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.
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