Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval Islam

Shahzad Bashir

Published by Columbia University Press 2011

Sufi Bodies

Religion and Society in Medieval Islam

Shahzad Bashir

https://doi.org/10.7312/bash14490

Overview
Contents

About this book

Between 1300 and 1500 C.E. a new form of Sufi Islam took hold among central Islamic peoples, joining individuals through widespread networks resembling today's prominent paths and orders. Understanding contemporary Sufism requires a sophisticated analysis of these formative years. Moving beyond a straight account of leaders and movements, Shahzad Bashir weaves a rich history around the depiction of bodily actions by Sufi masters and disciples, primarily in Sufi literature and Persian miniature paintings of the period.

Focusing on the Persianate societies of Iran and Central Asia, Bashir explores medieval Sufis' conception of the human body as the primary shuttle between interior (batin) and exterior (zahir) realities. Drawing on literary, historical, and anthropological approaches to corporeality, he studies representations of Sufi bodies in three personal and communal arenas: religious activity in the form of ritual, asceticism, rules of etiquette, and a universal hierarchy of saints; the deep imprint of Persian poetic paradigms on the articulation of love, desire, and gender; and the reputation of Sufi masters for working miracles, which empowered them in all domains of social activity.

Bashir's novel perspective illuminates complex relationships between body and soul, body and gender, body and society, and body and cosmos. It highlights love as an overarching, powerful emotion in the making of Sufi communities and situates the body as a critical concern in Sufi thought and practice. Bashir's work ultimately offers a new methodology for extracting historical information from religious narratives, especially those depicting extraordinary and miraculous events.

Author / Editor information

Shahzad Bashir is the Lysbeth Warren Anderson Professor in Islamic Studies at Stanford University. He is the author of Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nurbakhshiya Between Medieval and Modern Islam and Fazlallah Astarabadi and the Hurufis.

Reviews

[A] pathbreaking book I hope that more scholars follow Shahzad Bashir's lead and contribute to this critically important field of inquiry in Islamic studies.

Scott Kugle:
A remarkable study of embodiment in a Sufi and Islamic idiom.

Laury Silvers:
A groundbreaking work in the study of Sufism.

An immensely rich resource for persons interested in medieval Islamic civilization.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
ABBREVIATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
CHRONOLOGY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
INTRODUCTION: SHAKINGHANDS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I. FRAMING SUFI IDEAS & PRACTICES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
II. SUFI BODIES IN MOTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 296
Illustrations
- Other: 23 illus.

eBook

Published: August 23, 2011
ISBN: 9780231517607