The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia By Asani London: .B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2002. pp xxii + 183. ISBN: 1 86064 758 8 (Hb)

A Reading Guide* Asani’s work is arranged the devotional literature of in an anthology of very the Satpanth tradition is readable short essays and an divided into seven essays appendix of English which one might group into translations of several three parts: the from the Ismaili introduction; an analysis of tradition of the Indian Sub- themes in ginans and gits;2 a continent, known in its history and analysis of the formative period by the name Khojki . Satpanth.1 Asani’s analysis of

*Department of Community Relations, January 2006. Other studies and translations of the ginans, the devotional literature that is the subject of Asani’s 1 The term ‘satpanth’ literally means ‘true-path’, work, include: Aziz Esmail’s Scent of Sandalwood, familiar in Arabic as sirat al-mustaqim. Asani uses London 2002; Christopher Shackle and Zawahir the term Satpanth to refer to the particular form of Moir, Zawahir. Ismaili Hymns from South Asia: An Ismailism in the Indian sub-continent and its diaspora Introduction to the Ginans. London. 1992; and Tazim and as a synonym for ‘’, a term that is Kassam’s Songs of Wisdom and Circles of Dance: described in note 3 below. In the remainder of this Hymns from the Satpanth Ismaili Muslim Saint, Reading Guide, however, the more general term Shams. Albany, NY, 1995. ‘Ismaili’ will be used. 2 The gits are described by Asani as devotional ‘folk songs’ and unlike ginans are still composed. Page 1 of 10 Asani argues that the ginans must be read with an awareness of the historical conditions in which they were produced, and identifies three such ‘contexts’ – the The introductory essay the Indo-Muslim, the Indic, and the Ismaili. defines Asani’s scholarly git approach to the ginans. He tradition relates how love argues that the ginans must for the continues to be be read with an awareness of expressed through folk songs the historical conditions in in the modern period. Chapter which they were produced and Five examines the issue of identifies three such the authorship of the ginans. ‘contexts’: the Indo-Muslim, In addition to examining the the Indic, and the Ismaili. evidence for various claims These three ‘I’s’ recur of authorship attributed to throughout the essays and a the ginans, Asani discusses sense of the Indic is the value of this scholarly especially strong in the inquiry for the community for middle chapters. In Chapter whom this literature is alive Two, ‘The Ginan as Devotional as a practice of devotion. Literature’, Asani reviews The last two chapters of debates in ginan studies: the the book study the origins of the ginans; their development of the Khojki collection and compilation in script, used exclusively by the late 19th and early 20th the Khoja Ismailis in the centuries; and their Indian sub-continent, from relationship to the Qur’an as the eighth to the middle of well as to the vocabulary of the 20th century.3 Here, Asani Hindu religious movements of reviews how Khojki evolved the time. from a mercantile script to His following chapter, one used for recording sacred ‘Bridal Symbolism in the Ginans’, maps the appearance 3 The Satpanth Ismailis of the Indian sub-continent of this ubiquitous trope included converts of various castes. Tradition has it within the religious that the Persian title ‘khwaja’ was bestowed upon converts from the caste by Pir Sadr al-Din (d. landscape of mediaeval North 1400 CE). This Persian honorific, meaning ‘master’, became popularized in Indian vernaculars as ‘khoja’, India, while Chapter Four on the term used to refer to Ismailis of the Satpanth tradition today. Page 2 of 10 writings. By using Persia.4 The missionaries, archaeological evidence, as referred to as pirs in the well as studying the scripts ginans, were sent to India to of the ginans, Asani attempts propagate the Shi‛i Ismaili to discern the role the pirs faith. The relationships that played in the origin and were cultivated between evolution of Khojki. The Ismaili believers and their essays in Ecstasy and pirs were not unlike those in Enlightenment thus situate Sufi communities of the the ginans in linguistic, region, which also valued theological as well as adherence to a spiritual historical landscapes, and guide and the development of approach these landscapes the individual and ascetic through the categories that dimensions of religious life. constitute Asani’s tripartite Followers of Sufi framework of ‘contexts’. tariqahs and other Islamic As mentioned above, communities were part of the Asani argues that the three Indo-Muslim milieu in which contexts in which the ginans the Ismaili tradition must be understood are the evolved. These communities Ismaili, the Indo-Muslim and differed in their the Indic. Asani, along relationships to the with others, argues that the indigenous non-Muslim Ismaili community in the population, and Asani Indian sub-continent was identifies two broad trends established through the of practice within these efforts of missionaries relationships: the (da‛is, referred to as pirs in ‘separatist’ and the the ginans) sent from the seat of the Imamate at the 4 The dissemination and propagation of Ismailism in Ismaili state in , northern India has been attributed to the da‛wa, a network of hierarchically organized missionaries. This institution was sustained by the Ismailis in Iran after the fall of the Fatimid state in North Africa, and sent da‛is to the Indian sub-continent perhaps as early as the 11th century. Page 3 of 10 ‘assimilationist’. The bhakti devotionalism. In several Hindi-speaking areas of northern ‘separatists’ included India, Chishti patronage led to the development of mystical- religious elites and patrons romantic epics in various Hindi dialects in which local Indian of the various Muslim courts romances were retold by poets who who preferred to keep their incorporated within them a mystical symbolism embedded in ‘Turko-Persian’ heritage Sufi ideology. Sufi poets in Sind and Punjab appropriated separate from the religious within an Islamic context the theme of viraha (love-in- practices of the indigenous separation) and the symbol of the th virahini (the woman longing for population, such as one 14 her beloved). Both were century religious leader who associated in the Indian devotional tradition with the forbade his Muslim followers longing of the gopis (cow-maids), particularly Radha, for the from using ‘linguistically avatara Krishna. Following the Indic literary conventions, they Indian terms’ to refer to represented the human soul as a 5 longing wife or bride pining for God. The ‘assimilationist’ her beloved who could be God or 6 trend, on the other hand, the Prophet Muhammad. contained those Muslim groups Like the Chishti Sufis, the that borrowed local Ismaili developed vocabulary and symbols to devotional literature that express their devotion to God was permeated by the imagery and thereby developed a of Hindu devotional texts. closer relationship to The ginans of the Ismaili indigenous practices of tradition were also deeply piety. Asani describes how influenced by the anti- Sufi communities, and the Brahmanical movements Chishti tariqah in ubiquitous in northern India particular, blended Hindu and between the 11th and the 17th Muslim practices of devotion: The shaykhs of the Chishti Sufi order, for example, promoted the 6 Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment, 8. The Chishtis creation of devotional poetry on being a particular Sufi group or path, known as a Islamic mystical themes in local tariqah, are also renowned throughout the Islamic languages which, in its world for their integration of music into practices of attitudes, expressions and worship; the shrines of past Chishti shaykhs are sites similes, was strikingly similar of the recitation of qawwalis, devotional poetry sung to that written by poets with instruments. See, for example, Carl Ernst and influenced by the tradition of Bruce Lawrence. The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond: Sufi Martyrs of Love. 2002. 5 See Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment, 9. Page 4 of 10 centuries. These movements or Vishnu – a testament to opposed the priestly the remarkable openness and Brahmins’ monopolization of ‘portability’ of this religious authority and their devotional literature. exclusive use of to The Indic context express religious devotion. clearly informed the The bhakti and sant worldview of the communities movements, like Satpanth that embraced . Asani Ismailism and the Chishti argues that the spread of tariqah, emphasized interior Shi‛i Ismaili Islam in worship over ritual practice, northern India entailed the exalted love for the Divine conversion of entire castes as a means to salvation, or sub-castes via the pirs valued the remembrance of the who presented Shi‛i Ismaili Divine name, and asserted the Islam as the fulfillment of necessity of a spiritual indigenous religious ideals. guide (guru) as a means to The doctrine of Imamate was unity with the Divine. Their thus translated into and poetry borrowed from the explained through the Indian vocabulary of marriage religious idiom of Indian and kinship to express human tradition. This idiom enabled relationships with God. As an understanding of the mentioned in the previous central institution of Shi‛i citation from Asani’s text, Islam, the Imamate, and also one symbol found in the offered a vocabulary through poetry of all these movements which believers could is the virahini - the woman understand their relationship (bride) longing for her lover to the Imam. Metaphors of (husband). The virahini’s vision and light are examples beloved could be, depending of traditions used to capture on the audience, God, the the relationship between the Prophet Muhammad, the Ismaili believer and the divine. In Imam, a Sufi shaykh, Krishna, Ismailism, the devotee longs

Page 5 of 10 for a vision, darshan, of the (So self-centred) that they cannot sacrifice their lives for divine light, nur, that is the Beloved. bequeathed to each new Imam Consider the love of the moth to be true! through his sacred genealogy For this is the way to gain the descending from the Prophet vision of the Beloved! Consider the love of the moth to Muhammad through his cousin be true, As it deliriously gives up its and son-in-law Ali, the first body. On account of a single candle, Shi‛i Imam and his daughter So many moths offer their lives!7 Fatima. As in the other Indian traditions, the Asani explains that according longing for the vision of to the cosmology of esoteric this nur is represented traditions within Islam, through the virahini’s desire longing for union with the to see her beloved: Divine, the way the moth I thirst for a vision (darshan) longs for the flame, is of You, my Beloved! considered a re-union, since Fulfil my heart’s desire, O my Beloved! the Divine is the Origin of I thirst in hope for You; Yet, why do You not show the all souls with which He made slightest concern for me? 8 I serve you with total devotion; a primordial covenant. Thus So why then, Beloved do you turn away (from me) so angrily? this excerpt from one ginan . . . carries imagery that is A fish out of water, how can it survive without its beloved reminiscent of both the (water)? For the sake of its beloved, it Qur’an and the vernacular gives up its life. A fish out of water is so lonely; See how it writhes and dies (in agony)! It writes and convulses in vain, 7 Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment, 162. While the fisherman shows no 8 See, for example, Asani (59): “The concepts of a mercy. primordial gathering … allude to a verse in the Qur’an (7:172), where God called the future Consider the love of the bee to humanity (out of the loins of the yet uncreated Adam) be false! and addressed them with the words ‘Am I not your For this is certainly not the way Lord (alastu bi rabbikum)?’ and they answered, ‘Yes, to gain the vision of the we witness it (bala shahadna).’ The idea of this Beloved! primordial covenant between God and man is one Consider the love of the bee to that has made a deep impression on the spiritual be false! outlook of Muslims…This event in pre-eternity It flits from one flower to commemorates the establishment of a lasting bond or another, sipping nectar. relationship between God and His creation. It is a Such are the ways of careless and relationship that the Muslim mystic conceives of blind people, devoid of virtues, being based on love and obedience.” Page 6 of 10 devotional poetry of medieval contributed to its refinement north India. to make it suitable for Just as the symbols of literary expression.10 In the ginans are ‘open’ and addition to preserving the portable amongst different overlap in cultures of trade traditions, the provenance of and religious devotion, the script in which they were Khojki manuscripts preserve a recorded attests to the variety of religious texts permeable boundaries between other than the ginans. The religious traditions of the manuscripts record legends time. While the Khojki (or about the prophets, Khojaki) script came to be lamentations over the used exclusively by the martyrdom of Shia , Nizari Ismailis of Sind, numerous amulets, magical and Punjab, it formulae and folk remedies, appears to have developed and do so in several from a script in use in the languages, including Sindhi, eighth century, Lohanaki, Gujarati and Hindi. Asani used by the Hindu Lohana remarks on the tremendous caste.9 value of these manuscripts Khojki was part of a for the collective memory of group of scripts used the Khoja Ismailis: primarily for keeping shop accounts and had all of the The presence of this medley of literature in the Khojki problems of other mercantile manuscripts throws light upon the diverse cultural and religious scripts of its time and strands present in the Nizari Ismaili community of the place. Thus, while the subcontinent until the early 20th ginans attribute the century when it experienced a gradual transformation of its invention of the script to identity. As a written record reflecting a bygone era and its Pir Sadr al-Din (d. 1400 CE), religious mores, the Khojki manuscript tradition provides our Asani argues that it is only glimpse into an aspect of rather more likely that he

9 Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment, 101. 10 Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment, 101. Page 7 of 10 Khoja religious life which cultural legacy of religious otherwise would have been lost.11 tolerance and pluralism, While one must turn to especially in a time where Khojki manuscripts to extremists want to sow capture the religious mores division and conflict between 12 of a ‘bygone era’ in Ismaili ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’. Asani history, the ethos of the has written elsewhere about tradition is still alive in the role of the ginans in its gits, or folk songs, as their relationship to the well as the ginans. Devotion changes in Ismaili identity to the Imam is expressed in in the sub-continent in the 13 the modern git tradition twentieth century. In which continues to be Ecstasy and Enlightenment, produced in South Asian however, his remarks on the languages and recited on authorship of the ginans, festivals in the Indian sub- the role of the ginans as continent as well as in the commentaries on the Qur’an, international diaspora of and the modern changes to the South Asian Ismailis. language of the ginans are also valuable for The value placed on being understanding how this religious literature and the As a written record reflecting a bygone era and its religious community that reveres it is mores, the Khojki manuscript tradition provides our only changing in the modern glimpse into an aspect of Khoja religious life which otherwise would have been lost. period. At the dawn of the 21st century, religious blessed with the vision of affiliation continues to be the nur of the Imam is very

much alive within the 12 community today. The ginans To understand the fluidity of religious traditions in medieval India see Dominique-Sila Khan, Crossing are indeed a valuable the Threshold: Understanding Religious Identities in South Asia, London, 2004. 13 Asani, Ali. ‘The of Indo-Pakistan: The Quest for an Islamic identity” JIMMA, 8, no.1 11 Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment, 144. (1987), pp.31 – 41. Page 8 of 10 an important marker of 2) What memories does identity for people listening to the ginans throughout the globe. The or reciting them evoke devotional literature of the for you? South Asian Ismailis is a 3) To what extent is the living tradition. Some language of devotional examples are available literature central to through the IIS website: its meaning in an (http://www.iis.ac.uk/library individual’s religious _iis/gallery/ginans/ginans.ht life? m) As the ginans circle the globe they risk being dissociated from the context of their origins. Ali Asani’s Ecstasy and Enlightenment is therefore an invaluable and timely guide to the history and ethos of this unique South Asian Muslim tradition and prepares one to think about the challenges it encounters in the modern world.

Questions to Consider 1) Are devotional songs and poetry unique to South Asian Muslims? Give some examples of melodic recitation from other Muslim communities.

Page 9 of 10 The Geographical Provenance of the Ginans. Nanji, The Nizari Ismaili Tradition in the Map reprinted with permission from A. Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent. Delmar, 1978.

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