| RZ-255605-17 | Research Programs: Collaborative Research | College of New Jersey | A Documentary History of Ismailism, the Second Largest Branch of Shia Islam, from the 16th-20th Centuries | 10/1/2017 - 6/30/2023 | $301,000.00 | Jo-Ann | | Gross | | | | College of New Jersey | Ewing | NJ | 08628-0718 | USA | 2017 | History, Other | Collaborative Research | Research Programs | 271000 | 30000 | 271000 | 10000 | Preparation for publication of a co-authored
book and the creation of an open access digital repository of primary
documents relating to Ismaili genealogical histories in Badakhshan in Central Asia. (36 months)
This project will examine the genealogical and
documentary history of the Nizari Ismaili community of Badakhshan. The
perception of Badakhshan as a remote and “peripheral region” in the Islamic
world has marginalized the study of Ismailism and the peoples of the Badakhshan
region within the scholarship on Islamic Central Asia. This project undertakes
a detailed study of original Badakhshani Ismaili genealogical histories of pirs
and khalifas from Tajikistan and Afghanistan dating from the 16th-20th
centuries, in addition to letters and financial documents associated with them.
Our goal is to render a defined corpus of these Persian-language texts legible
as historical sources by digitalizing them; identifying their features;
defining the local genres of genealogy, letter writing and document production
as historical practices; and analyzing them as a source for local knowledge of
the Ismaili tradition of Badakhshan. The end result will be an online
open-access digital collection; a printed book manuscript; two international
conference panels and a 1-day symposium at The College of New Jersey. (Edited
by staff) |