PLACES, MEMORIES AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: MUSLIM PLACES OF WORSHIP IN BADAKHSHAN REGION OF TAJIKISTAN SHARAF OSHURBEKOV A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO July 2014 ©Sharaf Oshurbekov, 2014 ii Abstract This study examines the ways in which the Ismailis of the Badakhshan region of Tajikistan understand and relate to their sacred sites. It explores the sacred sites of Badakhshan within the framework of anthropological literature on space and place. Using the concept of chronotope, this study shows that the sacred sites disrupt the materialist and historiographic understanding of and relation to the spaces and places. Through the stories of the miracles of the saints, sacred sites validate and confirm the presence of the transcendent in the lived environment of the people. Beyond the legends about the miracles of the saints, sacred sites are chronotopes that evoke the memory of the Soviet campaigns against these places. Through the retrospective narratives about the Soviet past, people allocate the responsibility for the destruction and desecration of these sites at that period to members of their communities. Although these retrospective narratives are about recent events, they include transcendent intervention; that is, they show how these sites punished those that were involved in the Soviet campaigns against them. Moreover, through these discources and through their visitations to the sacred sites, people unconsciously attribute certain agency to them, which emerges in the relationship between people and these places. People seek the help of these sites to grant their wishes. In most cases, these wishes are about curing the seriously ill family member or curing infertility problems. In that sense, sacred sites help people to recapture the sense of agency in situations where they experience its loss. Therefore, sacred sites are chronotopes, the physical sites in the inhabited space of the community that incorporate and evoke the legends about the miracles of the saints, the stories about the recent Soviet past of these sites and the discourses about their current status in the life of the community. The stories and discources associated with the sacred sites affect and shape people’s perceptions and articulations of their inhabited spaces and places. iii Aknowledgements I would like to thank all the people who directly or indirectly participated in my research project. In particular, I would like to thank my PhD supervisor, professor Zulfikar Hirji, for supporting me throughout all the years of my doctoral study. I am eternally grateful to Zulfikar for his generous advice, knowledge and insightful comments and suggestions. I also have to thank members of my PhD committee, professors Daphne Winland, Kathryn Denning and David Murray, for their helpful advice and suggestions. I will be forever thankful to all the individuals in the villages and towns of Badakhshan (too many to list here) who shared their time and knowledge with me. Without their willingness to share their views and knowledge, the accomplishment of this project would not have been possible. I also thank my friends and colleagues for providing support and friendship during my studies. I particularly thank Dr. Zuhal Avzalshoeva for support and encouragement. I thank Professor Sarfaroz Niyozov and fellow PhD student Shafi Gulamadov for their encouragement. I have also benefitted from the help of the staff at the Khorog Research Unit including Dr. Elbon Hojibekov, Shozodamuhammad Muhammadsherzodshoev, Haydarmamad Tawakalov, the late professor Nisormamad Shakarmamadov, Ajminisso Mirzoeva, Shamshod Zoolshoeva, Mamadhusayn Alimadadshoev and the coordinator of this unit and the Department of Central Asia at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Hakim Elnazarov. I am very grateful to them all for sharing their knowledge and resources with me. I thank the Institute of Ismaili Studies for granting me a four-year scholarship that allowed me to undertake this project. I am also thankful to the Department of Anthropology at York University, and Open Society Foundation for providing me with financial assistance in the final years of my PhD study. Finally, I especially thank my family for their continuous support and encouragement. iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT II AKNOWLEDGEMENTS III NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION VI MAPS VII CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO SPACE AND PLACE 3 ETHNOGRAPHIC CASE STUDY AND SETTING 15 RECENT DISCUSSIONS RELATED TO “ANTHROPOLOGY AT HOME” 29 BEING AN “INSIDER” ANTHROPOLOGIST IN BADAKHSHAN 31 ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE FIELD 33 CHAPTER OUTLINE 35 CHAPTER II: REPRESENTATION OF BADAKHSHAN REGION AND ITS PLACES OF WORSHIP IN WESTERN AND RUSSIAN ACCOUNTS 39 MAPPING THE MOUNTAINS: BADAKHSHAN A REMOTE REGION 40 NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH GEOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF THE PAMIRS 41 BEYOND TOPOGRAPHY: REPRESENTATION OF LOCAL PEOPLE’S LIFE-WORLD 43 EXAMPLES FROM THE WORKS OF RUSSIAN SCHOLARS 51 CONTINUITIES IN SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET APPROACHES TO THE SACRED SITES 58 POST-SOVIET STUDIES ON SHRINES IN BADAKHSHAN 63 CONCLUSION 66 CHAPTER III: PLACES BEYOND THE REAL – CHRONOTOPE OF THE SACRED SITES IN BADAKHSHAN 69 THE STORIES ASSOCIATED WITH SACRED SITES IN SHUGNAN, RUSHAN AND (ISHKASHIM) VAKHAN 71 ʿALĪ THE KING OF MEN (SHĀH-I MARDAN) AND THE KING OF SAINTS (SHĀH-I AWLIYĀ) 72 STORY OF ʿALĪ AND A KING IN SHUGNAN 82 SACRED SITES AND STORIES ASSOCIATED WITH NASIR-I KHUSRAW 90 THE FELLOW SAINTS: QALANDARS, DERVISHES AND AWLIYĀ 92 SACRED SITES ASSOCIATED WITH OTHER AWLIYĀ 96 CONCLUSION 99 CHAPTER IV: CONTESTED PLACES AND MEANINGS – THE PAST AND THE PRESENT OF THE SACRED SITES 102 CONTESTATIONS OF THE SACRED SITES IN MUSLIM CONTEXTS IN PAST AND PRESENT 103 THE CONCEPT OF SAINTHOOD IN THE PAMIRI ISMAILISM 107 VISITATIONS ZIYĀRAT OF SHRINES IN BADAKHSHAN 111 RETROSPECTIVE NARRATIVES: SACRED SITES IN THE RECENT PAST 114 SACRED SITES IN THE PRESENT TIME 118 SACRED SITES AS CHRONOTOPE OF REMEMBERING 121 CONCLUSION 126 v CHAPTER V: SACRED SITES AND MATERIAL AGENCY – SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INTERRELATION BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACES 128 MATERIAL AGENCY OF THE SACRED SITES 128 HEALING POWER OF THE SACRED SITES 132 ANIMISM AND THE BELIEF IN THE SACRED SITES 138 CONCLUSION 146 CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION 148 APPENDIX A: SAMPLES OF THE STORIES ASSOCIATED WITH SACRED SITES AS NARRATED BY SOME OF MY INFORMANTS 153 APPENDIX B: THE NAMES AND LOCATIONS OF THE SACRED SITES IN RUSHAN, SHUGHAN, ROSHTQALA AND ISHKASHIM DISTRICTS OF BADAKHSHAN 157 BIBLIOGRAPHY 160 vi Note on the transliteration I use a number of the Tajik-Persian and Arabic words in this text, which, except of proper nouns and well known events, are highlighted with italics. Most of the Persian, Tajik and Arabic words are generally transliterated following the second edition of Encyclopaedia of Islam. However, to keep things simple I used letter j instead of dj, (eg. hajj not hadj) letter q instead of k with a dot (eg. Qur’an not Ḳur’an) and did not use underline under the letters kh, sh, dh, th, gh, zh. Maps Map of Tajikistan – Badakhshan region is marked with brown color. Map of Badakhshan region of Tajikistan. It shows all the districts of this region and the location of some of the larger villiges and towns. Source: http://www.pamirs.org/maps.htm Accessed. 30 April 2014. 1 Chapter I: Introduction In this study, I examine the ways in which the Shi’a Imāmi Ismaili Muslims of the mountainous Badakhshan region of Tajikistan understand and relate to their sacred sites. I situate the analysis of the sacred sites in the Badakhshan region within the framework of the anthropological approaches to the social and cultural construction of space and place. I suggest that sacred sites are chronotopes (time-space) (Bakhtin 1981) that evoke a different perception of space and time that disrupts the usual historiographical and materialist perspectives on these issues (Low and Lawrence-Zuniga 2003). I employ the concept of chronotope in a way similar to Keith Basso’s (1996), Tim Ingold’s (1993) and Kathleen Stewart’s (1996) use of this concept in their studies, which deal with the issues related to space and place. These studies show how people attribute various meanings to space and place, how stories attached to various places represent chronotopes of remembering that disrupt the linear historical narratives (Stewart 1996), how space and place are chronotopes that help people preserve and evoke moral values of the community (Basso 1996) and so forth. I will discuss these studies more fully below. However, unlike these studies, I will focus on the ways in which chronotope helps us to understand the space and place in relation to the sacred. Therefore, based on my ethnographic research, I use the concept of chronotope in the analysis of sacred sites as a general term that encompasses both the legends associated with these places as well as the stories about the past and present of these sites. In that sense, the sacred sites are chronotopes that allow the community to validate the presence of the transcendence (the divine) in their lived environment. Through their contents, the chronotopic narratives confirm this presence and make it acceptable, thereby transforming people’s perceptions 2 and understandings of the particular places in their landscape. The stories associated with the sacred sites, from the point of view of those who narrate them, are not separate from the history of their community. In that sense, these stories disrupt the historical narratives of historians about the origin and practice of Islam/Ismailism in this region that often view them as mere legends that have no value for historical “truth” (see Schadl 2009). They show different ways in which people understand and practice some aspects of their religion and religious practices that are related to these sites. Through recalling the stories associated with sacred sites, the Ismailis of Badakhshan produce a landscape within which the miracle works of their saints and ancestors are remembered and perpetuated.