NOT MOSCOW NOT by and NOT MOSCOW NOT MECCA NOT MOSCOW NOT SLAVS AND TATARS TATARS AND SLAVS 1 Table of contents

3 Preface 5 The Shortest Length Between Two Points Slavs and Tatars in Conversation with Franz Thalmair 23 Not Moscow Not Mecca Slavs and Tatars 47 It’s Like This and Like That and This and Uh... Slavs and Tatars 49 The Apocalypse of Norman O. Brown 73 The Faculty of Mara Goldwyn with Slavs and Tatars

The Apricot The Mulberry The Persimmon The Watermelon The Quince The Fig The Melon The Cucumber The Pomegranate The Sour The Sweet Lemon 103 Bibliography 105 Imprint 2 3 Preface My contemporaries treat religious faith with respect and a lively interest, Vorwort but almost always faith is something held by others that they have rejected for themselves. During the first three Das 2006 gegründete Kollektiv Slavs and The collective Slavs and Tatars, formed in 2006, sees itself Tatars versteht sich als „Faktion der Polemik und Intimität“, ein künstlerischer Verbund, der as a “faction of polemics and intimacies,” a group of artists quarters of the twentieth century such sich „mit dem als Eurasien bekannten Gebiet concerned with “an area east of the former Berlin Wall and östlich der ehemaligen Berliner Mauer und westlich der Chinesischen Mauer“ beschäftigt. west of the Great Wall of China.” However, the collective’s radical changes took place in the way Die künstlerische Praxis des Kollektivs artistic practice encompasses not only numerous geographic erstreckt sich aber nicht nur über zahlreiche Landstriche und geografische Regionen, localities and , but also the most diverse media, sondern auch über unterschiedlichste Medien, disciplines, and formats—while simultaneously covering people lead their lives that customs Disziplinen und Formate und deckt dabei ein breites Spektrum unterschiedlicher kultureller a broad range of different cultural existences. The primary Existenzen ab. Der Schwerpunkt der Arbeit which were still universal in 1900 liegt auf den vielfältigen Schnittmengen focus of their work is on those diverse areas where Slavic, zwischen slawischen, kaukasischen und Caucasian, and Central Asian influences overlap. In their zentralasiatischen Einflüssen. In ihren have acquired the characteristic of vornehmlich forschungsbasierten Arbeiten chiefly research-based work, Slavs and Tatars address topics beschäftigen sich Slavs and Tatars mit Themen such as the ancient world and the past, the marginal and the oft- wie dem Altertum und der Vergangenheit, dem exceptions, and my contemporaries Marginalen und oft Vergessenen und setzen forgotten; the results of their research processes are staged in die Ergebnisse ihrer Rechercheprozesse auf a poetic form. poetische Weise in Szene. experience these changes both as Mit der Ausstellung Not Moscow Not With the exhibition Not Moscow Not Mecca, in the Mecca im Grafischen Kabinett sowie mit einer Grafisches Kabinett, as well as the installation on the exterior of Installation im Außenraum der Secession progress and as a loss about which schreiben Slavs and Tatars die Autobiografie the Secession, Slavs and Tatars write the autobiography of a einer hierzulande nur wenig bekannten , region that is little known internationally and that bears many die viele Namen trägt: von Zentralasien bis nothing can be done. Chorasan, von bis Ma Wara‘ al-Nahr– names: from Central to Khorasan, from Turkestan to Ma einem Ort, der auf Arabisch „das Land hinter dem Fluss“ bedeutet. Das Kollektiv geht dabei wâra al nahr—a place whose name means “the land behind the Czesław Miłosz, “If Only This Could be Said” von der Kraft der Flora aus, die für diese Region river” in . As its starting point, the collective takes the steht und die aus dieser Region auf sinnliche und Weise zu uns spricht. In konzeptueller energy of the flora which speaks to us in a sensual manner of Klarheit und gleichzeitiger formaler and from the region. With a conceptual clarity combined with Überschwänglichkeit aktivieren Slavs and Tatars Früchte wie etwa den Granatapfel, die formal exuberance, Slavs and Tatars activate fruits such as the Quitte, die Maulbeere oder die Wassermelone pomegranate, the quince, the mulberry, or the watermelon as als WissensträgerInnen aus fernen Welten und präsentieren sie als Opfergaben in einem bearers of knowledge from distant worlds; they then present offenen Schrein, der die BesucherInnen them as devotional offerings in an open shrine that invites zum Verweilen und zur gemeinschaftlichen Diskussion im Ausstellungsraum einlädt. visitors to take their time and to talk to each other inside the Ausgehend von der Frucht als Medium, um exhibition space. Taking the qua medium as their point überkommene Vorstellungen von mündlicher Überlieferung und schriftlicher Fixierung of departure—in order to challenge traditional ideas about herauszufordern, öffnen sie Themenfelder wie den Einfluss von Landschaft auf die Erinnerung oral tradition and written record—they open up thematic oder die Dichotomie zwischen heiligem und fields such as the influence of the landscape on memory or profanem Wissen und konfrontieren diese mit den Hinterlassenschaften der westlichen the dichotomy between sacred and profane knowledge, and That beautiful Shirazi Turk took control and my heart stole / I’ll give & for her Hindu beauty mole Moderne. Die Ausstellung ist eingebettet in they confront them with the legacies of Western modernity. Hafez’s 3 (translated by Shahriar Shahriari) einen mehrteiligen Ausstellungszyklus mit dem The exhibition exists within the context of a multi-part cycle 4 Slavs and Tatars 5 The Shortest Length The Faculty of Substitution, of exhibitions entitled The Faculty of Substitution, in which mit dem die KünstlerInnen dem Thema der Selbsterkenntnis im weitesten Sinne the artists investigate the theme of self-knowledge in its Between Two Points nachgehen. Stets auf der Suche nach einer widest sense. Always on the lookout for points of comparison Vergleichsbasis zwischen den Kulturen, zwischen und Okzident, zwischen between cultures, between Orient and Occident, between Die kürzeste Strecke Slavs and Tatars in der Moderne und dem Islam, entdecken sie modernity and Islam, they discover affinities among the zwischen zwei Punkten Ähnlichkeiten im scheinbar Unvergleichbaren. Diese Gleichsetzungsprozesse führen zu apparently incommensurable. This process of equation leads to Slavs and Tatars im conversation with einer Aneignung und Neuauslegung der appropriations and reinterpretations of history that contradict Gespräch mit Geschichte, die im Widerspruch zu den bekannten und großen Erzählungen der the well-known grand narratives of the mighty and victorious. Franz Thalmair Franz Thalmair Mächtigen und Siegreichen steht. Unser Dank gilt all jenen, die für die Our thanks goes out to all those responsible for the Umsetzung der Ausstellung und des exhibition and for the catalogue that accompanied it: above all, FT Woran denkt ihr bei dem Wort FT What comes to your mind when you hear the term begleitenden Ausstellungskatalogs Mythos? verantwortlich zeichnen: in erster Linie to Slavs and Tatars for their superb cooperation, for the trust S&T An den Duft, der uns jeden Morgen myth? Slavs and Tatars für die gute Zusammenarbeit, they placed in the Secession, and for an artist’s book that is empfängt. S&T The fragrance greeting us each and every morning. für das der Secession entgegengebrachte Vertrauen sowie für das theoretisch wie successful both in terms of theory and form, and which offers Als multikulturelles polyglottes Kollektiv formal gelungene Künstlerbuch, das einen greater insight into the working process of the collective. And reist ihr, ausgerüstet mit mobiler How do you integrate spirituality into your daily lives as erweiterten Einblick in die Arbeitsweise des Elektronik, von Flughafen zu Flughafen. Kollektivs gibt. Ein herzliches Dankeschön our sincere gratitude also goes out to those at the Secession Wie integriert ihr das Spirituelle in euren multicultural polyglots with mobile computing devices, an das Polnische Institut Wien sowie an without whose dedication this project could never have been Alltag? alle MitarbeiterInnen der Secession, deren Wir versuchen, das Spirituelle so konkret wie traveling from airport to airport? Engagement die Realisierung dieses realized. Finally, special thanks go to Secession partner möglich zu machen. Das Wort konkret leitet We try to make the spiritual as concrete as possible. After Projekts ermöglicht hat. Für ihre anhaltend Erste Bank, Secession´s main sponsor since 1998, and to the sich etymologisch ab von con + crescere, großzügige Unterstützung sind wir der Erste zusammenwachsen, und vielleicht drückt das all, the etymology of concrete is con+crescere, to grow Bank, Hauptsponsor der Secession seit Friends of the Secession for their unflagging and generous am besten die vielschichtigen, oft schwer together, and that is perhaps the best way to distill the 1998, sowie den Freunden der Secession zu zu fassenden Beweggründe aus, die der besonderem Dank verpflichtet. support of our work. Motor eines jeden Kollektivs sind. Henry nebulous and complex motivation behind any collective. Corbin, der große Gelehrte und Kenner des , the great scholar of Shi’a mysticism and András Pálffy schiitischen Mystizismus und der Philosophie Präsident der Secession András Pálffy der Erleuchtung von Suhrawardi (Corbin war specialist on the Illuminationist philosopher Suhrawardi Secession President übrigens auch der Erste, der Martin Heideggers (not to mention the first person to translate Martin Sein und Zeit ins Französische übersetzte), schreibt von hamdami oder conspiration, dem Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit into French), writes about gemeinsamen Atem von Sinnlichem hamdami, or con-spiration, the “breathing together” of

One must be prepared to meet with Henry Corbin, photo courtesy of Suhrawardi’s The Shape of l’Association des amis de Henry et Light: Hayakal al-Nur (Fons Stella Corbin Vitae: Louisville, 1998). Via a organized incomprehension metaphysical reflection on light, the 12th century philosopher’s phenomenological attempt to bring Thomas Merton in a letter to Louis Massignon Plato to bear on mystical Shi’ism.

Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) 6 Slavs and Tatars 7 Not Moscow Not Mecca und Spirituellem, der für ihn das Werk des the sensual and the spiritual that is the hallmark of the Sufi Eben sprachen wir von der Etymologie als Speaking of etymology, as a key field in the study of sufistischen Theologen Al-Arabi prägt. einem Kerngebiet der Sprachforschungen. scholar Ibn al-Arabi. Lässt sich in Verbindung mit eurem languages and in combination with your interest in Slavs and Tatars leben in verschiedenen Interesse an Philosophie und Diskurs philosophy and discourse: Could your exhibition at the Ländern. Wie organisiert ihr eure sagen, dass eure Ausstellung in der Zusammenarbeit? As a geographically dispersed collective, how do you Secession, die Teil des neuen Werkzyklus Secession—as part of your new cycle of work entitled Wir kommunizieren viel über Skype. Ansonsten organize yourselves? The Faculty of Substitution ist, eine The Faculty of Substitution—be described as a research treffen wir uns circa einmal im Monat zu Forschungsreise in die Geschichte des Ausstellungseröffnungen, Vortrags- oder We work quite a lot via Skype. Otherwise, we meet roughly once Begriffes Substitution als mystisches trip into the history of the term substitution as a mystical Forschungsterminen und verlängern diese Verfahren darstellt? Was bedeutet Begegnungen, um gemeinsam zu arbeiten. Wir a month in person for various exhibition openings as well as Substitution? practice? What is substitution? erweitern den Begriff Eröffnung gewissermaßen research assignments or speaking engagements and then extend In der heutigen Zeit müssen wir nicht nur Today, we not only need intellectual acrobatics but dahin gehend, dass er nicht nur das Publikum geistige, sondern auch metaphysische einbezieht, sondern auch uns selbst. In these stays to work amongst ourselves. In some sense, we are Klimmzüge vollführen: Substitution bedeutet, metaphysical ones: Substitution requires us to cultivate the der Regel sind Ausstellungseröffnungen extending the word opening to include not just the audience, die nötige geistige Beweglichkeit, die agility, coordination, and balance necessary to tell one tale festliche Ereignisse, bei denen man der Kunst Koordination und das Balancegefühl huldigt, abschaltet oder nachdenkt. Wir but also us. As opposed to the traditional dynamic, where an auszubilden, damit wir eine Geschichte durch through another, to adopt the innermost thoughts, experiences, hingegen nutzen sie als Podium, um einen exhibition opening is a moment of commemoration, or for eine andere erzählen können. Das heißt, wir beliefs, and sensations of others as our own, in an effort to bereits bestehenden Werkzyklus oder einen müssen uns das Innenleben, die Erfahrungen, Ausgangspunkt mit noch ungewissem Ziel zu relaxing, reflecting, we use it as a platform to address an existing Überzeugungen und Empfindungen anderer challenge the very notion of distance as the shortest length thematisieren. cycle of work or as a point of departure towards something. zu eigen machen, um auf diese Weise die between two points. In terms of our practice: to understand Vorstellung von Distanz als kürzester Strecke Euer akademischer und beruflicher zwischen zwei Punkten zu hinterfragen. Um contemporary , we look at and Solidarność Background sind die Literaturwissenschaft Your academic and professional backgrounds are in den heutigen Iran zu begreifen, haben wir (Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz); to grasp und Typografie/Design. Welchen Einfluss zum Beispiel den Blick auf Polen und die hat das auf eure Arbeit als Slavs and literature and typography/design. What does that mean for Solidarność gerichtet (Friendship of Nations: the nature of political agency in the twenty-first century, Tatars? Polish Shi’ite Showbiz). Um das Wesen Genau genommen kommen wir von der your work as Slavs and Tatars? politischen Handelns im 21. Jahrhundert we study Muharram and the 1300-year-old Shi’ite ritual of Philosophie, der bildenden Kunst und Actually, our backgrounds are in philosophy, fine , and zu verstehen, beschäftigen wir uns mit perpetual protest (Reverse Joy); to demystify Islam, we turn dem Grafikdesign. Komparatistik ist dem Muharram und dem 1300 Jahre alten ein Hüllwort, das von englischen und graphic design. Comparative Literature is a euphemism used in schiitischen Ritual des unaufhörlichen Protestes to Communism (Not Moscow Not Mecca, Secession); and amerikanischen Universitäten für die gesamte Anglo-American universities for all the post-war Continental (Reverse Joy). Um den Islam zu entmystifizieren, it is through mysticism that we intend to address modernity kontinentaleuropäische Nachkriegsphilosophie wenden wir uns dem Kommunismus zu (Not geprägt wurde, der man in den traditionell philosophy that traditional English and American philosophy Moscow Not Rome), während wir uns dem (Beyonsense, Museum of Modern Art). ausgerichteten Philosophieseminaren keinen departments were not willing to integrate, and which then Begriff der Moderne anhand der Mystik nähern For The Faculty of Substitution, we are looking at, Platz einräumen wollte: So fand sie Unterschlupf (Beyonsense, Museum of Modern Art). in der Literaturwissenschaft. Das heißt, wir found shelter in literature departments. This means we are Für The Faculty of Substitution werfen wir among other things, the notion of mystical substitution—also haben ein großes Interesse am Diskurs. heavily invested in discourse. unter anderem einen Blick auf das known as sacred hospitality or the transfer to ourselves of the

Reverse Joy presentation (installation view), Europa N, GfZK, Leipzig, 2012

Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz banners (installation view), Gallery, Gent, photo by Yana Foque, 2011

Portrait of JK Huysmans by The execution of Mansur al- Collignon-Tocqueville in Les Hallaj (Source: Wikipedia) The first day of discussion for The Age of the Antimodern, Slavs and Hommes d’aujourd’hui, 1885 Tatar’s academy at “Group Affinity”, 2011 Notes, “Group Affinity”, Summer academy at the Kunstverein München, curated by Binna Choi and Bart van der Heide, 2011 8 Slavs and Tatars 9 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Konzept der mystischen Substitution – auch sufferings of others—a notion one finds across such disparate persönlichen, subjektiven und the worlds you come from. How do you link this practice bekannt als heilige Gastfreundschaft oder erfahrungsorientierten Annäherung an die als die Übertragung des Leidens anderer figures as Mansur al-Hâllaj, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Louis Welt, in der ihr lebt und aus der ihr kommt. with the art world? How does your experience manifest auf uns selbst –, ein Konzept, das man bei Massignon. These individuals believed that it is only through Wie verbindet ihr diese künstlerische itself in the actual physical spaces of art? so grundverschiedenen Persönlichkeiten Praxis mit dem Kunstbetrieb? Wie wie Al-Halladsch, Joris-Karl Huysmans und the embrace of something outside oneself that one can achieve manifestieren sich eure Erfahrungen in Given that Slavs and Tatars began quite simply as a reading Louis Massignon findet. Alle drei vertraten self-knowledge. den physischen Räumen der Kunst? group, we try to maintain the spirit of sharing and exchange die Auffassung, dass wir nur dann zur Slavs and Tatars haben als einfacher Lesekreis Selbsterkenntnis gelangen können, wenn wir begonnen, und wir wollen den Geist des that is part and parcel of our origins—the act of reading uns etwas von außen aneignen, etwas, das nicht Austauschens und Weitergebens erhalten, der zu uns selbst gehört. To what extent do you make your research results viable zu unseren Ursprüngen, dem gemeinsamen together. Recently, we have taken to redeeming a space for and practicable for the present moment? Lesen, gehört. Wir haben damit begonnen, contemplation, reflection, and exchange that is, contrary to Wie setzt ihr eure Forschungsergebnisse einen Ort der Besinnung, der Reflexion und in der künstlerischen Praxis um? It is crucial to resuscitate the historical. We don’t know of a des Austausches zu schaffen, der in den what one would expect, often missing from the physical spaces Es geht darum, die Geschichte wiederzubeleben. better way to demonstrate its relevance to people who might physischen Räumen der Kunst wider Erwarten of art. There is lots of talk about participation, outreach, etc., Nur so können wir ihre Bedeutung an die oft nicht vorhanden ist. Es wird viel über Menschen herantragen, die unser Interesse an otherwise consider our interest in a region or its history arcane die Einbeziehung des Publikums und von but how often do we come across exhibition spaces where der Region und ihren Traditionen andernfalls für or irrelevant. We use the word resuscitation for a reason: Its Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und so weiter geredet, there’s simply nowhere to sit? abstrus oder unerheblich halten würden. Wir aber wie oft betreten wir Ausstellungsräume, in verwenden das Wort Wiederbelebung ganz sensuality, the idea of breathing life into a subject (by placing denen es nicht einmal Sitzgelegenheiten gibt? Since Sharjah, we have been increasingly interested in bewusst: Der sinnliche Gehalt, der darin liegt, one’s lips on the mouth of the area of study, if you will) Seit der Sharjah-Biennale interessieren the notion of generosity, as much a tactic as a concept. Our einem Gegenstand Leben einzuhauchen (indem wir uns zunehmend für den Begriff der man, wenn man so will, seine Lippen auf den points to an affective relationship with an idea or a text. It Großzügigkeit, sowohl auf praktischer als Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz featured takhts, Mund des Forschungsgebietes drückt), verweist was Michael Taussig who taught us many moons ago that the auch auf konzeptioneller Ebene. Für unser or riverbeds (one of the few places to escape the otherwise auf eine affektive Bindung zu einer Idee oder zu Projekt Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite th einem Text. Michael Taussig hat uns (anhand von challenge of abstract and/or mystical concepts (the example Showbiz haben wir eine Oase eingerichtet – scorching sun during the 10 Sharjah Biennial), where both Gilles Deleuzes und Félix Guattaris Konzept des einer der wenigen Plätze, um der glühenden Unwahrnehmbar-Werdens, des -Werdens) he used was Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s “becoming- Sonne in Sharjah zu entfliehen. Unter Baluchi day-laborers and art-world types could relax, read, and schon vor langer Zeit gelehrt, dass die kritische imperceptible, becoming-wolf”) is not only to analytically aufgespannten takhts oder Fluss-Betten engage with the unexpected common heritage linking Poland Auseinandersetzung mit abstrakten und/oder konnten sich balutschische Tagelöhner und mystischen Anschauungen sich nicht darauf understand their philosophical genealogy, but more Kunstbetrachter ausruhen, lesen oder sich and Iran. Also, in the otherwise unforgiving space of the New beschränken darf, ihre philosophische Herkunft importantly, to use them as a how-to guide, to live the ideas. mit dem überraschenden gemeinsamen Erbe Museum, PrayWay allows visitors to sit on a souped-up hybrid zu analysieren: Wir müssen sie vielmehr als beschäftigen, das Polen und den Iran verbindet. Anleitung nehmen, sie zu leben. Bei unserem Projekt PrayWay wiederum of the rahlé (a stand for holy books) and the riverbed. “To live the ideas” means that your self-conception of being konnten die Besucher im unversöhnlichen „Diese Anschauungen zu leben“ Raum des New Museum auf einer übergroßen heißt, dass euer künstlerisches artists is a matter of personal, subjective, and experience- Kreuzung aus dem rahlé (einem Pult für heilige Coming back to what you said about the integration of Selbstverständnis geprägt ist von einer driven agency towards the world you live in and towards Bücher) und dem Fluss-Bett Platz nehmen. Continental philosophy in Anglo-American universities:

Pucker up: resuscitating the past

Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz (installation view), 10th Sharjah Biennial, 2011 PrayWay (installation view), “The Ungovernables,” New Museum Triennial, 2012 the invigilator at Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz (installation view), photo by Alfredo Rubio, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation, 2011 10 Slavs and Tatars 11 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Ich möchte noch einmal darauf Your working method of using ancient texts (in the in der Arbeit des Kurators eine maßgebliche Could it be described as archival? zurückkommen, was ihr über die Rolle spielen, sei es als Ausgangspunkt – um Verortung der kontinentaleuropäischen broadest sense of all forms of cultural products) as eine bestimmte Position zu erforschen oder eine Perhaps we would prefer the word restorative. Despite its Philosophie an englischen und a point of reference in generating new texts or in Geschichte zu erzählen – oder als Ergebnis recent critical or promiscuity (depending on where amerikanischen Universitäten sagt: Eure dieser Forschungsarbeit, betrachten wir die Methode, alte Texte (und im weitesten gathering knowledge about a certain fact is, without a Geschichte, die Linguistik, die und die you stand), the word archival still implies a dusty collection Sinne alle Formen von kulturellen doubt, comparative. What is the distinctive strength of Geografie, um diese Geschichten zu erzählen. of documents and records and the aura that accompanies this Erzeugnissen) als Gegenstand zu nehmen, um neue Texte zu erzeugen oder sich comparative etymology as practiced by Slavs and Tatars? Könnte man eure Arbeit dann archivarisch material. We believe it is equally important to disrespect one’s Wissen über bestimmte Zusammenhänge nennen? anzueignen, ist eindeutig komparatistisch. Speaking, breathing, reading, dreaming in different languages Wir würden wohl eher von restaurativ sprechen. sources as to respect them. That is, to reconfigure, resituate, Worin liegt das besondere Vermögen der is a productive schizophrenia of sorts: We are very different Der Begriff archivarisch hat in letzter Zeit reinterpret, and collide the archival material with the aim of komparatistischen Etymologie, die Slavs zwar eine Renaissance erfahren oder ist (je and Tatars betreiben? people in Russian and in Polish, both Slavic, much less say nach Sichtweise) zu einem überstrapazierten making it relevant and urgent—not just to the specialist in the In verschiedenen Sprachen zu sprechen, zu French or English. So interdisciplinarity, the holy grail of Modewort geworden, aber er ist nach wie vor field, nor just to the intellectual, but also to the layperson who atmen, zu lesen und zu träumen führt zu einer Art geprägt vom Bild verstaubter Zeugnisse und höchst produktiver Schizophrenie: Auf Russisch academes and art schools alike, is an integral part of any Dokumente, die mit Ehrfurcht behandelt werden. might not otherwise be interested. sind wir ganz andere Menschen als auf comparative study— be it in linguistics or religion. Slavs and Wir halten es jedoch für wichtig, gleichermaßen Polnisch, obwohl beides slawische Sprachen respektvoll wie respektlos mit seinen Quellen sind, und das gilt ebenso für das Französische Tatars’ ostensible contribution to comparative studies is the umzugehen. Das heißt, man muss seine Quellen The essays, statements, and project descriptions that Slavs oder das Englische. Die Interdisziplinarität, emphasis on mixing scales and registers previously considered umformen, neu verorten, neu interpretieren and Tatars publish repeatedly seem to suggest a kind of der Heilige Gral aller Universitäten und und das Archivmaterial so aufeinanderprallen Kunsthochschulen, ist immanenter incommensurate. lassen, dass seine Bedeutung und seine “not only, but also” attitude in your work. Is this one of the Bestandteil jeder komparatistischen Arbeit, Brisanz sichtbar werden, nicht nur für Experten characteristics of the anti-modern condition that you refer to? nun im sprachwissenschaftlichen oder des jeweiligen Fachgebietes oder Intellektuelle, im theologischen Bereich. Unser manifester Could your work be described as curatorial work? sondern auch für den Laien, der sich sonst nicht No, this maximalism stems more from a regional position and Beitrag zu Komparatistik ist das konsequente dafür interessiert hätte. Vermischen von Ebenen und Registern, die Insofar as the term “curatorial” means “editorial”? Yes. has less to do with the anti-modern per se. Without falling bislang als unvereinbar galten. Having said that—and despite a proclivity toward working and Wenn man die Essays, Erklärungen entirely into essentialist ethnocentrism, it is safe to say that und Projektbeschreibungen liest, Könnte man eure Arbeit als kuratorisch thinking across disciplines—we are committed to maintaining die ihr regelmäßig zu euren Arbeiten Slavs, Caucasians, and Central Asians are a bit grander, less bezeichnen? the traditional division of labor between curators and artists. veröffentlicht, hat man den Eindruck, frugal, than Anglos, Teutons, and Gauls. We don’t split the Sofern man kuratorisch im Sinne von als würdet ihr stets zu einer Haltung editorischer Praxis versteht, ja. Gleichwohl While art and the artist figure significantly in the curator’s des „Nicht nur, sondern auch“ aufrufen. dinner bill twelve different ways. halten wir an der traditionellen Arbeitsteilung work, either as a point of departure—to explore a position or Verweist ihr damit auf einen Wesenszug In his book Les Antimodernes (Gallimard, 2005), Antoine von Künstler und Kurator fest – auch wenn des antimodernen Menschen? wir die Disziplingrenzen nur allzu gerne to tell a certain story—or as the result of this investigation, we , dieser Maximalismus hat wenig mit Compagnon, Professor of French at Columbia University and überschreiten. Wenn die Kunst und der Künstler look instead to history, linguistics, religion, and . antimodern zu tun, sondern entspringt the Collège de in , describes the true modernists

Mountains of Wit, “Frozen Moments”, curated by Joanna Warsza, Tbilissi, 2010. Горе от Ума (Gore ot Uma) is a famous 19th-century play about Moscow manners by Aleksander Griboyedov, a close friend of Pushkin’s and diplomat to the Czar in the . The play is 79.89.09, lecture-presentation, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, photo by Kolya Angelus Novus, Paul Klee, 1920 translated into English as Woe From Wit or The Misfortune of Being Zverkov, 2009 Intelligent. By changing the ‘e’ in the original Russian to an ‘ы’, the title becomes Mountains of Wit and the urban premise of the original work is hijacked by a Caucasian setting equally imaginative and historical, one which played an influential role in Griboyedov’s life and Slide from Mark Sedgwick’s “Modernism, Anti-Modernism, and Traditionalism”, opening death, if not his work. keynote speaker, “Group Affinity”, Kunstverein München, 2011 12 Slavs and Tatars 13 Not Moscow Not Mecca einer regional geprägten Haltung. Ohne not as the utopianists who only look forward (e.g., Vladimir Zunächst müsste man die Frage stellen: a simultaneous source of fear, exclusion, and enticement, as in essentialistischen Ethnozentrismus zu Von wessen Modernebegriff sprechen verfallen, lässt sich doch sagen, dass die Mayakovsky, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti) but rather as the wir hier? Es stimmt, wir kritisieren das Zygmunt Bauman discusses in his Modernity and Ambivalence Slawen, Kaukasier und Zentralasiaten ein “anti-modernists,” those somewhat conflicted visionaries herkömmliche Verständnis von Moderne and Modernity and . überschwängliches Wesen haben und nicht so als Epoche, die mit der Vergangenheit sparsam sind wie die Angelsachsen, Germanen deeply affected by the passing of the premodern age. As Jean- brach und mit dem Homo sovieticus oder und Gallier. Bei uns wird die Essensrechnung Paul Sartre said of Charles Baudelaire: those who go forward, dem Homo liberalis einen neuen Menschen Would you say your work is reactionary or even nicht in zwölf unterschiedliche Beträge geteilt. schaffen wollte. Dabei wurde das Spirituelle In seinem Buch Les Antimodernes but with an eye in the rearview mirror. Walter Benjamin unterschlagen, und es entstanden so unprogressive? (Gallimard, 2005) beschreibt Antoine widersinnige Verhaltensweisen, wie die Alten Compagnon, Professor für französische uses a similar trope with his of History, thrust forward zu kasernieren und die Jugend zu preisen. In today’s amnesiac world, even to acknowledge that there Literatur an der Columbia University und am with her back to the future and facing the past—similarly to Unsere Arbeiten zielen gewissermaßen darauf exist basic tenets of wisdom—much less strive to preserve Collège de France, die wahren Modernisten ab, die komplexe Rolle des Fremden (und nicht als stetig nach vorne blickende Utopisten the Malagasy language, which, contrary to most Western, den Ort des Fremden) in der Moderne zu them—is perhaps conservative, but not reactionary; on the (wie zum Beispiel Wladimir Majakowski und positivist conceptions of time, uses words such as behind to begreifen: als Auslöser von Anziehung und contrary, it is progressive. The older we get, the more we soften Filippo Tommaso Marinetti), sondern vielmehr Abneigung, als Quelle der Angst, Verlockung als „Anti-Modernisten“, innerlich zerrissene describe the future and in front to convey the past. und zugleich Ziel der Ausgrenzung, wie our views on the very Texan phrase which only a decade ago Visionäre, die vom Ende des vormodernen es Zygmunt Bauman in Moderne und repulsed us: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Zeitalters tief bewegt waren. Menschen, die, Ambivalenz und Dialektik der Ordnung. wie Jean-Paul Sartre über Baudelaire schrieb, One of your statements is, “Nous sommes les antimodernes, Die Moderne und der Holocaust schildert. vorwärts gehen, aber mit einem Auge in den that is, we prefer the rearguard to the avant-garde.” Visually, your work tends to highlight the beauty inherent Rückspiegel blicken. Eine ähnliche Trope Würdet ihr sagen, eure Arbeiten sind verwendet Walter Benjamin mit seinem To what extent is your work linked to the discourse rückschrittlich oder gar reaktionär? in folklore and popular culture in the East and in the Engel der Geschichte, der in die Zukunft surrounding modernity in contemporary artistic practice? In der heutigen, von Amnesie befallenen Welt West—the beauty of its forms, the beauty of its speech, the geweht wird, aber zurück in die Vergangenheit ist es möglicherweise konservativ, sich zu blickt. Diese Bewegung finden wir auch in der First of all, it would be important to ask: Whose modernity? bestimmten Grundeinsichten zu bekennen, beauty of its tradition, a beauty deriving from something madagassischen Sprache, die im Gegensatz zur und erst recht, danach zu streben, diese zu positivistischen Zeitauffassung in den meisten Yes, we are critical of the traditional understanding of a bewahren. Aber das ist keinesfalls reaktionär, fundamentally combinative. Is this emphasis on beauty a westlichen Sprachen das Wort hinter zur modernity that broke with the past and attempted to create a sondern fortschrittlich. Je älter wir werden, form of cultural criticism? What are your strategies in this Beschreibung der Zukunft und das Wort vor zur desto milder stimmt uns ein sehr texanisches Darstellung der Vergangenheit verwendet. New Man, be it homo sovieticus or homo liberalus. In doing Sprichwort, das wir vor zehn Jahren noch respect, how does it work? so, it whitewashed the spiritual or numinous and led to such kategorisch abgelehnt haben: „Man soll nicht Perhaps it is. We are suspicious of the notion that a single Eine eurer Aussagen lautet: „Nous reparieren, was nicht kaputt ist.“ sommes les antimodernes, das heißt, wir counter-intuitive behavior as quarantining the elderly and century can or should entirely overturn several centuries of bevorzugen lieber die Arrièregarde als die celebrating youth. To some degree, our work tries to come to Auf visueller Ebene betont ihr in euren understanding about culture. For some reason, it is inherently Avantgarde.“ Inwiefern steht eure Arbeit in Arbeiten die Schönheit, die der Folklore Zusammenhang mit dem Modernediskurs grips with the complex role of the stranger (and the stranger’s und der Volkskultur des Ostens und des more fashionable, accepted, and widespread for art to dismiss in der zeitgenössischen Kunst? region) as an agent of attraction and repulsion in modernity: Westens zu eigen ist, die Schönheit der beauty as dépassé or out of fashion, and in turn focus more on

Zygmunt Baumann, Pająk study no. 2 Pająk study no. 1 photo by M. Oliva Soto (for Friendship of Nations), 2011 (for Friendship of Nations), 2010 The pająk as revolutionary talisman, the Scansen Church of the Podlachia region, Poland. We see in this pagan craft celebrating the yearly harvest, a testimony to the painstaking diligence and delicate Wheat Mollah, 2011 nature of compromise crucial to the successful Polish precedent of civil disobedience during Solidarność. 14 Slavs and Tatars 15 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Formen, der Sprache und der Traditionen, the ugly, the destructive, the distraught. This does not mean In euren Arbeiten vermischt ihr oft ganz rather crude Ali G, between the cultural strategies of the eine Schönheit, die auf etwas zutiefst bewusst unterschiedliche kulturelle Integrativem beruht. Was beabsichtigt we wear rose-colored glasses: It is important to highlight that Phänomene. Über Molla : thirteenth and the twenty-first century? What are the fields ihr damit? Ist diese Hervorhebung des which is uncomfortable. But it is far easier today to make the that would’ve, could’ve, of merging and blending, what does a blend of Molla and Schönen eine Form von Kulturkritik? should’ve, eines eurer jüngsten Ja, vielleicht. Wir sind skeptisch, ob ein interesting work that is dirty and dark than to make work that is Buchprojekte, sagt ihr, das Vermischen Ali G make? einzelnes Jahrhundert ein über mehrere somehow enlighteningor fun. We strive to be in the camp of the sei eine Methode, die seit dem 13. First, we consider comedy and, more generally, humor, to be Jahrhunderte gewachsenes Kulturverständnis Jahrhundert bis heute praktiziert wird, einfach so umstoßen kann oder umstoßen soll. latter, never mind the risks. von Molla Nasreddin bis Ali G. Wo seht ihr very fertile areas not so much for study as for practice. Ali G’s Aus irgendeinem Grund gilt es in der Kunst die entscheidenden Berührungspunkte gemeinhin als anerkannt und angesagt, das Take humor, for example. We think making people laugh zwischen dem geistreichen Molla line of questioning—positioning himself as an idiot—is not Schöne als dépassé oder démodé zu verwerfen is perhaps one of the most important, in some sense, most Nasreddin und dem ziemlich derben that far removed from Molla Nasreddin, the thirteenth-century und sich stattdessen dem Hässlichen, dem Humor von Ali G, zwischen den Destruktiven, der Verzweiflung zuzuwenden. generous things one can do. But just because the work is fun kulturellen Strategien des 13. und des wise fool. The former’s context and language are definitely Damit will ich nicht sagen, dass wir die Welt does not mean it need be silly or light. That’s the challenge: 21. Jahrhunderts? In welchen Bereichen cruder, but it remains a very sophisticated comic device. By durch die rosarote Brille betrachten. Es ist überschneiden sie sich? Und was wichtig, alles Unbequeme herauszustellen, to occupy both ends of a spectrum often, and mistakenly, entsteht, wenn man Molla und Ali G presenting himself as incorrigibly thick, he in fact reveals the aber heutzutage es ist wesentlich einfacher, considered to be incommensurate. To be fun and serious, zusammenbringt? arrogance and idiocy of his interviewed subjects. interessante Kunst zu machen, die dunkel und Zunächst halten wir Komik und Humor ganz schmutzig ist, als Arbeiten zu produzieren, cheerful and critical, at the same time. allgemein für ausgesprochen ergiebig – Conflation wears many different disguises—creolization, die auf intelligente Weise erhellend sind nicht so sehr als Forschungsgegenstand, mash-up, collision—each distinct, but all essentially playing und trotzdem Spaß machen. Wir versuchen sondern für die künstlerische Praxis. Ali Gs Letzteres, egal, ob wir uns dabei in die Nesseln What do you say to people calling your work romantic? Interviewtaktik – er weist sich selbst die for the same team. The collision of different registers, different setzen. “Would you like to meet for a cup of tea?” Rolle des Blödmanns zu – unterscheidet sich voices, different worlds, and different logics previously Nehmen wir beispielsweise Humor. Für uns gar nicht so sehr von Molla Nasreddin, dem ist Humor ein Ausdruck von Großzügigkeit, weisen Narren aus dem 13. Jahrhundert. Ali considered to be antithetical, incommensurate, or simply und es gibt wohl kaum etwas Wichtigeres, Gs Milieu und seine Sprache sind eindeutig als andere Menschen zum Lachen zu bringen. One of the many strategies you use in your work is the primitiver, aber seine Komik ist dennoch ein unable to exist in the same page, sentence, or space is crucial to Dass eine Arbeit Spaß macht, heißt jedoch conflation of cultural phenomena. When talking about sehr ausgefeiltes Stilmittel. Indem er sich als our practice. nicht, dass sie infantil ist oder oberflächlich: Die hoffnungslosen Trottel präsentiert, entlarvt Herausforderung liegt darin, das Spektrum an Molla Nasreddin: the magazine that would’ve, could’ve, er die Arroganz und die Dummheit seiner beiden Enden zu besetzen, gerade weil diese should’ve, one of your recent book projects, you mentioned Interviewpartner. Your work has a lot to do with or, as you term irrtümlicherweise oft als unvereinbar gelten. Mit Vermischung kann viele unterschiedliche Humor zu arbeiten und gleichzeitig ernst zu sein. that conflation is an important strategy, practiced from Gesichter haben – Kreolisierung, Mashup, it, “transliteration, a ugly cousin to translation” or a the thirteenth to the twenty-first century—from Molla Kollision –, aber alle ziehen an einem Strang. “trashy, teenage sibling.” In comparison to the concept of Was erwidert ihr, wenn jemand eure Das Aufeinanderprallen verschiedener Register, Arbeiten als romantisch bezeichnet? Nasreddin to Ali G. Where do you see the main points verschiedener Stimmen, Welten, Denkweisen, translation, where a one-to-one-relationship between two „Wollen wir uns zum Tee treffen?“ of contact between the witty Molla Nasreddin and the die als unvereinbar gegensätzlich gelten oder texts is not necessary, in linguistics, the term transliteration

Idź na Wschód! (Go East!), billboard and Arguably the most important periodical of the Molla Nasreddin: Embrace Your The splits, of the mind, and the soul: Not only Intellectual but also Dig the Booty, A transliteration of an aphorism across Latin, Cyrillic day-trip to Polish Tatar villages–Bohoniki and , the Azeri weekly Antithesis, lecture-presentation for Bidoun’s metaphysical acrobatics and Farsi, in homage to the vicissitudes in the Azeri alphabet, 2009 Kruszyniany–in eastern Poland, “Wola Art was compiled and translated into English by Saturday Seminars at the Serpentine Gallery, Festival,” curated by Sarmen Beglarian and Slavs and Tatars in their Molla Nasreddin: photo by Babak Radboy, 2011 Sylwia Szymaniak, 2009 the magazine that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, 2011. 16 Slavs and Tatars 17 Not Moscow Not Mecca bislang einfach nicht zusammen auf einer Seite, means that a written text is transferred into another In Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers von Yes, we embrace this idea wholeheartedly: The freedom of in einem Satz, in einem Raum stehen konnten, 1923 beschreibt Walter Benjamin die ist essenziell für unsere Arbeit. written text—respecting the form, shape, and body as Übersetzung als Tangente, die „das linguistic flux is crucial to our work and to the understanding well as the character of the original. To what extent is this Original flüchtig und nur am unendlichen of the world around us, including that of identity. Again, In euren Projekten geht es häufig um die kleinen Punkt des Sinnes [berührt], um Übersetzung oder die Transliteration, one-to-one-relationship between languages, objects, and nach dem Gesetze der Treue in der Freiheit what’s interesting is that two notions often considered to die ihr als „dicke, hässliche Cousine narrations relevant for your work at the Secession? der Sprachbewegung ihre eigenste Bahn be in tension—the steadfastness of fidelity versus the flux oder billige halbwüchsige Schwester der zu verfolgen“. Das Entscheidende an Übersetzung“ bezeichnet. Im Unterschied The work at the Secession is perhaps closer to an exercise dieser Aussage ist, dass Treue und Freiheit of freedom—are part of one and the same process. There’s zur Übersetzung, die kein Eins-zu-eins- nicht in Konflikt zueinander stehen, Verhältnis zwischen Ausgangs- und in a transubstantiation of sorts, not in a traditional Roman sondern Teil desselben Prozesses sind. a saying that the Caucasus is a man whose body is without Zieltext verlangt, bedeutet Transliteration Catholic sense, but a syncretic one. We are trying to address Gilt das hinsichtlich der Treue gegenüber curves: This is often used to describe the headstrong, muscular in der Sprachwissenschaft, dass ein kulturellen Identitäten und der Freiheit zur geschriebener Originaltext mit Rücksicht a set of issues by radically altering the form as the flesh, the künstlerischen Neuinterpretation auch für will of mountain peoples. We try to round out this body and to auf seine Form, seine Gestalt und seinen corporality, that is traditionally associated with it. So in this Slavs and Tatars? moderate the tendency to see identity as brittle. Charakter in einen anderen geschriebenen Voll und ganz: Die Freiheit der Sprachbewegung Text übertragen wird. Welche Bedeutung sense, to take your definition, it’s perhaps closer to translation ist ein wesentliches Element unserer Arbeit hat dieses Eins-zu-eins-Verhältnis than transliteration. In general, substitution is a more immanent und spielt eine entscheidende Rolle darin, In your exhibitions, you assemble not only ideas, but cultural zwischen Sprachen, Gegenständen uns unserer Umwelt und dem Begriff Identität und Erzählungen für eure Arbeit in der concept for us than translation: it has a phenomenology, zu nähern. Interessant daran ist, dass auch objects and artifacts which seem to have been collected on Secession? a being, that translation quite simply seems to lack. hier zwei Begriffe, die vermeintlich in einem long journeys to ancient times and places. Do you agree with Die Arbeit in der Secession ist vielleicht eher Spannungsverhältnis zueinander stehen – eine Übung in Transsubstantiation, nicht im unerschütterliche Treue und freie Bewegung –, descriptions of your work as a contemporary, visual form of traditionellen römisch-katholischen, sondern In The Task of the Translator (1923), Walter Benjamin Teil desselben Verfahrens sind. Eine Redensart travel writing, one of the most common forms of literature in im synkretistischen Sinn. Wir behandeln sagt, der Kaukasus sei ein Mann, weil sein bestimmte Themen, indem wir radikal die Form, once used a metaphor to describe translation as a tangent Körper keine Kurven hat – eine Anspielung auf all cultures and at all times? die materielle Gestalt, verändern, die traditionell den starken Willen und die Dickköpfigkeit der mit ihnen verbunden ist. Insofern handelt es sich, which “touches the original lightly and only at the infinitely Bergbewohner. Wir versuchen, diesem Körper We never thought of it that way, but that is a compelling um bei der Definition zu bleiben, vielleicht eher small point of the sense, thereupon pursuing its own course Rundungen zu geben und so das starre Bild von interpretation. Advances in technology have facilitated travel um eine Übersetzung als um eine Transliteration. Identität als etwas Zerbrechlichem in Bewegung Grundsätzlich bevorzugen wir aber das Verfahren according to the of fidelity in the freedom of linguistic zu bringen. incredibly over the past century, but this has not necessarily der Substitution: Wie die Verwandlung von flux.” The crucial point about this statement is that fidelity been accompanied by a proportionate increase in wisdom and Bill Pullman in Balthazar Getty, die sich in Lost Neben einer Fülle von Einfällen Highway zwischen zwei Szenen ereignet, and freedom do not come into conflict but are components versammelt ihr in euren Ausstellungen understanding: In fact, the reverse is probably true. entzieht sich letztlich auch die Substitution der of one and the same process. Does that apply to Slavs and kulturelle Zeugnisse und Artefakte, die Erklärung. Sie stellt eine Herausforderung dar für den Eindruck erwecken, als stammten sie den sehr säkularen Wahn, alles zu verstehen und Tatars with regard to fidelity to cultural identity and the von ausgedehnten Reisen zu historischen What comes to your mind when you hear the term folk? allwissend zu sein. freedom of its artistic reinterpretation? Stätten der Vergangenheit. Würdet ihr More radical than punk.

To or Not To Beer, 2012, commissioned by the graduating class Reverse Joy presentation, “Europa N, GfZK, Leipzig, 2012 of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice at College of the Arts, "On Apology," CCA Wattis, San Francisco. Photo by Dane 79.89.09 lecture-presentation, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, 2009, photo by Kolya Zverkov AaaaaaahhhhZERI!!!, 2009 Jensen 18 Slavs and Tatars 19 Not Moscow Not Mecca zustimmen, wenn man eure Arbeiten And the term pop? diese besondere Region von Bedeutung sind – caricature par excellence: whether in its very graphic pattern als zeitgenössische visuelle Form der das Lesen, das Denken oder die gemeinsame Reisebeschreibung bezeichnet, ein Helps the medicine go down smoothly. Glaubensausübung. (see the watermelon balls inside) or its associations with the Literaturgenre, das sich in allen Kulturen fruit of the Other, the darkie, the immigrant, if you will. In von jeher großer Beliebtheit erfreut? Welchen Beitrag leistet die Dieser Gedanke ist uns noch gar nicht Do you think that the fruits that you are presenting at Außeninstallation – zwei große the US, the watermelon evokes racist stereotypes of African gekommen, aber das ist eine spannende the Secession, such as the pomegranate, the mulberry, Melonenhälften, die die Haupttreppe American culture; in , its provenance and point of sale Deutung. Durch den technischen Fortschritt der Secession flankieren – zu ist das Reisen in den letzten 100 Jahren the watermelon, or the sour cherry, provide vessels or eurer Erkundung einer „kollektiven recall the immigrant, the Muslim, the Turk—essentially, those unglaublich einfach geworden, aber das Wissen Autobiografie Zentralasiens“? In welcher über andere Kulturen und der verständnisvolle containers for containers for the understanding about Verbindung stehen diese beiden Objekte Europe fears. Finally, in , it is linked with the Caucasus Umgang mit ihnen sind dadurch nicht unbedingt cultures that are not so widely known in the West? zu der schreinartigen Installation im and the troubled rapport between the two. gewachsen – vermutlich ist eher das Gegenteil Inneren des Gebäudes? der Fall. Speaking through the flora of a region forces us to think Die Wassermelone ist wie der aufblasbare In a no less important sense, the watermelons at the that much less anthropomorphically. There is an undeniable Ballon in A Monobrow Manifesto ein entrance to the Secession announce the arrival of spring and Woran denkt ihr, wenn ihr den Begriff Spaßelement, ein witziges Epiphänomen, Folk hört? pleasure, a basic luxury that fruits offer as a comestible das uns ermöglicht, komplexe Geschichten summer and the bountiful harvests of these seasons, a more Radikaler als Punk. experience. The project at the Secession tries to translate this zu erzählen. Sie eignet sich perfekt literal take on the Ver Sacrum on the facade. Together with the für die Karikatur: ob durch ihr sehr Und beim Begriff Pop? luxury into an agency or platform to think about similarly basic auffälliges grafisches Muster (siehe die syncretic shrine inside, the fruits are an invitation to engage Versüßt die bittere Medizin. luxuries—reading, thinking, the communal practice of faith— Wassermelonenkugeln im Innenraum) oder with the exhibition affectively and not just cerebrally. dadurch, dass sie mit dem Anderen oder, wenn Glaubt ihr, dass Früchte wie der across this particular region. man so will, dem Farbigen, dem Einwanderer Granatapfel, die Maulbeere, die assoziiert ist. In den USA ist die Wassermelone You deliberately play with the ambiguity of words, Wassermelone oder die Pflaume, die ihr eng mit rassistischen Stereotypen von der in der Secession zeigt, als Medium dienen How does the outdoor installation, the two large afroamerikanischen Kultur verknüpft, in Europa with their mis-, re-, or new interpretation and with können, um einen verständnisvollen ruft sie durch ihr Herkunftsland und den Ort, wo Umgang mit Kulturen zu transportieren, hemispheric melons flanking the central staircase of the man sie kauft, das Bild des Einwanderers, des accidental meanings that or may not arise. Would über die in der westlichen Welt nur wenig Secession, contribute to your exploration of “a collective Türken, des Moslems, also die Grundängste der you say that wordplay is a domesticated, tamed form of bekannt ist? Europäer wach. In Russland hingegen verbindet Indem wir durch die Flora einer Region autobiography of the region of ”? How are man die Wassermelone mit dem Kaukasus misunderstanding—a deliberate one, as it is played out by sprechen, sind wir genötigt, uns ein Stück these objects linked to the shrine-like installation inside the und dem krisenhaften Verhältnis zwischen den Slavs and Tatars in artworks such as When in Rome, To weit vom anthropomorphen Denken zu lösen. beiden Regionen. Früchte sind einfache Genussmittel, und ihr Secession? Aber die Wassermelonen am Eingang der Mountain Minorities (Kidnapping Mountains), or Nations? Verzehr bereitet eindeutig Vergnügen. Das Like the balloon in A Monobrow Manifesto, the watermelon Secession verkünden ebenso den Beginn von On the one hand, these performative acts on the text are part of Projekt in der Secession soll durch den Einsatz Frühling und Sommer und die reiche Ernte, die dieser einfachen Genüsse Gedanken an is a fun, stupid medium and epiphenomenon through which diese beiden Jahreszeiten mit sich bringen – the research itself: They are not the end result, but the process ähnliche einfache Genüsse wecken, die für we can tell much more complicated stories. It is a fruit of eine sehr wörtliche Umsetzung of coming to terms with the words in all their polyphonic glory.

To Mountain Minorities, “Frozen Moments”, curated by Joanna Warsza, Tbilissi, 2010. The original expression “Chven Sakartvelos Gaumardjos” is roughly translated as “Long Live ” or “Vive Georgia!” By changing the second ‘a’ of Sakartvelos to a ‘u’ to make Sakurtvelos, the phrase becomes Long Live A Monobrow Manifesto (Qajar v Bert), Sharjah, 2011 and the unresolved geopolitical When in Rome, 2010 identity of one mountain people is replaced by that of another. Underwater Prayers for Overwater Dreams (the waterrmelon vendor), 2012 20 Slavs and Tatars 21 Not Moscow Not Mecca des Wahlspruches „Ver sacrum“ neben On the other hand, our revisions of texts speak, to some degree, Leser an, dann wird diese Anweisung Maintaining such a contradictory position must be der Eingangstüre. Gemeinsam mit dem in abgeänderter Form wiederholt, synkretistischen Schrein im Gebäudeinneren about a struggle with language itself. We share an increasing um schließlich das Konstrukt, das ihr demanding, isn’t it? laden die Früchte dazu ein, sich nicht nur auf suspicion of the written word—its ability to produce knowledge errichtet habt, komplett zu widerlegen. It is extremely demanding. A whole range of thinkers have intellektueller, sondern auch auf emotionaler Ist diese Form des Zwischen-den-Welten- Ebene mit der Ausstellung zu beschäftigen. is perhaps matched only by a certain inability to convey Stehens ebenfalls bezeichnend für eure addressed the difficulty of maintaining an intellectual and meaning—and of prose with Sufis and poets, respectively. Arbeitsweise? numinous agility: Once you take a position, no matter how Ihr spielt absichtlich mit der Es geht nicht so sehr um ein Dazwischenstehen, Mehrdeutigkeit von Wörtern, mit ihren sondern darum, beide Enden des Spektrums zu liberating, you immediately become trapped by it. Or, as Fehl-, Um- oder Neuinterpretationen besetzen und in Folge vielleicht auch den Raum und den zufälligen Bedeutungen, die The linguistic structure of text pieces such as Long Live Long dazwischen. Wir müssen uns gegen die Mauern Thomas Merton wrote so eloquently, “Quit this world, in diesem Spiel vielleicht entstehen. Live!, Death to Death to!, or Keep Your Majorities Close, der Interpretation und des Handelns stemmen, quit the next, and quit quitting.” Würdet ihr sagen, dass das Wortspiel die einzustürzen drohen im natürlichen Prozess eine zahme, abgeschwächte Form des But Your Minorities Closer is quite contradictory: First you des Älterwerdens, in dem sich unsere Vorlieben Missverständnisses ist – eine Form, die instruct the readers, then you reiterate this instruction by und unsere Abneigungen verfestigen. Man von Slavs and Tatars in Arbeiten wie könnte beinahe von einem atavistischen When in Rome, To Mountain Minorities variation, and finally you rebut the entire complex you Gegenmodell zu der neoliberalen Vorstellung (Kidnapping Mountains) oder Nations have just built up. Is this sort of being in between worlds des Vorwärtsstrebens sprechen: Je älter wir ganz bewusst eingesetzt wird? werden, desto klarer erkennen wir, welche Einerseits sind diese performativen Akte am emblematic for your working methods, too? Haltungen, welches Essen, welche Leute und Text Bestandteil der Forschungsarbeit: Sie sind It is not so much being in between as occupying the far ends of welche Orte wir mögen. Es ist wichtig, diesem nicht das Endergebnis, sondern entstehen im Raffinement, dieser Verengung des Lebens Prozess, die Wörter in ihrer ganzen polyfonen the spectrum, and perhaps subsequently everything along the entgegenzuwirken und Texte zu lesen, mit Vielfalt zu verstehen. Andererseits spricht way. It is important to push at the walls of interpretation, denen wir nicht einverstanden sind, oder uns unsere Umformung von Texten auch vom mit Menschen anzufreunden, zu denen wir uns Ringen mit der Sprache selbst. Uns verbindet of activity, and of agency, which otherwise would slowly cave normalerweise nicht hingezogen fühlen. eine wachsende Skepsis gegenüber dem geschriebenen Wort – seiner Macht, Wissen in due to the very nature of growing old, understanding what Ist es nicht ziemlich anstrengend, diese zu erzeugen, die vielleicht nur von seiner one likes and dislikes. It’s almost like an atavistic counterpart widersprüchliche Haltung auf Dauer zu Schwäche übertroffen wird, Bedeutung zu behaupten? vermitteln – und ebenso gegenüber den Texten to the neoliberal idea of aspiration: The longer one lives, the Sehr sogar. Eine ganze Riege von Denkern von Sufis und Dichtern. more one understands what one likes, what kinds of ideas, which beschäftigt sich mit dem Problem, wie man geistig in Bewegung bleibt: So befreiend Textstücke wie Long Live Long Live! Death , people, places. It’s important to resist this raffinement, es auch sein mag, eine bestimmte Position to Death to! oder Keep Your Majorities this narrowing of one’s field of activity, and to embrace one’s einzunehmen, man sitzt sofort darin fest. Oder Close, But Your Minorities Closer sind von wie Thomas Merton so treffend schrieb: „Gib ihrem sprachlichen Aufbau her äußerst antithesis, to read things we don’t agree with, to become friends diese Welt auf, gib die nächste auf und lass das widersprüchlich: Zuerst weisen sie den with people to whom we might not normally be drawn. Aufgeben.“

The closest thing to a hindsight mascot to us, Molla Nasreddin, the 12th Régions d’Être, 2012 century Sufi wise- man-cum-fool also put in some years as Resist Resisting , , 2009 mascot of the weekly Azeri political satire in Long Live Long Live!, exterior of heritage house of Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite the early 20th century. Showbiz, Sharjah, 2011 22 Biografie / Biography 23 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Das Kollektiv Slavs and Tatars versteht sich als Slavs and Tatars is a faction of polemics and intimacies devoted „Faktion der Polemik und engen Freundschaft“ und beschäftigt sich mit dem „als Eurasien bekannten to an area, east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Gebiet östlich der ehemaligen Berliner Mauer und Wall of China, known as . The collective’s work spans westlich der Chinesischen Mauer“. Die Gruppe arbeitet mit verschiedenen Medien und Disziplinen several media, disciplines, and a broad spectrum of cultural und bedient sich eines breiten Spektrums registers (high and low). Slavs and Tatars have published kultureller Register von U bis E. Slavs and Tatars haben bislang folgende Bücher veröffentlicht: Kidnapping Mountains (Book Works, 2009), Love Me, Love Kidnapping Mountains (Book Works, 2009), Love Me, Love Me Not: Changed Names (onestar Me Not: Changed Names (onestar press, 2010), and Molla press, 2010) und Molla Nasreddin: the magazine Nasreddin: the magazine that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve (JRP-Ringer, 2011). Ihre Arbeiten wurden in der Galerie Salt (JRP-Ringier, 2011). Their work has been exhibited at Salt, , der Tate Modern, auf der 10. Sharjah- Istanbul, Tate Modern, the 10th Sharjah, the 8th Mercosul and Biennale, der 8. Biennale des Mercosul und der 3. -Biennale gezeigt. the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennials. In den vergangenen fünf Jahren hat das After devoting the past five years primarily to two cycles Kollektiv zwei Zyklen geschaffen: Die Projekte Kidnapping Mountains, Molla Nasreddin, Hymns of work, namely, a celebration of complexity in the Caucasus of No Resistance widmen sich dem Kaukasus (Kidnapping Mountains, Molla Nasreddin, Hymns of No und seiner komplexen Geschichte, während Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz, Resistance) and the unlikely common heritage between Poland 79.89.09 und A Monobrow Manifesto einen and Iran (Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz, 79.89.09, Blick auf das überraschende gemeinsame Erbe werfen, das Polen und den Iran verbindet. In A Monobrow Manifesto), Slavs and Tatars have begun work on ihrem neuen, dritten Werkzyklus The Faculty of Substitution beschäftigen sich Slavs and Tatars their third cycle, The Faculty of Substitution, on mystical protest mit dem Thema des mystischen Protestes und and the revolutionary role of the sacred and syncretic. The new der revolutionären Rolle des Heiligen und des Synkretistischen. Der Werkzyklus umfasst Beiträge cycle of work includes contributions to group exhibitions— zu Gruppenausstellungen – Reverse Joy in der Reverse Joy at the GfZK, Leipzig, PrayWay at the New Museum GfZK Leipzig, Pray Way auf der New-Museum- Triennale und Régions d’Être auf der Asia-Pacific- Triennial and Régions d’Être at the Asia Pacific Triennial— as Underwater Prayers for Overwater Triennale – sowie Einzelausstellungen in der well as solo engagements at ’s Secession (Not Moscow Not Dreams (the mulberry tree), 2012 Secession Wien (Not Moscow, Not Mecca), in der Gallery Brünn (Khhhhhhh), im MoMa New Mecca), Brno’s Moravia Gallery (Khhhhhhh), NY’s Museum of Not Moscow Not Mecca (Beyonsense) und im Künstlerhaus . Modern Art (Beyonsense), and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart. Mysteries are intrinsically esoteric, and as such are an offense to democracy: is not publicity a democratic principle? Norman O. Brown

Few people dare mention Marx and Mohammed in the same breath. For, what on earth (or in heaven, with or without the 72 houris) could an atheistic economic and political philosophy have to do with a religion dedicated to the worship of the one and unique God? Does not the former continue to be the darling of leftists, who (like philandering partners, unwilling to make a clean break) keep coming back for one last chance, only to prolong the pain of all parties—while the latter takes pride in its traditionalist, some would say reactionary, positions? Rare are the legs, but rarer yet are the heart and

“Down with You!” Mayakovsky’s man mind, that can do the splits. It is precisely such mental and yells at God. Or, alternatively, a precursor mystical acrobatics that woo Slavs and Tatars, not to mention The Crown to “Get down! Get down!” from Kool and the photo Oliver Gang’s Jungle Boogie. Ни Знахарь Ни Бог , , , and Uighurs, off our feet. Ottenschläger/ Ни Слуги Бога Нам Ни Подмога (Neither Secession, 2012 Healer, Nor God, Nor the of God are Between the twin towers of Communism and Islam lies any Help to the Peasantry), 1923. Courtesy a region alternatively called , , of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. 24 Slavs and Tatars 25 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Ceiling of courtyard in “bookbinding style,” Khudoyar ’s Many Cribs, No Bloods. Kumtepa market, near Marguilon, Palace, Kokand, , 2011 Uzbekistan, 2011

Like our hero, Molla Nasreddin, and his twenty-first century protégé Ali G, we believe in the efficacy of asking stupid questions about otherwise sophisticated subject matter. If Islam is categorically overlooked and dismissed as reactionary, and if it is kept at bay by secular intellectuals and moderate alike, then surely it provides fertile ground for resuscitating the very and shoots of a progressive agency. To borrow from the more mundane, profane, if not entirely discredited, world of finance: the greater the risk, the greater the reward. The Faculty of Substitution Map of Central Asia showing the major ethnic groups , Turkestan, or simply Central Asia. Like us, For those of us inclined towards big brushstrokes (alas, we are it too belongs to too many peoples and places at once, caught not painters, but polemicists), the world could be quite easily between Imperial Russia and Statist China, Chingissid and divided into YES people and NO people. Despite a penchant laws, sedentary and nomadic tribes, Turkic, Persian, for the critical, we sit squarely in the camp of the former: and Russian languages—not to mention Arabic, Latin, and “Yes” just slides off the palate. Our big, beaming eyes say it Cyrillic alphabets. As Maria Luow writes, “The before our lips know any better. With age, it slowly dawns stubborn enchantedness of the world is perhaps most telling in on us that enthusiasm can only take us so far. Eager to touch the parts of the world where the concrete efforts to disenchant the blaze of ardor with our precocious, pudgy fingers, we feel it were extraordinarily organized and profound.”1 We turn to disappointment before we know how to read, write, or say it. this “country beyond the river” (Amu Darya, aka the Oxus) With a register of adult feelings, inevitably, come adult words: in an effort to research the potential for progressive agency We learn of the existence of such heartbreaking hyphenations 1. in Islam. In a land considered historically instrumental to the as “over-committed.” With plenty to spare in childhood, time’s Maria Elisabeth development of the faith, but nonetheless marginalized in our arched spine flattens in later years, under the weight of its Luow. Everyday Islam in Post- oft-amnesiac era, its approach to pedagogy, to the sacred, and dwindling supply. For such innocent but affable folk, the secret (London: Routledge, to modernity itself offers a much-needed model of critical handshake of adulthood is sealed by the ability to push the 2007) thinking and commensurate being. tongue to the roof of one’s mouth and utter: “No.” 26 Slavs and Tatars 27 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Set against the Atlanticist penchant for the positive, the negative builds steam as it moves eastwards amongst a whole array—or rather, increasingly disarrayed set— of nations until it hits a brick wall of impenetrability, courtesy of a quintessentially Russian expression: “да нет.” Literally meaning “yes no,” when you get to the bottom of it, “да нет” actually means just plain “no.” We would like, however, to divert this expression, kidnap it, indulge it, give it a dollop of the Stockholm syndrome and release it into the world to rage both “Yes!” and “No!” with one steady, repeated breath, a zikr of sorts, thereby fulfilling its etymological dreams—not to mention ours. After devoting the past five or six years to two cycles of work, namely, a celebration of complexity in the Caucasus (Kidnapping

Slavs and Tatars, Reverse Joy, , Masshad, 2011 Mountains, Molla Nasreddin, Hymns of No Resistance) and the unlikely affinities of Poland and Iran (Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz, 79.89.09, A Monobrow Manifesto), we have begun work on our third cycle: The Faculty of Substitution, replacing one thing with another, telling one tale through another—in the widest sense. At the heart of this research is an attempt to rethink the very notion of self-discovery via the slow burn of syncretism and the revolutionary role of the sacred.

“Only the Communist Party and Soviet power will liberate Oriental women.” 10 Лет Узбекистана СССР (10 Years of Soviet Uzbekistan), 1934. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. Slavs and Tatars, Friendship of Nations: Slavs and Tatars, Mystical Protest Polish Shi’ite Showbiz (installation (Muharram), “I decided not to save the view), photo by Alfredo Rubio, Sharjah Art world,” curated by Duygu Demir and Kyla He sees all things, even the steps of the black ant on black stone in the dark of night. (Arab Proverb) Foundation, 2011 Macdonald, Salt Beyoğlu, 2012 28 Slavs and Tatars 29 Not Moscow Not Mecca

3. The increasingly rapid pace of individualism is nothing new “This type of di- the inevitable evolution from what they considered pre- to us—if anything, we’ve been complicit in the romance. chotomous formula- modern, traditional, religious society.3 The disenchantment tion is expressed Willingly swept up off our feet, landing prostrate at the as and or de-divinization of the world, which Friedrich Schiller altar of acceleration, we often confound individualism capitalism in Marx, lamented, has found its echo equally in revolutionary mechanical and with lofty notions of democracy, freedom, and happiness. organic division of (Bolshevik) Communism and late Capitalism. If grass- Contrary to the creeds that pass for wisdom today, it is often labor in Durkheim, roots, syncretic Central Asian Islam—out-financed, out- and traditional and only by adopting the innermost thoughts, experiences, legal-rational (or bureaucratized, and out-muscled by the USSR—could so beliefs, and sensations of another as one’s own that one modern) in Weber.” effectively resist seven decades of systematic repression, Mark Saroyan, Mi- can achieve a semblance of awareness. As Richard N. Frye norities, Mullahs and what can it teach us today, in an early twenty-first century Modernity: Reshap- says, “just as in fine arts, we find individual biography in ing Community in the swimming against the rising tides of faltering economic the West, so collective biography is the hallmark of the Former Soviet Union liberalism, not to mention shrill secularism? 2 (Berkeley: Univer- East.” The Faculty of Substitution attempts to redress this sity of California It would be foolish to believe that the approximately seventy imbalance by playfully, intimately, and formally suggesting Press, 1997). years of revolutionary Communism, with its strict prohibition a recalibration: of registers, speeds, and form. We look at substitution—from al-badaliya to the anti-modern, from la reversibilité to mystical protest. How can indirection—

The Triumph of Leninist-Stalinist looking at something else as a prism onto the chosen subject National , by N. Narakhan,10 Лет of study, going somewhere else that initially might not Узбекистана СССР (10 Years of Soviet Uzbekistan), 1934, courtesy of the Museum seem relevant, instead of directly heading towards one’s of Modern Art, NY. destination challenge the very notion of distance as the 2. shortest length between two points? There is some sass Richard N. Frye, in this circuity: Why go straight for the kill when you can “The by circle it, tease it, taunt it out of its strict semantics? Narshakhi,” in Accordingly, Not Moscow Not Mecca tells the collective Central Asian Monuments, ed. story of syncretism—of Central Asia—from the perspective Hasan B. Paksoy not of the fauna but rather the flora. More topographic, if (Istanbul: Isis Press, 1992), 75. At the age not transcendent, an autobiography of the region’s fruits of nearly 92, Richard N. Frye, Aga Khan (from the persimmon to the mulberry, from the melon to Professor Emeritus the pomegranate) performs an etymological enema on of Iranian Studies at Harvard University, triangulation. A platform of fruits—to read, experience, and received permission taste—offers a third way, blessed between the two major from the Islamic of Iran to geopolitical heavyweights of the twentieth and twenty-first be buried in Esfahan. centuries: Communism and Islam. Amping up the Amphiboly We are particularly seduced when opposites attract. When

it came to secularization, Communism and Capitalism Mardi Bas! Agit-prop anti-religious carnaval, put aside (however briefly) their thuggish ideological spat Moscow, 1930s, Бригада Художников of religion, have nothing to do with contemporary Muslims in (Artists’Brigade), issue 1, 1931. Courtesy of and engaged in a storm of make-up sex called Modernity, the Museum of Modern Art, NY the holding their noses up at their Central Asian whose last remnants we are still suffering. The founding coreligionists. During the Soviet era, sacred shrines from trio of modern social sciences, , Emile Durkheim, Ashgabat to Kashgar were desecrated: were destroyed and Max Weber, all saw modernity as necessarily secular, or turned into gymnasiums, libraries, workers’ clubs, and 30 Slavs and Tatars 31 Not Moscow Not Mecca

the like. Organizations with names halfway between a Russ Meyer B movie and a Richard Dawkins foundation—Союз воинствующих безбожников (translated alternatively as “The League of Militant Godless” or “The Union of Belligerent Atheists”) to name just one—were founded to combat what the Bolsheviks considered Islam’s backwardness. It sounds somewhat familiar: one dares not delight in imagining how today’s Islamophobes on the right would feel about sharing their zeal with their former enemies, the revolutionary Communists. Yet, it was precisely this prohibition and suppression that created a fluid, complex, syncretic, if not progressive, approach to Islam—as opposed to the often rigid, Gulf-centric understanding of the faith. Today, against the backdrop of a supposed supposedly pulsating in the Muslim world, one that pits the Sunnis

A domlo (shrine-guardian) recites prayers for of the against a rising Shi’a of Iran, pilgrims. Shrine of Khwaja Mahmoud al-Anjir , , and , it may be best to choose not to choose al-Faghnawi, of the Golden Chain, outside Bukhara, 2011. between the Wahabbism of the one and the theocratic Imamism of the other. In this context, Central Asia’s syncretic indigenization of the faith offers a rare alternative.

4. The relatively recent arrival of these nation-states to the world stage has seen Women pilgrims at the Naqshbandi a scramble to create shrine, outside Bukhara, 2011 In the active and powerful role played by women, the shrines a compelling and distinct national testify best to the progressive muscle of Central Asia’s approach identity, one that to Islam. They inevitably welcome women more than mosques, goes beyond the twin totalizing Village regiment in the fight against Covered (quail) cage, Tahur which, unless there is a separate, designated space for prayer, phenomena of the Basmachis, by U. Tansikbaev, depicting the Shrine, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2011 become essentially off-limits to females. During the repressive past (the USSR) and fall of the Basmachi movement, a national the present/future liberation movement to end foreign rule over prohibitions of the Soviet era, the continuity of the faith largely (Islam), see Benedict Turkestan. 10 Лет Узбекистана СССР Anderson, Imagined (10 Years of Soviet Uzbekistan), 1934, Communities: courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of , Big and small, government-sanctioned and grass-roots—an rev. ed. (London: Verso, 2006). After ecosystem of shrines (avliyo in Uzbek) dot the urban and rural the fall of the Soviet landscape of the steppes. Resting places of , a spring of Union, various efforts were made, holy nestled in the cliffs bordering Afghanistan, even in vain, to import a petrified tree can serve as sites of , orziyorat . a more strict— whether Wahhabite Pilgrims offer alms, in the form of food, water, or clothes. or other—Islam to Central Asia, for Some come to make a prayer and move on—either to the Fabrics, throws, and sheets are often Pilgrims waiting to fill their jerry cans and example, through next shrine or back to their everyday life. Others return in the draped on the tomb of a to soak up bottles with blessed water, Omon-Xona, the donation of text the benedictions before being taken home for Uzbekistan, 2011 books and financing evening to pick up the produce and clothes that have been use. Shrine of Baba-as-Samasi, part of the Nasqshbandi Golden Chain, 2011 of mosques. basking in the blessed aura of the shrine. 4 32 Slavs and Tatars 33 Not Moscow Not Mecca

fell on the shoulders of women. Given their more prominent role in the private sphere, women were deemed the guardians of traditions and religious honor, especially when faced with

Those with a sore throat or stutter a spoonful of blessed A supplicant inside the Sheikh Abul Hassan , Lyangar, water from the shrine of Shayx Hazrati Qusam-Ota, near Uzbekistan, 2011 Dekhkanabad, Uzbekistan, 2011 of Turkestan, Bruce Privratsky talks about landscape’s power to trigger a collective memory. During seventy years of Soviet rule, the hagiography of one’s ancestors and elders was stored in a 6. kind of dreamscape, collectively practiced every time one passes Bruce Privratsky, a place of ziyorat.6 In Central Asia, by outlawing the shrines Muslim Turkistan: Kazak Religion and and places of popular worship, the authorities unwittingly made Collective Memory. (Richmond: Curzon, the past a foreign country—more sought after, more delectable, 2001). more relevant than they could possibly have imagined. To visit

7. the tombs of one’s ancestors was the equivalent of breaking Pointing to the through the Iron Curtain and going abroad. Most importantly, Safavids and the current Islamic the prohibition of Islam in the former Soviet Union coincided Republic of Iran, with an increased access to presses around the Muslim Dabashi argues quite convincingly that world. Instead of being swept up in the tides of doctrinal, Shi’ism thrives as a scriptural discussions of theology, was View of Omon-Xona, a make-shift spa-shrine religion of protest but in the mountains near , Uzbekistan, a hostile state. One man explains away the tension between the loses its raison d’être elaborated as a practice of community, retaining a significantly where holy water is collected, imbibed, bathed once it achieves in, and honored. public allegiance to Communism and private practice of Islam oral character. In effect, it was the de-modernization of the faith power. Hamid along gender lines: “I am a communist. I cannot fast or pray at Dabashi, Shi’ism: during Communism that allowed for its particular suppleness. A Religion of work. But my wife and kelin [daughter-in-], they are sitting at Protest (Cambridge: Contrary to what one would expect, the faith regressed where it 7 5. home, so they must fast and pray! So we will not suffer from sins. Belknap, 2011). was given free reign. Where it was outlawed, it progressed. Gillian Tett, “‘Guard- 5 ians of the Faith?’ We are a Muslim home!” At the shrines, elder women known Gender and Religion as otin or bibi-otin often perform the recitations observed at in an (ex) Soviet Tajik Village,” in Muslim life-cycle rituals. These otin are responsible for the transmission Women’s Choices: Long Live the Syncretics Religious Belief and of sacred traditions, act as teachers to younger women in the Social Reality, ed. community, and pass on religious expertise to their daughters or According to lore, it is not heaven’s light that illuminates Camilia Fawzi El- Solh and Judy Mabro daughters-in-law, in an exemplary demonstration of the chains of Bukhara, in modern-day Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s most (Oxford, 1994), 144. transmission (see Chains we can believe in, below). storied , but rather Bukhara’s light that reaches the Our regional remit looks as much to the mountains that heavens. From astronomers to religious scholars, from inform the men and women as to the individuals themselves. In doctors to saints, there is clearly something in the water an attempt to shed light on the resilience of the Muslim of this stalwart. Perhaps we would do well 34 Slavs and Tatars 35 Not Moscow Not Mecca

8. example—they to redirect our thermal imaging resources away from “Bukharans take were executed; if pride in recounting they were from military surveillance and criminal investigations to more the story of how, Central Asia, they metaphysical matters, namely, this city on the steppe where when the Afghan were released. And mujahidin took if they were from the number of holy souls per square meter gives Moscow’s Soviet soldiers as Bukhara, the Afghan billionaires a run for their money.8 prisoners during the mujahidin would Soviet invasions of not only set the Afghanistan in 1979, prisoners free, they they would always would even show ask them where them reverence they came from. If and respond with they came from the an omin! (amen!).” Christian parts of the Luow, Everyday Soviet Union—from Islam, 63. Russia, Belarus, or , for

Statue of Muhammad ibn Mūsā al- Babur, the poet- who ruled from or Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Khwārizmī, photo by Michel Valdrighi, , in present-day Afghanistan Allāh ibn Sīnā Uzbekistan

The neighboring Khwarezm is named after the founder of algebra (Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī), the astrologer who discovered that the earth revolves around the sun (Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī), and the polymath whose

Map of ziyorat (shrines) from Alexandre Bennigsen and S Enders Wembush’s Mystics Canon of Medicine was the standard text in Europe and the and Commissars, 1985. Islamic world until the eighteenth century (Ibn Sīnā). To some extent, the lack of love is reciprocal, as 9. ishrâq, has its When the Muslim world is defined or imagined today—by the demonstrated by the Firdaus ul-iqbâl (The Paradise of In his “Tale of etymological roots Occidental Exile,” in the “morning West or by Muslims themselves—it often includes countries Felicity)—a history of the Khwarezm commissioned (Treatise IX) of knowledge” from North to , strangely skipping a in the early nineteenth century. Going from the Creation Suhrawardi’s or the “dawn Early astronomical drawing of a lunar Illuminationist of knowledge” heartbeat over the former Soviet sphere. Like a functionally eclipse by Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni or “why and all the way to the then-present day, the chronicle philosophy (cognitio matutina in the increase and decrease of the light of the explicitly pairs Greek). So it comes planned highway, the newly minted acronym MENASA moon is settled while other stars don’t behave tells various stories of the community diverging from the so. Observing these and not understanding the wisdom and spiritual as no surprise then (Middle East, , and ) takes a detour spirit of these is a misdeed; that the light of the path of Islam, only to be brought back into the fold by local knowledge with Suhrawardi saw stars is of their own.” the rise of the sun Transoxiana, the around what, until relatively recently, provided the pulse of the heroes. As Adeeb Khalid, an eminent historian of Islam in and light in the East Eastern frontier of greater Muslim community. 10. Central Asia, notes: “Remarkably, [Firdaus ul-iqbâl ] makes and by extension Islam in the 12th Adeeb Khalid, Islam the realm of matter century, as the Yet, Bukhara is arguably the fourth holiest city in Islam, After Communism, no mention of the Prophet, the rise of Islam in Arabia or the and the material Sublime World. after Mecca, , and . Its name, (Berkeley: Arab conquest of Central Asia ... Islam becomes completely world in the West. The Mystical and 9 University of Suhrawardi himself Visionary Treatises (Holy Bukhara),is renowned around the Muslim world. The California Press, indigenized, an innate part of the genealogical heritage of the was known as of Shihabuddin founder of the Mughal , Zahir al- Muhammad 2007), p 20. of Central Asia.”10 the Shaikh al- Yahya Suhrawardi, Ishrâq (Master p 100. Babur (1483–1530) claimed that Ma wâra al nahr was What has been once, is for eternity. So it is with Bukhara, of Illumination) home to more Islamic leaders than any other region. Among where cornering the sacred real-estate market predates Islam for his work on the theosophy, the most authentic (brief accounts of the Prophet’s itself. Since the thirteenth century BCE, Zoroastrians have phenomenology and mystical sayings, which are second in importance only to the Qur’an) been making the pilgrimage to Diz Ru’in, where Siyâvash, existentialism of are those collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari, a son of the the hero of a legend recounted in ’s epic light. Interestingly, the word for eponymous city. The founder of the largest Sufi order (or (the Iliad and Odyssey of Persianate culture), is supposed to illumination, tariqat), Baha-ud-Din Naqshbandi, also hails from Bukhara. be buried. A who was innocently killed by the Turanian 36 Slavs and Tatars 37 Not Moscow Not Mecca

SufI grrrrL POwer only unpardonable sin in the faith. The most touching, though counterintuitive, example of is the story of or The Kiz Bibi shrine, . According to the Qur’an, Satan was an angel so enamored outside Bukhara, with God, so devout in his belief in His unity, that he defied His command to submit to Adam, made of mere clay, and was thus is devoted to the banished to hell. What we too often see as a cartoonish scourge famous spinstress who of evil, the devil, is in fact nothing more than a spurned lover. refused the hands of Angelology is prevalent in Islam, in particular in Shi’ism. several suitors. Those Henry Corbin, the eminent twentieth-century scholar and seeking to have a child specialist on the Illuminationist philosopher Suhrawardi, make a pilgrimage discusses at length—if obliquely—the parallels between Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. A fallen Catholic and Shi’a angelology and eschatology. Though Central to this women-only angel and central figure in the Yezidi faith, Asia is overwhelmingly Sunni, its syncretic, big-tent approach to Melek Taus is often mistakenly conflated with mausoleum and Iblis (who later became Satan) in Islam for the faith moves beyond such sectarian divisions, not to mention his initial rise in God’s favor and subsequent khanaqa, or place of refusal to submit to Adam. Instead of cursing those between homo sapiens and the animal kingdom. this insubordination, though, Yezidis revere On the way to Lyangar, a village in central Uzbekistan that is meditation, and tie A woman ties a knot to a tree outside the shrine of Xoja Ali Romitaniy. In a move of Melek Taus and believe instead evil to be a transubstantiation worthy of David Lynch, a supplicant one day came to Romitaniy, praising him wholly human creation, not a supernatural one. known for its hilltop shrine to Abul Hassan Sheikh and his four a thread on a barren and expressing a particular wish to the saint: not just to be like the revered figure but to actually become him. Romitaniy invited the man inside and when he left three days later, he had become tree in hopes of being Romitaniy, in action, in physique, and in truth. The visitor had not anticipated, however, the physical and spiritual efforts necessary to continue being the wise man. After two days, he collapsed and delivered from their died. “The belief that pious figures could protect towns from danger likely manifested itself primarily around popular saints who were not Sufis. A jurist and teacher who was renowned more for his piety own difficulties bearing than for his learning, Muhriz ibn Khalaf achieved fame as a saint early on: according to his grandson, the townspeople attempted to obtain his blessings by grabbing his hand, touching his cloths and a child. throwing their or their pilgrimage garmets towards him which they then rubbed to their eyes and faces. A century later it had become customary for sailors to throw taken from Muhriz’s tomb into the sea to calm its rough ” Ahmet T. Karamustafa. : the Formative Period (: The American University in Cairo Press, 2007).

11. king after a self-imposed exile, Siyâvash serves as a Nowhere is this more evident than in the pre-Islamic precedent for Hossein and the Ta’zieh Shi’a very language used: passion play performed during Muharram (see our Reverse pir, an honorific for a saint, literally Joy). Neighboring Buddhist and Hindu rituals are incorporated means “old,” into the daily practice of Muslims throughout the region. which is the literal translation of Lotus motifs, among others, grace the needlework of the “buddha”. For famous Central Asian textiles. Women tie strings, as hopes and further reading on this topic, see benedictions, to trees found near the resting places of saints. Reza Kazemi, Common Ground: Khizr, the initiator of mystical Islam (see below) is depicted Between Islam sitting on white foliage, under which green sprouts forth— and Buddhism (Louisville: Fons much like Buddha on his bed of white lotus , with their Vitae, 2010). green underbellies.11 Ninety-Nine Ways of Saying One A strict monotheism and emphasis on tawhid (God as one and

unique) is the driving theological, legal, and creative force of Where the winged drank and fed: the shrine of Dul-Dul Ot, near Lyangar, Uzbekistan, 2011 Islam. Worshipping anyone or anything but God is perhaps the 38 Slavs and Tatars 39 Not Moscow Not Mecca

sons, we come across another spoke in the surprisingly complex change one’s name—in this case from Théophile to Toufik, wheel of the one, the unique, and the multiple. Our guide, David to Daoud—strikes us as a small but telling gesture. Lutfollahan (Lutfi), who hails from nearby Shakhrisabz, ’s What is, after all, more intimate and personal than one’s birthplace, asks the driver to stop at a fairly nondescript site. name? Immediately unleashing an unruly vocabulary of terms From the road, an old, bare tree seems to have been particularly such as fate and transcendence into a lexicon reserved for the pampered. A rectangular plot of some twenty square meters is strictly political (think solidarity, resistance), a name change surrounded by a fence with an ordinary stone base. nonetheless pales in comparison to its more metaphysical As we approach, Lutfi tells us the story of Dul Dul Ot, the winged counterpart: the adoption of another’s suffering as one’s own. horse on which Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law and fourth Imam, Massignon achieved a hat-trick of substitution, and then rides across the ages. A Muslim take on a Pegasus of sorts, Dul some. Not only did he devote himself to an entire region, the Dul Ot can also be seen in the very figurative work of Shi’a Middle East, a language, Arabic, and a religion, Islam, but on top countries such as Iran. In the reverse glass paintings depicting of that, a historical figure. It was through his monumental study of the winged creature, each hoof morphs into another heavenly Hallâj, one of the most thorough biographical works ever written, messenger—Escher gone eschatological. An endless angelology

Siyâvash, the Persian Prince from Ferdowsi’s spills out of each appendage, a mise-en-abyme at the extremities Female pilgrims at the Naqshbandi Shahnameh, known to some as Hossein the of both body and spirit. The dry, aging bark and the anemic, shrine, outside Bukhara, 2011 Prequel though ambitious, branches of the tree belie the prime plot in which it finds itself: The fence marks the feeding and drinking troughs for Dul Dul Ot. Visitors stop by en route to Lyangar, just as we had, and pause for a moment to reflect on a constellation of subjects—from the quotidian to the cosmological. Another precious patch of land, many thousands of miles away, also serves as a testament to the immanence of animals. On London’s tony Park Lane, a marble edifice commemorating the creatures who served in II was erected in 2010. Both speak to a : the former of spirits, in peacetime, and the latter of flesh, (not coincidentally) in a time of war. Mystical Substitution Louis Massignon’s biographical magnum opus: The Passion of Husayn Ibn-Mansur As one would expect from a controversial idea straddling Al-Hallâj, volume 1 of 4, Gallimard, 1975 the three Abrahamic faiths played out across a motley crew of Charles de Gaulle, JK Huysmans, TE Lawrence and the and through Islam, that Massignon converted to . tenth-century mystic, Mansur al-Hallâj, the story of mystical Later in life, outraged at the injustices inflicted upon the Algerians substitution is a highly disruptive one. The man at the center of at the hands of the French (not to mention the Palestinians by the this storm, also known as la reversabilité, the one who brings international community), Massignon cultivated—in mystical together all these incommensurate figures, is a twentieth- substitution—the rare ability to forcefully marry the highly century French Orientalist by the name of Louis Massignon. esoteric and spiritual with the need for direct action. Through In Kidnapping Mountains, our celebration of complexity an emphasis on the figure of and the importance of in the Caucasus, we devoted a short chapter to those who “sacred hospitality” in Islam, he argued for the adoption of the

The turbans of saints, set near their tombs, change their names. In the stories of two individuals who had Old pillars, Khudoyar Khan’s Palace, Kokand, suffering of others as one’s own, championing what today sounds Sheikh Tahur Shrine, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, devoted their life’s work to gaining recognition for overlooked, Uzbekistan, 2011 hopelessly dusty, if not naïve, while retaining all its urgency: the 2011 oppressed nations that were not their own, the decision to harmony of Christian-Muslim relations. 40 Slavs and Tatars 41 Not Moscow Not Mecca

THe nuMBerS nAMe To be sure, Massignon’s work is fraught with concerning aspects, most notably, that of a patronizing . But The saints of Central Asia are spoiled with nicknames. even here, his work complicates a reading of Orientalism as It should come as no surprise of course. we proffer nicknames to those whom we consider dear, and the sacred souls whose shrines are visited on a daily, weekly, monthly or even on an occasional basis are no exception. In fact, the dearly departed enjoy an intimacy unimpeded by space — i.e., the long distances traveled, or the large leaps of faith or time. few, though, can compete with Hoja Akhror Valli, a Sufi saint otherwise known as 4444, for the years he lived. A figure not unlike Khidr (see page 44), Valli began his life during the time of King David, who prophesied that he would live a uniquely long life in order to accompany four prophets: Abraham, Shrine of Khoja Akhror Vali, aka 4444, outside Bukhara, 2011 , , and Mohammad. Though he measured a necessarily colonialist or Zionist. It is too easy to see in mystical whopping 28 meters in height, Father Serge de Beaurecueil (1917-2005), substitution a mere reiteration of Christ as original Substitutor- a Dominican friar, who lived his Catholicism In Cairo in 1934, he teamed up with Mary Kalil, a Copt his tomb, just outside Bukhara, in-Chief. Massignon never shied away from the explosive nature thru a study of Muslim mysticism, much like measures only 14 meters. Thomas Merton whose family hailed from , a port city on the Broken in two when over-run of his self-assigned task: asking Christians living in Muslim Mediterrean, to found a prayer group called by enemy late in his life, lands to pray for these very Muslims, without their solicitation, (Al-Badaliya): a sodality of Christians living in Muslim 4444, more than a bibliophile, in a milieu that has seen its fair share of interreligious turmoil. lands who would pray and offer their lives for their Muslim a bibliocompanion, asked for His investment in what he called “a science of compassion” brothers and sisters, “not so that they would be converted, four holy books – The Talmud, was equally one in his own faith, first Catholic and eventually , Bible, and Qur’an – be but so that the will of God might be accomplished in them placed on his body at the Greek . His directional agency—a complete and utter and through them.” In the group’s weekly newsletters, time of his burial, some fifteen dedication to something outside himself in order to come to Dar Es Salam, he swung vigorously between ecumenical kilometers outside Bukhara. terms with a being as complex as the times in which it existed— exegesis and calls to action (hunger strikes, protests, etc.), interests us more than the brittle discourse of identity politics in an almost athletic display of coïncidentia oppositorum, and postcolonialism. the union of opposites. Parallel to a sophisticated investigation of The Seven Sleepers of , Massignon would organize sit-ins against the massacres of Algerians, When Two of Three Abrahamic Faiths Catch not to mention informal sessions advising De Gaulle during Slavs and Tatars, A Monobrow Manifesto the conflict. The newsletter brought together two of Slavs Cold, the Third Better Dress Warmly (Roustam), Frieze Park, 2010. and Tatars’ somewhat disparate indulgences: our penchant for the dulling effects of bureaucracy and a taste for simple, Much like a child, in whose first words parents read very unglamorous, if not stupid, media (cf. the balloon in a preamble to a life yet to be lived, our Holy Bukhara A Monobrow Manifesto). (or Queen Esther takes a bite) turns to Massignon’s first 42 Slavs and Tatars 43 Not Moscow Not Mecca

origins: If he saw its evolution in the West increasingly beholden to the trappings of individualism, capital, and power, we see the syncretic continuity of this “land beyond the river” too often drowned out by a Gulf of differences.

Slavs and Tatars, Holy Bukhara (Queen Jewish children with their teacher in Samarkand. Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin- Esther Takes a Bite), 2012 Gorskii

Christian prayer in Arabic, as a harbinger of a spirit lived through another language and another culture – one whose

apparent distance is nothing more than a return to its Mural in Kurgan Monument to World War II, Despite its often anti-clerical nature, the reform impulse of Jadidism came from within 12. origins. The text, Bokhori yeh Sharif, is an homage to the Qarshi, Uzbekistan, 2012 Islam. From the word meaning “new”, the Jadidists advocated rethinking the method of Similarly, one could education in maktabs (or primary schools) in the region, including the use of printing technologies, text argue that Jewry’s of Central Asia, aka Bukharan Jews, whose language books in Turkic or Russian (as opposed to Arabic), and the teaching of sciences and maths. Like the critical agility, if not editors of the Azeri journal Molla Nasreddin, the Jadidists were inspired by the work of Tatar publisher (Bokhori) provides an unlikely collision of Persian dialect Ismail Gasprinski and included other prominent individuals such as and Mahmoud its defeatist humor— with Hebrew script; we reclaim the city of Bukhara, the Khoja Behbudi. For more info on Jadidism, cf. Adeeb Khalid’s The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: once pulsating Jadidism in Central Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). through the streets of sacred city of Central Asia, and its approach to Islam as an and Lvov and 12 providing us with urgent mantle for the faith. In lieu of only celebrating the the likes of Babel city itself, we fête the language named after the city—as a and Benjamin—has Chains We Can Believe In today hardened sign of pluralism, past and present. Massignon’s choice of and fallen victim to a triumphalism the Arabic name Al-Badaliya for a Christian sodality was no One of the more misleading and, unfortunately, overused picked up on the coincidence: means substitute in Arabic and is used terms of our era is communication. Though it sets out quite more buoyant, if less seductive, shores of in particular to speak of a substitute in battle, one who takes nobly—to share and inform—what it inevitably does best . the place of another. is to make common and ordinary. In order to restore some From the moment he decided to learn Arabic, in in 1904, of the solemnity to the act of sharing, we turn to a less to the trembling prayer of 1908, to the Sorbonne in 1959, when, profane precedent: transmission. Steeped in the oral, in as president of the Jury for Arabic Language Certification, he apprenticeship, in lived experience, transmission trades as conceded, “I am still learning it,” Massignon saw language much in the immaterial as in the tangible and concrete.13 as an affective practice. Learning a language served as an Copper plate commissioned by True to our immigrant nature, we would like to “soup up” Massignon from his father, the sculptor active engagement—from simple grammar to dialectics to Fernand Massignon (Pierre Roche), in transmission further, customize it, if you will. Not so much metaphysics—not only with a given culture, but with an entire 1920-21, based on a monogram belonging to neon lights underneath the vehicle as heuristic hydraulics. Father . In 1953, Jesus way of being, that is: thinking, acting, and believing. Not Caritas–Yasu’-ibn-Maryam Huwa’ Lhubbu–was We’d like to offer it a temporal concern: extending not only inscribed in Arabic. Different versions of the Moscow Not Mecca, our missive to Ma wâra al nahr, shadows plate were gifted to chapels in Tehran, , from a given place but also from one time to another. From Massignon’s determination to return Christianity to its Eastern Rabat, Cairo, , and . our investigation into the anti-modern14 to our Pantheon 44 Slavs and Tatars 45 Not Moscow Not Mecca

of Broken Men and Women, our practice acts as a relay Though difficult to possess, Khizr is not himself the possessive between that which is too often considered arcane and type. Massignon came to Hallâj and mystical substitution obscure and that which is deemed consensually urgent. through the intercession of Charles de Foucauld, a French This is where transmission veers into the disruptive and Catholic and hermit who had lived among the Tuareg in becomes intercession. The Central Asian figure of spiritual southern , with whom Massignon had corresponded; intercession par excellence is a puzzling personage who, and through that of JK Huysmans, the decadent-author-turned- some claim, will be alive until the end of time. Known Catholic of À rebours (Against the grain), who had apparently as the Green One (or Khidr), Khizr is not a prophet, but prayed for Massignon’s salvation on his deathbed. His (re)turn an enigmatic figure with mystical knowledge who has to Christianity was even sanctioned by the intervention of his accompanied all the prophets throughout the ages. Some host family, the noble Iraqi Alussis, who supported his study of his more notable appearances in the Qur’an show of Hallâj and provided him with refuge and shelter during Khizr attempting to trip up Moses—a kind of mystical a particularly transformative experience: On a steam liner trickster. Described as “a teacher who wants no students,” heading down the to Baghdad, Massignon suffered

Molla Nasreddin, (Istanbul: Selt, 1997) he nonetheless helps each understand his or her true self, what seems like a nervous breakdown during a particularly through direct experience, not pedagogy.15 Sufis hold Khizr trying episode in which he faced mortal danger. Until that as particularly dear for his role as the hidden initiator to the moment in his life an agnostic, Massignon underwent a path of mystical enlightenment (tariqat). A version of him is moment of spiritual transformation, convertingback to the faith of his childhood, with his first prayers coming out not in his maternal French but in his adopted Arabic: “Allah, Allah, as

Living amongst the Touareg in southern ‘ad du’fi’” (God, God! Help my weakness!). Algeria, Charles de Foucauld’s hermetism and self-sacrifice were exercises in a quest to welcome strangers in an effort to understand the origins of sacred hospitality. “Ordained in June 1901, Foucauld determined to live his vision — and form his community — among the Moroccans, who had first taught him about God. He would create a center of hospitality, a place where God and bread were equally present and he could pray for and welcome strangers as brothers. He went to Béni Abbès and built a chapel consisting of four palm 13. Compagnon trunks supporting a roof of woven twigs and In our forthcoming describes the true branches. A board served as an altar. He slept book Friendship modernist not as on the floor, ate dates and cakes. of Nations: Polish the utopianists who His only was a large drawing of the Shi’ite Showbiz, only look forward Sacred Heart holding out its arms to embrace, we will further (e.g. Vladimir hold, and call humans and giving itself to them investigate the Mayakovsky, by offering its Heart.’ His neighbors called his sacred F.T. Marinetti) place the khaoua, or brotherhood. He became ‘Brother Charles’: ‘I want to of craftsmen, but rather as the accustom everyone — Christian, Muslim, Jew, or both in Christian ‘anti-modernists’, pagan — to look on me as a brother, a universal and Muslim those somewhat brother.” Fraternities inspired by de Foucauld’s traditions, where conflicted example, The and The Often depicted riding on a fish, Khizr coasts towards the next challenge. subordination, visionaries deeply Little Sisters of Jesus, continue to this day Source: http://spirituallegend.blogspot.com tradition, and affected by the across more than 40 countries and his life was repetition passing of the pre- the subject of a best-selling biography by Rene act as a triple modern age. Bazin in 1921 called Charles De Foucauld: Explorateur Du Maroc, Ermite Au . counterweight even said to have crossed over into European literature, via Charles de Foucauld’s grave in El Menia, Algeria. Massignon saw his death at the hands of to the cult of 15. “Sacred Hospitality: Badaliya - The Way of the : as the Green Knight in the tales of King Arthur. Mystic Substitution,” Christopher Bamford. the Touareg with whom he had lived for several years in peace as a particularly powerful example individual Sheikh Hamza http://www.secondspring.co.uk/articles/ of substitution, of being a willed hostage or martyr: “Foucauld’s respect for the Guest and his creativity erected in Yusuf, “Buddha If Molla Nasreddin, our transnational mascot—a version of bamford.htm right for hospitality (asylum), which is sacred for a priest, was so ingrained that if he allowed for an the modern era. in the Qur’an?” in armory to be held at his home, given that he had vowed never to let a weapon inside his quarters, Kazemi, Common whom can be found across our Eurasian remit, from it’s because he had sanctioned for his enemies the ‘dispensation to spill his blood,’ in a legal 14. In his book Ground. to China—stands on one shoulder whispering into one ear immolation. Foucauld commuted in advance the qualification of their murderous act… Les Antimodernes He had already entered into their hearts, like an inebriating .” Massignon, Louis. Parole donnée (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1983). (Gallimard, where, then Khizr, our transhistorical one, whispers into the 2005), Antoine other when. 46 Slavs and Tatars 47 It’s Like This and Like The act of reading one text through another is a particularly 16. et séparées de Brown, génération succédant compelling form of lateral thinking, if not being. Norman That and Like This and Apocalypse and/ aux Compagnons or Metamorphosis du prophète, sont O. Brown reads the Qur’an through Blake and Joyce: “the 16 (Berkeley: traversées par des line from Jesus to Blake goes through Muhammad.” In Uh ... University of trames continues California Press, et perurables, particular for the Sufis of the Naqshbandi order, the chain 1991), 63. les lignes de of transmission, called the Golden Chain, traces a spiritual transmission (isnâd) 17 17. de la Tradition lineage of masters going back to the first caliph, Abu Bakr. The seven shrines prophétique The sacred chain of transmission—isnâd in Arabic—serves as that make up the dont ses témoins Golden Chain, transmetteurs a tool not only of theology but of historiography and genealogy from Adbul Khaliq constituent de as well. In the Prophet’s sayings, the Hadiths, the sequence al-Ghujdawani to génération en Baha’uddin Shah génération, becomes one of attribution: tracing the saying back through Naqshband, are les noeuds the ages to the close circle of the Prophet. The oral dimension all situated in the numérotés (depuis environs of Bukhara. Muhammad). En of such a scale and scope of fact-checking not only gives it a particulier, la vie 18. islamique d’une performative vigor, but, more importantly, jogs the memory in “Les musulmans ville est caractérisée ways likely to drive the neighborhood epistemologist (if not n’attribuent de par la succession validité qu’au chronologique the local postmodernist) mad. A “science of impugnment and témoignage oral, et des témoins de justification, of doubting and justifying” permeates the study ils se représentent la Tradition qui 18 précisement y enseignèrent.” of the Hadiths. Who said it and when it was said become l’histoire vraie de Massignon, Parole equally important to what was said. Contrary to what could be leur Communauté donnée (Paris: comme un tissu, où Julliard, 1962), 90. construed as an elevation of gossip, it’s the particle collision of James Joyce, accidental interpeter of the Norman O. Brown, photograph enclosed in les chaînes parallèles history, philosophy, and liturgy. Qur’an a 1999 letter from former Balliol College classmate at Oxford, F. Tremaine “Josh” Billings, Jr., ca. 1934, courtesy of University of California at Santa Cruz archives

The ability to bring together in one space, one page, or one voice two ends of a spectrum—previously considered antithetical or incommensurate—is crucial to our understanding of the world, if not the times, in which we live. We’ve attempted to do so via the collision of scales, that of the macro concerns of polemics with the micro ones of poetics; via geographic goalposts, as our remit kicks us between the former Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China; and, perhaps most importantly, via the two great geopolitical narratives of our region, not to mention of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—that of Communism and Islam. Ideologies fail, as they are wont to. But their failure gives us little solace. By refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of a history soaked in triumph, Norman O. Brown provides a

Evening Prayer by Rudolf Ernst, 1910. Cover of Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Ни Знахарь Slavs and Tatars, Triangulation, shoulder to cry on. “And so I end with a vision of two kinds of Source: http://www.museumsyndicate.com Ни Бог Ни Слуги Бога Нам Ни Подмога commissioned by “The Station” at Konsthall social criticism alive in the world today: Marxism and Islam. (Neither Healer, Nor God, Nor the Angels of C, curated by Kim Einarsson and Adnan Yıldız, God are any Help to the Peasantry), 1923, Stockholm, 2011 Two still-revolutionary forces. Two tired old revolutionary Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. . Neither of them doing very well but it would be a mistake to take any comfort from their failure. The human race is at stake. And they both, Marxism and Islam, agree on one 48 Slavs and Tatars 49 Not Moscow Not Mecca

proposition: There will be one world or there will be none.” from beyond the increasingly endangered, if not extinct, By the 1960s, the renowned philosopher had unwittingly page. When we stumbled upon “The Apocalypse of Islam” 19. Nothing but a sense become a darling of countercultural circles, one read even (in this volume), we were beside ourselves to discover a Brown, The of duty could carry by the political adversaries of his groupies. His attempt to , if more mature and eminent, spirit, attempting to Challenge of Islam: any European The Prophetic through the Koran. psychoanalyze history itself, Life Against Death, and his glue the legacy of leftism together with the incongruous and Tradition (Santa . . . Much of it, too, study of as a struggle between eroticism and unexpected shards of Islam. Cruz: New Pacific they say is rhythmic Press, 2009), 49. a kind of wild civilization, Love’s Body (in which he clearly chose the camp Via an offering of fruits, to be both consumed and chanting song, in the 20. original. . . . Yet with of the former), were the results of a mind firmly trained in considered, Secession’s Not Moscow Not Mecca looks to Brown points to every allowance, classical studies and particularly adept at bringing together the the importance of hospitality—both as a spiritual agency Thomas Carlyle one feels it difficult and John Henry to see how any disparate in ways previously unimaginable. Brown famously in the Abrahamic faiths as well as a secular strategy— Newman, who mortal ever could brought Sigmund Freud to bear on the Gospel, William to think through such thorny concepts as generosity, despair at the consider this Koran impenetrability and as a Book written Blake, and Karl Marx before his real coup—reading James pedagogy, and modernity, which are at the heart of the two illegibility of the in Heaven, too Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake through the sura of the Qur’an major geopolitical narratives of our times, Communism Qur’an. He quotes good for the Earth; the former’s Heroes as a well-written (“Joyce quotes the title of exactly 111 of the 114 suras of the and Islam. If recent centuries have seen hospitality as a and Hero Worship: book, or indeed as Qur’an”).19 Before the early twentieth century, and before the service in the otherwise known as “the “‘I must say, it is as a book at all; and Melon vendor, Советские Субтропики toilsome reading as not a bewildered arrival of Finnegan’s Wake in particular, Brown claims it was (special issue of Огонёк, one of the oldest hospitality business,” Not Moscow Not Mecca aims to I ever undertook. rhapsody; written, 20 Russian-Soviet weeklies, still in print today), impossible for a Westerner to read the Qur’an. Only through 1934. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, redeem its progressive potential, to help us think, act, and A wearisome, so far as writing NY. confused jumble, goes, as badly as the similar confusion of characters, the similarly unyielding believe beyond ourselves: An invitation to extend home crude, incondite;– almost any book insupportable ever was!’”Brown, dictums of Joyce’s modernist mountain could one begin to and hearth, if not life itself, to others, to strangers, friends, stupidity, in short! ibid. understand the holy book of Mohammed. and family alike. Hospitality welcomes the unknown, Towards the end of his life, Brown did something that guiding substitution to a more enthusiastic, if indeterminate, seemed incomprehensible to the legions of colleagues and fans topography—that country beyond the river, too often who had convinced themselves that leftist politics were the eclipsed by the Gulf before our eyes. foundation of secular, liberal democracy. In the last volume of his trilogy (Apocalypse and/or Metamorphosis), Brown turned to Islam as a prophetic tradition unburdened by the teleology of Christianity (or Marxism) and the Qur’an as a The Apocalypse 20. and Blake: the “Islam is first of all only miracle is proto-modernist text, where the possibility of recurring defeat a reduction of the the book: and the is written into the script, where time is not linear, progress not of Islam prophetic tradition book authenticates to its pure essence itself as miracle. a given, and epistemology is amplified by a choreography of as revelation, At the same time, the esoteric (batin) and exoteric (zahir)20 In his The Challenge Norman O. Brown discarding the it is a return to element of that emphasis of Islam, a series of lectures delivered in 1981, he exhorted us sacramental on cognition, to look beyond the divisive view of Muslims and the West as 1. des VII Dormants We can read the Bhagavad-Gita in translation, and Confucius; magic common visionary cognition, L. Massignon, Martyrs d’Ephese to both conciliar which orthodox incompatible, asking us to “to recognize that Islam has just minora, 3 vols. (Paris, (Ahl al-Kahf): trait we cannot read the Koran. Carlyle has perfectly articulated Christianity and Christianity as much right to claim to be the synthesis of Hebraism and 1969). I, 107-125, d’union Orient- the response of every honest English- man: "I must say, it is as the mystery of condemned and “L’homme parfait en Occident entre l’Islam of late condemns as Hellenism as Western civilization, or whatever it is we are, Islam et son originalite et la Chretiente.” The toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A wearisome confused . Gnosticism.” eschatologique.” I, translation is that has the right to do. That is to say, Islam is not another cultural 142-161, “Elie et son of M.M. Pickthall, jumble, crude, incondite; endless iterations, long-windedness, By discarding Brown, ibid. role transhistorique, The Meaning of the sacramental and tradition, with that implied traditional distinction between Khadiriya, en Islam.” Glorious Koran entanglement; most crude, incondite;-insupportable stupidity, sacerdotal magic 21. II, 606- 612, “Le (reprinted with Islam prepares Brown, ibid. West and East. It is not another oriental tradition: It is an in short! Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European 21 Temps dans la pensee permission from the way for Dante alternative, a rival interpretation of our tradition.” Islamique.” III, George Allen & through the Koran.... With every allowance, one feels it difficult 104-118, “Les ‘Sept Unwin, London). True to our original mission as a reading group, more Dormants’ apocalypse to see how any mortal ever could consider this Koran as a Book de l’Islam.” III, Özbek than Oprah, we tend to see the very act of reading 119-180, “Le culte written in Heaven, too good for the Earth; as a well-written as a form of intercession: a disembodied voice speaking liturgique et populaire book, or indeed as a book at all." 50 Slavs and Tatars 51 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Louis Massignon called Sura XVIII the apocalypse of Islam. which of the two parties would best calculate the time The solemn recitation of Sura XVIII every Friday is all that that they had tarried. Islam has in the way of weekly liturgy corresponding to the 13. We narrate unto thee their story with truth. Lo! they were Christian Eucharist. In Islam the Body is the Book, and the part young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased that represents the whole is Sura XVIII.' them in guidance. 14. And We made firm their hearts when they stood forth and 1. Norman O. Brown is Professor of the Humanities at UCSC and said: Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. the author of the books Life Against Death, and Love’s Body. The We cry unto no god beside Him, for then should we utter present text was presented at an international conference titled an enormity. “Facing Apocalypse” held at Salve Regina College, Newport, 1. 15. These, our people, have chosen (other) beside Him R.I., -12, 1983, the proceedings of which are expected to Хуш дар дам / KHOSH though they bring no clear warrant (vouchsafed) to them. be published in the spring of 1984. 155 DAr DAM — AwAreneSS And who doth greater wrong than he who inventeth a lie Of BreATHIng concerning Allah? SURAH XVIII - THE CAVE 16. And when ye withdraw from them and that which they Revealed at Mecca Being aware or worship except Allah, then seek refuge in the Cave; your conscious of one’s Lord will spread for you of His mercy and will prepare In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. breathing. Breathing for you a pillow in your plight. deeply in a natural 17. And thou mightest have seen the sun when it rose move A key contribution of 1. Praise be to Allah Who hath revealed the Scripture unto rhythm without being away from their cave to the right, and when it set go past the naqshbandi tariqat His slave, and hath not placed therein any crookedness. preoccupied by them on the left, and they were in the cleft thereof. That (order) has been its 2. (But hath made it) straight, to give warning of stern breathing. Inhaling was (one) of the portents of Allah. He whom Allah emphasis on work and punishment from Him, and to bring unto the believers and exhaling whilst in guideth, he indeed is led aright, and he whom He sendeth engagement with the who do good works the that theirs will be a fair remembrance of god. astray, for him thou wilt not find a guiding friend. people and community reward. 18. And thou wouldst have deemed them waking though as a key tenet of mystical 3. Wherein they will abide for ever; they were asleep, and we caused them to turn over to the erudition. Linguistic 4. And to warn those who say: Allah hath chosen a son, right and the left, and their dog stretching out his paws and metaphysical 5. (A thing) whereof they have no knowledge, nor (had) on the threshold. genealogies “git” their fathers. Dreadful is the word that cometh out of their 19. If thou hadst observed them closely thou hadst assuredly together and dance mouths. They speak naught but a lie. turned away from them in flight, and hadst been filled to the eight Principles 6. Yet it may be, if they believe not in this statement, that with awe of them. (though some say 11), thou (Muhammad) wilt torment thy soul with grief over 20. And in like manner We awakened them that they might a medlée of uzbek their footsteps. question one another. A speaker from among them said: (Turkic), farsi, and 7. Lo! We have placed all that is in the earth as an ornament How long have ye tarried? They said: We have tarried Arab words thought thereof that we may try them: which of them is best in a day or some part of a day, (Others) said: Your Lord processes and travel. conduct. best knoweth what ye have tarried. Now send one of you One of them, Safar dar 8. And lo! We shall make all that is therein a barren mound. with this your silver unto the city, and let him see watan, asks us to travel 9. Or deemest thou that the People of the Cave and the what food is purest there and bring you a supply thereof. within the homeland, not Inscription are a wonder among Our portents? Let him be courteous and let no man know of you. the one that beckons 10. When the young men fled for refuge to the Cave and said: 21. For they, if they should come to know of you, will stone only to disappoint but Our Lord! Give us mercy from Thy presence, and shape you or turn you back to their religion; then ye will never the interior empire, for us right conduct in our plight. prosper. that of convictions and 11. Then We sealed up their hearing in the Cave for a number 22. And in like manner We disclosed them (to the people considerations. of years. Norman of the city) that they might know that the promise of 12. And afterward We raised them up that We might know Allah is true, and that, as for the Hour, there is no doubt 52 Slavs and Tatars 53 Not Moscow Not Mecca

concerning it. When (the people of the city) disputed 34. Each of the gardens gave its fruit and withheld naught of their case among themselves, they said: Build over thereof. And We caused a river to gush forth therein. them a building; their Lord knoweth best concerning 35. And he had fruit. And he said unto his , when he them. Those who won their point said: We verily shall spake with him: I am more than thee in wealth, and build a over them. 23. (Some) will stronger in respect of men. say: They were three, their dog the fourth, and (some) 36. And he went into his garden, while he (thus) wronged say: Five, their dog the sixth, guessing at random; himself. He said: I think not that all this will ever perish. and (some) say: Seven, and their dog the eighth. Say 37. I think not that the Hour will ever come, and if indeed (O Muhammad): My Lord is best aware of their number. I am brought back unto my Lord I surely shall find better None knoweth them save a few. So contend not than this as a resort. concerning them except with an outward contending, and 38. And his comrade, while he disputed with him, exclaimed: ask not any of them to pronounce concerning them. Disbelievest thou in Him Who created thee of dust, then 24. And say not of anything: Lo! I shall do that tomorrow, of a drop (of ), and then fashioned thee a man? 25. Except if Allah will. And remember thy Lord when thou 39. But He is Allah, my Lord, and I ascribe unto my Lord no forgettest, and say: It may be that my Lord guideth me partner. unto a nearer way of truth than this. 2. 40. If only, when thou enteredst thy garden, thou hadst said: 26. And (it is said) they tarried in their Cave three hundred Назар дар That which Allah willeth (will come to pass)! There is no years and add nine. Qадам/ BA strength save in Allah! Though thou seest me as less than 27. Say: Allah is best aware how long they tarried. His is the QADAM — wATCHIng these in wealth and children. invisible of the heavens and the earth. How clear of sight OVer THe STePS 41. Yet it may be that my Lord will give me better than is He and keen of hearing! They have no protecting friend thy garden, and will send on it a bolt from heaven, and beside Him, and He maketh none to share in His watching over one’s some morning it will be a smooth hillside. government. steps, ie being aware of 42. Or some morning the water thereof will be lost in the 28. And recite that which hath been revealed unto thee of one’s intention. Paying earth so that thou canst not make search for it. the Scripture of thy Lord. There is none who can change attention and not being 43. And his fruit was beset (with destruction). Then began he His words, and thou wilt find no refuge beside Him. distracted from one’s to wring his hands for all that he had spent upon it, when 29. Restrain thyself along with those who cry unto their Lord goal, maintaining (not) it was all ruined on its trellises, and to say: Would at morn and evening, seek- 156 awareness and being that I had ascribed no partner to my Lord! Islam ing His countenance; and let not thine eyes open to opportunities, 44. And he had no troop of men to help him as against Allah, overlook them, desiring the pomp of the life of the world; so that one does the right nor could he save himself. and obey not him whose heart We have made heedless thing at the right time. 45. In this case is protection only from Allah, the True. He is of Our remembrance, who fol- loweth his own lust and best for reward, and best for consequence. whose case hath been abandoned. 46. And coin for them the similitude of the life of the world 30. Say: (It is) the truth from the Lord of you (all). Then as water which We send down from the sky, and the whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let vegetation of the earth mingleth with it and then him disbelieve. Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers becometh dry twigs that the winds scatter. Allah is Able Fire. Its tent encloseth them. If they ask for showers, they to do all things. will be showered with water like to molten lead which 47. Wealth and children are an ornament of life of the world. burneth the faces. Calamitous the drink and ill the But the good deeds which endure are better in thy Lord's resting-place! sight for reward, and better in respect of hope. 33. Coin for them a similitude: Two men, unto one of 48. And (bethink you of) the Day when We remove the hills whom We had assigned two gardens of grapes, and We and ye see the earth emerging, and We gather them had surrounded both with date-palms and had put together so as to leave not one of them behind. between them tillage. 49. And they are set before thy Lord in ranks (and it is said 54 Slavs and Tatars 55 Not Moscow Not Mecca

unto them): Now verily have ye come unto Us as We 59. Thy Lord is the Forgiver, Full of Mercy. If He took them created you at the first. But ye thought that We had set no to task (now) for what they earn, He would hasten on the tryst for you. doom for them; but theirs is an appointed term from 50. And the Book is placed, and thou seest the guilty fearful which they will find no escape. of that which is therein, and they say: What kind of a 60. And (all) those townships! We destroyed them when book is this that leaveth not a small thing nor a great thing they did wrong, and We appoint- ed a fixed time for their but hath counted it! And they find all that they did destruction. confronting them, and thy Lord wrongeth no one. 61. And when Moses said unto his servant: I will not give 51. And (remember) when We said unto the angels: Fall up until I reach the point where the two rivers meet, prostrate before Adam, and they fell prostrate, all save though I on for ages. Iblis. He was of the , so he rebelled against his Lord's 62. And when they reached the point where the two met, they command. Will ye choose him and his seed for your forgot their fish, and it took its way into the waters, being protecting friends instead of Me, when they are an enemy free. unto you? Calamitous is the exchange for evil-doers! 63. And when they had gone further, he said unto his servant: 52. I made them not to witness the creation of the heavens Bring us our . Verily we have found fatigue in and the earth, nor their own creation; nor choose this our journey. I misleaders for (My) helpers. 64. He said: Didst thou see, when we took refuge on the rock, 53. And (be mindful of) the Day when He will say: Call those and I forgot the fish-and none but Satan caused me to partners of Mine whom ye pretended. Then they will cry forget to mention it-it took its way into the waters by unto them, but they will not hear their prayer, and We a marvel. shall set a gulf of doom between them. 65. He said: This is that which we have been seeking. So 54. And the guilty behold the Fire and know that they are they retraced their steps again. 66. Then found they one about to fall therein, and they find no way of escape of Our slaves, unto whom We had given mercy from Us, thence. and had taught him knowledge from Our presence. 55. And verily We have displayed for mankind in this Qur'an 67. Moses said unto him: May I follow thee, to the end that all manner of similitudes, but man is more than anything thou mayst teach me right conduct of that which thou has contentious. been taught? 3. 56. And naught hindereth mankind from believing when the 68. He said: Lo! thou canst not bear with me. Сафар дар ватаН/ guidance cometh unto them, and from asking forgiveness 69. How canst thou bear with that whereof thou canst not SAfAr DAr wATAn — of their Lord, unless (it be that they wish) that the compass any knowledge? TrAVeLLIng In THe judgement of the men of old should come upon them or 70. He said: Allah willing, thou shalt find me patient and HOMeLAnD (that) they should be confronted with the Doom. I shall not in aught gainsay thee. 57. We send not the messengers save as bearers or good news 71. He said: Well, if thou go with me, ask me not concerning Making an interior and warners. Those who dis- believe contend with aught till I myself mention of it unto thee. journey, ie inside oneself, falsehood in order to refute the Truth thereby. And they 72. So the twain set out till, when they were in the ship, observing oneself in take Our revela- tions and that wherewith they are he made a hole therein. (Moses) said: Hast thou made a detached and not threatened as a jest. a hole therein to drown the folk thereof? Thou verily hast overly-critical manner, 58. And who doth greater wrong than he who hath been done a dread-ful thing. learning from one’s reminded of the revelations of his Lord, yet turneth away 73. He said: Did I not tell thee thou couldst not bear with me? errors and travelling from them and forgetteth what his hands send forward 74. (Moses) said: Be not wroth with me that I forgot, and be from blameworthy to (to the Judge- ment)? Lo! on their hearts We have placed not hard upon me for my fault. praiseworthy qualities. coverings so that they understand not, and in their ears 75. So the twain journeyed on till, when they met a lad, he slew a deafness. And though thou call them to the guidance, him. (Moses) said: What! Hast thou slain an innocent soul in that case they can never be led aright. who hath slain no man? Verily thou hast done a horrid thing. 56 Slavs and Tatars 57 Not Moscow Not Mecca

76. He said: Did I not tell thee that thou couldst not bear 90. Then he followed a road with me? 91. Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, 77. (Moses) said: If I ask thee after this concerning aught, he found it rising on a people for whom We had keep not company with me. Thou hast received an excuse appointed no shelter therefrom. from me. 4. 92. So (it was). And We knew all concerning him. 78. So they twain journeyed on till, when they came unto the Халват дар 93. Then he followed a road folk of a certain township, they asked its folk for food, аНджумаН / KHALwAT 94. Till, when he came between the two mountains, he found but they refused to make them guests. And they found DAr AnJuMAn — upon their hither side a folk that scarce could understand therein a wall upon the point of falling into ruin, and he reTIreMenT In COMPAny a saying. repaired it. (Moses) said: If thou hadst wished, thou 95. They said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Lo! Gog and Magog are couldst have taken payment for it. Developing the ability spoiling the land. So may we pay thee tribute on 79. He said: This is the parting between thee and me! I will to detach from and condition that thou set a barrier between us and them? announce unto thee the in- terpretation of that thou distance oneself 96. He said: That wherein my Lord hath established me is couldst not bear with patience. from external noise, better (than your tribute). Do but help me with strength 80. As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working on the disturbance and (of men), I will set between you and them a bank. river, and I wished to mar it, for there was a king behind confusion when in 97. Give me pieces of iron-till, when he had levelled up them who is taking every ship by force. company, and remain (the gap) between the cliffs, he said: Blow!-till, when he 81. And as for the lad, his parents were believers and tranquil, perhaps with the had made it a fire, he said: Bring me molten copper to We feared lest he should oppress them by rebellion and aid of a zikr, an exercise pour thereon. disbelief. in remembrance of god. 98. And (Gog and Magog) were not able to surmount, 82. And We intended that their Lord should change him Also being able to re- nor could they pierce (it). for them for one better in purity and nearer to mercy. attach one’s attention 99. He said: This is a mercy from my Lord; but when the 83. And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the to the outward when promise of my Lord cometh to pass, He will lay it low, city, and there was beneath it a treasure belonging to necessary. Though for the promise of my Lord is true. them, and their father had been righteous, and thy Lord outwardly the Sufi is in 100. And on that day We shall let some of them surge against intended that they should come to their full strength and the world, inwardly he or others, and the Trumpet will be blown. Then We shall should bring forth their treasure as a mercy from their she is with god. gather them together in one gathering. Lord; and I did it not upon my own command. Such is the 101. On that day We shall present hell to the disbelievers, interpretation of that wherewith thou couldst not bear. plain to view, 84. They will ask thee of Dhu'l-Qarneyn. Say: I shall recite 102. Those whose eyes were hoodwinked from My reminder, unto you a remembrance of him. and who could not bear to hear. 85. Lo! We made him strong in the land and gave him unto 103. Do the disbelievers reckon that they can choose My every thing a road. bondmen as protecting friends beside Me? Lo! We have 86. And he followed a road prepared hell as a welcome for the disbelievers. 87. Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, 104. Say: Shall We inform you who will be the greatest loser; he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people by their works? thereabout: We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or 105. Those whose effort goeth astray in the life of the world, show them kindness. and yet they reckon that they do good work. 88. He said: As for him who doeth wrong, we shall punish 106. Those are they who disbelieve in the revelations of their him, and then he will be brought back unto his Lord, who Lord and in the meeting with Him. Therefor their works will punish him with awful punishment! are vain, and on the Day of Resurrection We assign no 89. But as for him who believeth and doeth right, good will weight to them. be his reward, and We shall speak unto him a mild 107. That is their reward: hell, because they disbelieved, and command. made a jest of Our revela- tions and Our messengers. 58 Slavs and Tatars 59 Not Moscow Not Mecca

108. Lo! those who believe and do good works, theirs are the into its sequence of world-conquerors. Gog and Magog are Gardens of Paradise for welcome, Biblical figures of es- chatological terror. In Ezekiel XXXVIII 5. 109. Wherein they will abide, with no desire to be removed and XXXIX, Gog and Magog represent peoples of the north Ядкард / yA D from thence. who are let loose against the peaceful land of , unwalled KArDAn — 110. Say: Though the sea became ink for the Words of my and undefended, with a great of countless troops. In reMeMBerIng, Lord, verily the sea would be used up before the Words Revelations (XX,7) "When the thousand years are over, Satan reCOLLeCTIng of my Lord were exhausted, even though We brought the will be let loose from his prison and will come out to seduce the exerCISeS like thereof to help. nations in the four quarters of the earth and to muster them for 111. Say: I am only a mortal like you. My Lord inspireth in me battle, yes, the hosts of Gog and Magog." Koranic commentary, remembering that your God is only One God. And whoever hopeth in the spirit of the modern historian W.W. Tarn, sees in Alexander experiences one has for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work, a prophet of the unity of man- kind as well as a world-conqueror; had and that one is and make none sharer of the worship due unto his Lord. 3. and thus a prefiguration of Muhammad himself. Early Christian Encyclopedia of Islam, a part of the Tradition In the farrago of Sura XVIII the bewildered Western s.v. “Dhu’l-Karnain.” tradition, and Jewish tradition as early as Josephus, identified Encyclopedia Judaica, from which one may mind discerns and fastens on to three mysterious s.v. “Gog and Magog.” Gog and Magog with barbarian peoples to the north, looked draw positive energy episodes-one cannot call them narratives-(1) The G. Cary, The Medieval away behind at the by Alexander the Alexander (Cambridge, 3 and derive strength. Sleepers in the Cave (vs. 9-26); (2) Moses' journey 1956), 130. Great; but destined to break loose at the end of time. using inner or vocalized (vs. 61-83); (3) Dhu'l-Qarneyn's Wall against Gog and The episodes of the Sleepers in the Cave and Dhu'l-Qarneyn's zikr, remembrance or Magog (vs. 84-99). The Sleepers in the Cave: Wall palpably allude to preexistent legends. The episode of “making mention” of the Moses' journey is more complex. The most bafflingly elliptical Divine names, to remain ASHAB al-KAHF, "those of the cave". This of the three episodes, and the centerpiece of the Sura, introduces attentive and alert, is the name given in the Kur'an, and in later a new Moses, a Moses who like Cilgamesh and Alexander is and so that the heart , to the youths who in the committed to the quest for the Fountain of Life-v. 61, "I will becomes aware of the Christian Occident are usually called the not give up until I reach the point where the two rivers meet." presence of Truth. "Seven Sleepers of Ephesus". According The new Moses, having become a seeker, submits to spiritual to the legend, in the time of the Christian direction by a mysterious master who bewilders Moses through under the Emperor Decius a series of Zen-like absurd actions, finally justified by his privy

2. (249-51), seven Christian youths fled into knowledge of the secrets of predestination. Encyclopedia of Islam, a cave near Ephesus and there sank into Again we have to do with pre-existent materials, but here s.v. “Ashab al-Kahf.” A juicier account of a miraculous sleep for centuries, awoke the action is positive confusion. In the first place confusion this “insipid legend of ecclesias- tical under the Christian Emperor Theodosius between Moses and Alexander; not the his- torical but the history,” which is often (c. 437 A.D.), were discovered and then mythical Alexander of the Alexander Romance, a complex retaled early in bed and later on life down went to sleep for ever. Their resting place literary production, completed about 300 C.E., giving voice to through all Christian and also Muslim and grave was considered, at any rate since eschatological dreams close to the heart of late classical antiquity. minstrelsy, in Gibbon, the beginnings of the 6th century A.D., as a Alexander goes in quest of the Fountain of Life. By the merest Decline and Fall, ch. 2 XXXIII, sub fin. place of worship. chance his cook discovers the fountain: he was preparing a dried fish by cleaning it in a fountain; the fish came to life again and Dhu'l-Qarneyn, literally the "two-horned," is Alexander the swam away. The cook jumps in and gains immortality. He tells Great, as in Syriac legend of the 6th century A.D., in which Alexander the story but they cannot find the fountain again. Alexander says to God: "I know that thou hast caused horns to The Koran, with its creative confusion of Moses and grow upon my head, so that I may crush the kingdoms of the Alexander, in a character- istically abrupt and monumental world with them." In late classical antiquity-in between Christ gesture, breaks with Judaic ethnocentrism and reprojects the and Muhammad- apocalyptic syncretism, Judeo-Christian- prophetic tradition on a new transcultural, universal, world- Hellenistic, expanding on lines laid down in the Biblical Books historical plane. At the same time by making Moses a seeker, of Daniel and Revelations, absorbed the figure of Alexander on the same plane as the pagan Alexander, the Koran defines 60 Slavs and Tatars 61 Not Moscow Not Mecca

a limitation in Moses and in the Halakhic of which Haim Schwarz- baum shows that Sura XVIII, taken literally, he is the author: he lacks eternal life. In so doing the passage offers nothing new to justify the ways of God to men.5 What is mobilizes, with- out naming, the powerful contrast, latent in new is its promotion of Aggadic folklore material to the status Jewish tradition, between Moses and Elijah-Elijah the most of revelation, its transgression or confusion of the boundary popular figure in the legendary world of post-Biblical Juda- ism: separating Agga- dah and Torah. And the Koran, if one may Elijah who did not like Moses die in sight of the Promised Land say so, knows what it is doing. Schwarz- baum, who is not free but who never died, being caught up to heaven in a chariot of from Westernizing condescension-he quotes "the excellent fire; Elijah the omnipresent Comforter-Spirit present at every Orientalist" R.A. Nicholson's remark that "Mohammed with Jewish circumcision ceremony and every Jewish Pass- over; his excitable tempera- ment does not shine as a raconteur"-and Elijah the herald and helper of the Messiah at the time of the who thinks that "most of the stories in the Koran are narrated in 5. return; Elijah who knows the secrets of heaven and is claimed Haim Schwarzbaum, a rather clumsy and incoherent fashion, full of vague, cryptic “The Jewish and as the direct source of revelation by Jewish mystics including Moslem Versions allusions and dim references and digressions," recognizes the 4. Kabbalists. The Koran sends Moses to Elijah's school-"it was of Some Theodicy "admirable clarity and cohesion" of the Koranic version of Encyclopedia Judaica, Legends,” Fabula 3 4 s.v. “Elijah.” taught in Elijah's school" Jewish mystics say. (1959-60), 119-169. Aarne-Thompson #759. To represent what Moses learned in Elijah's school, the Koran The Koran with characteristic monumentality, reduces has recourse to a folktale, type #759 in Aarne-Thompson's Types the folktale to its archetypal essence and makes evident of the Folktale: "God's Justice vindicated." Thompson's paradigm its folktale form, alerting thereby the intelligence to the is the Christian story of the Angel and the Hermit, very popular problem of interpretation. Folktales, like dreams, are not among Oriental Christians about the middle of the fifth century: to be interpreted literally. And the content the folktale-the "An angel takes a hermit with him and does many seemingly episodes of the ship, the youth and the wall-tells us in the most unjust things (repays hospitality by stealing a cup; inhospitality literal, even crude way, three times reiterated, that there is a by giving a cup; hospitality by throwing his host's servant from a distinction between "what actually happened," events as seen bridge and by killing the host's son). The angel shows the hermit by the eye of historical materialism, and "what is really going why each of these was just." Just as the Koran transplants the on," events sub specie aeternitatis, as seen by the inward, the Christian legend of the Seven Sleepers and the Hellenistic legend clairvoyant eye, the second sight. The form and the content of

of Alexander into a new Koranic context, so it is drawing here 6. the folktale obliges us, as it has obliged all subsequent Islamic 6. on the vast ocean of traditional Talmudic Midrashic Aggadic S.H. Nasr, Ideals and culture, to make the distinction between literal meaning and Realities of Islam Бадгашт / BAAz wisdom. For example, the Jerusalem Talmud interprets Deut 21, (Boston, 1972), something beyond-in Islamic terminology between zahir and 58. 1. Goldziher, gASHT — reSTrAInT 18 ff., with regard to the "stubborn and rebellious son" in the Die Richtungen batin, between outer (exoteric) and inner (esoteric); between der islamischen following manner: "God has foreseen that this son is destined Koranauslegung external-visible-patent and internal-invisible-latent; between Being self-disciplined, to waste and squander all the property of his parents, to commit (Leiden, 1920), 182. materialist and spiritual meanings.6 for example cultivating various acts of robbery, to murder innocent people and to do all Sura XVIII is the apocalypse of Islam: the heart of its the quality of patience, kinds of evil. The Torah has therefore ordained that it is much message, not displayed on the surface, is the distinction between keeping one’s thoughts better that he dies whilst still unblemished and guiltless. Another surface and substance, between zahir and batin. The context in from straying when passage in the Jerusalem Talmud employs the parable of a fig which the folktale is embedded contains further paradoxical repeating prayers or tree whose owner knows the exact period of collecting its figs. revelations for those who have eyes to see and are alert to read zikr, being repentant In case of delay the sun will render the figs rotten and worm- between the lines as well as in them. The context obliges us to and returning to eaten. Similarly God knows the proper season for the removal identify prophecy (the prophet Moses) with the literal or external righteousness. of His righteous from this world." view of events (the ship, the youth, the wall) and to attribute the Conventional Western commentators, who are quite sure deeper view into the hidden reality to a mysterious other servant that there is nothing new in the Koran, assume without hesitation of God; not a prophet, or a prophet of the Elijah type as opposed that the folktale is to be taken literally and all that is going on in to the Moses type. The context also obliges us to associate the the passage is the transmission of conventional Aggadic piety. mysterious other with the water of life-or where the two waters A detailed study of the Jewish and Muslim theodicy legends by meet, the water of life and the water of death. 62 Slavs and Tatars 63 Not Moscow Not Mecca

7. Sura XVIII opens up, silently, majestically, in the heart of the association of the servant with the Fountain of Life in the НигаХдашт/ nIgAH Koran the question, what lies beyond or after the Koran? For Alexander Romance. The name, the Evergreen, while naming, DASHTAn — Muhammad is like Moses a prophet. Muhammad is the seal of preserves his unnamable, un- historical or supra-historical, wATCHfuLneSS, uSe Of prophecy; what comes after prophecy? Prophecy is de- livered archetypal or folkloristic, essence. In traditional Mus- lim piety SPeCIAL fACuLTIeS in the form of a book, a scripture. But everything including the Khidr, like Elijah, enjoys eternal life and invisible omnipresence. Book has an exterior (zahir) and an interior (batin). Especially the Like Elijah he participates in the small rituals of domestic life Concentrating on Book, according to the Prophet himself. Of Ibn Abbas, one of the and in the great public liturgies. Every Friday he prays in five the presence of god. most respected sources of , traditions about the Prophet, it different places-Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Quba (S.E. of Being alert, watchful is said: "One day while standing on Mt. Arafat he made an allusion Medina) and Sina (Sinai). For the annual fast of for and open to subtle to the verse 'Allah it is who hath created seven heavens, and of the he is in Jerusalem: for the (pilgrimage) he is always in perceptions, positive earth the like thereof' (LXV, 12) and turned to the people saying Mecca. The eternal protector of the community will appear at energy, positive 'O men! if I were to comment before you this verse as I heard it the Return at the head of the armies of the Mahdi who will fill opportunity and positive commented upon by the Prophet himself you would stone me."' the earth with justice even as it is now full of injustice.9 In Islam impacts. Being watchful There is therefore a basic distinction between ta'wil, the symbolic the umbilical cord which connects "popular superstition" with over passing thoughts. and hermeneutic interpretation of the inner meaning, and tafsir, avant-garde esoteric, theosophic speculation has not been cut; the literal explana- tion of the external aspect of the Book.7 Sura and Khidr is that cord. The Sufis attribute their illuminations XVIII became in fact in the subse- quent the basis to the inspiration of Khidr: Corbin's book on , the for the elaboration of a distinction between prophecy and another mastermind of Sufistic theosophy, Creative Imagination in the transcendant or esoteric kind of wisdom; a kind of wisdom which Sufism of Ibn Arabi, is organized around the two questions- Who in the fullness of time came to be most notoriously represented by, is Khidr? and What does it mean to be a disciple of Khidr? The on the one hand the Sufi master (pir), and on the other the Shiite rendez-vous of Moses and Khidr becomes the prototype of all Imam. Whereas the cycle of prophecy is over (Muhammad is the those later mystic voyages in the company of a spiritual guide; seal of prophecy), the cycle of wilayat continues, which Seyyed including, when Western Civilization becomes strong enough 9. Hossein Nasr tells us, for want of a better term may be translated as Massignon, Opera to absorb into its own system some of the strong medicine of 8 the "cycle of initiation," and also "sanctity." For want of a better minora, I, 151-152. Islam, Dante under the guidance of Vergil or Beatrice. term: the translation has to be in terms of Western Judeo-Christian The post-Biblical Aggadah shows the efforts of Jewish religious experience. "Initiation" is closer to Shiite notions: Sufi orthodoxy to reduce Elijah's stature and to counter the excessive masters on the other hand are often more like Christian saints. The veneration accorded to him in apocalyptic Jewish 7. Nasr, Ideals and Shiite Imam represents a principle of authoritative guidance in and Christian circles. It was denied that Elijah had ever gone up Realities, 58-59. interpretation of the revelation; the Sufipir represents a principle to heaven, Biblical evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. 8. Nasr, Ideals and of mystic illumi- nation which supplements the legislative or Elijah's habit of revealing divine secrets to pious mortals once Realities, 87. imperative mood of prophecy. earned him a severe punishment of 60 lashes of fire. The Koran The text of Sura XVIII leaves us with a riddle: Who is goes the other way. Without impairing its veneration for Moses the mysterious other, "one of our slaves, unto whom we had as a prophetic figure it endorses the eschatological longings and given mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our mystic revelations associated with the figure of Elijah, without presence" (v. 66). Although he is like Elijah, he is not exactly naming him. But the orthodox Sunni ulama regress to the Elijah; the Koran with a characteristically majestic gesture posture of Halakhic Judaism. The official theologians of Islam, leaves him unnamed. The Koran leaves us with a riddle, or an we are told, are and always have been averse to these excesses assignment, to find him. The ellipses in the Koran are pregnant of the popular Khidr belief; even as the Talmudic rabbis tried to with the future. Very soon, within the first century, Muslim 10. put down the popularity of Elijah. "There are two things I hate Encyclopedia Judaica, traditions and commentary on the Koran had given a name to the s.v. “Elijah.” Hastings about the orthodox canonists," says the mystic master , Encyclopedia of "Servant of God" who initiates Moses-al-Khadir, or Khidr, the Religion and Ethics, "They say that Khidr is dead and that Hallaj was an "- s.v. “Khidr,” 695. Green (the sacred color of Islam), or Evergreen; taking their cue Massignon, Opera Hallaj the martyred prototype of Sufi mysticism, the subject of 10 not from the reminiscence of Elijah but from the bold Koranic minora, I, 148. Massignon's masterpiece. 64 Slavs and Tatars 65 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Who is Khidr? How much does he know? These are questions is an image of saintly or eremite withdrawal from the world, neo-orthodox can do without. The great Egyptian taking refuge with Allah; and sleep the image of that extinction

modernist, or neo-fundamentalist, Islamic reformer Rashid 12. of self, that condition of being lost in God which characterizes Rida attacked the Friday liturgy of Sura XVIII as a degenerate Koran XLIV, 3; the saint () as distinct from the prophet (nabi); in the Night XCII, 1; XCVII, 1. innovation (bida), a departure from the original Sunna, Massignon, Opera of Unction, the Night of the Heavenly Ascension, the blessed minora, II, 354, III, the hallowed practice of primitive Islam. also 104-118. H. Ritter, Night, the Night of Enshrouding which is also the Night of ta'wil Das Meer der Seele condemned as subjective interpretation all which claims (Leiden, 1955), 588- Power; the Dark Night of the Soul which is also the Night of 12 to find a hidden sense beyond the literal, and he restricts 589. Finnegan's Wake. Koranic exegesis to simple literalist commentary, tafsir.11 The spirit of Khidr is eschatological as well as mystical. But the controversy between literalism and mysticism in the The Sleepers Awake at the end of time, to figure together with interpretation of the Koran is aboriginal in Islam, and reaches Khidr in the Return of the Mahdi. History becomes a night, into the split in the core of the Prophet's followers over the or seven nights. And everything is their sleep: the Seven succession to his leadership. The rejected leader Ali is to be Sleepers can represent the seven prophets who periodize identified not simply with the principle of hereditary legitimacy, world history–Adam, Idris, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus but also with the assertion of charismatic authority after the and Muhammad. The text explicitly provokes millenarian 11. Goldziher, Richtungen, Prophet, and inspired interpretation after the Koran. Sura XVIII calculations: "which of the two parties would best calculate 335. Encyclopedia of Islam, s.v. “Islah,” p. is pregnant with the Sunni-Shiite split and the whole subsequent the time that they had tarried;" "it is said they tarried in their 147. history of Islam. Cave three hundred years and nine;" "say: Allah is best aware The Koran is pregnant with the future. It is only in the light of how long they tarried" (v. 12, 26-27). later developments that we can find the riddle, the question, who It is Shiite exegesis that has made the most elaborate is Khidr, in Sura XVIII. We need more work like Massignon's eschatological interpreta- tions of Sura XVIII. The Sleepers work: his demonstration of the significance of Khidr in Islamic hidden in the cave are the Koranic authority for the Shiite Tradition remains a unique achievement. Khidr is the key to the notion of the Ghayba, or occultation, of the Hidden Imam. In Sura as a whole. The occult spirit of Khidr links up with the Seven the Ithni'- ashari or Shiites the occultation becomes the Sleepers and with Dhu'l-Qarneyn's Wall. Khidr is the Director principle on which they base their of the whole of of the Seven Sleepers, their watch-dog; together they form a post-Koranic history. We are living in the occult- ation, which community of apotropaic or intercessory saints whose virtue began with the disappearance, or sleep, of the twelfth Imam in saves the city, like those ten just men for whose sake the Lord 874 C.E. and will last till his reappearance, or reawakening, would have, at Abra- ham's intercession, spared Sodom. They with the Mahdi at the end of time. Modern times are divided repair breaches in the Wall against Gog and Magog that Dhu'l- 8. into the lesser occultation, which lasted from 874- 941 C.E., Qarneyn built. The weekly liturgical recitation of Sura XVIII is Яддашт / yA D in which the Imam though invisible was still in regular touch to invoke the spirit of Khidr and join the communion of saints in DASHTAn — KeePIng Of with visible representatives of his authority; and the greater their action of repairing that wall. The fight () against Gog MeMOry occultation, which began in 941 C.E. and is still our present and Magog is an eschatological reality but not in the future. In the condition, in which communication with the Imam is irregular, Islamic sense of time we are always in the last days. Sensing one’s being and rare, unpredictable, miraculous. In this vision of history The interpenetration works both ways: Khidr is assimilated one’s body, recalling modernity means the disappearance of authority (authoritative to the Seven Sleepers: he is an anchorite who has to flee from positive memories and guidance in the interpretation of scripture). The Shiite notion persecution and lives, exempt from death, having found the positive experiences. of the Hidden Imam is to be understood in analogy with Fountain of Life, concealed in a remote island. The melting Folktale #D1960.2. in Stith Thompson's index: Barbarossa, or merging–"confusion"–of Khidr and the Seven Sleepers King asleep in a moun- tain; will awake one day to succor generates mystical, i.e., non-literal, interpretations of that his people. Thus interpreted, the legend of the Seven Sleepers sleep. The literalists, Christian or Islamic, cite the story as contains a perpetual threat of an eschatological outbreak. For "proof" of the resurrection, literally understood as life after exam- ple, the Seven Sleepers are Seven of the Ismaili death. Seen with the inward eye, to be immured alive in a cave Shiites hidden in the cave, the womb of Fatima, and guarded 66 Slavs and Tatars 67 Not Moscow Not Mecca

over by their watchdog, Ali. The great Shiite insur- rection revelation manages not to reveal what or why. In fact the 16. 13. (resurrection) on behalf of social justice in the 9th and 10th W.M. Watt, Bell’s impossibility of history as "what actually happened" be- comes Massignon, Opera Introduction to the minora, III, 104-118. centuries C.E., which succeeded in establishing the Fatimid Qur’an (Edinburgh, the theme of an abrupt interruption in the narrative at v. 23-25: Encyclopedia of Islam, 1977), 46. s.v. “Ghayba,” “Ithna anti- in , was commenced in 309th year of the the Sleepers; how many were there? The Lord only knows. 13 ‘ash- ariya.’” Hegira, as prophesied in Sura XVIII, verse 26. "Recalls of former times" are an integral component of Massignon calls Sura XVIII the apocalypse of Islam. But 9. Koranic revelation, but as Massignon's Muslim disciple Nwyia Sura XVIII is a resume, epitome of the whole Koran. The uKufI zAMAnI (Or says in his indispensable study of the mystic tradition of Koranic Koran is not like the Bible, historical; running from Genesis to wuQuf-e zAMAnI) — exegesis, "recalls of former times" does not mean history: Apocalypse. The Koran is altogether apocalyptic. The Koran time-halt (or pause) "Schooled in the Koran, Muslim consciousness is spontaneously backs off from that linear organization of time, revelation, and ahistorical, that is to say mythic. It takes up events of the past history which became the backbone of orthodox Christianity, Suspending in approximately the same way as the apocryphal gospels The 3 remaining and remains the backbone of the Western cul- ture after the intellect, judgement, adapt the gospel narratives. When Muslim consciousness principles are rather death of God. Islam is wholly apocalyptic or eschatological, preconceptions and takes up for its own ends an event borrowed from the Bible or distinct universes, relying and its eschatology is not teleology. The moment of decision, conditioned thought. Judeo-Christian hagiog- raphy, it in most cases cannot resist on a phenomenological the Hour of Judgment, is not reached at the end of a line; nor reprising one’s thoughts effecting a transvaluation by introducing fabu- lous details or regime that has yet to by a predestined cycle of cosmic recurrence; es- chatology and actions. Accounting otherwise transforming the meaning. Passing from one hand to recognize our plodding can break out at any moment. Koran XVI 77: To Allah belong for how one’s time is an- other in a chain of Muslim transmission the historical event . the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and the matter of the spent, being thankful evaporates and all that is left is a vague memory submerged in Hour is as the twinkling of an eye, or it is nearer still. In fully for acts of righteousness a story which has become mythic." The use of the term mythic, developed Islamic theology only the moment is real. There and asking forgiveness with its Hellenic origins and overtones, may be questionable: is no necessary connection between cause and effect. Time for wrongdoing. I would prefer folklore. But the principle Nwyia is articulating does not accumu- late. The world is made up of atomic space- we have seen at work in Sura XVIII.17 At any rate apocryphal: 17. time points, among which the only con- tinuity is the utterly P. Nwyia, Exegese not obsessed with the question, what really happened; willing to 14. coranique et langage inscrutable will of God, who creates every atomic point mystique (Beyrouth, surrender to the fiction that is more real. Gibbon delighted in the M.G.S. Hodgson, 14 The Venture of Islam anew at every moment. And the Islamic mosque discards 1970), 74. irony that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, the Dogma (Chicago, 1974), I, 443. Massignon, Opera the orientation towards time essential to a Christian Church: 18. of 1854, is first offered as a salvific image in the Koran (III. 35- minora, I, 108, II, 606. Cf. Massignon, "The space," says Titus Burchhardt, "is as if re- absorbed into “Le Folklore chez 6). The Koran, with its angels and , is pregnant also with 15. les mystiques the ubiquity of the present moment; it does not beckon the musulmanes,” Opera the Arabian Nights; and with 's Masnavi, the synthesis of T. Burckhardt, Art of 18 Islam: Language and eye in a specific direction; it suggests no tension or antinomy minora, II, 345-352. Koranic inspiration and Arabian Nights imagination. Meaning (World of Islam Festival Trust, between the here below and the beyond, or between earth and In Sura XVIII, in the Koran, there is a mysterious 1976), 19. heaven; it possesses all its fullness in every place."15 regression to a more primitive stratum, archetypal, folkloristic, The rejection of linearity involves a rejection of narrative. fabulous, apocryphal. Historical material is fragmented into There is only one decent narrative in the Koran: Sura XII, its archetypal constituents, and then subjected to displacement "Joseph," acclaimed by condescending Western Orientalists: and condensation, as in dreams. It is a rebirth of images, as for once Muhammad overcame his temperamental incoher- in the Book of Revelations, or Finnegans Wake. In becoming ence and managed to do it right. The strict sect of the Kharidjis, unhistorical it becomes elliptical: "And they forgot their fish; on this point and on others the voice of rigorous Islamic and it took its way into the waters, being free." The fish appears consistency, condemned Sura XII on the ground that narrative suddenly from nowhere, as in dreams; no causal explanation, has no place in revelation.16 The Koran breaks decisively with no narrative coherence. The fish becomes a symbolic, or the that alliance between the prophetic tradition and materialistic archetypal fish, the same one you see on California bumper- historicism–"what actually happened–which set in with the stickers; or in the mediaeval jingle piscis assus Christus materialistically historical triumph of Christianity. Hence the passus. Moses and Elijah meet; Moses and Alexander merge, strangely abortive and incoherent character of the pseudo- or "reamalgamerge" (FW, 49), not on the plane of materialistic narratives in Sura XVIII. Something happened but his strange historicism-what actually happened–but in the world of 68 Slavs and Tatars 69 Not Moscow Not Mecca

archetypal images, that world in which Moses and Alexander v. 6; his lack of children, vo. 40); and one intrusive pointer on meet because they are both two–horned. In Sura XIX, 25-26, 10. pious decorum or etiquette in speech (v. 24-5). As in Finnegans Mary giving birth under a palm tree on the is also Agar uKufI ADADI (Or Wake the Koran rudely insists on indecent con- junctions. The the wife of Abraham; and in Sura III Mary is also Miriam the wuQuf-e ADADI) — Sura on Light (XXIV), in the words of Hodgson, contains the sister of Moses. In this condensation Western scholarship sees nuMBer-HALT (Or PAuSe) most ethereal passage of visionary mysticism juxtaposed with only confusion-who is who when everybody is somebody else; what might seem some of its most sordid, dealing with matters as in Finnegans Wake. Massignon speaks of trans-historical, or Carrying out exercises of etiquette, with sexual decency, and in particular with an meta-historical, telescoping; systematic anachronism. Islam is involving numbers, such accusation of infidelity levied against a wife of the Prophet. The committed by the Koran to project a meta-historical plane on as the awareness of the whole tex- ture is one of interruption (Joyce's "enterruption"); which the eternal meaning of historical events is disclosed. It number of repetitions collision (Joyce's "collideor- scape"); abrupt collage, or is that plane on which Moses and Elijah are seen conversing when carrying out one’s bricolage, of disconnected ejaculations, disjecta membra, silent heart zikr exercise, 19. with Jesus in Matthew chapter XVII; that plane on which miscellaneous fragments. The widely accepted tradition is that Massignon, Opera Dante's Divine Comedy unfolds; and Blake's prophetic books; and also certain forms of the Koran was collected, after the death of the Prophet, not only minora, I, 109; cf. I, 19 143, III, 143. and Finnegans Wake. History sub specie aeternitatis. counting using the Abjad from the "hearts of men" but also from pieces of parchment or There is an apocalyptic or eschatological style: every Sura is system. papyrus, flat stones, palm-leaves, shoulder-blades and ribs of an epiphany and a portent; a warning, "plain tokens that haply we animals, pieces of leather and wooden boards. In the words may take heed" (XXIV, 1). The apocalyptic style is totum simul, of Finnegans Wake, "A bone, a pebble, a ramskin; chip them, 21. simultaneous totality; the whole in every part. Hodgson on the Hodgson, 62. Watt, chap them, cut them up allways; leave them to terracook in the 21 Koran: "almost every element which goes to make up its message Bell’s Introduction, 32. mutthering pot" (FW, 20). is somehow present in any given passage." Simultaneous totality, Hence it does not matter in what order you read the Koran: it is as in Finnegans Wake; or, more generally, in what Umberto all there all the time; and it is supposed to be all there all the time in Eco called "The Poetics of the Open Work." "We can see it as your mind or at the back of your mind, memorized and available for an infinite contained within finiteness. The work therefore has appropriate quotation and collage into your conversation or your infinite aspects, because each of them, and any moment of it, writing, or your action. Hence the beautiful inconsequen- tiality contains the totality of the work." Eco is trying to characterize of the arrangement of the Suras: from the longest to the shortest. In a revolution in the aesthetic sensibility of the West: we are the this respect the Koran is more avant-garde than Finnegans Wake, first generation in the West able to read the Koran, if we are able in which the over-all organization is entangled in both linear and 20. M.G.S. Hodgson, to read Finnegans Wake. In fact Carlyle's reaction to the Koran – cyclical patterns which it is trying to transcend. “A Comparison of "a wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite; endless iterations, Every Sura is an epiphany and portent; and therefore not Islam and Christianity as Framework for long-windedness, entanglement"– is exactly our first reaction to beautiful but sublime. Again He speaks in thunder and in fire! Religious Life,” Diogenes 3d (1960), Finnegans Wake. The affinity between this most recalcitrant of What the thunder said. Dumbfounding. Wonderstruck us at a 61, U. Eco, The sacred texts and this most avant-garde of literary experiments is thunder, yunder. Well, all be dumbed! (FW, 47, 262). In the Role of the Reader (Bloomington, 1979), 22. a sign of our times. Joyce was fully aware of the connection, as Nasr, Ideals and Koran as in Finnegans Wake there is a destruction of human 63. J.S. Atherton, 22 The Books at the Wake Atherton shows in the most exciting chapter of The Books at the Realities, 47-48. language. To quote : (Carbondale and Edwardsville, 1974), Wake; I particularly like his discovery in the Wake of the of ch. 12. one hundred and eleven of the hundred and fourteen suras.20 Many people, especially non-Muslims, who In both the Koran and Finnegans Wake this effect of read the for the first time are struck simultaneous totality involves systematic violation of the by what appears as a kind of incoherence classic rules of unity, propriety and harmony; bewildering from the human point of view. It is neither changes of subject; abrupt juxtaposition of incongruities. Sura like a highly mystical text nor a manual of XVIII is a good example. In addition to the melange of pseudo- Aristotelian logic, though it contains both narratives there are two intrusive parables ("similitudes," vs. mysticism and logic. It is not just poetry 33 and 46) to remind us of the Day of Judgement; intrusive although it contains the most powerful allusions to the current circumstances of the prophet (his grief, poetry. The text of the Quran reveals 70 Slavs and Tatars 71 Not Moscow Not Mecca

human language crushed by the power of Muslim piety need not be so troubled, nor Western scholarship so the Divine Word. It is as if human language complacent and condescending. Sura XVIII with its imperious were scattered into a thousand fragments restructuring of Christian Hellenistic and Judaic tradition is like a wave scattered into drops against not troubled. It is a prototypical model of Islamic syncretism. the rocks at sea. One feels through the The Koran is not an operation of high cultural continuity, the shattering effect left upon the language of 11. translatio of the legacy of and Rome (or Jerusalem), or the Quran, the power of the Divine whence uKufI QALBI (Or the appropriation of the jewels of Egypt as we make our Exodus, it originated. The Quran displays human wuQuf-e QALBI) — as in Augustine's De Civitate Dei. To start a new civilization is language with all the weakness inherent HeArT-HALT (Or PAuSe) not to introduce some new refinement in higher culture but to in it becoming suddenly the recipient of Or VISuALISATIOn change the imagination of the masses, the folk who shape and the Divine Word and displaying its frailty are shaped by folklore and folktales. Prophecy is an operation in before a power which is infinitely greater Visualising one’s heart what Vico called vulgar metaphysics. The Islamic imagination, than man can imagine. (Qalb), perhaps with the Massignon has written, should be seen as the product of a name of god inscribed desperate regression, back to the primitive, the eternal pagan In Islamic apologetics the miraculous character of the Koran is on it, and identifying with substrate of all religions-that proteiform cubehouse the Ka'ba- self-evident in the immediate effect of its style, its idjaz, literally Truth or with god. as well as to a primitive pre-Mosaic monotheism of Abraham. "the rendering incapable, powerless;" the overwhelming The is built on the Rock. Islam stays with the dream-life experience of manifest transcendence, compelling surrender to of the masses, the eschatological imagination of the lowly and a vision.23 The bewilderment is part of the message: oppressed. The dream-life of the masses, discarded by the elite of 23. Encyclopedia of Islam, "Through the windr of a wondr in a wildr is a weltr as a wirbl of the Enlightenment as super- stition-the stone which the builders s.v. “Idjaz.” a warbl is a world" (FW, 597). 25. rejected-becomes in the twentieth century the Golden Bough Massignon, Opera quod semper, quod How do you start a new civilization-in the 7th, or the 20th minora, I, 158-159, for the return to the archetypal unconscious, 25 century C.E., with all that history weighing like an Alp on the brains 162-163; III, 128, 143. ubique, quod ab omnibus. Here Comes Everybody. of the living? Out of the rubble of the old; there is no other way. "He Sura XVIII, and the Koran as a whole, like Finnegans Wake dumptied the wholeborrow of rubbages on to soil here" (FW, 17). shows us preexistent traditions, Jewish, Christian, Hellenistic, Massignon speaks of the farrago of folklore (fatras folkloriste) in pulverized into condensed atoms or etyms of meaning: the the Koran. First you trash or junk the old, as in Finnegans Wake, or abnihilisation of the etym (FW, 353). Out of this dust the world the Koran; reducing preexistent traditions to rubble. Muslim piety, is to be made new. We are once amore as babes awondering in a for whom the Koran is the suprahistorical word of God, is troubled wold made fresh where with the hen in the storyaboot we start by the question of the relation of the Koran to preexistent traditions. from scratch (FW, 336). In the words of Iqbal: Western historicism, with its well-honed methods of source criticism–Quellenforschung–is only too delighted to lose itself in the Koran- a hundred new worlds lie within tracing the Koran to its sources, with the usual nihilistic result: the its verses, whole centuries are involved in Koran is reduced to a meaningless confusion. Meaning is attributed its moments... A believing servant himself to the original sources, but in Sura XVIII it has been "mutilated is a sign of God, every world to his breast almost beyond recognition," and mechanically combined "in a most is as a garment; and when one world grows artificial and clumsy manner." Schwarzbaum refers to Muhammad old upon his bosom, the Koran gives him as making a brave show with "borrowed trappings."24 The notion that another world! Muhammad was a charlatan who stole from the treasury of Western civilization and passed off his plagiarisms on his unsophisticated The Koran is not responsible for the way Islam developed 24. Bedouin audience as the voice of God, is still very much alive at the into a closed system, and the drily rational spirit of the Sunni Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, back of Western minds. Witness the latest to come from the Lon- ulama turned all the luxuriant cosmic imagery of the Koran into s.v. “Khidr,” 694. Schwarzbaum (n. 5), don School of and the Warburg Institute: P. Crone common sense prose. In the tragic view of history taken by the 135. and M. Cook, Hagarism. Shiites, things went wrong from the moment the Prophet died. 72 Slavs and Tatars 73 The Faculty of Fruits

26. The problem is, What comes after the prophet? The question is, The Apricot, The Mulberry, Igbal, Javid-nama (tr. A.J. Arberry, Who is Khidr? And, What does it mean to be a disciple of Khidr! – London, 1966), lines 1132-1140. Hodgson, the question at the heart of Sura XVIII. Pursuing that question, The Persimmon, The Venture of Islam, I, 392. Ibn Arabi said that he had plunged into an ocean on whose shore Goldziher, Richtungen, 26 217. the Propets remained behind standing. Watermelon, The Quince, The Fig, The Melon, The Cucumber, The лежала я вечер в беседке ханской, Pomegranate, The Sour в средине бусурман и веры мусульманской. Cherry, The Sweet Lemon. Против беседки той построена мечеть, куда всяк день пять раз имам народ влечет. Я думала заснуть, и лишь закрылись очи, как уши он заткнув, взревел изо всей мочи. О, Божьи чудеса! из предков кто моих Спокойно почивал от орд и ханов их? а мне мешает спать среди Бахчисарая? табачный дым и крик… Не здесь ли место рая

Семён Сергеевич Бобровб “Таврида, или мой летний день в Таврическом Херсонесе”

I lay one evening in the Khan’s summerhouse, / In the midst of Muslims and the Islamic faith. / In front of this summerhouse a mosque was built, / where five times a day the Imam calls the people. / I thought of sleeping, but as soon as I closed my eyes, / He shut his ears and roared with all his might ... / 0, godly miracles! who among my ancestors / Slept peacefully from the hordes and their khans? / But what prevents me from sleeping in Bakhchisarai / Are smoke and this roar ... Is this not the place of paradise? Semen Bobrov, “Tavrida, ili moi letnii den’ v Tavricheskom Khersonise” Warm Greetings! Azeri poster, 1972. Aserbaidjan: Land des Feuers, 2008 74 Slavs and Tatars 75 Not Moscow Not Mecca

petite) mommy and (tow- leveraged) money. Via the instead of paying fees. thing better than ering) daddy, the apricot velvety skinned fruit, the The legend lived on for this is an apricot tries to please, providing Middle Kingdom brings centuries: When patients in Damascus. medicinal relief to both. together what might seem sought treatment, they According to an old Arme- two disparate worlds to said they were going to THE nian tradition, over twelve Western eyes — that of med- the Xong Lin, or Apricot maladies can be treated icine and education — for Forest. Meanwhile, school APRICOT with the flesh and a one-two punch of holistic children, in lieu of flowers, of the apricot. The Hayer healing for the body and often bring their teachers THE (Հայեր) have raised their brain alike. It is no coinci- dried apricots to bless the orange, blue, and red ‘apricot altar’ or ‘educa- MULBERRY on the genus and species tional circle.’ ( armeniaca) with a dollop of Biblical bathos Between the diasporic du- to boot: Noah was not just els of the and The invigilator of the Nodira museum in Kokand goes to great lengths to shake some apricots any tree hugger, but an the Chinese, a third con- A worm with a voracious from the tree in the courtyard, Uzbekistan, 2011 apricot-tree hugger (the tender permits a welcome but selective appetite has only one to make it into turn of triangulation, one proven to have had more before 1991 dates to the the Ark). which helps us to move be- of a Eurasian geographi- first century CE; in the yond the partisan battles cal bite than Ghenghis other, the world’s most The Chinese, though, over the precocious, early- Khan himself. Gobbling populous nation. In the give the Caucasus, a land ripening fruit. For much of up all the white mulberry middle, like a child unwill- renowned for its poetic the Latin American world, tree leaves in its path, the ing to choose between (a streak, a run for its (highly apricots are called dam- castoffs of every little silk- asco, in reference to their worm’s metamorphosis Syrian origins and the ear- My Courtyard by M. Saryan. Source: Iskusstvo Armenii, 1962 ly-twentieth-century migra- tions to that region from dence that the fruits here the Middle East. hail from , aka Ui- ghuristan, the westernmost If the fresh fruit incites juicy Armenian . Armenien: Wiederentdeckung einer alten region of China, some- rivalries, the dried ver- Kulturlandschaft, 1995 times lumped into Central sion doesn’t disappoint Asia under the contested either. When thinking of A small, yellowish fruit, name of East Turkestan. Damascus today, we turn cleaved down the middle, A particularly lyrical way helplessly to the to is caught up in a custody of addressing a doctor will their former Ottoman battle of seismic propor- in Mandarin is “Expert influence over the restive tions—and the claimants of the Apricot Grove.” Syrian capital. In far rosier could not be more mis- Dong Feng, a doctor in times, they would turn to matched. In one corner, the third century CE, the pitted yellow prune Uzbek girls in Khan-Atlas patterned a country whose only asked his patients to and say—bundaniyisi textiles. Sovetsky Soyuz Uzbekistan, 1967 Apricots drying in Capadoccia, photo by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen instance of apricot trees Şam’dakayısı—the only 76 Slavs and Tatars 77 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Slavs and Tatars, Long Live the Syncretics, photo Oliver Ottenschläger/ Secession, 2012 78 Slavs and Tatars 79 Not Moscow Not Mecca

wrong breed: They found to their chagrin that the darker strain of mulberry was not only as appealing to the haughty worms as salt to a slug, but an inva- sive stainer as well.

Lore (and dry-cleaners) say that the clear, white juice of an unripe black mulberry can remove the stain of a mature one: tell that to the pavement of Samar- qand, Baku and Tehran. R. Akhmedov, 1964. Uzbek Encyclopedia, 1981 When wet, the , or Shah’s mulberry — be- Khan-Atlas silks from master abrband (literally ‘cloud-tier’) Turgunboy Mirzaahmedov, Marguilon, Uzbekistan, 2011 loved as a dried snack both Street. But, in order to the ephemeral “bearded catch those berries in their men,” who would attack have sculpted landscapes edible prime, lithe boys are the men’s mulberry be- by lining fields and villages sent up into the branches to smirched piety with sticks with luscious shade to drink shake the fragile fruits into in the black night. tea under, by caressing the the fabrics pulled taut by purple backs of royal Byz- ikat-clad babushkas below. antium, and by etching sun- sets and trickling water into By the time the juices reach Rorschach riddles in cloth the Chitralis of northwest- — substituting a Margilani ern Pakistan, however, the THE artist’s daughter with Atlas stain is of another sort. Khan fabrics, the impos- Something of a Muslim PERSIM- sibly exquisite patterned mulberry moonshine ac- silks that adorn the ladies, companies the Chitrali MON bazaars, and mosque-floor masculine rites of Ištok, Persimmon tree, . Source: Flickr, cushions of Uzbekistan. plays performed for un- Sasha_Photos Black and white mulberries, Tbilisi, Georgia Silk cocoons. Soviet Central Asia Encylopedia,1967 seen women perched in James I and the British the shadows. Halal and — tastes like were so greedy for such grow their own cocoons white and black — sticks to haram dance together Two fruits hitched at the hip many namable things softness and labor-inten- and save themselves rush- the soles of shoes taken off on the outskirts of town, linguistically evoke a reli- commingling, but instead sive melancholy that they hour congestion on the before setting feet on car- only to be found on secret ably mimetic taste but attest of giving a new name to brought mulberry trees Silk Road. But color- and pets. Interiors stay pristine, pathways by following the to little authenticity when it smooth a rubric over this over to the murky banks -challenged as is sidewalks are as bloody as sound of drums. The fear comes to exteriors. The per- multiplicity, it hyphenates, of the Thames, hoping to their wont, they picked the a Nightmare on Mulberry is that the same road will simmon — or Khormaloo, it takes its elements as its be found by daşmanán, “date-plum” in Persian title, it is a surface 80 Slavs and Tatars 81 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Slavs and Tatars, Holy Bukhara (Queen Esther Takes a Bite), 2012 photo Oliver Ottenschläger/ Secession, 2012 82 Slavs and Tatars 83 Not Moscow Not Mecca for , for other points (nicknamed Figchen) — aka . She was the it now holds the trembling, of reference, a palimpsest Екатерина II Великая aka builder of the garden, beleaguered moniker of for those things that already Katharina die Große aka where shrubbery was “autonomy.” know what they are or think —and clipped into submission 1. be their spiritual they know what they are. named all the elements but could still be enjoyed With the Treaty of protector as the Küçük Kaynarca, the Muslim Caliph, while around the place with little “freely”: There may, Crimean garden — Catherine became Carl Ludwig Hablizl or Ha- word as to color, smell, or perhaps, have been walls formerly part of the mother-warden of and all the Orthodox blitz (also known as Karl shape, but only as to place in the garden, but no nominally independent Christians throughout before being adopted the Ottoman Empire. Ivanovich Gablits), the of origin. shackles on ankles. /annexed by the This became a dire — point of contention a botanist responsible for The became a sort of century later in the Natural History of East Tar- Relatively green in Yet as any Dubya-era foster-crib for the scramble leading up “biological” kids of the to the tary: Traced through the comparison to the bumper sticker will tell Ottoman , who (1853-1856). of Nature, Klondike-like conditions you, freedom ain’t free, continued to legally vulgaris is the seductive charted the flora and fau- to the North, but amped, and the Crimean garden trick up the proverbial na of — aka Tauric hyped, spin-doctored once again became a sleeve of the minority Portrait of Murtaza-Kuli-Khan by Vladimir Kherson aka Qırım (Crime- and PR-ed by Potemkin et Borovikovsky, 1796. The Tretyakov Gallery, playground of doom for deemed not to belong. Moscow, Russia wrestling . Conveniently overlooking after the treaty of Küçük The bloodied plaything its 97% water content, Kaynarca1 (signed in successively of the THE WATER its supposedly low price 1774, in what is now Cimmerians, , made it a summer treat кайнарджа, ) Scythians, , Huns, MELON for rural black and and the Crimean city , Khazars, the state white Americans alike in of Bahkchysarai was to of Kievan Rus’, Byzantine America’s South during channel , Greeks, , the early 1930s. It even the cradle of Eastern , Golden went by the honorific (if Orthodoxy that Imperial Horde Tatars, Mongols, Despite the amounts not very halal) epithet Russia dreamed of Venetians, Genovese, of ink spilled in recent of “Depression ham.” recovering. Taxonomies the decades on subjectivity The racially charged then fractured into prisms — in the proto-modern and alterity, there’s association of African and reunited as lasers of and modern world, the been precious little Americans with the fruit genealogy, toponyms of almost sea-locked Crimea thought given to alterity’s often employs grotesque the soul, otherwise known later became a stage consumer profile: What, caricatures (pitch-black as the wet and wild world for the playing out of for example, would the skin, white eyes, red lips), of Russian Orientalism. massive, geo-political subaltern’s favorite color best parodied in Melvin Or perhaps it was love, desire. After having the or fruit be? It is safe to van Peebles’ Watermelon love for the great fairy Ottoman Empire, the say that the watermelon Man. stepmother with adopted Russian Empire, Nazi would win hands down Imperial splits? Catherine the Great bridging the gulf between Russia and Constantinople names and tongues, a Germany, the Russian — as the fruit of the In Europe, the arrival of an Tatar for “my hill”) al into downright “lush, Lutheran cum Orthodox, Soviet Federative Socialist foreigner and immigrant, the watermelon at the aka Tauris aka Крим aka the Crimea was called a Prussian cum Russian, Republic, the Ukrainian the watermelon is market sends a definitive the Crimea — for Sophie a Garden of Eden, too, who slept peacefully Soviet Socialist Republic, the fruit of the Other. signal to weary, wintered Friederike Auguste von but only following its despite the din of the and the Ukraine trample its Whether in Europe, eyes of more temperate Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg annexation a few years fragile green underfoot, China, or the US, citrullus climes and times to come 84 Slavs and Tatars 85 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Slavs and Tatars, Before the Before, After the After (Installation view), photo Oliver Ottenschläger/ Secession, 2012 86 Slavs and Tatars 87 Not Moscow Not Mecca

— if not here and now, by-numbers drawing then at least somewhere, scheme more than they sometime soon. Vendors do a Cucurbitaceous sellin’ the melon in Paris, crop, a relative of the London, and Berlin more demure members today might have little in of the gourd family: the common, but they are all cucumber, squash, and likely to find themselves at pumpkin. the receiving end of anti- immigration bluster — not to mention at an Ottoman Empire reunion party.

In Russia, despite a recent rise in dastardly nationalism, customers seek the best Watermelon harvest, courtesy Ellen Ficklen’s Watermelon ( D.C.: Library of watermelons from the Congress, 1984) Caucasus, be it from or Baku. The mountainous region was known in the nineteenth century as Warm , where

Mongolian riddle 552: People who have a house full of people have no doors to go in Watermelons in Ashgabat, . Aschgabad Reisefuehrer, DDR 1981 Slavs and Tatars, The Offering and out. photo Oliver Ottenschläger/Secession, 2012 Answer: watermelon.

Mongolian riddle 551: ago, the watermelon that is easy to mock, Many thousands of warriors in continues to be called 西 parody, or replicate. a home without a door. 瓜 (pronounced she-gua), Unlike the more spotlight- Answer: Seeds of a watermelon. literally: melon from the seeking tropical fruits Mongolian riddle 773: West. (think dragon fruit, A house that has neither rambutan, lychee), the a door nor an opening in the roof Within the diabolically watermelon’s relative contains many thousand objects. Watermelon , Ficklen, ibid. Answer: watermelon. diverse world of fruits, simplicity makes it a radicals and writers of and , not the watermelon is an darling of folk artists the Mongolian riddle 107: you can not block the head of all stripes were sent: But to mention the likes outlier. Its graphic, world over — if not a slap a pig. how bad could exile be of Lermontov and green-patterned exterior, in the face of Creationism Answer: watermelon. amidst verdant peaks Griboyedov? Even in coupled with a luscious, and Darwinism alike. Sellin’ the melon: or the endless and crispy, fresh melons, China, despite its arrival red-flesh interior, give it Bold tones and a graphic merchandising potential of the watermelon, surrounded by Narodniks more than a millennium a synthetic character physique recall a color- courtesy Ellen Ficklen 88 Slavs and Tatars 89 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Slavs and Tatars, Not Moscow Not Mecca (Installation view), photo Oliver Ottenschläger/ Secession, 2012 90 Slavs and Tatars 91 Not Moscow Not Mecca

THE QUINCE

Dunja, “quince” in Serbo-Croatian, Dunya, “world” in Arabic: the world we live in, not the world to come. As things tilt, by season certain hemispheres feel the fall, Golden Autumn: a quince tree in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan Republikasya by day others feel the sunset. Yellow, like the cooked and sugared to perhaps it will be hers. leaves falling around it as reveal its succulence. Grandma’s room is always it ripens, the quince felt , the eastern- the coldest, they say, but the Greeks drill a hole into flavored laments trilling it also smells the most its bumpy, bulbous, less- from the walls of the than-lovely, but no-less- former ’s lovable exterior and fill it Kavanas, sing more with , to be eaten yellow quinces than they by brides and grooms could ever eat, their together: after all, it was Persian-style melancholy Paris’ “golden apple,” slowly traveling in from awarded to Aphrodite for the east, like the being the fairest, inside of Rumi and Hāfez, and and out. the wallflowers who harmonize with the fading Yes, the goddess of day understand that the love was immortal, but longing to be beautiful is Album cover of songs by mortal manifestations itself beauty. Dr. Himzo Polovina, a singer-songwriter who are precisely elaborate happened to also be a neuropsychiatrist. set-ups, booby traps for But little does the Slavonian disappointment. Love baby know that the tree pleasant. The quinces petrified in its twilight planted in honor of her are there to sweeten the is hard to chew. Sour, birth gives way to the fruit fragrance of the sheets acidic, and astringent, that sits atop old Serbian and the feather-filled Slavs and Tatars, Dunjas, Donyas, Dinias, photo Oliver Ottenschläger/Secession, 2012 it must be intensively ladies’ wardrobes — covers (in the 92 Slavs and Tatars 93 Not Moscow Not Mecca called dunje): The sly fruits fig-eaters) of the time Persians of a lack of After reading the ninety- deeds, for they will have a That is, a fig is still know the bed might be of Croesus accused culture for not eating fifth Sura,Al-Tin ( , reward uninterrupted (6),” essentially a fruit — and a cold poem of fall and The Fig), “[I Swear] By a question begins to form a perfect one at that — winter, but they also know the fig and [by] the olive like an edible bud. Could despite, or even perhaps that the summer is the (1) […] We have certainly identity be as temporal because of, its lack of season of rot. created man [and woman] as intrinsic? In a Talmudic center. One might bite in the best of stature; (4) parable of the fig tree, its through any part of its Then We returned [him/ owner knows when to pick: character: Obstacles to her] to the lowest of the failure to do so at the right digestion or to the path to lowest, (5) Except those time means that the sun will paradise are just a matter who believe [in the oneness render the figs rotten and of ripeness. THE FIG of Allah] and do righteous worm-eaten.

The fig, plucked from THE (HAMI) trees not schooled to be A fig tree outside the shrine of Mahmoud “Adam and Eve and the Tree of cultivated by the cultured, al-Anjir (or ‘of the Fig’) al-Faghnawi, one of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” The Lubok: MELON the seven masters of the Naqshbandi Golden Russian Folk Pictures 17th to , has spread to the far Chain. According to legend, al-Faghnawi’s 1984 nickname originates from an episode where reaches of the a capricious and incredulous visitor asked the through force of will (and wise man to demonstrate his other-worldly them: Barbarians know powers by producing a fig in the dead of lack thereof). Intensively winter. Al-Faghnawi, annoyed by the nature of no wine or figs. But as the such a trivial request, nonetheless obliged and farmed, yet still abun- picked a fig from the frosted bushes. Persians began to usurp In the peaks and dips dant in the wild, eaten by themselves, they between the roadside rich and poor, sedentary too became the people bazaars stretching from people and alike, of the fig — qualifying Kashgar to Ashgabat, this pitless entity has been species into taxonomies melon rinds provide meditatively chewed on — of pejorative vernacular the bookends to every as a fruit of intelligence, appellations due to reclining meal on the knowledge, and enlight- particular fruits’ inherent tapchan. The netting design ened evolution (or shall lack of maturity: ḵā/ on its inedible exterior we call it Intelligent De- ayə -anjil (Gilān; lit. are the trauma scars sign?) by tastemakers of “testis fig”), dīv-anjīr from its formative period the Book(s) from Adam & (Rāmsar; lit. “dīv in the -melon Eve to Mohammed. [demon] fig”), kaškal house, where its starchy- (Rāmsar, Rūdsar), vā- potato-tasting interiors are The Israelites remarked anjīr (Nūr; lit. “wind cultivated and mutated on their way to the fig”), šāl-anjīr (Āmol; lit. into sweet, mellow pulp. Promised Land, that “jackal fig”), dīna-anjīl A savory thirst-quencher the wilderness was no (Bābol; lit. “fool’s/foolish cupped in a chastity belt of Khwaja Shamsu d-Din Muhammad place of figs. The Greeks Hafez-e Shirazi, aka simply Hafez, fig”), č/tesen-anjīr (Sārī; weird webbing, the Hami by C. Immodinova “A life full of vigor and fun spent working in the sun of Socialist Soviet Georgia”, (aka the sychophants = indecent), Luristan). Советские Субтропики, 1934. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. 94 Slavs and Tatars 95 Not Moscow Not Mecca

melon is a sturdy, fragrant emissary from just beyond the Great Wall.

“Here you can penetrate anywhere, only not with the Gospels under your arm, but with money in your pocket, a carbine in one hand and a whip in the other.”2 The explorer and proto-imperialist Przhevalsky (Stalin’s mom’s fabled baby daddy), who charted the nineteenth- century Hami oasis and everything around it, was A melon vendor, en route to Mokhi-Khosa, the emir of Bukhara’s summer palace, Uzbekistan, hoping to froth up unrest 2011 among the Muslims of the area against those Hami Melon continued to Kidnapped by the Qianlong “feckless Asiatics” — in the sprout on both sides ofthe Emperor, Xian Fe was name of extending them Heavenly Mountains, with showered with delectably Russian prosperity, mowing vowel-like levels of grace named living quarters down the Mongolians and and softness. At its most (like the Precious Moon Tibetans along the way, fragrant before its death Hall — where she could see and replacing them with throes — Hami melon was . The Kyrgyz town simply a synonym for the of Karakol — where he best melons of Xinjiang. died of Typhoid contracted from the river — became Another China-hater — Przhevalsk in 1888, Karakol with a Qur’an under her in 1921, Przhevalsk in arm and razor blades up 1939, and Karakol in her sleeves — was just as 1991. Przhevalsky never musky and mellow as the penetrated very far, it melons of her homeland; seems, except (so to speak) her olfactory prowess was eponymously, with every the whiff of resistance. last wild horse species and Xian Fe/Iparhan, the so- plant genus from there to called Fragrant Concubine, the Caspian bearing his became the most famous

consonant-rich tongue Uighur outside of Central Khoja Iparhan, aka the Fragrant Concubine. twist. Meanwhile, the Asia — precisely for Source: http://hafif.org/yazi/gelinlerin-anasi- Slavs and Tatars, The Fragrant Concubine, (installation view), -iparhan-1 photo Oliver Ottenschläger/Secession, 2012 never giving up the fruit. 96 Slavs and Tatars 97 Not Moscow Not Mecca

the put an end to the girl when she continued to refuse to budge on her chastity. Her Triage of the melon sort known as “golabi” (Persian for ) in the Sakarsky Region of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. Source: Soviet Central Asia Encyclopedia, 1963 legendary, mysterious scent apparently lingers around her and her celebrated resting place in Kashgar to this day. 2. Cited in Robert Aldrich, and Homosexuality (London and : Routledge, 2003), 35.

THE POME- GRANATE Przewalsky’s horse. Source: warhorsegazette.blogspot.com fellow Muslims outside the a court tribute from the castle with a giant mirror, northern regions that ostensibly assuaging her often went straight to the (from Slavs and Tatars, homesickness and her ladies of the palace. But, A Thirteenth Month Against Time, artist book, mimeograph unwillingness to put out) like a version of Norman and offset hand-pasted color and juicy Hami melons, Bates’ mother in reverse, stickers, 2008) 98 Slavs and Tatars 99 Not Moscow Not Mecca

The hand holds a father was going to die, euphemized itself, pomegranate, the mouth I would have traded him sneakily slithering from starts to water off for a cucumber.”3 its origins, still intact, Filial ingratitude? into the present. Perhaps Economic pragmatism? someone learned the idea THE Oedipal masturbation? from the Mongol hordes — Bad translation? Perhaps who were known to carry CUCUMBER the idea that a phallus fermented vegetables as saved is a phallus earned provisions during their really is the wacky- twelfth-century Eastern working credo of a host European invasions — of Eurasian subalterns. and was smart enough A Caucasian proverb That is, tradition has to pickle it and store it recorded in the not left the building, it for the ages (once in a nineteenth century says, has simply syncretized, while even using it as a “If I had known that my camouflaged, and hangover cure).

Man in fur-lined coat, Isfahan. Masterpieces from the Department of in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011

Slavs and Tatars, How-less, photo Oliver Ottenschläger/Secession, 2012

Nodira, famed poetess and de-factor ruler of the Kokand Khanate in the early 19th century Slavs and Tatars, The Dear for the Dear photo Oliver Ottenschläger/Secession, 2012 100 Slavs and Tatars 101 Not Moscow Not Mecca

Life is like a cucumber: one day in your hand, one day in your ass. — egyptian Arabic proverb

Ivan Kupala Day (St. John the Baptist), Ukraine. John the Baptist, which conveniently coincides

with the summer solstice Slavs and Tatars, Hanging Low (bitter-sweet), 2012 — for a good seventy photo Oliver Ottenschläger/Secession, 2012

years under Soviet-tilled Mongol hordes. The sacking of Suzdal by ground. And that might Batu Khan, 1238. Source: Wikipedia ( ) , the sour not be so different from is a gustatory shibboleth the ritual that the (sort of) xatak, has creeped in to of sorts. A disposition Kurdish Yezidi girls carry represent a cucumber. toward the in-between lip- out on their wedding But what if a cigar is just a smack of complexity is a night, wearing what cigar, a pipe is not THE SOUR warm-dead giveaway. they call a “cucumber” a pipe, and a cucumber is around their neck. It just a cucumber? CHERRY Józef Wittlin’s Mój hearkens back to one of 3. of New York 15 Lwów (My Lvov) laments the Seven Mysteries that George Kennan, (1883): 289-318. the loss of the plural “A Journey through aren’t mysterious at all, Southeastern identities, languages, Half-salted and full-salted pickles, Dorogomilovsky Market, Moscow. Source: the Yezidi Milyāk’atE- Russia,” Journal and affinities of a Flickr, NeelC1 of the American qanj that — unlike the Geographical Society It has been rumored that city that was Polish, The central Ukraine Greek god Priapus, the people of the steppe Ukrainian, Russian, and continued to feed who personifies an have a higher tolerance German and warns of Cherry lavashak, Iran. Source: Flickr, tradition and the erect penis — simply is for sour tastes. Whether Peteshep memory’s selective, if cucumber patch as part one. In Lomavren, the it is the tart fruits that unstated, agenda. He of the Ivan Kupala fertility secret language of the make up lavashak, a dairy products impossible speaks (bittersweetly, of rite — a celebration Armenian gypsies, the Persian proto-fruit roll, to translate into any but course) of the essence of the nativity of St. Pashto word for melon, or the various curdled the neighboring tongues of “‘Lwówness’ — that 102 Slavs and Tatars 103 Not Moscow Not Mecca

the sour cherry burdens ’ honor, if not in the delicate branches lemons, the ’ that help it grow, with its prize. The Jewish etrog, accumulated weight, if not an idiosyncratic citron with its complexity of taste. carefully bred to Kosher perfection, travels into the 4. A City in the Cross- Cited in George G. currents of Culture,” present from antiquity and Grabowicz, “My- special issue, Harvard thologizing /Lwów: Ukrainian Studies 24 takes shelter under the Echoes of Presence (2000): 313-342. and Absence,” in “Lviv: sukkah, a ritual, symbolic dwelling constructed from wood, brush and greenery that stands for only three days in autumn. The holiday of Sukkot is yet another commemoration THE SWEET in the Jewish tradition to wandering, and the etrog Lavashak stand, Tehran. Source: Flickr, Mozhan Советские Субтропики, 1934. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. LEMON — for some — represents seeds wander east not Palestinian sweet lime, Jews who have maintained strange mix of the Despite epic historic west: tony Manhattanites or , the sweet both knowledge of Torah sublime and the street rivalries, like the one that can have a kilo of sweet lemon is coveted from the and performance of urchin [tobuz], of wisdom ravaged Lvov, almost all lemons delivered straight mitzvoth (commandments) and cretinism, of poetry the Eurasian names for Like the satellite to their doormen for a to Greater Khorasan, after all this time. Roots and the mundane — as the sour cherry — be they television stations in low three figure price. in particular Iran planted far and wide, a special indefinable Lithuanian or , Tehrangeles beaming Alternatively known and Tadjikistan, as a branches brought along taste (as of a czereha, Russian, or Polish — hover so much saccharine for as moosambi in India, natural antibioitic during on a journey to give neither cherry nor sour around visnja. Its name the Iranian diaspora the winter months. shelter wherever one may cherry).”4 Retrospection, deriving from the community, the sweet It has however a peculiar, set down. The citrus is the soiled (or scrubbed) by verb vesit’ (to hang), lemon, aka citrus limetta, defining aspect: as if eternal whose nostalgia, tends to turn is more émigré than resistant to the very taste forever recalls home. the desperate into the immigrant. Where its more air it breathes, the sweet disparate; that is, in the E S mundane cousins go by the lemon’s taste goes bitter R U (old) version of time that i N kilo, the sweet lemon goes after a couple minutes G charts past to future: for prices more dear. of being opened. Sweet and sour tend to Permanently temporary. crystallize, like The fruits with a subtle cane, into their own je ne sais quoi taste The citrus fruit in general camps. Only a mended have recently made is a big-tent crop: it invites version of the present can their presence known any and all into to its yurt- savor the two as one. in California, but unlike like camp to claim it as those escaping the stale their own. Grapefruit, the revolutionary ideology Floridians’ pride, finds its Seal of , . Source: Wikipedia Советские Субтропики, 1934. Courtesy of the regime, these of the Museum of Modern Art, NY. echoes in sanguinello, the 104 Slavs and Tatars 105 Bibliografie / Bibliography

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Brown, Norman O. The Challenge of Islam: Ficklen, Ellen. Watermelon. Washington Karamustafa, Ahmet T. Sufism: The Formative The Prophetic Tradition. Santa Cruz: New D.C.: American Folklife Center/Library of Period. Cairo: American University in Cairo Slavs and Tatars, Not Moscow Not Mecca, (installation view), photo Oliver Ottenschläger/Secession, 2012 Pacific Press, 2009. Congress, 1984. Press, 2007. 106 Bibliografie / Bibliography 107 Impressum / Imprint

Keller, Shoshana. To Moscow Not Mecca: Merton, Thomas. Witness to Freedom: Slavs and Tatars. Kidnapping Mountains. Diese Publikation erscheint The Museum of Modern Art, Auflage http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar The Soviet Campaign Against Islam in Central The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of London: Book Works, 2009. anlässlich der Ausstellung New York. Gift of The Judith Print run Bibliographic information Asia, 1917-1941. Westport: Praeger, 2001. Crisis. Edited by William H. Shannon. New Slavs and Tatars. Not Moscow Rothschild Foundation (Boris 800 published by the Deutsche York: Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1994. Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions Not Mecca in der Secession, 3. Kerdimun Archive) © 2012 Nationalbibliothek. The Kemper, Michael and Conermann, Stephan. of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Mai bis 17. Juni 2012. The Museum of Modern Art New Secession, Slavs and Tatars, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies. Millward, James A. “A Uyghur Muslim Carolina, 1975. This catalogue is published on York, Digital Imaging Studio: die AutorInnen und die lists this publication London: Routledge, 2011. in Qianlong’s Court: The Meaning of the the occasion of the exhibition photographs by Peter Butler FotografInnen/the authors and in the Deutsche Fragrant Concubine.” The Journal of Asian Shah Kazemi, Reza. Common Ground: Slavs and Tatars. Not Moscow Vladimir Mayakovsky photographers Nationalbibliografie; detailed Kennan, George. “A Journey Through Studies 53, no. 2 (1994): 427-58. Between Islam and Buddhism. Louisville: Not Mecca at the Secession, Publisher: Krasnaia nov’, Für den Fall, dass bibliographic data is available Southeastern Russia.” Journal of the American Fons Vitae, 2010. May 3 — June 17, 2012 Moscow Ni znakhar’ ni bog, ni einzelne InhaberInnen von on the internet at Geographical Society of New York 15 (1883): Morison, W.A., “Some Aspects on the Non- angely boga - krest’ianstvu ne Urheberrechten namentlich http://dnb.ddb.de 289-318. Slav Element in Serbo-Croat.” Slavonic Year- Shoulson, Jeffrey S. “The Embrace of the Fig Herausgeberin podmoga (Neither Healer, Nor nicht angeführt wurden, Book: American Series 1 (1941): 239-250. Tree: Sexuality and Creativity in Midrash and Publisher God, Nor the Angels of God are ersuchen wir um Korrespondenz Ausstellung Kurator Ketchian, Sonia I. “The Other Voice: in Milton.” English Literary History 67, no. 4 Secession any Help to the Peasantry), 1923 mit der Herausgeberin. / In case Exhibition Curator Armenian Women’s Poetry through the Ages Mozur, Joseph. “Ion Drutse: Contemporary (Winter 2000): 873-903. Mitherausgeber Book with letterpress that any individual copyright Franz Thalmair by Diana Der-Hovanessian; Maro Dalley.” Chronicler of Bessarabian History.” World Co-publisher illustrations The Museum holders are not cited by name, Aufbauteam Slavic and East European Journal 50, no. 2. Literature Today 61, no. 1 (Winter 1987): Silverstein, Brian. “Disciplines of Presence in Freunde der Secession of Modern Art, New York. please contact the editor. Installation Crew (Summer 2006). 13-18. Modern Turkey: Discourse, Companionship, Redaktion Gift of The Judith Rothschild Hans Neumayer, Andrei and the Mass Mediation of Islamic Practice.” Editors Foundation (Boris Kerdimun Vereinigung bildender Galtsov mit/with Matthias Khalid, Adeeb. Islam After Communism: Oikonomides, Nicolas. “Silk Trade and Cultural Anthropology 23, no. 1 (February Franz Thalmair mit/with Archive) The Museum of KünstlerInnen Wiener Secession Bozic, Rostislav Čuřík, Religion and Politics in Central Asia. Production in from the Sixth to the 2008): 118-53. Tina Lipsky Modern Art New York, Digital Friedrichstraße 12 Christoph Voglbauer Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Ninth Century: The Seals of Kommeriarioi.” Publikationsmanagement Imaging Studio: photographs by 1010 Wien Recherche Dumbarton Oaks Papers 40 (1986): 33-53. Smith, Alison K. “Eating out in Imperial Publication Manager Peter Butler Telefon: +43 1 587 53 07 Research Khalid, Adeeb. The Politics of Muslim Russia: Class, Nationality, and Dining before Tina Lipsky Fax: +43 1 587 53 07-34 Mara Goldwyn Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia. “Origins of the Vine and Fig Tree: ‘A Classic the Great Reforms.” Slavic Review 65, no. 4 Texte Aleksandr Rodchenko and E-Mail: [email protected] Produktion (Polen) Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. of Science.’” The Science News-Letter 19, no. (Winter 2006): 747-68. Texts Varvara Stepanova Website: www.secession.at Production (Poland) 523 (, 1931): 251-53. Norman O. Brown, Mara Publisher: Izobrazitel’noe Krzystof Pyda Kinman, Brian. “Lucan Eschatology and Stetkevych, Jaroslav. “Encounter with the Goldwyn, András Pálffy, iskusstvo, Moscow 10 let ISBN 978-3-902592-56-9 Produktion (Usbekistan) the Missing Fig Tree.” Journal of Biblical Paksoy, Hasan B., ed. Central Asian East: The Orientalist Poetry of Ahatanhel Slavs and Tatars, Franz Uzbekistana SSR (Ten Years Production (Uzbekistan) Literature 113, no. 4 (Winter 1994): 669-78. Monuments. Istanbul: Isis Press, 1992. Kryms’kyj.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 8, Thalmair of Soviet Uzbekistan), 1934 Gayane Umerova, Senior no. 3/4 (December 1984): 321-50. Übersetzungen Book with letterpress and Curator, Art Gallery of Kononenko, Natalie. “Karaoke Ivan Kupalo: Privratsky, Bruce. Muslim Turkistan: Kazak gravure illustrations; plus Uzbekistan Ritual in Post-Soviet Ukraine.” Slavic and Religion and Collective Memory. Richmond: Taylor, Archer. “An Annotated Collection Volker Oldenburg (e>d/g), eight transparent overlays, two Revolver Publishing Dank East European Journal 48, no. 2 (Summer Curzon, 2001. of Mongolian Riddles.” Transactions of the Michael Wetzel (d/g>e) lithographed maps, and one die Immanuelkirchstraße 12 Acknowledgments 2004): 177-202. American Philosophical Society, N.S. 44, Lektorat cut illustration The Museum 10405 Berlin Slavs and Tatars danken / Ridgeon, Lloyd. “A Sufi Perspective of Evil.” no. 3 (1954): 319-425. Copy-editing of Modern Art, New York. Telefon: +49 30 61 60 92 36 would like to thank Franz Kortepeter, Carl M. “Ottoman Imperial Policy Iran 36 (1998): 113-22. Klaus Roth (d/g, Vorwort / Gift of The Judith Rothschild Fax: +49 30 61 60 92 38 Thalmair, Krzysztof Pyda, and the Economy of the Region Voskonian, Vardan. “The Iranian Preface), m∞bius (d/g, Foundation The Museum of E-Mail: info@revolver- Mara Goldwyn, Anita in the Sixteenth Century.” Journal of the Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer, Svetlana. “Soviet in Lomavren, the Secret Language of the Interview), Michael Wetzel (e) Modern Art New York, Digital publishing.com Witek, Gayane Umerova, American Oriental Society 86, no. 2 (1966): Dungan Weddings: Symbolism and Armenian Gypsies.” Iran & the Caucasus 6, Grafik Imaging Studio: photographs by Website: www.revolver- Elena Yushina, Dunja 86-113. Traditions.” Monumenta Serica 33 (1977- no. 1/2 (2002): 169-180. Graphic Design Peter Butler publishing.com Jelenkovic, Sara Raza, 78): 363-378. Slavs and Tatars Mehdi Safavi, Gohar Laufer, Berthold. “Chinese Contributions to Westermarck, Edward. “Pagan Survivals in Text; Norman Brown, “The ISBN 978-3-86895-219-3 Homayounpour, Madina the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran.” Rasuly-Paleczek, Gabriele and Julia Mohammedan Civilisation.” Bulletin of the Umschlagfoto Apocalypse of Islam,”in Social Kasimbaeva, In “Sino-Iranica,” special issue, Publications Katsching, eds. Central Asia on Display: School of Oriental and African Studies 7 Cover image Text, Volume 8, Seiten/pp. 155- Printed in the EU Bartosz Jeske, Krzysztof of the Field Museum of Natural History: Proceedings of the VII Conference of the (1934): 695-97. Oliver Ottenschläger/ 171. Copyright, 1983-84, Baran, MEROS Association Anthropological Series 15, no. 3 (1919). European Society for Central Asian Studies. Secession, 2012 Duke University Press.< Alle Alle Rechte vorbehalten. of Antiques of Uzbekistan, Vienna: Lit Verlag, 2004. Williams, Brian Glyn. “The Hidden Ethnic 10 Let Uzbekistana Rechte vorbehalten. Abdruck Abdruck (auch auszugsweise) Abdullah Badghisi and Longtin, Robert. “Pomegranate: Nature’s Cleansing of Muslims in the Soviet Union: SSR,1934, Courtesy the erfolgt mit Genehmigung nur nach ausdrücklicher Samarkand Bukhara Power Fruit?” National Cancer Institute 95, Saroyan, Mark, Mullahs and Modernity: The Exile and Repatriation of the Crimean Museum of Modern Art des Herausgebers. / All Genehmigung durch die Silk Carpets Workshop, no. 5 (2003): 346-48. Reshaping Community in the Former Soviet Tatars.” Journal of Contemporary History 37, rights reserved. Reprinted by Herausgeberin und den Verlag. Aziza Hayderova, Antica Union. University of California International no. 3 (July 2002): 323-47. Die Bildunterschriften permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. No part of Samarkand, Tatiana Khan, Luow, Maria Elisabeth. Everyday Islam in and Area Studies Digital Collection, Research auf den Seiten 23, 26, 28- www.dukeupress.edu this book may be reproduced Ilhom Rakhmanov, Raisa Post-Soviet Central Asia. London: Routledge, Series, no. 95. Berkeley: University of Wikipedia. “Apricot”, “”, 30, 46 wurden folgenden in any form without written Gareva, Salom Travel 2007. California Press, 1997: http://repositories. “Griotte de Kleparow”, “Persimmon”, “Date- Publikationen entnommen: Druck und Gesamtherstellung permission by the editor or the Company, Lutfullohan Marsden, Magnus. “All-Male Sonic cdlib.org/uciaspubs/research/95. plum”, “Rakia”, “At-Tin”, “Morus (plant)”, Full credits for images on page Printed and produced by publisher. Asamov bei/at Fayzyullah Gatherings, Islamic Reform, and Masculinity “Morus nigra”, “Morus alba”, Przhevalsky”, 23, 26, 28-30, 46 are taken Rema Print, Wien/Vienna Ravnakhi (Shakhrisabz), in Northern Pakistan.” American Ethnologist Shalinsky, Audrey C. “Talking about Marriage: “Quince”. from the following volumes: Schriften Bibliografische Dr. Halim Turayev, Rashan 34, no. 3 (2008): 473-490. Fate and Choice in the Social Discourse of Fonts Informationen der Deutschen Abdullayev, Bakhtiar Traditional Northern Afghanistan.” El Lissitzky and Sophie Lissitsky Times, ITC Lubalin Graph, Nationalbibliothek. Die Babadjanov, Al-Biruni Massignon, Louis. Badaliya: au nom de Anthropos 84, no. 1/3 (1989): 133-40. Publisher: Izobrazitel’noe Futura, ITC Avant Garde Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Institute of Oriental Studies l’autre (1947-1962). Paris: Editions du Cerf, iskusstvo, Moscow Gothic. verzeichnet diese of the Uzbekistan Academy 2011. Shönle, Andreas. “Garden of the Empire: Sovetskie subtropiki (The Soviet Gedruckt auf Publikation in der Deutschen of Sciences, Sussan Babaie, Catherine‘s Appropriation of the Crimea.” Subtropics), 1934 Printed on Nationalbibliografie; Shaida Ghomashchi, Massignon, Louis. Parole donnée. Paris: Slavic Review 60, no. 1 (2001): 1-23. Book with letterpress and gravure Munken Print White, 115g / detaillierte bibliografische Maria Baibakova, Kraupa- Editions du Seuil, 1983. illustrations Chromocard, 300g Daten sind im Internet über Tuskany, The Third Line, 108 Impressum / Imprint Ах! мой Мурза? – как нужны знания, Raster, Hamid Dabashi, Publikationsmanagement Freunde der Secession TBA21, Dr. Christian Herbert Mason, Duygu Publication Manager Vorstand der Freunde der Hauer, Rolf Hübner – Которы странник почерпает Demir, Suna Kafadar, Tina Lipsky Secession InterContinental Wien, Nic Iljine, Irina Levin, Visuelles Konzept, Grafik Board of the Friends of the Alexander Kahane, Michael Из разных душ иноплеменных? – Leeza Ahmady, Gretchen Visual concept, graphic design Secession Klaar, Dr. Christoph und Wagner und/and the Secession Bernadette Kraus – Kathrein Конечно, - должно быть пчелой, Department of Prints and Franz Graf, Alexander Rendi Präsidentin & Co Privatgeschäftsbank Illustrated Books, MoMA. President AG, Ronald und Jo Carole И брать сок чистый из всего… Die Ausstellung wurde Technische Leitung Sylvie Liska Lauder, Dr. Robert und unterstützt von den Galerien Ausstellungen Vizepräsident Sylvie Liska, Dr. Martin Мы все пришельцы, - ты, - и Я; The Third Line und Kraupa- Gallery Managers Vice-President Maxl und Dr. Ulrike Tropper, Tuskany. Wilhelm Montibeller mit/ András Pálffy Alexander Mayr, Thomas Вселена – поприще для нас; The exhibition was supported with Hans Neumayer Kassier Moskovics – Bank Winter & in part by The Third Line and Haustechnik, audiovisuelle Treasurer Co. AG, Dr. Arend Oetker, Отечество не здесь, - но там - Kraupa-Tuskany galleries. Medientechnik Dr. Primus Österreicher Dr. Ernst Ortenburger – Thiery Facility Manager, Audiovisual Weitere Vorstandsmitglieder & Ortenburger, Dipl.-Ing. Der Vorstand der Secession Engineering Further Members of the Board Wolfgang Poppe – Vasko + dankt der Gesellschaft der Andrei Galtsov Mariusz Jan Demner, Partner Ingenieure, Природа резвая дотоле Freunde der Wiener Secession Presse und Marketing Gabriela Gantenbein, Andreas G. Pulides, Galerie für die wissenschaftliche Public Relations Francesca von Habsburg, Thaddaeus Ropac, На сих горах, на сих лугах Arbeit an diesem Projekt. Tamara Schwarzmayr Alexander Kahane, Dkfm. Dr. Gabriele Schor – The Directors of the Secession Print- und Medienproduktion Heinz Kammerer, Sammlung Verbund, Оцепенела, - побледнела would like to thank the Friends Print- and media production Dr. Christoph Kraus, Jutta Stolitzka – J&P of the Secession for supporting Tina Lipsky Benedikt Ledebur, Franz Privatstiftung, Stefan Под бледной сению луны… the project with their research. Bibliothek, Bildarchiv Seilern Stolitzka – STOG GmbH, Library, Picture Library Stefan und Elisabeth Weber, О сколь ужасна перемена Secession Astrid Steinbacher Mäzene der Freunde der Mag. Margit Widinski – BDO Vorstand der Buchhaltung, Shop Secession Auxilia Treuhand GmbH, Во всем была во дни их буйств! – KünstlerInnenvereinigung der Accounting, Shop Management Patrons of the Friends of the Otto Ernst Wiesenthal – Hotel Secession Gabriele Grabler Secession Altstadt Vienna Тогда ни виноград, ни смоквы, Board of the Association of Assistenz Geschäftsführung AHR GmbH, Martin Böhm – Visual Artists Secession Assistant to the Management Dorotheum, Ни персики, ни абрикосы Kathrin Schweizer Dr. Peter H. Brunner – Präsident Assistenz Administration Horton International, Природных вкусов не имели. – President Administrative Assistant Dr. Luciano Cirinà – Generali András Pálffy Albert Warpechowski Holding Vienna AG, VizepräsidentInnen Kunstvermittlung Prof. Karlheinz Essl – Fritz Vice-Presidents Art Education Schömer GmbH, KR Anton Прощайте! - и пребудьте - верны - Peter Sandbichler, Christina Kathrin Schweizer und/and Feistl, Ernfried Fuchs – Zurfluh Klaus Bock, Katrin Lenhard, Sammlung Volpinum, Алле - и белому царю! - Schriftführer Alexandra Matzner, Marlene Dr. Burkhard und Gabriela Secretary Rutzendorfer, Rudolf Stüger, Gantenbein, KR Günter Für die Unterstützung dankt Никто другой, - лишь он един Michael Kienzer Stefan Wirnsperger Geyer – Wiener Städtische die Secession Kassier Kassa, Shop Allg. Versicherungs AG, The Secession thanks for their Да будет вашею главой! Treasurer Ticket Desk, Shop Francesca von Habsburg – support Josef Dabernig Nina Hasenöhrl, Gloria Weitere Vorstandsmitglieder Linares, Ulrike Winkler- Further Members of the Board Hermaden, Mario Zalto Семён Сергеевич Ines Doujak, Andreas mit/with Franziska Archan, Fogarasi, Elisabeth Grübl, Georg Baumgartner, Carmen Бобровб “Таврида, или мой летний день в Таврическом Херсонесе” Annja Krautgasser, Oliver Linares, Jakob Tschannett, Ressler, Markus Schinwald, Rudolf Stüger, Kornelia Sofie Thorsen, Anita Witek Zauner KassaprüferInnen Aufsicht Auditors Attendants Ah! my mirza? How necessary is the knowledge, / which the traveler draws / from various foreign souls? / Of course, Rosa Hausleithner, Octavian Robert Eichhorn, Mario one should be a bee, / and take clean juice from everything. / we are all strangers, you and me; / The uni- Trauttmansdorff Heuschober, Franz Wischinka verse is our walk of life; / The fatherland is not here, but there. Hauspflege Geschäftsführung Cleaners frisky nature / On these mountains, on these meadows / froze, turned pale / under the faint light of the moon. / Oh Management Koza und/and Firma how terrible the change / In everything in the days of the Tatars’ riots! / neither grapes, nor figs, / neither , nor Franz Thalmair Simacek apricots / Had any natural taste. Kuratorisches Team Webdesign Curatorial Team Web Design farewell! and remain faithful / To Allah and to the white Tsar! / no one else, let only him / Be your head! / Learn that his Jeanette Pacher, Christina Goestl shield / Protects tolerance of faiths. Annette Südbeck, Franz Thalmair Semen Bobrov, “Tavrida, ili moi letnii den’ v Tavricheskom Khersonise”