The Magic Doe

Qutban Suhravardi's Mirigavati

Bibliographic Data

ID23213751
AuthorsAditya Behl (0000-0002-5157-0121, corresponding author)
EditorsWendy Doniger
Year2012
Publication date2012-01-19
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThe magic doe (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199842926.001.0001
OpenAlexW2485663649
ISBN9780199842926
LanguageEN
Citations received9

Mirigāvatī or The Magic Doe is the work of Shaikh Qutban Suhravardi, an Indian Sufi master who was also an expert poet and storyteller attached to the glittering court-in-exile of Sultan Husain Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur. Composed in 1503 as an introduction to mystical practice for disciples, this powerful Hindavi or early Hindi Sufi romance is a richly layered and sophisticated text, simultaneously a spiritual enigma and an exciting love story full of adventures. The Mirigāvatī is both an excellent introduction to Sufism and one of the true literary classics of pre-modern India, a story that draws freely on the large pool of Indian, Islamic, and European narrative motifs in its distinctive telling of a mystical quest and its resolution. Adventures from the Odyssey and the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor—sea voyages, encounters with monstrous serpents, damsels in distress, flying demons and cannibals in caves, among others—surface in Suhravardi's rollicking tale, marking it as first-rate entertainment for its time and, in private sessions in Sufi shrines, a narrative that shaped the interior journey for novices.

Adventure · Art · Art history · Hindi · Islam · Literature · MAGIC (telescope) · Mysticism · Romance · Sufism · Theology · Classics · Education and Islamic Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy

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