Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi

Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi
Author: Prashant Keshavmurthy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2016-01-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317287940

Writing in the eighteenth century, the Persian-language litterateurs of late Mughal Delhi were aware that they could no longer take for granted the relations of Persian with Islamic imperial power, relations that had enabled Persian literary life to flourish in India since the tenth century C.E. Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi situates the diverse textual projects of ‘Abd al-Qādir “Bīdil” and his students within the context of politically threatened but poetically prestigious Delhi, exploring the writers’ use of the Perso-Arabic and Hindavi literary canons to fashion their authorship. Breaking with the tendency to categorize and characterize Persian literature according to the dynasty in power, this book argues for the indirectness and complexity of the relations between poetics and politics. Among its original contributions is an interpretation of Bīdil’s Sufi adaptation of a Braj-Avadhi tale of utopian Hindu kingship, a novel hypothesis on the historicism of Sirāj al-Din ‘Alī Khān “Ārzū”s oeuvre and a study of how Bindrāban Dās “Khvushgū" entwined the contrasting models of authorship in Bīdil and Ārzū to formulate his voice as a Sufi historian of the Persian poetic tradition. The first book-length work in English on ‘Abd al-Qādir “Bīdil” and his circle of Persian literati, this is a valuable resource for students and scholars of both South Asian and Iranian studies, as well as Persian literature and Sufism.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Islamic Spirituality

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Islamic Spirituality
Author: Vincent J. Cornell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 612
Release: 2022-11-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1118529405

A ground-breaking and comprehensive collection on various facets of Islamic spirituality throughout history and in the modern world The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Islamic Spirituality is an authoritative reference work comprising twenty-eight scholarly essays that explore the expressive and performative dimensions of Islamic spirituality. Edited by two of its most prominent scholars, and bringing together a stellar cast of contributors, this wide-ranging volume covers religious practices, sacred texts, history and places, gender, music, poetry, the visual arts, and politics. Spirituality has had a long and important history in Islam, where a focus on spirituality is required of every believer. Each Muslim is asked to achieve a state of devotion through prayer, fasting, supplications, recitations, pilgrimage, and ascetic practices. The essays in this volume explain the role of spirituality in Islam—from its beginnings, through the development of its institutions, and into the present day. They also reflect important new research, and discuss contemporary debates and issues affecting Islamic spirituality such as the Internet, social justice, the role of women, ethics, and religious fundamentalism. Offering readers a thought-provoking way to engage with the topic, this comprehensive work includes: The spirituality of words and letters, including the Qur’an, prophetic traditions in Islam, and litanies, invocations, and devotional texts Devotional practices in Islam, including the spirituality of prayer, ascetic spirituality, Qur’an recitation, and spirituality of the Sufi path Spirituality in literature, including Arabic and Persian poetry, spirituality in the modern novel, and the art of translation Spirituality in the arts, including the visual arts, music, song, and film Islamic spirituality and post-modern practices, including the Internet, Islamic hip-hop, and Salafism From the personal to the political, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Islamic Spirituality offers a fresh and revitalized view of all aspects of spirituality in Islam. It is a must-have scholarly resource for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, instructors and scholars studying Islam, spirituality, and Asian and Middle Eastern history as well as general readers with an interest in the subject.

Jāmī in Regional Contexts

Jāmī in Regional Contexts
Author: Thibaut d'Hubert
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 865
Release: 2018-11-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004386602

Jāmī in Regional Contexts: The Reception of ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān Jāmī’s Works in the Islamicate World is the first attempt to present in a comprehensive manner how ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492), a most influential figure in the Persian-speaking world, reshaped the canons of Islamic mysticism, literature and poetry and how, in turn, this new canon prompted the formation of regional traditions. As a result, a renewed geography of intellectual practices emerges as well as questions surrounding authorship and authority in the making of vernacular cultures. Specialists of Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Georgian, Malay, Pashto, Sanskrit, Urdu, Turkish, and Bengali thus provide a unique connected account of the conception and reception of Jāmī’s works throughout the Eurasian continent and maritime Southeast Asia.

Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi

Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi
Author: Prashant Keshavmurthy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2016-01-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317287959

Writing in the eighteenth century, the Persian-language litterateurs of late Mughal Delhi were aware that they could no longer take for granted the relations of Persian with Islamic imperial power, relations that had enabled Persian literary life to flourish in India since the tenth century C.E. Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi situates the diverse textual projects of ‘Abd al-Qādir “Bīdil” and his students within the context of politically threatened but poetically prestigious Delhi, exploring the writers’ use of the Perso-Arabic and Hindavi literary canons to fashion their authorship. Breaking with the tendency to categorize and characterize Persian literature according to the dynasty in power, this book argues for the indirectness and complexity of the relations between poetics and politics. Among its original contributions is an interpretation of Bīdil’s Sufi adaptation of a Braj-Avadhi tale of utopian Hindu kingship, a novel hypothesis on the historicism of Sirāj al-Din ‘Alī Khān “Ārzū”s oeuvre and a study of how Bindrāban Dās “Khvushgū" entwined the contrasting models of authorship in Bīdil and Ārzū to formulate his voice as a Sufi historian of the Persian poetic tradition. The first book-length work in English on ‘Abd al-Qādir “Bīdil” and his circle of Persian literati, this is a valuable resource for students and scholars of both South Asian and Iranian studies, as well as Persian literature and Sufism.

Ardā Wirāz Nāmag

Ardā Wirāz Nāmag
Author: Fereydun Vahman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315468913

Ardā Wirāz Nāmag or the Book of the Righteous Wirāz is an outstanding example of Iranian apocalyptic literature. It is in the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) language and was written probably during the later period of the Sasanian dynasty (AD 226-650). The Zoroastrian priests chose a man called Wirāz, the most righteous among them, to go to the spiritual realm to discover the truth of the religion. This book, first published in 1986, contains the observations of Wirāz’ divine journey and his description of heaven and hell. The basic MS. is K20 (Royal Library of Copenhagen) which is carefully compared with other MSS. The MS. is printed in facsimile, followed by transliteration and transcription following the MS. closely line by line. A full translation is given, and a commentary is included together with a glossary, bibliography and index.

Reorientations / Arabic and Persian Poetry

Reorientations / Arabic and Persian Poetry
Author: Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1994-03-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780253354938

Employing contemporary literary theory, eight members of the "Chicago school" of Arabic and Persian literature reorient the critical approach to classical Middle Eastern literature. The authors analyze a broad spectrum of poetry, ranging from the pre-Islamic ode of the sixth century to seventeenth-century Persian Safavid Moghul verse. Among issues considered are the ritual and sacrificial aspects of literature, the transition from orality to literacy, the iconographical and mythic dimensions of philology, and imitation as a form of creation. The inclusion of contemporary translations of all the poems discussed is an important feature for students of Middle Eastern literature and comparative poetics.

Things That Bother Me

Things That Bother Me
Author: Galen Strawson
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2018-03-13
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1681372215

An original collection of lauded philosopher Galen Strawson's writings on the self and consciousness, naturalism and pan-psychism. Galen Strawson might be described as the Montaigne of modern philosophers, endlessly curious, enormously erudite, unafraid of strange, difficult, and provocative propositions, and able to describe them clearly—in other words, he is a true essayist. Strawson also shares with Montaigne a particular fascination with the elastic and elusive nature of the self and of consciousness. Of the essays collected here, “A Fallacy of Our Age” (an inspiration for Vendela Vida’s novel Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name) takes issue with the commencement-address cliché that life is a story. Strawson questions whether it is desirable or even meaningful to think about life that way. “The Sense of the Self” offers an alternative account, in part personal, of how a distinct sense of self is not at all incompatible with a sense of the self as discontinuous, leading Strawson to a position that he sees as in some ways Buddhist. “Real Naturalism” argues that a fully naturalist account of consciousness supports a belief in the immanence of consciousness in nature as a whole (also known as panpsychism), while in the final essay Strawson offers a vivid account of coming of age in the 1960s. Drawing on literature and life as much as on philosophy, this is a book that prompts both argument and wonder.

Poetry and Mysticism in Islam

Poetry and Mysticism in Islam
Author: Amin Banani
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 1994-08-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780521454766

Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi was one of the greatest poets and mystics of the Islamic world. He was born in Balkh (Korasan) in AD 1207 and died in Konya (Turkey) in AD 1273. This book is an examination of his spiritual and literary heritage. As Annemarie Schimmel, the recipient of the Eleventh Giorgio Della Vida Award in Islamic Studies, has written, 'no other mystic and poet from the Islamic world is as well known in the West as Rumi', and she, more than any Western scholar, is his most celebrated and eloquent interpreter. The scholars who Professor Schimmel has invited to share in her tribute have all added new dimensions to an understanding of Rumi and to his impact on the Islamic world.