Symphony of Gnosis: A Self-Definition of the Ismaili Ginan Literature

Conference Programme, 2006

Invited Speaker at the IIS International Conference: Devotional Expressions of South Asian Muslims. I presented on "Issues and Prospects of Printing of Ginan Literature" (16-18 November 2006). The conference focused on the confluence between Muslim and Indic traditions in South Asia, which has given rise to various devotional, artistic and literary forms of expression from medieval times to the present day. Speakers explored links between devotional forms and reflected on the relationship between religious traditions and their lived expression.

'God First abd Last', 2020

The Yaresan or Ahl-e Haqq are a relatively large minority group whose religion originates in the border regions between Iran and Iraq. As members of traditional Yaresan communities are becoming more visible in the West, both as diaspora groups and in academia, there is an increasing demand for reliable information about their background. Academic interest is also growing. Recent scholarly publications, however, tend to assume a fundamental knowledge of the Yaresan tradition, which is not easy to glean from existing sources. This is made more complicated by the very real differences between the European world view and that of traditional Yarsanism. For that reason and because music plays an unusually prominent role in Yaresan observance, it was decided to combine the authors’ work on religious traditions and music respectively. In doing so we have sought to communicate the religious realities of the traditional Yaresan of the Guran region by quoting extensively from interviews with community members. The first volume also offers a survey of other religious traditions that are thought to have been influential in shaping modern Yarsanism. Interested disciplines: Iranian Studies, Kurdology, Zoroastrian Studies, Religious Studies, Minority Studies, Diaspora Religions, Ethnomusicology, Oral Studies

Proceedings of the Seventh Annual International Conference on Shiʿi Studies, 2022

Absolute Divine transcendence, and concomitant necessary Divine immanence, are theological currents permeating the South Asian Shi'i Ismā'īlī tradition of the Gināns. The contrast between the articulations of Deus absconditus and Deus revelatus in the Ginān tradition reflects its Subcontinent vernacularism, Shi'i framework, and the influence and engagement of multiple Arabo-Persianate and South Asian spiritual streams of tradition. The Ismaili dā'īs, pīrs, and sayyīds, who composed the Ginān, themselves reflected differing articulations of ontotheosophical assertions about the nature of the Divine within the Ginān. The ginānic theological discourse stands between the concurrent assertions of nirguṇa (absolute transcendent formlessness) and ḥāḍar (immanent divine presence). This polarity between absolute negational theology, and absolute divine presence, could be perceived as an ontological tension. However, this study argues the two assertions are to be considered complementary, and coherent, within the onto-theological and onto-cosmological theosophical worldview of the Ginān. Surveying key theological assertions within the Ginān, these assertions are situated within a broader South Asian and Islamicate intellectual milieu, Shi'i, Shī'ī Imāmī Ismā'īlī and Ṣūfī. Ultimately, it is proposed the most consistent interpretive hermeneutical lens to read these ginānic themes was articulated by the invoking of the technical term of 'Monorealism' by Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, the 48 th Ismā'īlī Imām and 3 rd Aga Khan. Reading the semantic domain of this term as entailing a modified articulation of panentheism, one that compromises neither Divine transcendence nor Divine immanence, we argue coheres most credibly with the modality of Divinity presented in the Gināns.

In the West, Inayat Khan is generally known for his broadminded metaphysical Sufi teachings rather than for his musicianship, even though he came to the West as a professor of music and music theory whilst being an acknowledged gentleman musician. Few are aware that he was one of The Royal Musicians of Hindustan, presumably the first Indian ensemble to perform classical Indian music in the West. Having received a Sufi training in the teachings of the four main Sufi orders of his day (i.e. the Chistiyya, Suhrawaridyya, Qadiriyya, and Naqshbandiyya), Inayat Khan was a gifted poet, composer, and vocalist as well, who played the vina (an age-old Indian string instrument). Of interest beyond the realm of his fascinating Western-world suited Sufi teachings is Inayat Khan’s lyrical heritage combined with his views on music, both intrinsically linked as much with his Chishti Sufi praxis as with his musicianship. While popular sources on Inayat Khan’s biography and mysticism abound, there virtually was no serious scholarly discourse on the role of music in relationship to Inayat Khan’s mysticism until the last quarter of the 20th century, culminating at the onset of the 21st century. There used to be a serious lack of trustworthy scholarly sources in any regard, Inayat Khan’s mysticism included, till that time as well. Most scholarly publications on Inayat Khan contain many of the same biographical mistakes and generalised assumptions based on a non-critical approach to available sources. This is a very troublesome aspect of contemporary scholarship on Inayat Khan. In order to bridge the lack of balanced, critical information noticed in most scholarly sources with regard to Inayat Khan’s musical-mystical legacy, the scholarly aim of my thesis is to outline the specific role of music in the mysticism of Inayat Khan by 1) critically discussing source material when appropriate, 2) highlighting what Inayat Khan accomplished as an acknowledged musician, composer, vocalist, poet, and philosopher while looking into a selection of his lyrical legacy, and 3) by addressing a selection of his views with regard to the relationship he perceived between music and mysticism from the perspective of man, musicians and society; mystical praxis; and with regard to God and creation. Chapter one, “The context, roots, and impetus of Inayat Khan’s musical mysticism”, addresses the significance of contextual developments versus the influence of Inayat Khan’s ancestors, and pays attention to Inayat Khan’s scholarly endeavours, his main musical accomplishments and his travels on both the Indian subcontinent and in the West in this regard. The second chapter, “Mystical lyrics, musical expression”, presents the reader with an introduction to Inayat Khan’s musical-lyrical heritage dating from his years in India and in the West. “Notions from Inayat Khan’s speculative music theory,” the third chapter, is dedicated to aspects of The mysticism of sound and music, a collection of transcribed and edited lectures of Inayat Khan delivered in the West which contain Inayat Khan’s views on speculative music theory. It discusses meaningful publication details, and highlights perceived key notions from the first part of The mysticism of sound and music, entitled “Music.”

2005

The Na ¯th or Ka ¯nphat ˙ a ¯ Yogı ¯s belong to a Hindu Shaiva ascetic and monastic tradition which had a lot of influence on the religious and literary landscape of precolonial India and is still counted among the important sectarian movements of modern India. This survey offers a brief overview of scholarship on three key areas: first, the relationship to Yoga and the link with Gorakhna ¯th as the supposed author of Sanskrit treatises on Hat ˙ ha Yoga; second, the interpretation of the vernacular literature of the Na ¯th Yogı ¯s, their legends, their strong relationship to power and their convergence with the bhakti milieu; and third, the Na ¯th Yogı ¯s as constituting a modern sectarian organization , and recent developments relating to their organisation and rituals. The Hindu ascetics known by the name of Na ¯th Yogı ¯s have different appellations such as Ka ¯nphat ˙ a ¯ Yogı ¯s (Yogı ¯s with split ears) or Gorakhna ¯thı ¯ Yogı ¯s or Ba ¯rahpanthı ¯s. The term Ka ¯nphat ˙ a ¯ Yogı ¯s or Yogı ¯s with split ears alludes to the hallmark of their sect (thick hooped earrings in slits cut in the cartilage of their ears) but this appellation is now considered derogatory and the Yogı ¯s themselves prefer to be called Dars´andha ¯rı ¯s, (the wearers of dars´an, as they call their earrings). The name Gorakhna ¯thı ¯ evokes the identity of their presumed founder, Gorakhna ¯th, and Ba ¯rahpanthı ¯ refers to the 12 panths or branches in which the sect is understood to be divided. None of these terms, however, is without its problems: the Yogı ¯s now reject the name Ka ¯nphat ˙ a ¯; scholars question the historicity of Gorakhna ¯th and relativize many of the characteristics that the Yogı ¯s consider inextricably linked to their identity; and the number of branches is more than twelve. Even though their past history is difficult to reconstruct, the Na ¯th Yogı ¯s, a Shaiva ascetic tradition, are recognized as a samprada ¯ya, a religious community rooted in the transmission of a fundamental teaching (Malinar 2011, pp. 156–64). Though their former prominence and influence has receded, they nevertheless number among the important Indian sects whose peripatetic ascetics still roam the Himalayan wilderness and whose various monastic establishments are scattered across the religious landscape of the Indian subcontinent. Few studies have been exclusively devoted to the Na ¯th Yogı ¯s, which makes the pioneering work by G. W. Briggs (Gorakhna ¯th and the Ka ¯nphata Yogı ¯s, 1938) particularly remarkable. Its constant republishing attests to its importance but also points to the need for new studies. Briggs's book gives an enormous amount of detailed information, combining factual observation with historical data, and examining both textual and oral traditions. Briggs provides a survey of the different places connected to the Yogı ¯s that he visited or heard about, describing their specificities, and he refers to the many legends of the main Na ¯th heroes as well as to the textual tradition, even providing a translation of the key Na ¯th Yogı ¯ text, the Goraks ˙ as´ataka. However, the accumulation of often contradictory details, and the different levels of analysis, undermine the coherence of the Religion Compass 7/5 (2013): 157–

Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2019

Khwajah Qasim Tushtari's recently discovered Recognizing God (Ma'rifat-i Khuday ta'ala) is one of the only texts known to have survived from the early Alamut period of Ismaili Muslim history. It preserves evidence of the "new Invitation" (da'wat-i jadid) to the Ismaili faith that al-Shahrastani (d. 548/1153) tells us was inaugurated by the Fatimid Imam al-Mustansir billah (d. 487/1094) and championed by Hasan-i Sabbah (d. 518/1124). The text emphasizes that the ultimate purpose of human existence is to know God, and that the path to this knowledge is through the Imam of the Time. Likely composed between 525/1131 and 533/1139, the text contains near-contemporary references to Sana'i Ghaznawi (d. ca. 525/1131) and points to the very early development of homiletic Persian pious, devotional and homiletic poetry as well as the "mathnawi metre" in Ismaili environments. This metre was later famously used by Farid al-Din 'Attar (d. ca. 618/1221) and Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 672/1273) in their mystical compositions. The article includes an introduction, critical edition and annotated translation to Qasim Tushtari's Recognizing God.

Reviewed in the "Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism" 10 (2014): R35-R41.