…this paper challenges the interpretation which views the Kalām-i pīr primarily as a philosophical text; more broadly, it suggests a revision of the framework by which we understand both the legacy of Nāṣir-i Khusraw and the historical process of conversion among the Ismāʿīlīs of Central Asia.
Rethinking the Kalām-i pīr and Its Role in the Central Asian Ismāʿīlī Tradition by Beben, Daniel
Abstract:
This paper investigates the tradition of the Kalām-i pīr, a fundamental text preserved among the Ismāʿīlī Shīʿīs of the Badakhshan region of Central Asia attributed to the eleventh-century Ismāʿīlī poet and missionary Nāṣir-i Khusraw. The first major study of the text was undertaken by Wladimir Ivanow, who produced an edition and translation of the work in 1935. Ivanow judged the Kalām-i pīr to be a “forgery” of an earlier text committed by the sixteenth-century Ismāʿīlī author Khayrkhwāh Hirātī, who falsely ascribed his work to Nāṣir-i Khusraw. Ivanow concluded that the text is to be understood primarily as a specimen of Ismāʿīlī philosophical writing, and that the attribution to Nāṣir-i Khusraw is merely fanciful and unrelated to the work. Since that time, Ivanow’s interpretation of the text has remained authoritative among scholars of Ismāʿīlism. In recent years, however, multiple new manuscripts of the work, as well as a range of related materials have come to light, suggesting the need for a thorough re-evaluation of the text and its history.
In this paper I demonstrate, based on research in multiple collections of Ismāʿīlī manuscripts, that Khayrkhwāh Hirātī likely had no role in the development or transmission of the text, and that the present redaction of the work should instead be dated to the mid-eighteenth century. Furthermore, I argue that the attribution to Nāṣir-i Khusraw is not merely incidental to the text, but rather is central to understanding the interpretation and significance of the text among the Ismāʿīlīs of Central Asia. Its development and attribution must be considered within the context of the social and religious history of Badakhshan in the eighteenth century, an era which saw an energetic expansion of the Ismāʿīlī daʿwa in the region and the development of a flourishing hagiographical tradition connected with Nāṣir-i Khusraw. This paper draws as well upon a series of oral histories and ethnographic observations which demonstrate a much wider range of significances and forms of extra-literary engagement with the text as a sacred object among Central Asian Ismāʿīlīs, which indicate the role of the text as an agent of conversion and Islamization. In summary, this paper challenges the interpretation which views the Kalām-i pīr primarily as a philosophical text; more broadly, it suggests a revision of the framework by which we understand both the legacy of Nāṣir-i Khusraw and the historical process of conversion among the Ismāʿīlīs of Central Asia.
Daniel Beben won a Social Sciences Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship and an American Councils Advanced Research Fellowship to conduct dissertation research in the post-Soviet republic of Tajikistan in the 2012-13 academic year.
Daniel’s research focuses on the religious and social history of Central Asia in the early-modern era. His dissertation explores the history and hagiographical literature of the Ismaili Shia Muslim community of the Badakhshan district of eastern Tajikistan. This community traces its foundation to the renowned Persian poet and philosopher Nasir-i Khusraw, who is held to have converted the region to the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam in the eleventh century.
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Rethinking the Kalām-i pīr and Its Role in the Central Asian Ismāʿīlī Tradition – Daniel Beben’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference in Washington, DC
About MESA:
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is a private, non-profit, non-political learned society that brings together scholars, educators and those interested in the study of the region from all over the world. MESA’s 48th annual meeting will be held in Washington, DC at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
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