Associated Products
Sayyid Muḥammad Iṣfahānī (Shāh Kāshān): The Construction of Biography and Genealogy in Badakhshān, in From the Khan’s Oven: Studies on the History of Central Asian Religions in Honor of Devin DeWeese (Article)Title: Sayyid Muḥammad Iṣfahānī (Shāh Kāshān): The Construction of Biography and Genealogy in Badakhshān, in From the Khan’s Oven: Studies on the History of Central Asian Religions in Honor of Devin DeWeese
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Abstract: This study seeks to draw attention to the Persianate tradition of the nasab-nāmah/shajarah-nāmah among the Ismāʿīlīs of Badakhshan in present-day Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The documentary genre was particularly well developed in 19th century Badakhshān, although extant genealogies held in private hands date back as early as the 16th century. Narrative descriptions of the migration and role of foundational figures traveling from Iran to Badakhshan map a movement east and establish the ancestral hereditary sayyid lineages of Ismāʿīlī pīrs, shahs, khalīfas, and qāżīs that were textualized and historicized in the form of genealogies and preserved, copied and re-copied by families from generation to generation up to the present day. Our analysis focuses on the genealogical tradition of one such migratory figure, that of Sayyid Muḥammad Iṣfahānī, known as Shāh Kāshān, who in written and oral tradition is described as one of four (or three) figures who travel from Khurāsān to Badakhshān at some point in the 12th (or 16th) century – Shāh Khāmush, Shāh Malang, Shāh Kāshān, and Bābā ʿUmar Yumgī.
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
http://n/aPrimary URL Description: N/A
Secondary URL:
http://lccn.loc.gov/2021044513Format: Other
Publisher: Brill Publishers
"The Shrinescapes and Narrative Traditions of Khoja Ishaq Khuttalani," in Saintly Spheres and Islamic Landscapes, by Daphna Ephrat, Ethel Sara Wolper and Paulo Printo (Article)Title: "The Shrinescapes and Narrative Traditions of Khoja Ishaq Khuttalani," in Saintly Spheres and Islamic Landscapes, by Daphna Ephrat, Ethel Sara Wolper and Paulo Printo
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Abstract: Sufism was a constituent component of Islamic Central Asian society from at least the thirteenth century, and despite challenges to its survival during the Soviet era, the cultural, social, doctrinal, and spiritual legacy of Sufism survives in the form of written traditions (hagiography, Sufi poetry, historical writing), oral traditions (passed from generation to generation which, themselves, were often textualized in the form of hagiography), and the sacred landscape of shrines. This chapter explores the literary and physical dimensions of the interrelated processes of the memorialization of Sufi saints from the sixteenth to the twentieth century - specifically, how textual and oral traditions about Sufi saints overlap and intersect and are formed and re-formed over time, and how burial places (real or imagined) of saints are transformed into shrines, often incorporating and reflecting a combination of mythic and Islamic motifs. I study these issues through the case study of Khoja Ishaq Khuttalani (Khoja Ishoq Khatloni in Tajik, 826/1423), the disciple, son-in-law, and successor (khalifa) of the celebrated Kubravi Sufi shaykh, Mir Sayyid ʿAli Hamadani (d. 786/1384).
Year: 2021
Primary URL:
http://https://www.worldcat.org/title/saintly-spheres-and-islamic-landscapes-emplacements-of-spiritual-power-across-time-and-place/oclc/1192303404&referer=brief_resultsPrimary URL Description: "Saintly Spheres and Islamic Landscapes explores the creation, expansion, and perpetuation of the material and imaginary spheres of spiritual domination and sanctity that surrounded Sufi saints and became central to religious authority, Islamic piety, and the belief in the miraculous. The cultural and social constructs of Islamic sainthood and the spatial inscription of saintly figures have fascinated and ignited scholars across a range of disciplines. By bringing together a broad scope of perspectives and case studies, this book offers the reader the first comprehensive, albeit variegated, exposition of the evolution of saintly spheres and the emplacements of spiritual power in the Muslim world across time and place.
Secondary URL Description: N/A
Access Model: Chapter in an edited book volume.
Format: Other
Publisher: Brill Publishers
"Shrine Cultures and Narrative Traditions in Tajikistan" (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: "Shrine Cultures and Narrative Traditions in Tajikistan"
Abstract: This lecture explores the literary and physical dimensions of the interrelated processes of the memorialization of Sufi figures, specifically how textual and oral traditions about Sufi saints overlap and intersect and are formed and re-formed over time, and the associated transformation of saints' burial places (real or imagined) into shrines, forming shrinescapes that incorporate a combination of Islami and mythic motifs. To explore these questions I employ a case study of Khoja Iṣhāq Khuttalānī (d. 1423), a disciple of Mīr Sayyid ʿAlī Hamadānī, who traveled to Badakhshan in present-day Tajikistan.
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Date: 10/08/2020
Location: Remote keynote address presented through Zoom to Leiden University, The Netherlands.
Primary URL:
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Secondary URL:
http://N/A(Invited Keynote address) "The Genealogical Tradition of Badakhshan: Textual Memory, Knowledge Production, and Connected Histories in the Pamir and Hindukush" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: (Invited Keynote address) "The Genealogical Tradition of Badakhshan: Textual Memory, Knowledge Production, and Connected Histories in the Pamir and Hindukush"
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Abstract: My paper draws attention to the understudied local culture of genealogical documentation practiced among the Ismaili pirs and khalifas of Badakhshan. My intention is not to mine the documents as sources for the historical appearance of Nizārī Ismailism in Badakhshan, about which we still have limited knowledge, nor to assert the validity or prove the deficiencies of ‘ilm al-nasab in Badakhshan. Rather, using nasab-namahs from Zebak and Ishkashim in Afghanistan, together with interviews and informal genealogical writings preserved as copies by khalifas and their descendants in the 20-21st century, it is to explore the nasab-namah/shajarah genre as a system of knowledge, a source of confessional identity and authority, and a textual tradition that reflects socio-religious connectivity across the writing cultures of the Pamir and Hindukush in regions often considered to be geographically-bounded zones of cultural hegemony. This study is a small part of a larger collaborative project on the genealogical history of Ismailism in the eastern Islamic world, the first stage of which is the completion of an open access digital repository of 65 documents from Badakhshan in Tajikistan and Afghanistan in the Princeton University Library Digital Repository (Digital PUL). This collection is based on an archive of photographs of privately-owned genealogies compiled by me during field research conducted in Tajik and Afghan Badakhshan between 2004-2019. The second stage of the project, a co-authored book manuscript on the collection, is currently in progress, for which I seek to further extend the study of Ismaili genealogical documentation to Chitral, Gilgit and Hunza in the Hindukush.
Date: 09/08/2020
Primary URL Description: Note: This conference, which was to take place at the 4th International Hindush Cultural Conference in Chitral, Pakistan, was cancelled due to Covid-19. No date has yet been given for a new date.
"The Genealogical Tradition of Sayyid Muhammad Isfahānī (Shāh Kāshān) in Shughnān, Badakhshan" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "The Genealogical Tradition of Sayyid Muhammad Isfahānī (Shāh Kāshān) in Shughnān, Badakhshan"
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Abstract: Outside the Sufi silsilah tradition, genealogical cultures of documentation in the Persianate world have not yet been subject to serious critical analysis as have those in the Arab world. My research seeks to bring attention to one such Persianate tradition – that of the nasab-nāmah/shajarah-nāmah tradition among the Ismāʿīlīs of Shughnan, Badakhshan. This documentary genre was particularly well developed in 19th century Badakhshan in present-day Afghanistan and Tajikistan, although extant genealogies date back as early as the 16th century. Among the categories of genealogical histories are those of Ismaili foundational figures (lineages of pīrs, shāhs, khalīfas and qadis). This paper will focus on the genealogical tradition of Sayyid Muḥammad Iṣfahānī (known as Shāh Kāshān), who in written and oral tradition is represented as one of four missionary figures that traveled from Khurāsān to Badakhshan in the 16th century. In contrast to Shah Malang, from whom the Ismāʿīli pīrs of Shughnan Badakhshan trace their descent, and Shāh Khāmūsh, from whom the shāhs of Shughnan trace their descent, the textual genealogical tradition associated with Shāh Kāshān traces the sayyid descent of the qāżīs and khalīfas of Shughnan Badakhshan through him to the imams and the Prophet Muhammad. Using five documents dating from the 16th to the 20th century, my paper will: 1) explore the elements of formulaic language, shared terminology, and physical features of the documents and what they tell us about the intentions and the mode of textualization prevalent in the region of Shughnan; 2) analyze the genealogies from the points of view of Ismaili lineage construction and historical context.
Date: 03/12/2020
Primary URL:
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**Note that this conferences was cancelled due to Covid-19.
Conference Name: Association for the Study of Persianate Societies Biennial Conference in New Delhi, India
"Ahmad Yasavī and the Ismāʿīlīs of Badakhshān: Towards a New Social History of Sufi-Shīʿī Relations in Central Asia" (Article)Title: "Ahmad Yasavī and the Ismāʿīlīs of Badakhshān: Towards a New Social History of Sufi-Shīʿī Relations in Central Asia"
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: This article examines how a text attributed to the renowned Central Asian Sufi figure Aḥmad Yasavī came to be found within a manuscript produced within the Ismāʿīlī Shīʿī community of the Shughnān district of the Badakhshān region of Central Asia. The adoption of this text into an Ismāʿīlī codex suggests an exchange between two disparate Islamic religious traditions in Central Asia between which there has hitherto been little evidence of contact. Previous scholarship on Ismāʿīlī-Sufi relations has focused predominately on the literary and intellectual engagement between these traditions, while the history of persecution experienced by the Ismāʿīlīs at the hands of Sunnī Muslims has largely overshadowed discussions of the social relationship between the Ismāʿīlīs and other Muslim communities in Central Asia. I demonstrate that this textual exchange provides evidence for a previously unstudied social engagement between Ismāʿīlī and Sunnī communities in Central Asia that was facilitated by the rise of the Khanate of Khoqand in the 18th century. The mountainous territory of Shughnān, where the manuscript under consideration originated, has been typically represented in scholarship as isolated prior to the onset of colonial interest in the region in the late 19th century. Building upon recent research on the impact of early modern globalization on Central Asia, I demonstrate that even this remote region was significantly affected by the intensification of globalizing processes in the century preceding the Russian conquest. Accordingly, I take this textual exchange as a starting point for a broader re-evaluation of the Ismāʿīlī-Sufi relationship in Central Asia and of the social ‘connectivity’ of the Ismāʿīlīs and the Badakhshān region within early modern Eurasia.
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
http://https://www.worldcat.org/title/amad-yasavi-and-the-ismailis-of-badakhshan-towards-a-new-social-history-of-sufi-shii-relations-in-central-asia/oclc/8760552462&referer=brief_resultsFormat: Journal
Publisher: Journal - Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
“The Kalām-i pīr and Its Place in the Central Asian Ismāʿīlī Tradition" (Article)Title: “The Kalām-i pīr and Its Place in the Central Asian Ismāʿīlī Tradition"
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: This paper is a study of the Kalām-i pīr, a text on religious doctrine preserved among the Ismaʿili Shiʿi community of the Badakhshan region of Central Asia, attributed to the fifth/eleventh-century Ismaʿili author Nāṣir-i Khusraw. An edition and translation of this work was first published by Wladimir Ivanow, who judged it to be a ‘forgery’ by the tenth/sixteenth-century Ismaʿili missionary Khayrkhwāh Harātī. Ivanow concluded that while the text overall holds value as a specimen of Ismaʿili doctrinal writing, its first chapter, which purports to be an autobiographical account of its reputed author, Nāṣir-i Khusraw, is an irrelevant appendage to the work. Since then, Ivanow’s interpretation has remained broadly authoritative within the field. In recent years, however, multiple new manuscripts of the work and a range of related materials have come to light, indicating the need for a thorough re-evaluation of the text and its history. In this article I demonstrate that Harātī had no role in the development of the Kalām-i pīr and that its production should be dated to the eighteenth century, rather than the sixteenth. Furthermore, I argue that the attribution to Nāṣir-i Khusraw, elaborated in the first chapter, is not incidental to the text, but central to understanding its significance within the Ismaʿili tradition of Central Asia. The text must be considered within the context of the history of Badakhshan in the eighteenth century, which saw an energetic expansion of the Ismaʿili mission (daʿwa) in the region and the development of a competitive hagiographical tradition connected with Nāṣir-i Khusraw among various constituencies. This re-evaluation of the Kalām-i pīr demonstrates the need for a revision of the broader framework by which we understand both the legacy of Nāṣir-i Khusraw and the historical development of the Ismaʿili daʿwa in Central Asia.
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
http://https://www.worldcat.org/title/the-kalam-i-pir-and-its-place-in-the-central-asian-ismaili-tradition/oclc/8612446778&referer=brief_resultsPeriodical Title: Journal of Islamic Studies
Publisher: Journal Article-Journal of Islamic Studies
“Reimagining Taqiyya: The ‘Narrative of the Four Pillars’ and Strategies of Secrecy among the Ismāʿīlīs of Central Asia" (Article)Title: “Reimagining Taqiyya: The ‘Narrative of the Four Pillars’ and Strategies of Secrecy among the Ismāʿīlīs of Central Asia"
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Year: 2019
Primary URL:
http://https://www.worldcat.org/title/reimagining-taqiyya-the-narrative-of-the-four-pillars-and-strategies-of-secrecy-among-the-ismailis-of-central-asia/oclc/8286543339&referer=brief_resultsFormat: Journal
Periodical Title: History of Religions
Publisher: Journal - History of Religions
"The Shrine of Nasir-i Khusraw in the Sacred Geography of the Ismailis of Central Asia" (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: "The Shrine of Nasir-i Khusraw in the Sacred Geography of the Ismailis of Central Asia"
Abstract: N/A
Author: Daniel Beben
Date: 09/10/2019
Location: Berlin, Germany
Primary URL:
http://N/A“Badakhshan Genealogical Document Collection: Transforming rare texts into accessible digital resources” (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: “Badakhshan Genealogical Document Collection: Transforming rare texts into accessible digital resources”
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Author: Daniel Beben
Author: Umed Mamadsherzodshoev
Abstract: The "Badakhshan Genealogical Document Collection: Transforming rare texts into accessible digital resources" is a freely accessible digital collection of 65 genealogical and property documents in the Princeton University Digital Library (PUDL). The documents have been digitally preserved and enable readers to view them as if viewing the physical manuscript. Essential descriptive metadata is exposed through the Princeton University Digital Library and as a Google Sitemap feed.
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
https://dpul.princeton.edu/badakhshan_collectionPrimary URL Description: Led by Dr. Jo-Ann Gross and supported with a three-year National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant, this project is centered on digitizing roughly 65 original, privately held genealogical histories (nasab-namahs) and property documents from Badakhshan in Tajikistan and Afghanistan dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Using an archive of photographs compiled during Dr. Gross’ 2004-2019 field research in the region, it is the first effort to make available the history of genealogical documentation in the Ismaili community as a source for local knowledge of the Ismaili tradition of Badakhshan.
Access Model: Open access
“Bahr al-Akhbar: A Valuable Source of the History of Badakhshan” (Article)Title: “Bahr al-Akhbar: A Valuable Source of the History of Badakhshan”
Author: Umed Mamadsherzodshoev
Abstract: Not available.
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
http:// Not available (published in Tajikistan in Tajik language)Access Model: Not available
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Issues of Humanitarian Sciences
Publisher: Institute of Humanities of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan
The Genealogy of Foqmuhammad Parvazi (Book)Title: The Genealogy of Foqmuhammad Parvazi
Author: Umed Mamadsherzodshoev
Abstract: Not available
Year: 2020
Primary URL:
http:// Not AvailableAccess Model: Printed copies only.
Publisher: Dushanbe: Sifat offset
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: N/A
Copy sent to NEH?: No
The Relationship between Sayyid Farrikh Shah's History of the Shughnan Kings and the Nasab-namah of Shah Khamush (Book)Title: The Relationship between Sayyid Farrikh Shah's History of the Shughnan Kings and the Nasab-namah of Shah Khamush
Author: Umed Mamadsherzodshoev
Abstract: Not available
Year: 2021
Access Model: Printed copies only
Publisher: Dushanbe: Sifat offset
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: N/A
Copy sent to NEH?: No
“Perspectives on Digitizing, Archiving and Historicizing the Ismāʿīlī Nasab-nāmah Tradition" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: “Perspectives on Digitizing, Archiving and Historicizing the Ismāʿīlī Nasab-nāmah Tradition"
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Abstract: The impetus for the international symposium on which this volume is based stems from “The Badakhshan Genealogical Project,” a collaborative project I directed with Daniel Beben and Umed Mamadsherzodshoev with the support of a 3-year National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Collaborative Research Grant. The NEH project was comprised of two parts: the creation of an open access digital repository in the Princeton University Library and a publication of m forthcoming co-authored book with Daniel Beben and Umed Mamadsherzodshoev, titled Ismailism in Badakhshan: A Genealogical History. The goal of the project was to render a corpus of Persian-language (often with Arabic features) genealogical texts, dating from the 15th to the 20th century, legible as historical sources by digitalizing them, identifying their features, defining local genres of genealogy as historical practices, and analyzing them as a source for local, regional, and transregional knowledge of the Ismāʿīlī tradition of Badakhshan and the wider Pamir. Some 65 genealogical texts were located and digitally photographed by me during field research I conducted between 2004-2019 in the towns and villages across the regions of Badakhshan in Tajikistan. This talk will explore how a project I initially conceptualized as one focused on shrine culture evolved into a long-term collaborative project focused on genealogical documentary practice in Afghan and Tajik Badakhshan as a local, archival, familial “site of knowledge production,” to use the words of Ann Laura Stoler (2002) and resulted in the construction of an institutional digital archive in Princeton University Library’s Digital Repository that preserves these texts as a new public, global, “site of knowledge production.” It will explore how, In the course of visiting shrines, photographing shrinescapes, and interviewing community elders, I became aware of a pronounced “nasab-mindedness (to borrow from Hodgson).
Date: 04/22/2021
Conference Name: International Symposium on Genealogical History in the Persianate World. The Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University, and The College of New Jersey
Nasir-i Khusraw and the Political Vectors of the Late Fatimid Da'wa (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Nasir-i Khusraw and the Political Vectors of the Late Fatimid Da'wa
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Date: 12/6/2021
Conference Name: Fatimid Cosmopolitanism: History, Material Culture, Politics and Religion, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London (online)
Genealogy (nasab-nāma) as a Source for the History of the Central Asian Ismāʿīlī Tradition (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Genealogy (nasab-nāma) as a Source for the History of the Central Asian Ismāʿīlī Tradition
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Date: 11/17/2021
Conference Name: Central Asian Islamic Manuscript Cultures Symposium, Tashkent (online)
Of Stranger Kings and Old Men of the Mountains: Rethinking the Social Dimensions of the Ismaili Daʿwa (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Of Stranger Kings and Old Men of the Mountains: Rethinking the Social Dimensions of the Ismaili Daʿwa
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Date: 8/7/2021
Conference Name: Third International Ismaili Studies Conference, Leiden University (online)
Genealogy as an Artifact of Islamization (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Genealogy as an Artifact of Islamization
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Date: 04/22/2021
Conference Name: Genealogical History in the Persianate World, Princeton University (online)
The Politics of Autonomy in Mongol Central Asia: The 'Ali-Shahids of Badakhshan (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: The Politics of Autonomy in Mongol Central Asia: The 'Ali-Shahids of Badakhshan
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Date: 02/27/2021
Conference Name: 28th Annual ACES Conference, Indiana University (online)
The Ismailis of Badakhshan: Conversion and Narrative in Highland Asia (Article)Title: The Ismailis of Badakhshan: Conversion and Narrative in Highland Asia
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Year: 2021
Primary URL Description: N/A
Format: Other
Periodical Title: The Routledge Handbook of Islam in Asia
Publisher: Routledge
After the Eclipse: Shaykh Khalīlullāh Badakhshānī and the Legacy of the Kubravīyah in Central Asia (Article)Title: After the Eclipse: Shaykh Khalīlullāh Badakhshānī and the Legacy of the Kubravīyah in Central Asia
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Year: 2021
Primary URL Description: N/A
Access Model: in the book, From the Khan's Oven: Essays on the History of Central Asian Religions in honor of Devid DeWeese, ed. Jeff Eden, et al.
Publisher: Brill Pubishers
The Ismaili Tradition in Iran: 13th Century to the Present (Article)Title: The Ismaili Tradition in Iran: 13th Century to the Present
Author: Daniel Beben
Abstract: N/A
Year: 2021
Primary URL Description: Published in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, ed. David Ludden
Secondary URL Description: N/A
Format: Other
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Conference and Exhibition of Calligraphy and Manuscripts in Honor of the 150th Anniversary of Shahzodamuhammad ibn Saidfarrukhshoh, Astrologer, Scientist, Calligrapher and Folk Healer of Late 19th-Early 20th Century (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Conference and Exhibition of Calligraphy and Manuscripts in Honor of the 150th Anniversary of Shahzodamuhammad ibn Saidfarrukhshoh, Astrologer, Scientist, Calligrapher and Folk Healer of Late 19th-Early 20th Century
Abstract: N/A
Author: Umed Mamadsherzodshoev
Date: 12/10/2020
Location: Institute of Humanities of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Khorogh, Badakhshan
Primary URL Description: N/A
In'ikosi farhangi davlatdori dar "Ta'rikhi shohoni Shughnon"-i Sayid Farrukhshoh"-ro ba majallai "Mas'alahoi ilmhoi gumanitari (Article)Title: In'ikosi farhangi davlatdori dar "Ta'rikhi shohoni Shughnon"-i Sayid Farrukhshoh"-ro ba majallai "Mas'alahoi ilmhoi gumanitari
Author: Umed Mamadsherzodshoev
Abstract: N/A
Year: 2021
Primary URL Description: N/A
Format: Journal
Publisher: Dushanbe