exterior geographies of Baraka as experienced in dreams and through pilgrimage,<br />
- Experiencing and defining the sites of selfhood and Sainthood,<br />
- Anthropological typologies and ethnographies of such performances,<br />
- The psychology of the dream vision quest: the preparation for, experience of, and interpretation of dream events at saints’ tombs,<br />
- Islamic accounting for wisdom transmission across the visibly alive: visibly dead binary opposition.&#8221;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">For any inquiries please contact: Dr.I.Edgar (<a href="mailto:i.r.edgar@durham.ac.uk" target="_blank">i.r.edgar@durham.ac.uk</a>)</p>
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		<title>Book: Poetry, Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/869</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/869#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:34:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[New books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poetry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siraiki]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Nukhbah Taj Langah, Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan, New Delhi, Routledge India, 2011. &#8220;Focusing on the culturally and historically rich Siraiki-speaking region, often tagged as ‘South Punjab’, this book discusses the ways in which Siraiki creative writers have transformed into political activists, resisting the self-imposed domination of the Punjabi–Mohajir ruling elite. Influenced by Sufi poets, their poetry takes the shape of both protest and dialogue. This book reflects upon the politics of identity and the political complications which are a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #993300"><strong><a href="http://images.tandf.co.uk/common/jackets/amazon/978041550/9780415501460.jpg"><img class="alignleft" src="http://images.tandf.co.uk/common/jackets/amazon/978041550/9780415501460.jpg" alt="" width="151" height="267" /></a>Nukhbah Taj Langah, <em>Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan</em>, New Delhi, Routledge India, 2011.</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">&#8220;Focusing on the culturally and historically rich Siraiki-speaking region, often tagged as ‘South Punjab’, this book discusses the ways in which Siraiki creative writers have transformed into political activists, resisting the self-imposed domination of the Punjabi–<em>Mohajir</em> ruling elite. Influenced by Sufi poets, their poetry takes the shape of both protest and dialogue. This book reflects upon the politics of identity and the political complications which are a result of colonisation and later, neo-colonisation of Pakistan. It challenges the philosophy of Pakistan — a state created for Muslims — which is now taking the shape of religious fanaticism, while disregarding ethnic and linguistic issues such as that of Siraiki.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><em></em><strong>Part I. </strong>Colonial and Post-colonial Treatment of Siraiki Language <strong>1.</strong> Introduction: A Journey from ‘Proto-Siraiki’ to ‘Siraiki’ <strong>2.</strong> Mysticism, Movement and Resistance <strong>3.</strong> Siraiki Terminology <strong>Part II.</strong> Analysis of Poetry <strong>4.</strong> Resisting Traditional Institutions: Creating <em>Vakhrap</em> <strong>5.</strong> The Mystic Journey of Siraiki <em>Sunjaan</em> 6. <em>Moonjh </em>for Siraikistan. <em>Conclusion. Bibliography.<br />
</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Nukhbah Taj Langah</strong> is Assistant Professor, Forman Christian College University (FCCU), Lahore, Pakistan.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Book launch in Karachi, AFK, 28 October 2011</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/815</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/815#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:29:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[New books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News & Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indus valley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Qalandar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sehwan Sharif]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sufism]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The book by Michel Boivin, Artefacts of Devotion. A Sufi Repertoire of the Qalandariyya in Sehwan Sharif, Sindh, Pakistan, was launched on 28th of October 2011 at the Alliance Française de Karachi (AFK). Read the book description from the official website of OUP in Karachi: &#8220;Sindh, the land and the river which gave its name to the subcontinent, is a region rich in history with a distinctive cultural heritage. It is the first base of Islam in the subcontinent but can be defined in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_841" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/438/files/2011/11/Karachi-Tribune1.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-841" src="http://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/438/files/2011/11/Karachi-Tribune1-500x206.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="206" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The Express Tribune, Karachi, 30 October 2011</p></div>
<p style="text-align: justify">The book by Michel Boivin, <strong><em>Artefacts of Devotion. A Sufi Repertoire of the Qalandariyya in Sehwan Sharif, Sindh, Pakistan</em></strong>, was launched on 28th of October 2011 at the <a href="http://www.afkarachi.com/spip.php?article217&amp;lang=en">Alliance Française de Karachi (AFK)</a>. Read the book description from the official website of <a href="http://www.oup.com.pk/shopexd.asp?id=2157">OUP in Karachi</a>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">&#8220;Sindh, the land and the river which gave its name to the subcontinent, is a region rich in history with a distinctive cultural heritage. It is the first base of Islam in the subcontinent but can be defined in religious terms as independent and more flexible. As a result, Sufi Islam took root here and spread across the Indus region attracting Muslim and non-Muslim devotees alike.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">In this book, Michel Boivin, who has devoted much of his time to the study of Sindh, takes his readers to Sehwan Sharif’s shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, one of the Sufi icons of Sindh. Shahbaz Qalandar, of Persian Asian descent, is described as one of the unconventional qalandars who was accepted as ‘one of the sons of Sindh’; his ‘kalam’ made him ‘a symbol of daring authenticity during times of stifling conformity’ to quote the author. Boivin has produced a volume that explores and explains ‘the Sufi repertoire’ as he terms the monuments and artefacts of devotion, particularly in the Qalandariyya context, and is enriched by painstakingly researched and striking images. Through the four main chapters and the Excursus, the reader is introduced to the description, history and significance of each aspect of the artefacts and of the shrines in the Indus region, mainly Sindh. The book is supported by a comprehensive glossary, a list of illustrations, bibliography and an index.&#8221;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">
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		<title>Panhwar.com: An online digital library</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/776</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/776#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:33:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[E-Resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colonial period]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digital library]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Here we wish to start presenting various digital collections of documents pertaining to Sindh, Pakistan and South Asia in general. We chose to begin this section of our research notebook (‘Resources’) with the impressive collection of digitized manuscripts and other publications set up on a single website dedicated to the life and work of M. H. Panhwar. Born in the district of Dadu (Sindh), Muhammad Hussain Panhwar (1925-2007) completed his higher studies in the USA (1953), specializing in engineering (water and agricultural development). Besides [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify"><a><img class="alignleft" src="http://panhwar.com/images/panhwar.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="278" /></a>Here we wish to start presenting various digital collections of documents pertaining to Sindh, Pakistan and South Asia in general. We chose to begin this section of our research notebook (‘Resources’) with the impressive collection of digitized manuscripts and other publications set up on a single <a href="http://panhwar.com/">website dedicated to the life and work of M. H. Panhwar</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Born in the district of Dadu (Sindh), Muhammad Hussain Panhwar (1925-2007) completed his higher studies in the USA (1953), specializing in engineering (water and agricultural development). Besides working as an engineer for both Sindh and West Pakistan governments until 1969 (about which he published extensively), he always dedicated most of his free time to the study of various aspects of Sindh, its history and geography, environment and society. M. H. Panhwar was undoubtedly one of these non-standard intellectuals with an encyclopedic knowledge of Sindh, even if he sometimes drew much criticism from academic historians. Because he dedicated his life to enhancing the knowledge of Sindh, he was often coined as the “one-man Sindhologist”. He is considered by many academics and intellectuals a pioneer for his approach “from below” to the history of Sindh. To some extent, he could have been more broadly recognized as a historian from the subaltern studies movement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">It is noteworthy that M. H. Panhwar published several books and articles not only about irrigation, drainage, climate, geology, etc., but also about the history and society of Sindh, while focusing also on archaeology but mobilizing a number of other materials such as maps, pictures, sketches, etc. Among the most significant works completed by Panhwar which<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=tbQJAQAAIAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;img=1&amp;zoom=1"><img class="alignright" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=tbQJAQAAIAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;img=1&amp;zoom=1" alt="" width="128" height="207" /></a> have been recently uploaded on his website, let us mention <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/ChronologicalDictionaryOfSindh#page/n0/mode/1up"><em>A Chronological Dictionary of Sindh</em></a> (1983) and <a href="http://panhwar.com/Adobe/SKS.pdf"><em>An Illustrated Historical Atlas of Soomra Kingdom of Sindh</em></a> (2003). One should not miss also one of his major contribution entitled <em>Source Material on Sind</em> (1977, 700 pages), which will be uploaded soon on the website.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">During his lifetime, M. H. Panhwar accumulated an astonishing amount of documents. At the time of his death (21<sup>st</sup> April 2007), his personal library contained a wide range of publications and research materials, among which not less than 12, 000 books, 3 000 maps referring to the Sindh region and a large collection of pictures, all well arranged according to subjects or chronologically ordered (<a href="http://panhwar.com/Article50.htm">see here its detailed classification</a>). This is probably one of the largest libraries on the Sindh. The library is, as of now, not yet opened to the public so researchers still have to wait to consult this massive amount of information. Panhwar’s descendants plan is to transfer it to the University of Sindh, Jamshoro campus.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Meanwhile, one will be satisfied with all open-access documents displayed on the website, in which 180 digitized books dating from the colonial period are stored. All these can be <a href="http://panhwar.com/rare_books.htm">downloaded free</a>. It constitutes an important digital library where one can navigate freely and get access to a diverse range of historical documents pertaining to Sindh, such as letters, manuals and gazetteers of British India, catalogues, travellers accounts, biographies, reports, histories and geographies of Sindh, historical maps, journal issues, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">By Rémy Delage</p>
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		<title>International Conference, 11-12 November 2011</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/829</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/829#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:09:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News & Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pilgrimage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ritual]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Pilgrimages and Sanctuaries: Art, Music and Rituals 11-12 November 2011 Organized by The Centro Incontri Umani Ascona, Swizterland Conveners: T. Zarcone, CNRS &#8211; GSRL / EPHE, Paris P. Khosronejad, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, Scotland A. Hobart, University College, London With the participation of The “Groupe Sociétés Religions Laïcité” (GSRL) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Ecole Pratique des hautes Etudes (EPHE) – Université de la Sorbonne and of The Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews &#160; Thursday [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: large;color: #993300"><strong>Pilgrimages and Sanctuaries: Art, Music and Rituals</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><strong>11-12 November 2011</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center">Organized by The Centro Incontri Umani Ascona, Swizterland</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Conveners</span>:<br />
T. Zarcone, CNRS &#8211; GSRL / EPHE, Paris<br />
P. Khosronejad, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, Scotland<br />
A. Hobart, University College, London</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span style="text-decoration: underline">With the participation of</span><br />
The “Groupe Sociétés Religions Laïcité” (GSRL)<br />
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)<br />
Ecole Pratique des hautes Etudes (EPHE) – Université de la Sorbonne<br />
and of<br />
The Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: medium;color: #000080"><strong>Thursday 10 November 2011</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">19:00 Registration</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">19:30 Dinner</p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;color: #000080"><strong>Friday 11 November 2011</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">9:30 Opening: Angela HOBART (London University College / director of the Centro Incontri Umani)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">9:45 Introducing the topic of the conference: Pedram KHOSRONEJAD (St Andrews University) and Thierry ZARCONE (CNRS – GSRL / EPHE, Paris)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #008080"><strong>Session 1: Musique, Songs and Nature</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Chair</span>: Angela Hobart</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">10:00 Razia SULTANOVA (Central Asian Forum, University of Cambridge, UK), <strong><em>Devotional chanting in Uzbek and Kazakh Pilgrimages: (Shahimardan, Bukhara, Turkestan)</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Pilgrimages in Central Asia accompanied by devotional chanting have not yet been the subject of sustained scholarly attention, but they occur on a regular basis and are significant for the study of religions. Pilgrimage destinations in Central Asia are distinguished by various forms of performance, and the choice of chanting and narration relates to the different Sufi orders: Qadiriya in Shahimardan in Ferghana Valley, Naqshbandiya in Bukhara and Yasaviya in Turkestan. When, for example, you arrive in the mountainous region of Shahimardan in Ferghana Valley, you are surrounded by people singing and praying, performing suras from the Holy Quran as well as blessings and various Sufi ghazals. In Bukhara around the tomb of Naqshbandi, and in Turkestan in the region of the Khanaqa of Ahmad Yasavi, these chants build an essential part of devotional rituals. How are they performed? What is their origin? Who are their performers? These and other similar questions are examined in my paper.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">10:35 Saskia KERSENBOOM (Amsterdam University, The Netherlands), <em><strong>Lady of Great Bliss</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">In the hills of Northern Hungary pilgrims have for centuries travelled to sacred places where mother earth opens up miraculous stones, hills, rock-caves and, especially, healing water from divine wells. The focal point of their devotion are the female representations, whether they be in the ancient Maria, the newly founded temple for Buddhist Tara, or the nubile girls in UNESCO World Heritage Holloko village. All are to be found within the range of 20 km around the pilgrim site of Szentkut and its Holy Well. This presentation compares and analyses the performative strategies in the arts of storytelling, song and mimetic action that enable believers to turn their devotion into a sensuous, invigorating experience of the divine.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">11:10 Morning Coffee</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">11:40 Richard BLURTON (Dept of Asia, British Museum, London), <strong><em>Pilgrimage to Banggajang: lake-dwelling goddesses and their devotees in the eastern Himalayas</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">This paper discusses the previously unrecorded pilgrimage to a group of high altitude lakes located in the hills above the Se-La. This pass at 13,000 feet separates western Arunachal Pradesh from Tawang District and the onward route to Tsona in south-eastern Tibet. The lakes are imagined as the residences of the goddesses Dorje Phagmo and Palden Lhamo, while the surrounding landscape is impregnated with divine and cosmic presence – all of which is pointed out to pilgrims as they make the pilgrimage circuit. In this, the Banggajang pilgrimage fits into the same type as the much more substantial landscape pilgrimage that has been recorded to the east, at Tsa-ri, by Toni Huber.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">The pilgrimage to Banggajang has both a historic and a present manifestation, and both elements will for the first time – and with some trepidation – be placed in an overview of the well-known Tibetan notion of mountain and lake veneration and the accommodation of this activity within a Buddhist world-view. There is some evidence that the pilgrimage acted not only as a spiritual activity but also as an economic and indeed a cultural activity, and this will be presented.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">12:15 Charles RAMBLE (Oriental Institute, University of Oxford),<strong><em> ‘Objets trouvés’: The transformation of nature into art in Tibetan pilgrimages</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Pilgrimage is one of the most widespread and popular activities among Tibetan Buddhists and followers of the Bön religion. Although a few pilgrimages are centred on man-made shrines such as the „cathedral‟ (Jokhang) of Lhasa, the majority entail arduous journeys to uninhabited mountain wildernesses. The trails and sacred sites at these locations are festooned with coloured flags printed with prayers, as well as white ceremonial scarves and sacred formulae sometimes carved into rocks, but the natural environment is otherwise hardly transformed; except, that is, in the imagination of the pilgrims. In the abundant „guidebook‟ literature associated with each pilgrimage route, topographic features are sacralized by being re-envisioned as a wide range of ritual items, animals, divinities and even social interactions. While this „denaturalised‟ landscape is sometimes transferred to painted scrolls, the true richness of the imagery is reserved for pilgrims who see these objects in situ, through the prism of prescribed religious vision.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">12:40- 1:15 Questions and discussion</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">13:30 Lunch Break</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #008080"><strong>Session 2: Sacred Artefacts</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Chair</span>: Pedram Khosronejad</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">15:00 Michel BOIVIN (CNRS &#8211; CEIAS / EHESS, Paris), <strong><em>Building a local culture in a Sufi centre: the kishti and other artefacts in Sehwan Sharif (Pakistan)</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Sufism in the Indian Subcontinent is usually introduced through Imperial centres like Nizamuddin in Delhi or Muinuddin Chishti in Ajmer. The art and culture thus produced are therefore closely attached to imperial power, be it the Delhi Sultanate or the Moghul Empire. My contention, however, is that innovative clues can be adduced as evidence of regional and local approaches. My lecture focuses on the Sufi centre of Sehwan Sharif (Pakistan) where the Sufi Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (d. 1274) is buried. It will study a number of artefacts, usually represented as the Sufi‟s relics, as material goods embodied in a number of narratives. The artefacts are also ritual tools which reflect negotiations between different categories of local people such as sayyids and non-sayyids, Sunnis and Shias, Muslims and Hindus, men, women, khadras etc. Briefly, the study of the artefacts informs us on how a local ‟system‟ is working.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">15:35 Alexandre PAPAS (CNRS &#8211; CETOBAC / EHESS, Paris), <strong><em>Steles, relics and photographs in the Muslim shrines of Northwest China (Qinghai, Gansu)</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">In the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu (more precisely: Xunhua Salar Autonomous County and Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County) live several Muslim minorities, namely Hui, Salar, Dongxiang, Bonan and Kargan Tibetan. Whether Chinese, Turkic, Mongolian or Tibetan speakers, they all venerate saints and perform pilgrimage on their shrines. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2010, this presentation introduces the main features of Islam and Sufism in the area. In a second step, I will focus on the specific shrines in which Qâdirî and Naqshbandî saints are buried, and where several material features appear repeatedly: 1) the granite steles composed in Chinese, which provide basic information to visitors; 2) the relics jealously preserved by the shrine custodians and shown at exceptional occasions; 3) the photographs taken by pilgrims and used as souvenirs of pious visits and mystical rituals. These three material aspects of Sufi holy places tend to multiply the narratives associated with pilgrimage, reconstructing the religious memory of Muslim minorities in north-west China.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">16:10 Afternoon Tea</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">16:40 Sanjay GARG (SAARC Cultural Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka), <strong><em>Pilgrims’ memorabilia in the social landscape of India</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">India is a land of diverse religious faiths and practices. It is the place of origin of four religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism – and a congenial abode for almost all the religions of the world, be it the oldest, such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, or one of the newest, like Baha‟ism. The shrines of these religions dot the cultural landscape of the country, and from antiquity these have served as pilgrimage centres for devotees. One of the traditions associated with pilgrimage in India is the carrying back of blessings of the sacred site in some tangible form. These range from holy prasād (eatables offered by a devotee at a shrine and generally returned after being blessed), sacred water and holy ash from incense, to charms, amulets, statuettes and jewellery. This tradition could be studied from a functionalist point of view, in which the memorializing of the pilgrimage and sharing of the divine blessings with one‟s kith and kin appear to be the prime objects of the pilgrim; or from a philosophical standpoint, in which the pilgrim seeks to associate himself permanently with the sacred site.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">This paper will explore this tradition of „pilgrims‟ memorabilia‟ in the cross-cultural and inter-religious settings of India by focusing on the religious tokens commonly known as Rāmtankās (lit. „Money of Lord Rama‟). Previously confined to Hinduism, the prevalence of these religious tokens amongst the Hindu pilgrims has prompted Islamic, Sikh and other religious communities to devise their own. These tokens have provided not only a convenient and affordable medium of expression for the popular art and religious beliefs of the masses of India, but they have also served variously as objects of worship, talismans and mementoes, or indeed as a combination of all three. Finally, the paper will also attempt to address issues such as the motivations and expectations of the practitioners of this tradition, as well as the influence of their social background in their choice of memorabilia.</p>
<p>17:15 Thierry ZARCONE (CNRS &#8211; GSRL / EPHE, Paris), <strong><em>Flags and ritual banners at shrines in Asian Islam (Central Asia, Xinjiang, India)</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">This presentation will examine the role played by banners or flags (tugh/tughaläm), major sacred artefacts in saint veneration and tomb cults in Turkic Islam. In particular it will consider the offering of banners, a notable ritual executed at the saints‟ tombs in Eastern Turkestan/Xinjiang (China) and, in a different manner, in India. My approach is both historical and anthropological. I will first show that the use of banners during pilgrimages at saint tombs in Central Asia has shamanic, Buddhist and Islamic origins. These three traditions have mingled over time and gave birth to a very syncretic practice. Also worthy of mention is the frequent identification, as shown in the written sources in Persian and Oriental Turkish, of the word „mazar‟, for the tombs of saints, with the word „tughaläm‟, a banner – a sign that the banner is a central element in the saint cult and gives him its legitimacy. One of the most compelling proofs of this, is that the Chinese administration of Xinjiang, when aiming to eradicate saint‟s cults and pilgrimage before and after 1049, forbade the banners at these places – a proscription that remains to this day. After this historical introduction, I will report on the rituals of the offering of banners that are performed nowadays at shrines in Xinjiang, along with the aesthetic and artistic dimensions of these artefacts..</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">17:50 -18:30 Speakers’s panel – Questions and discussion</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">19:30 Dinner</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: medium;color: #000080"><strong>Saturday 12 November 2011</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #008080"><strong>Session 3: Images and Representation</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Chair</span>: Thierry Zarcone</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">9:30 Hümeyra ULUDAG (Istanbul University, Turkey), <strong><em>Shrines and the culture of pilgrimages in the Ottoman visual material</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Shrines, which are the centres of popular pietism in Ottoman society, comprise one of the most significant dynamics of social life. These sacred locations, which substantially guide religious, social and psychological lives of people, are observed in Ottoman miniatures. This paper will concentrate on certain dimensions of the shrines that are reflected in the Ottoman visual materials, such as their architecture and setting, and the culture of pilgrimage and rituals. The way this topic is studied in visual terms and the modes of representation and the motifs in the miniatures will be also discussed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">10:05 Pedram KHOSRONEJAD (University of St Andrews), <strong><em>Curtains of heaven: celestial and devotional mural paintings of Iranian pilgrimage</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">In this talk the author will present and analyze the creation and function of mural paintings of saint shrines in Iran since the Safavide period (1501–1736). The main emphasis will be on the relationship between such devotional depictions and the veneration of saints in Shiite Iran. This talk will be completed by a case study of mural paintings of shrines of saints which are located in and around Lahijan in the north of Iran.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">10:40 Morning Coffee</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">11:00 Isabelle CHARLEUX (CNRS &#8211; GSRL / EPHE, Paris), <strong><em>Sacred souvenirs of 19th-20th century Mongol pilgrimages to Wutaishan (China)</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Mount Wutaishan was an important centre of religious shopping for Mongol pilgrims, who purchased there various kinds of objects, from rosaries, statuettes, good-luck tokens and mass-produced prints and maps up to expensive icons. Back home, these „relics‟ of the holy shrine served to maintain a physical connection with the charisma of the site. This presentation will examine three kinds of sacred souvenirs – maps, prints of Shakyamuni‟s footprints and thangkas – to question their different functions and uses, and the lasting influence they had on Mongol Buddhist art.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">11:35 Speakers’s panel – Questions and discussion</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">12:10 Conclusion: Pierre-Jean LUIZARD (CNRS &#8211; GSRL / EPHE, Paris)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">12:30 Closing: Angela HOBART; Pedram KHOSRONEJAD; Thierry ZARCONE</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">13:00 Lunch Break</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">All are welcome</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">For all inquiries, please contact:<a href="mailto:secretary@ciu-ascona.org" target="_blank"> secretary@ciu-ascona.org</a></p>
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		<title>Parso Gidwani Centre of Sindhi Studies</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/785</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/785#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:34:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News & Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mumbai]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parso Gidwani]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[In 2011, a new research centre of Sindhi studies was established in memory of Parso Gidwani. Here below is a description of The Parso Gidwani Centre of Sindhi Studies: &#8220;The Parso Gidwani Centre of Sindhi Studies (PGCSS) was created in 2011 in memory of the Ethnolinguist Parso J. Gidwani (1937-2004) who was a pioneer in the field of Ethnology and Linguistics related to the Sindhi world. Born in Dadu, now Pakistan, Parso Gidwani migrated over to the newly framed borders of India as a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify">In 2011, a new research centre of Sindhi studies was established in memory of <a href="http://tpgcss.org/index.php/parso-gidwani">Parso Gidwani</a>. Here below is a description of <a href="http://tpgcss.org/">The Parso Gidwani Centre of Sindhi Studies</a>:</p>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<p>&#8220;The Parso Gidwani Centre of Sindhi Studies (PGCSS) was created in 2011 in memory of the Ethnolinguist Parso J. Gidwani (1937-2004) who was a pioneer in the field of Ethnology and Linguistics related to the Sindhi world. Born in Dadu, now Pakistan, Parso Gidwani migrated over to the newly framed borders of India as a boy and after completing a Ph. D. on Hindi and Sindhi Sufi poets, he joined the Deccan College in Poona as research assistant in the Department of Sindhi Linguistics. Dr Parso Gidwani discovered unknown Sindhi literature and dialects in India. Dr Parso Gidwani was aware of the ignorance regarding the culture of Sindh, in comparison to that of Punjab or Gujarat. He thus strived all his life to give evidence of the diversity and the prolificacy of his native culture. Moreover, he highlighted the common strands of culture among Sindhi Hindus and Muslims, outcastes and higher castes. The PGCSS results from the same wish to display Sindhi culture, history and society to a large audience, mainly academic but also to all those interested in Sindhi studies.</p>
<p>Sindh comes from Sindhu, the name given to the Indus River in the Rig Veda, the oldest Hindu scriptures probably written about the Second millennium B. C. The Indus Valley had already flourished on the banks of the river as the ancient city of Mohan jo Daro attests. After being visited by Alexander the Great in the 4th Century B. C., Sindh was a cradle for the development of a number of artistic and architectural traditions including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Until the advent of the Europeans in South Asia, Sindh encompassed the South of present Pakistani Punjab, usually known as “Siraiki belt”. Soon after Sindh was conquered by the Arabs in the 8th Century, Sufism pervaded local societies. The main tariqas settled in the area, but moreover local Sufi persuasions also grew up as well as local panths like the Daryapanth and Nankpanth. Nowadays, Sindhi dialects are spoken in Sindh proper, as well as in other parts of Pakistan and India. For example, Jatki of the Jats in Banni, Kutch is a dialect of Sindhi. Last but not least, Sindhi is spoken in the diaspora through the networks built by Sindhi merchants over the centuries.</p>
<p>The main purposes of the PGCSS are:<br />
1. To circulate Parso Gidwani’s works.<br />
2. To connect scholars, students and those interested in Sindh related topics.<br />
3. To collect data related to Sindh, in the fields of visual arts, literature or other artifacts.<br />
4. To inform about academic events related to Sindhi studies.<br />
5. To launch research programs on topics related to Sindhi world, especially in the fields of literature, culture, society and history.<br />
6. To arrange academic conferences, meetings, workshops and talks.<br />
7. To publish academic works.&#8221;</p>
</div>
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		<title>Eclipse of a giant: A tribute to Nabi Bakhsh Baloch (1917-2011)</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/800</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/800#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:07:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>michelboivin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Literary sources]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch (N. B. Baloch, sometimes written as N. A. Baloch) passed away on April 6, 2011. Born in 1917 in the small village of Jaffar Khan Laghari, in Sanghar District, he belonged to the Baluchi tribe of the Lagharis, but he nevertheless adopted the name of Baloch. It is thus a nod to history that one of the best specialists of Sindhi studies was named… Baloch. In fact, it is a marvelous example of the complex society of Sindh. His father [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify">Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch (N. B. Baloch, sometimes written as N. A. Baloch) passed away on April 6, 2011. Born in 1917 in the small village of Jaffar Khan Laghari, in Sanghar District, he belonged to the Baluchi tribe of the Lagharis, but he nevertheless adopted the name of Baloch. It is thus a nod to history that one of the best specialists of Sindhi studies was named… Baloch. In fact, it is a marvelous example of the complex society of Sindh. His father was a poor illiterate peasant who passed away soon after his birth. He was thus grown up by his paternal uncle. Since I had the chance to meet him a number of times, I want to point out that when he was in his nineties, N. B. Baloch had still kept a fascinating memory and intelligence.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><a href="http://www.dawn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Dr-N-A-baloch-collage_543.jpg"><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.dawn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Dr-N-A-baloch-collage_543.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="203" /></a>N. B. Baloch obtained his B. A. from Junagarh College, in Kathiawar (nowadays Gujarat State in India), affiliated to the University of Bombay, and a M. A. in Arabic from Aligarh University. In 1946, he went to Columbia University in New York where he got a Ph. D. focusing on education in Pakistan. After returning to his homeland, he was soon appointed as Professor in the new University of Sindh, located in Hyderabad (now Old campus). N. B. Baloch used to live in the Old campus until his death, even after the shifting of the University of Sindh to the other bank of the Indus River, in Jamshoro. N. B. Baloch was given the highest positions in the academia, such as vice-chancellor of the University of Sindh, and many others.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">The scholarly work completed by N. B. Baloch is impressive. He implemented an encyclopedic approach to a huge topic: Sindh, through history, archaeology, ethnography, literature, folklore&#8230; He covered so many fields that one could hardly find a topic on which he did not publish. To some extent, Nabi Bakhsh Baloch is reminiscent of another giant in Sindhi studies, Mirza Kalich Beg (1853-1929). As a staunch Sunni Baloch, N. B. Baloch was nevertheless less interested by Shia devotional literature, as well as Hindu one. Furthermore, he came to be fascinated by classification, and one can think that he felt that this world was disappearing after partition, hence the need to ‘catalogue’ it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">For the student in Sindhi Studies, however, his most salient publication is his five-volume Dictionary of Sindhi Language, also published in an abridged version in one-volume, and afterwards the 42 volumes devoted to Sindhi popular literature. I would like to highlight the latter in relation with the wide corpus of devotional literature. In 1956, the Sindhi Adabi Board created a Folklore and Literature Project with N. B. Baloch as director. The entire Sindh was covered by a network of fieldworkers stationed in each <em>taluka</em>, their duty being to collect oral and written materials. A volume devoted to folk songs (<em>lok gît</em>) is a good sample of his concern over classification. He was able to identify 57 types of folk songs in the lower Indus valley, or Sindh (<em>lok gît</em>, Sindhî Adabî Bord, Hyderabad, 1965). He first classified <em>lok gît</em>s into two main categories: the <em>gît</em>s which became out of fashion, and the still popular <em>gît</em>s.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">A subcategory of devotional songs includes <em>maddah</em>, <em>mawlûd</em>, <em>munâjât</em>, and also <em>marsiyah</em>, although he did not, according to my knowledge, published any of these dirges devoted to the martyrdom of Husain and his family in Kerbela (680)<sup>1</sup>. Among the ‘still popular’ <em>gît</em>s, the 56<sup>th</sup> is of interest, bearing the name of <em>pîrâno</em>, meaning <em>gît</em>s devoted to the <em>pîr</em>, that is a Sufi master (<em>idem</em>, p. 395-6). Baloch only quotes a single <em>gît</em> devoted to Pithoro Pîr, the <em>pîr </em>of the Meghwars, an untouchable Hindu caste (<em>qawm</em>) of the Thar Parkar. While Baloch coined the pilgrimage place (<em>ziyârat</em>) as <em>âstana</em>,<sup>2</sup> it is mentioned in the <em>gît</em> as <em>mârî</em>. The <em>âstana</em> is a word of Arabic origin used in Sindh for the residence of a <em>faqîr</em>, while the <em>mârî</em> designates in Sindhi the upper room of a house, but also a temple, or any place considered as sacred. The song ends with the following verse:</p>
<p style="text-align: center" align="center"><em>Murîd âhan mohara jâ, âhe âsân jo pîr…</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center" align="center">We are the <em>murid</em>s of the (his) seal, he is our <em>pîr</em>…</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Although Baloch was interested in the entire corpus of devotional Hindu <em>gît</em>s, at a time when they were devoted to a Muslim <em>pîr</em>, the volume on <em>maddah</em> (eulogy) and <em>munâjât</em> (confidential devotion) is one of the most precious piece of the collection (<em>Maddahûn ain munâjâtûn</em>, Sindhî Adabî Bord, Jamshoro, 2006, first printed 1966). The 102 devotional poems contained in this collection are almost equally divided between <em>maddah</em> and <em>munâjât</em>. The first lesson we can learn from this corpus is that despite the widespread practice of worshiping saints, the Prophet Muhammad is very much praised, as <em>nabî</em>. Among the Sufis, one <em>badshâh pîr</em> is venerated more than others. He is `Abd al-Qâdir Jilânî, the alleged founder of the Qâdiriyya <em>tarîqa</em> (<em>idem</em>, p. 109). Another one is Ghaws Bahâ’ w’l-Haqq, better known as Bahâ’ al-Dîn Zakariyyâ, the Sohrawardî <em>pîr</em> from Multan (<em>ibidem</em>, p. 507). One can easily understand that only a few <em>maddah</em>-s and <em>munâjât</em>-s are devoted to local Sindhi <em>pîr</em>s. There is hardly one <em>maddah</em> on Shâh `Abd al-Latîf (<em>ibidem</em>, p. 95), and another one on Pîr Pagaro (<em>ibidem</em>, p. 313).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">An interesting <em>maddah</em> is devoted to the <em>châr yâr</em>, the “four friends”, a very common topic in the devotional poetry of the Indus valley. In many legends, the <em>châr yâr</em> are Bahâ’ al-Dîn Zakkariyya, Farîd al-Dîn Ganj-e Shakar, Lal Shahbâz Qalandar and Makhdûm Jahâniyyân Surkh Bukharî. Fath Faqîr (d. 1843) wrote a number of <em>maddah</em>s on the <em>châr yâr</em>. One of his <em>maddah</em>-s, which is a very interesting piece of poetry, begins with a number of praises to God, containing the many Quranic names which are given to him. Every verse includes a hemistich and only at the bottom of the <em>maddah</em>, the poet gives us the name of the <em>châr yâr</em>. Interestingly, these four friends are not Sufis, but the first four caliphs of Islam, the <em>khalîfa rashîdûn</em>, the well guided caliphs. First comes Abû Bakr, often referred here as <em>sacho sadîq</em>, the ‘real truthful’; the second is `Umar, third is `Usmân Shâh and the fourth is `Alî Hyder. Another specialist of the <em>châr yâr</em>, Faqîr Lagharî (1809-1878), is very explicit about the role played by them: <em>châr’î yâr nabî’a nûr</em>, the four friends (bear) the light of the prophet Muhammad (<em>ibidem</em>, p. 157).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">One of the consequences of Baloch’s work is obviously to highlight the interrelations between devotional literature and Sufism in the Sindhi area<sup>3</sup>. Such a contribution opens up a wide field of research, while raising also a number of new questions. Where does Sufism begin and end? More precisely, should we restrict the label ‘Sufism’ to the sphere of high culture, as incarnated for instance by the poetry of Jalâl al-Dîn Rûmî or Amîr Khusraw? Answering such queries would imply to develop new research projects. On the other hand, it is obvious that the “real” Sindhis interviewed by Baloch and his fieldworkers are not aware of such debates. This finally leads us to question our own categories of thought, which are partly a legacy of orientalism. These thoughts simply provide a glimpse of the contribution N. B. Baloch achieved in the field of Sindhi studies. Needless to say, the immense work completed by this scholar will, for decades, continue to feed and stimulate research on Sufism, and on many other topics related to Sindh.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">By Michel Boivin</p>
<ol class="footnotes"><li id="footnote_0_800" class="footnote">On the latter, see Annemarie Schimmel, 1979, “The Marsiyeh in Sindhi Poetry”, in Peter J. Chelkowski (ed.), <em>Ta`zieh, ritual and drama in Iran</em>, New York, New York University, pp. 210-221. There are only a few academic works on the devotional literature in Sindhi. Such a topic is usually excluded from ‘official’ publications on Sindhi literature: see A. Schimmel, 1974, <em>Sindhi Literature</em>, Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz. See also Ali Asani, 2003, “At the Crossroads of Indic and Iranian Civilizations. Sindhi Literary Culture”, in Sheldom Pollock (Ed.), <em>Literary Culture in History. Reconstruction from South Asia</em>, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, pp. 621-646; 1994, “The Bridegroom Prophet in Medieval Sindhi Poetry”, in Alan W. Entwistle and Françoise Mallison (Ed.), <em>South Asian Devotional Literature</em>, New Delhi, Manohar, pp. 213-225.</li><li id="footnote_1_800" class="footnote">I quote the words, and also the names, according to dialectal transliteration as mentioned in Baloch’s publications.</li><li id="footnote_2_800" class="footnote">It is noteworthy to mention the three volumes devoted to <em>qâfiyyûn</em>, which are beyond the scope of this modest tribute. See <em>Qâfiyyûn</em>, 3 volumes, Sindhî Adâbî Bord, Jamshoro/Hyderabad, 1980-1990. See also my forthcoming article entitled “Devotional literature and Sufism in Sindh in the light of Dr N. B. Baloch’s contribution “, <em>The Journal of the  Pakistan Historical Society</em>, published by Hamdard University.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"></li></ol>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Book: A Modern History of the Ismailis</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/764</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/764#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2011 05:00:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>michelboivin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[New books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Farhad Daftary, A Modern History of the Ismailis: Continuity and Change in a Muslim Community, London, I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2011. “The Ismailis have enjoyed a long, eventful and complex history dating back to the 8th century CE and originating in the Shi&#8217;i tradition of Islam. During the medieval period, Ismailis of different regions &#8211; especially in central Asia, south Asia, Iran and Syria &#8211; developed and elaborated their own distinctive literary and intellectual traditions, which have made an outstanding contribution to the culture of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #993300"><strong><a href="http://eb.tncdn.net/dyn/200/978/184/5117177.jpg"><img class="alignleft" src="http://eb.tncdn.net/dyn/200/978/184/5117177.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="301" /></a>Farhad Daftary, <em>A Modern History of the Ismailis: Continuity and Change in a Muslim Community</em>, London, I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2011.</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">“The Ismailis have enjoyed a long, eventful and complex history dating back to the 8th century CE and originating in the Shi&#8217;i tradition of Islam. During the medieval period, Ismailis of different regions &#8211; especially in central Asia, south Asia, Iran and Syria &#8211; developed and elaborated their own distinctive literary and intellectual traditions, which have made an outstanding contribution to the culture of Islam as a whole. At the same time, the Ismailis in the Middle Ages split into two main groups who followed different spiritual leaders. The bulk of the Ismailis came to have a line of imams now represented by the Aga Khans, while a smaller group &#8211; known in south Asia as the Bohras &#8211; developed their own type of leadership.This collection is the first scholarly attempt to survey the modern history of both Ismaili groupings since the middle of the 19th century. It covers a variety of topical issues and themes, such as the modernising policies of the Aga Khans, and also includes original studies of regional developments in Ismaili communities worldwide. The contributors focus too on how the Ismailis as a religious community have responded to the twin challenges of modernity and emigration to the West. &#8216;A Modern History of the Ismailis&#8217; will be welcomed as the most complete assessment yet published of the recent trajectory of this fascinating and influential Shi&#8217;i community.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">The <a href="http://www.iis.ac.uk/WebAssets/Large/Introduction%20modern_history_final%20CRC.pdf">introduction can be downloaded</a> on the website of the <a href="http://www.iis.ac.uk/home.asp?l=en">Institute of Ismaili Studies</a>. The <a href="http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=112372">table contents</a> and the <a href="http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=112372">entire bibliography</a> of the book can also be consulted from there.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">“Farhad Daftary is Associate Director and Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. An international authority on Ismaili studies, his many acclaimed books in the field include <em>The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines,</em> <em>The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismailis</em>, and <em>A Short History of the Ismailis</em>.”</p>
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		<title>Shi&#8217;ism in Modern South Asia: Online conference audio-papers</title>
		<link>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/750</link>
		<comments>http://sindh.hypotheses.org/750#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Oct 2011 06:16:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rémy Delage</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[E-Resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ismailism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shiism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Asia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sindh.hypotheses.org/?p=750</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An international conference, &#8216;Contesting Shi&#8217;ism: Isna &#8216;Ashari and Isma&#8217;ili Shi&#8217;ism in Modern South Asia&#8217;, hosted by the History Department, Royal Holloway, was held in London on 9-10 September 2011. You can listen to all the conference papers on this website. Here below is the conference programme: Friday, 9th September 14:30 – 15:00 Francis Robinson, Reflections on the Shia in South Asia and the wider Muslim world 15:00 – 16:30 Session I Michel Boivin, The Isna ‘Ashari-Isma‘ili divide among the Khojas around 1910: exploring forgotten [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify">An international conference<span style="color: #993300"><span style="color: #000000">,</span><strong> &#8216;Contesting Shi&#8217;ism: Isna &#8216;Ashari and Isma&#8217;ili Shi&#8217;ism in Modern South Asia&#8217;</strong></span>, hosted by the History Department, Royal Holloway, was held in London on 9-10 September 2011.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">You can listen to all the <a href="http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2011/09/contesting-shiism-isna-ashari-and-ismaili-shiism-in-modern-south-asia/">conference papers on this website</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Here below is the conference programme:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong><span style="font-size: medium;color: #000080">Friday, 9th September</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify">14:30 – 15:00 <strong>Francis Robinson,</strong> <em>Reflections on the Shia in South Asia and the wider Muslim world</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #008080"><strong>15:00 – 16:30 Session I</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Michel Boivin,</strong> <em>The Isna ‘Ashari-Isma‘ili divide among the Khojas around 1910: exploring forgotten judicial sources from Karachi</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Ian Williams,</strong> <em>Shared and disputed symbols within Twelver Shi‘ite and Ahl-i-Sunnat traditions of Islam: an examination of theological constructions and devotional practices among leaders and adherents from nineteenth century South Asia to the contemporary U.K</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Tahir Kamran,</strong> <em>Sufi shrines, electoral politics and sectarian violence in Punjab: a case study of the dargah of Siyal Sharif</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #008080"><strong>17:30 – 19:00 Session II</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Ludovic Gandelot,</strong> <em>Isma‘ili Aga Khani religious and social identities, as seen through Sultan Muhammad Shah’s firmans at the beginning of the twentieth century</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Soumen Mukherjee,</strong> <em>Of ‘religious and social welfare’ and ‘progress of the community’: religious inspiration, leadership and idioms of welfarism among Shi‘a Imami Isma‘ilis in twentieth century South Asia and East Africa</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Bashir Damji,</strong> <em>The Khoja Isna ‘Ashari communities of East Africa: from newcomers to flag-bearers</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: medium;color: #000080"><strong>Saturday, 10th September</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #008080"><strong>9:00 – 10:30 Session III</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Sajjad Rizvi,</strong> <em>Establishing the principles of the faith for a new Shi‘ite polity: the theology of Sayyid Dildar ‘Ali Nasirabadi</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Justin Jones,</strong> <em>Khandan-i-Ijtihad: authority and transition in a family of Shi‘a ‘ulama in Lucknow, c.1850-1950</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Ali Khan,</strong> <em>Local nodes of a trans-national network: a case study of a Shi‘a family in Awadh, 1900-1950</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="color: #008080"><strong>11:00 – 12:30 Session IV</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Simon Wolfgang Fuchs,</strong> <em>Third-wave Shi‘ism: Sayyid Arif Husayn al-Husayni and the Islamic revolution in Pakistan</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Hasan Ali Khan,</strong> <em>The role of the Auqaf Department in redefining Sufi and Shi‘a built heritage in Pakistan</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify"><strong>Saleem Khan,</strong> <em>The Shi‘a dominance of the legal profession in British India: a study of the lawyer politicians of Bihar</em></p>
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