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- Convenor:
-
Shaftolu Gulamadov
(University of Toronto Mississauga)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Maruf Noyoft
- Discussant:
-
Sarfaroz Niyozov
(OISE (University of Toronto))
- Formats:
- Panel
- Theme:
- Cultural Studies, Art History & Fine Art
- Location:
- GA 4067
- Sessions:
- Friday 21 October, -
Time zone: America/Indiana/Knox
:
This panel aims to sample some of the new directions in Central Asian Ismaili studies. Using innovative theories and approaches in Islamic and Central Asian studies, the panelists discuss and re-evaluate studies on aspects of the history, doctrines, and practices of Central Asian Ismailis.
Abstract:
Central Asian Ismaili studies remains fragmentary in academic scholarship. While Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asian scholars produced a wealth of research on Central Asian Ismailis, much of their scholarship tends to be descriptive and remains under a great influence of the views formed during the Soviet period. In recent years, however, a number of scholars of the former Soviet countries have produced significant research that diverges from Soviet models and methods. Similarly, a growing number of Western scholars have begun to pay attention to this largely understudied field and achieved significant research accomplishments from different perspectives and focuses. Creative convergences of disciplinary approaches and growing international collaborations stimulate new research trajectories in the field of Central Asian Ismaili studies. This panel aims to sample some of the new directions in Central Asian Ismaili studies and foster a further dialogue. Using innovative theories and approaches that have emerged in religious, Islamic and Central Asian studies, the panelists discuss and re-evaluate studies on aspects of the history, doctrines, and practices of Central Asian Ismailis.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 21 October, 2022, -Shaftolu Gulamadov (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Paper abstract:
In 1959, in the introduction to his edition of the Book of Light, a collection of prayers, supplications, and poetry in Arabic and Persian that Central Asian Ismailis use in an old and unique post-funeral ritual, the leading pioneer in Ismaili studies, Vladimir Ivanow (d. 1970) called attention to similarity between a prayer in the Book of Light and a sermon of Iranian dervishes. Ivanow took the reference in the Book of Light as a “reliable indication of some kind of connection” between the tradition of the Sufi dervishes and the Ismailis of Central Asia. Other scholars, including Nir al-Din Mudarrisi Chahardihi (d. 1997) also pointed to “a total similarity” between and close-ties of Iranian Sufi dervishes and Central Asian Ismailis. Except Ivanov and Chahardihi, no other study has ever explored the relations between the traditions of the Iranian dervishes and Central Asian Ismailis and their close-ties have not received any due attention to date. This study, which is based on a larger research project, explores elements that the Book of Light shares with representative works of a number of Iranian and Central Asian Sufi traditions. Based on a close examination of primary sources composed between 17th and 19th centuries, it argues that the Book of Light strongly bears the influence of the Twelver Shii-Sufi paths. This explains the presence Sufi and Twelver Shii elements in the Book of Light, a phenomenon that has not been convincingly explained in Central Asian Ismaili scholarship to date.
Dagikhudo Dagiev (The Institute of Ismaili Studies)
Paper abstract:
Russian and Soviet scholars have made a huge contribution to the study of the religious and cultural life of the Ismailis of Central Asia. Starting from the first years of the 20th century, many works appeared on the cultural and religious life of the inhabitants of the mountainous Pamiri region. However, these scholarly studies of Soviet periods present some contradictions and subjective judgments with regard to the religious belief and practice of the Ismailis of Central Asia. Aleksandr Semenov has been one of the leading scholars, whose output included more than 20 articles, fascinated with the Ismaili philosophical interpretation of the Qurʾān and in particular with Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s interpretation of the Qurʾānic verses and arguments in Vajh-i dīn. In one of his articles, K dogmatike pamirskogo ismailizma XI glava “Lit͡sa very” Nasyr-i Khosrova, Semenov discusses creation, the ʿaql-i kull and the nafs-i kull along with the mediation of the hierarchy of the religious ranks including the nāṭiq, asās, the imam and the ḥujja. It also talks about the spiritual mission of the Prophets and the imams and the latter continuing presence as a proof of God on earth. This study will examine the assessment and readings of Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s Vajh-i Dīn by Semenov.
Otambek Mastibekov (The Institute of Ismaili Studies)
Paper abstract:
It is generally believed that Abū 'Alī ibn Sīnā (980-1037), the renowned physician, and philosopher and Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207-1273), the great mystic, express opposing views issues related intellect, soul, and spirit. However, a deep analysis of their views concerning these three concepts reveals numerous commonalities in their thinking and approach. This presentation analyzes the views of these giant thinkers and explores commonalities in relation to the three concepts, which, in turn, contributes to a better understanding of the interplay between Sufi and philosophical trends of Islam. More specifically, the presentation examines the views of these two towering figures through Central Asian Ismaili perceptions and ideas, as expressed in written sources. While not ignoring the views of Ibn Sīnā, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī and Central Asian Ismailis that are not necessarily in harmony, the presentation mainly focuses on commonalities in their thinking, and interpretations of the three concepts beyond sectarian, philosophical, and theological affiliations. It argues that in terms of the concepts most important to the teachings of the philosopher Ibn Sīnā, the mystic Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī and the Ismailis have much more in common than previously understood.
Although Rūmī, in most cases, considers himself not opposed to anyone or any group (as expressed in his famous saying, Bā nīk-u bad-i khalq-i Khudā kār nadārīm - We have no business with a good or bad of God's people), he nevertheless directly criticizes the philosophers and logicians (as exemplified in his statement "The leg of the reasoners (istidlāliyān) is of wood). On the other hand, Ibn Sīnā, while criticizing theoreticians speculative theology (as exemplified in his statement "har k-ū na khar ast kāfirash mīkhānand" - The one who is not a donkey, they call him as a kāfir), he nevertheless shares common views with them on most fundamental Islamic issues related to the three concepts. In that regard, an examination of Central Asian Ismaili world-views, as expressed in their literature and oral traditions, also reveals interesting commonalities.
Maria De Cillis (The Institute of Ismaili Studies London)
Paper abstract:
Central Asia in the Fatimid time (909 - 1171 CE) was the backdrop of intense intellectual fervour and powerful cross-cultural interactions. As one of the most renowned Ismaili dāʿīs of the time, Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī (d. after 411/1020), succeeded in creating a complex system of thought. This blended inherited Ismaili traditions — including gnostic cosmological elements — and Greek philosophical strands, mainly drawn from Aristotelianism and Fārābian Neoplatonism. Achieving prominence during the reign of the Imam-caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (r. 386-411/996-1021), al-Kirmānī set for himself, among other things, the task of intervening in a doctrinal controversy which had erupted amongst the foremost representatives of the so-called Iranian School of Ismaili philosophical theology: Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 322/934), Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Nasafī (d. 332/943) and Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī (d. c. 361/971). Focusing on the concept of Nature, and looking at the hierarchy of the intellectual Pleroma, this study will highlight how the metaphysical and esoteric correspondences employed by these intellectuals, operating across what is nowadays Central Asia, aimed at answering several contemporaneous Ismaili intellectual conundrums.