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As a continent lying to the east of Europe, Asia has been malleable
to different spatial and temporal imaginations and politics. Recent
scholarship has highlighted how the seemingly self-contained
regional configurations of West and Central Asia, South and
Southeast Asia, and East Asia carved by the Area Studies paradigm
reflect changing (geo)political and economic interests than
historical or cultural roots. This volume advances the question as
to what Asia is, and as to whether there existed one or many
Asia(s). It seeks to explore Asian societies as interconnected
formations through trajectories/networks of circulation of people,
ideas, and objects in the longue duree. Moving beyond the divides
of area studies scholarship and the arbitrary borders set by late
colonial empires and the rise of post-colonial nation-states, this
volume maps critically the configuration of contact zones in which
mobile bodies, minds, and cultures interact to foster new images,
identities, and imaginations of Asia.
The book is an in-depth study of the lesser-explored history of
Sufi practices in South Asia. Covering the formative period of
Sufism in this region, the work studies practices like 'sama'
(listening to poetry and music) and 'zikr' (remembrance of God)
through the careers of the earliest Sufi orders in the region,
'Chishti and Suhrawardi'. The book allows the reader critical
insight into 'Sufi exercises', the meaning, structure, and
performance of sama, the long debate on the legality of music,
dance and poetry as religious practices, tensions between Sufis and
the State around the permissibility of sama, zikr as a core Sufi
exercise, the practice of sama and zikr across orders, and the
importance of etiquette in Sufi communities. The work essentially
understands spiritual practices as a critical element in the
development of Sufism in South Asia. Moving beyond the limits of
the north-south binary, the author also focuses on the Deccan,
weaving a seamless narrative that reflects the contributions of
generations of important Sufi masters. Shedding light on the
private world of Sufi practices, the work, for the first time,
introduces English language readers to a full-length translation of
a treatise written in defence of listening to music and poetry as
an integral spiritual exercise.
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