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2011, Journal of Asian Studies
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911810002974…
42 pages
The Guptis of Bhavnagar, India, represent an unexplored case of taqiyya, or precautionary dissimulation, and challenge traditional categories of religious identity in South Asia. Taqiyya is normally practiced by minority or otherwise disadvantaged groups of Muslims who fear negative repercussions should their real faith become known. Historically, the Shi'a, whether Ithna-'ashari or Ismaili, have commonly dissimulated as Sunnis, who form the dominant community. However, the Guptis, who are followers of the Ismaili imam, and whose name means "secret" or "hidden ones," dissimulate not as Sunni Muslims, but as Hindus. The Gupti practice of taqiyya is exceptional for another reason: Hinduism is not simply a veil used to avoid harmful consequences, but forms an integral part of the Guptis’ belief system and identity, and the basis of their conviction in the Aga Khan, not only as the imam, but as the avatara of the current age.The prominent scientific citation indexing service Web of Science (WoS) ranked this article in the top 5% of most cited articles in the discipline of Area Studies, based on 10,533 articles in the category for the period of its publication.
AI
IRA-International Journal of Management & Social Sciences (ISSN 2455-2267), 2016
Istanbul Universitesi Ilahiyat Fakultesi Dergisi, 2007
Bu makalenin amacı takiyye kelimesinin tarih içerisinde kazandığı anlamları ve çeşitli İslam mezhepleri tarafından uygulanış şekillerini tespit etmektir. Bu nedenle Şia, Ehl-i sünnet, Havf\ric ve yeri geldikçe de Mulezilcnin takiyye inançlan söz konusu edilmiştir. İslam peygamberinden hemen sonra tartışma konusu haline gelen takiyye kavramının özellikle şta tarafından bir inanç prensibi ve doktrin haline getirilmesi şlı kaynaklardan hareketle tahlil edilmiştir. Bu arada Ehl-i sünnetin takiyyeye bakı ve onun, yalanla ilişkilendirilmesi tartışılmıştır. Bu konuda en azından başlangıçta kesin olarak olumsuz bir tavır sergileyen Baricilerin konuyla ilgili tutumları da incelenmiştir. Sonuçta bu davranış şeklinin Türk dini gelenek ve göreneklerine uymadığı vurgulanmıştır.
Social Action Journal, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, 2020
Through the corpus of investigating Muslims as a political community, Hilal Ahmed presents an intellectual discourse of actions and processes through which specific notions of Muslim identity in contemporary India are produced and sustained. He doesn’t categorize this project as ‘defining the Muslims’ which most of the Postcolonial scholars on Muslim Politics have been doing. But this work, as Ahmed describes, is a political discourse of Muslim Politics. ‘Siyasi Muslims’ responds to the two basic questions: the source of Muslim political identity and the possibilities of imagining Muslims as a community. The book mainly deals with the post-colonial political Islam centering mostly around the external construction of Muslim identity and focuses less on their self-image. Although Ahmed attempts to dig deep in the concept of the homogeneity of the Muslims and calls it a false notion, according to him the heterogeneity of the Muslims is the reason for the Muslims not able to react to the Hindutva politics. For this ‘Muslim silence’, Ahmed puts charges upon the political class for its intellectual weakness. He also deprecates the scholars who are critical of communalism but failed to produce a significant analysis of Muslim appeasement and alternate conceptualization. Ahmed’s work takes forward the works by Mushirul Hasan and Raziuddin Aquil, who mostly trace Muslim identity through the colonial prism and hence caters to a wider range of readers who are interested in the overlapping models of political Islam and post-colonial Muslim identity politics in India.
Sufis and their Opponents in the Persianate World, 2020
“They must be slain…attack them and snatch the wealth from their hands…their property and children are to be distributed as booty…may Almighty God abase them and curse them!” Thus, spewing fire and brimstone, Jalal-i Qa’ini advised Sultan Shahrukh on how to treat the Ismailis in his territories. This study analyses the practice of pious circumspection (taqiyyah) in the face of such persecution, highlighting the multivalent meanings of this term. Pious circumspection is a long-established practice in the history of Islam, and under various names, in the history of minority communities worldwide. It is often adopted by minority or otherwise disadvantaged groups who fear negative repercussions should their real faith become known. The study sheds light on how this method of both survival and self-perception allowed esoterically inclined communities such as the Ismailis to live among others who did not share their spiritual ethos, or who were openly hostile. It also discusses the dangers to self-identity inherent in this practice.
The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Reform
AUTHOR’S PRE-EDITED VERSION: “This chapter analyzes several longstanding reforms enacted within Nizārī Ismaili Muslim communities during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the Aga Khans, the modern hereditary Ismaili Imams. Prior studies have focused on the Aga Khans’ socio-economic and communal reforms within a narrative of the Ismailis as a modern, progressive, and enlightened Muslim community. This chapter focuses on theological, ritual, and institutional reforms that have received less scholarly coverage. These include radical changes in Ismaili religious identity and practice, the suspension of the Ismaili religious hierarchy (ḥudūd al-dīn), modernization of Ismaili socio-economic activities including gender roles, and the institutionalization and bureaucratization of the Ismaili Imamate. While these reforms have been successful in delivering socio-economic and communal benefit for Ismaili communities, several new challenges have emerged in their wake, such as: difficulties in articulating Ismaili belief and praxis vis-à-vis legalistic Islam, bureaucratic challenges to grassroots expressions of Ismaili identity, and the virtual dissolution of constructive theology from Ismaili bureaucratic institutions.
This thesis examines the discourse of a contemporary Pakistani Shi‘i cleric, Syed Jawad Naqvi. It focuses on his sermon The Role of Women towards the System of Wilayat. Like many prominent Shi‘i scholars, he studied in both Iraq and Iran. He also has met Ayatollah Khomeini, a very significant inspiration for some of his ideas. This thesis links the concept of wilayat-i fiqh, governance of Shi‘i juridical authority or the Ayatollah, in relation to the heightened debates of political Islam in Pakistan and questions the natural alliance between Islamism and Pakistani nationalism through discussing Navi’s concept of wilayat. The thesis starts with a brief account of the significant question of political legitimacy during the Mughal Dynasty and the waxing and waning ulema authority. It also introduces the colonial effects on religious publishing and examines how it affected sectarian relations and the political consciousness of certain Muslims in South Asia. The thesis then traces the sectarian contestations and the attempts to construct an overarching Islamic legal framework in modern-era Pakistan. Naqvi is responding to these historical concerns and to contemporary politics, namely, the 1979 Islamic Revolution that took place in Iran. While his rhetoric extends beyond borders at times, Naqvi hesitates to suggest a similar revolution for Pakistan. This thesis situates Naqvi’s writing within the Shi‘i tradition both in South Asia and beyond. It examines the rhetoric of the politicians that laid the foundation for Pakistan’s state religion—Islam—as well as sermonizing rituals of the Shi‘is in South Asia to give context for Naqvi’s political style. It explains the fiery rhetoric of Naqvi by providing accounts of violent sectarian conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s in Pakistan. The intense level of violence exhibited by both state and non-state actors questions the nation state’s legitimacy and rhetoric of universalism. Finally, this thesis provides gender analysis of Naqvi’s sermon within the context of Islamic reform (tajdid) since late colonial South Asia. Similar to the writers of the colonial era, Naqvi posits women as potential agents for carrying out the revolution. He suggests pious Shi‘i women should adopt certain changes for a better societal foundation that could usher the arrival of the Hidden Imam and a truly just society. At the same time, Naqvi also advises them to fulfill domestic chores and duties. His sermon inherited characteristics from the late colonial era’s advice literature genre.
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A Modern History of the Ismailis, 2011
The historian Bernard Lewis writes that in the course of its evolution, Ismailism 'has meant different things at different times and places'. 1 A principal reason for the multivalent significance of the tradition has been its remarkable ability to adapt to different contexts and circumstances. Depending on the historical period and geographical/cultural location, Ismaili intellectuals, poets and preachers have expressed the central doctrines of their faith within a variety of theologies and philosophical systems. In the late 10th and early 11th centuries, for example, Fatimid Ismaili thinkers engaged in a philosophical synthesis of Neoplatonic and Gnostic elements to elaborate Islamic and, specifically, Ismaili ideas. 2 As a consequence of centuries-old processes of acculturation to varying milieus, Ismaili communities have come to display significant diversity in their beliefs and practices. Indeed, the 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, commenting on the pliable nature of Ismailism, observed that the tradition has survived 'because it has always been fluid. Rigidity is contrary to our whole way of life and outlook. There have really been no cut-and-dried rules'. 3 Some scholars have attributed the Ismaili tendency to acculturate to different contexts to the doctrine of taqiyya, the strategy traditionally used by Shiʿi groups to hide or camouflage their religious beliefs in order to escape persecution. Historically, the Ismailis rank among the most ruthlessly persecuted minorities of the Muslim world, frequently forced into 'an underground existence'. 4 During certain historical periods, the intensity with which they were persecuted was such that entire communities were wiped out. One is reminded of the infamous edict of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan against Ismailis in which he commanded that 'none of that people should be spared, not even the
“Metafizika” Journal (ISSN 2616-6879) Serial. № 24, 2023
The concept of taqiyyah (التَّقِيَّة) is often associated with Shiah. It is even claimed that Shiah has been fighting politically for a long time using this concept. This paper, based on 20th century Turkish thinker Abdulbaqi Golpinarli’s findings, shows that taqiyyah emerged in the early days of Islamic history. Thus, it is undeniable that those events that resulted in taqiyyah and are recorded in the Quran occurred during the Prophet’s lifetime. Even Golpinarli considers the order to the Prophet saying “turn away from disbelievers and hypocrite” as a kind of taqiyyah. According to him, although in the early days of Islam the Prophet ordered companions to endure the violence of disbelievers and asked weak companions to engage in taqiyyah, as Islam became stronger, it responded to their attacks with jihad. Moreover, the researcher, justifying that taqiyyah concept was available in the Quran and in the hadiths narrated from the Prophet Muhammad, explained the attitude towards it in Twelver Imam Shiah. It becomes clear that taqiyyah notion appeared as a means to protect the life, property and religious fellows of believers from real danger. According to Golpinarli, being a shield against danger, taqiyyah ought to be considered a permission bestowed upon believers by God. However, the conditions for using taqiyyah are essential and could change depending on the situation. Especially, it should be noted that taqiyyah is one of the means of protecting the right and achieving justice, not bowing down to oppression and oppressor, silence, and hypocrisy.
Asian Ethnicity, 2013
South Asian History and Culture, 2020
Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2023
In the Post September 11 era, we have been witnessing a close and multifaceted relationship between state actors and academia. The Aields of Islamic and Middle East Studies -or Central Asian Studies -are the main targets of this co-optation process, which has created its own children that are also embedded in the system of colonialism and beneAit directly from the continuation of this trend. Consequently, Islam has become the target and Muslims the subject of this neo-colonialist process. These new groups of "scholars" should be called 'Neo-Orientalists' but they are less knowledgeable than classical Orientalists, and they have a more complicated relationship with state actors. The state needs them as much as they need the state for status and Ainancial beneAit. Most of these Neo-Orientalists focus on Women and Islam, or Terrorism and Islam; and in this context, they operate from a feeling that they have the responsibility to 'civilize' others. Their contribution to human civilization however, is nothing more than an abstract of Rudyard Kipling's civilization project. Saving a girl from Afghanistan's oppressive Taliban regime, rescuing the Iranian People from Ahmadinejad and the Mullah Regime; regardless of the actual merits of these forms of leadership; and bringing democracy to the 'savage Muslim societies' is the main purpose of Neo-Orientalists. In this sense, Islam is not seen as part of the social structure of Muslim societies, but has been portrayed as an ideological and uncivilized type of cult. Muslims should be liberated from their 'backwards traditions' and from Islam itself, which should at minimum be reformed in the interests of this new encroaching imperialism. Neo-Orientalist academics play an important role in perpetuating and strengthening this process. In this issue, you will read the articles based on a non-orientalist approach to Islam and Muslim Societies.
This paper attempts to find out the impact of Sufism on Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir. Traditionally Gujjars are closely attached to Sufism. 'Sufism' or 'Tasawwuf' is as old as Islam itself. It is known to be an inner doctrine of the Islamic faith. Islam spread very fast from the desert of Africa to the plains of Sindh and in almost the whole Middle East and central Asia. However, along with highly militarized and organized Islamic force, the theologians, historians, Ulema and Sufis also came and propagated Islam's teachings. The people of Kashmir welcomed this new religion and accepted it wholeheartedly. So with the spread of Islam in Kashmir, several communities, including Gujjars impressed by these Muslim theologians and Sufis, become a discipline of these Sufis. So this paper aims to highlight the influence of Sufism on the culture of Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir and its relevance in the present scenario for establishing peace and harmony in the society. This paper is based on secondary data i.e., Books, Journals, Newspapers, reports, census data, etc.
Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 2014
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The Muslim World, 2014
Taqiyya is an Islamic juridical term whose shifting meaning relates to when a Muslim is allowed, under Sharia law, to lie. A concept whose meaning has varied significantly among Islamic sects, scholars, countries, and political regimes, it nevertheless is one of the key terms used by recent anti-Muslim polemicists such as Robert Spencer or Daniel Pipes, and has been used by US Prosecutors to explain terrorist behavior. This paper seeks to summarize the complex uses of the term and show how a specific concept in a legal system can be used and interpreted by both adherents of that system and enemies in a wide variety of ways, taking on different meanings while referring to effectively the same set of practices. The term is debated in a scholarly way in the scholarly literature, as an ethnographic term, and finally, as an operational concept used as a tactic in a war and demanding countertactics tailored to it. The paper will discuss the social purpose of having such ambiguous concepts available within one's society, and the idea that making the ambiguous specific can be a valuable weapon in polemical attack.
Anthropology and Humanism, 2016
When an ethnographer's life is intimately enmeshed in the field through marriage or long-term partnership, what are the implications for ethnographic production? This article uses autoethnographic perspectives to engage issues of patriarchy, privilege, and power from fieldwork through the writing process. I argue that the power to represent these relationships must be examined to take anthropology beyond reflexivity to the realities of doing ethnography in an intimately interconnected world.
South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 2015
Whether or not the name of God is translatable has been a controversial issue for a very long time. 1 Egyptologist Jan Assmann cites vocabularies found in ancient Mesopotamia that list and translate names of Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, and Hellenistic gods in two, three, and in some cases even four languages. 'During the last three millennia B.C.E.-he summarizes the findings-religion appears to have been a promoter of intercultural translatability. [...] Peoples, cultures, and political systems may be sharply different. But so long as they have a religion and worship some definite and identifiable gods, they are comparable [...] because these gods must necessarily be the same as those worshipped by other peoples under different names' (Assmann 2008: 140-1). Anthropologist Richard Burghart (1989) highlights a comparable insight from the world of Hinduism. Hinduism, he shows, is capable of integrating into its fold a wide range of theological and ritual traditions by attributing to the divine a particular translation-like quality. Brahma, Rama, and other Hindu gods, we learn, manifest themselves in multiple forms, and the Buddha is recognized as an incarnation of Vishnu. The facilitating concept behind this versatility is the idea that the essential nature of the divine is nirguṇa, formlessness that can manifest and transform itself in any form. The underlying rationales, we can see, are varying. The divine may be seen as the ideal resort of multiple meanings, or the ontic location of no meaning at all. Related presuppositions regarding the conceptualization of religious plurality also differ widely. 'Comparative religion emerged in the West only when various religions could be compared from a non-religious (e.g. humanist) point of view. Indian religion [in contrast] is unique in that various dharmas are [...] compared from a religious point of view [...]' (Burghart 1989: 220). These differentiations notwithstanding, it is a common understanding that the names of gods and, by extension, essential religious expressions are powerful intercultural mediators when they become part of translation or translation-like operations.
'Ilu. Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones
Los gināns son un corpus de literatura religiosa ismailí del sur de Asia. Su temática es muy variada e incluye cuestiones como el amor divino, la cosmología, la meditación, la práctica ritual, la escatología y el comportamiento ético. La palabra ‘ginān’ deriva en última instancia de la raíz sánscrita ‘ŷñāna’ y está relacionada etimológicamente con la palabra griega ‘γνῶσις’, o ‘gnôsis’, que tiene derivados en muchas lenguas. Varios estudiosos han señalado el doble significado del término ‘ginān’ entre los ismailíes, ya que se refiere tanto a su literatura sagrada como a la gnosis. Este estudio exhaustivo explora el significado y el uso de la palabra ‘ginān’ en la propia tradición ginān. Como la mayoría de los gināns se recitan en melodías particulares, este estudio de la tradición ginān se inspira en la organización de la sinfonía tradicional. Al igual que una sinfonía, composición extensa en la música clásica occidental, suele estar dividida en cuatro movimientos, este estudio de l...
Shafique N . Virani