Aḥmad Yasavī and the Ismāʿīlīs of Badakhshān

Towards a New Social History of Sufi-Shīʿī Relations in Central Asia

Bibliographic Data

ID9085114
AuthorsDaniel Beben (0000-0001-9981-2540, Nazarbayev University Astana Kazakhstan, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume63
Issue5-6
Pages643-681
Publication date2020-11-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4995 • E-ISSN: 1568-5209
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15685209-12341523
OpenAlexW3107697200
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited12

This article examines how a text attributed to the renowned Central Asian Sufi figure Aḥmad Yasavī came to be found within a manuscript produced within the Ismāʿīlī Shīʿī community of the Shughnān district of the Badakhshān region of Central Asia. The adoption of this text into an Ismāʿīlī codex suggests an exchange between two disparate Islamic religious traditions in Central Asia between which there has hitherto been little evidence of contact. Previous scholarship on Ismāʿīlī-Sufi relations has focused predominately on the literary and intellectual engagement between these traditions, while the history of persecution experienced by the Ismāʿīlīs at the hands of Sunnī Muslims has largely overshadowed discussions of the social relationship between the Ismāʿīlīs and other Muslim communities in Central Asia. I demonstrate that this textual exchange provides evidence for a previously unstudied social engagement between Ismāʿīlī and Sunnī communities in Central Asia that was facilitated by the rise of the Khanate of Khoqand in the 18th century. The mountainous territory of Shughnān, where the manuscript under consideration originated, has been typically represented in scholarship as isolated prior to the onset of colonial interest in the region in the late 19th century. Building upon recent research on the impact of early modern globalization on Central Asia, I demonstrate that even this remote region was significantly affected by the intensification of globalizing processes in the century preceding the Russian conquest. Accordingly, I take this textual exchange as a starting point for a broader re-evaluation of the Ismāʿīlī-Sufi relationship in Central Asia and of the social ‘connectivity’ of the Ismāʿīlīs and the Badakhshān region within early modern Eurasia

Ancient history · Archaeology · Asian studies · Central asia · China · Colonialism · Geopolitics · Globalization · Islam · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · South asia · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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