Ismaili Community Research Articles

Minority, Marginality and Modernity

Abstract Ismailis are a minority community within the larger world of Sunni and Shia Muslims and were persecuted by conservative Muslim religious and political leaders. They were marginalised in the social, cultural and political arena and were forced to dissimulate their faith in order to avoid adversarial confrontation by hostile forces. Scholars and writers in the Muslim world avoided any objective and candid discussions of the community fearing that they might encounter severe reprisal by their own dogmatic and biased leaders. In Afghanistan, the Hazara Ismailis experienced discrimination, marginalisation and repression because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs. They endured years of political, social, cultural and economic deprivation. However, their situation improved after the downfall of the Taliban rule in late 2001. Although Ismailis, for the most part, were treated as footnotes in most historical literature, they became the main topic of historical and development literature after their spiritual leader, His Highness the Aga Khan iv and present Imam of the Ismailis worldwide, got involved in the reconstruction of Afghanistan’s war-torn infrastructures. Parallel to this endeavour, the Aga Khan also abolished the hereditary system of leadership in the Ismaili community, established modern institutions and appointed a new generation of leaders to guide the community.

Wafi A. Momin (ed.): Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond. xv, 481 pp. London: I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2022.

Wafi A. Momin (ed.): Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond. xv, 481 pp. London: I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2022.

Charting the Future of the Ginans: Needs and Expectations of the Ismaili Youth in the Western Diaspora

Objective – The heritage of ginans of the Nizari Ismaili community comprises hymn-like poems in various Indic dialects that were transmitted orally. Despite originating in the Indian subcontinent, the ginans continue to be cherished by the community in the Western diaspora. As part of a study at the University of Saskatchewan, an online survey of the Ismaili community was conducted in 2020 to gather sentiments toward the ginans in the Western diaspora. This article presents the results of the survey to explore the future of the ginans from the perspective of the English-speaking Ismaili community members. Methods – An online survey was developed to solicit the needs of the global Ismaili community using convenience sampling. The survey attracted 515 participants from over 20 countries around the world. The English-speaking members of the Ismaili community between 18 to 44 years of age living in Western countries were designated as the target group for this study. The survey responses of the target group (n = 71) were then benchmarked against all other respondents categorized as the general group (n = 444). Results – Overall, 85% of the respondents of the survey were from the diaspora and 15% were from the countries of South Asia including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The survey found that 97% of the target group respondents preferred English materials for learning and understanding the ginans compared to 91% in the general group. Having access to online ginan materials was expressed as a dire need by respondents in the two groups. The survey also revealed that over 90% of the respondents preferred to access private and external ginan websites rather than the official community institutional websites. In addition, the survey validated the unified expectations of the community to see ginans become an educational and scholarly priority of its institutions. Conclusion – Based on the survey results, it can be concluded that the respondents in the target group are educated citizens of English-speaking countries and regard the heritage of ginans to be an important part of their lives. They value the emotive and performative aspects of the tradition that help them express their devotion and solidarity to the Ismaili faith and community. They remain highly concerned about the future of the ginans and fear that the teachings of the ginans may be lost due to lack of attention and action by the community institutions. The development and dissemination of curriculum-based educational programs and resources for the ginans emerged as the most urgent and unmet expectation among the survey respondents. The article also identifies actions that the community institutions can take to ensure continued transmission and preservation of the ginans in the Western diaspora.

Ismaili Revival in Tajikistan: From Perestroika to the Present

This paper explores the changes and challenges that the Tajik Ismaili community faced during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Focusing primarily on the role and significance of internal and external forces of Ismaili religious revival in Tajikistan, which were inspired by Gorbachev’s Perestroika in the last decade of Soviet rule, it advances a broader argument concerning modern Ismaili developments in the country in terms of transformation of religious ideas, institutions and values.&nbsp

Переосмысление средневековых парадигм в эпоху цифровизации на примере общины исмаилитов

The article raises the question of the influence of the Arab-Muslim philosophical paradigm, explicated in the works of medieval Ismaili philosophers, on the choice of the path of development of the Ismaili community in the 21st century. In the first part of the article, the main categorical pairs of the Arab-Muslim dis­course are considered: “explicit – hidden” and “basis – branch”. The creation of the world, according to Ismaili thinkers, is, in fact, the embodiment of “subtle” knowledge into coarse matter. The Universal Soul, the true demiurge of our world, has clothed the knowledge of the Universal Mind in matter both at the level of the physical world and at the level of the world of religion. The task of a person in the picture of the world given by these pairs of metacategories is to “reveal” the hidden knowledge and to know the “truth” of each phenomenon, which is achieved by balancing the hidden and explicit aspects. The second part examines the main activities of the Aga Khan Ismaili Network for development in the 21st century and analyzes the statements of the Ismaili imam that deter­mine the direction of the Ismaili society in our days. The author concludes that the same categorical apparatus remains in the 21st century as in the 11th century, and it has a significant impact on the formation of the concepts of development and direction of the Ismaili community. The category of knowledge remains one of the fundamental categories of the modern Ismaili community and determines the vector of activity of an extensive network of foundations, institutions and or­ganizations. At the same time, in the very structure of the structure of the Aga Khan’s Development Network, one can trace the influence of a pair of meta-cat­egories “basis – branch”, which served as the basis for the formation of the Is­maili state in the 10–11th centuries.

Afrasian Entanglements and Generic Ambiguities in Sultan Somjee’s Bead Bai

Abstract This article looks at Sultan Somjee’s Bead Bai (2012) which focuses on Sakina, a member of the Satpanth Ismaili community living in mid-twentieth century Kenya. Based on nine years of research and interviews with Khoja women who now reside in Western Europe and North America, Bead Bai is generally described as a “historical novel” or an “ethnographic fiction,” yet it also can be thought of as pertaining to the genre of what Brett Smith et al. (2015) call “ethnographic creative nonfiction.” I discuss the ways in which the ‘genre-bending’ aspects of Bead Bai participate in retracing the little-known history of Afrasian entanglements for Asian African women who sorted out, arranged and looked after ethnic beads during colonial times in East Africa. More specifically, I will suggest that, by toying with the boundary between fiction and ethnography, Somjee opens new gendered avenues for reinserting the category of the imaginary at the heart of Afrasian entanglements.

A Struggle for Identity: The Ismailis in the Afghan War (1979-1989)

The paper is a part of a wider research on the Ismaili identity, peculiarities of the Ismailis’ self-identification in various parts of the world under different historical circumstances. The ambiguous status of the Ismailis in Afghanistan turned to be particularly problematic by the end of the 19th century when the Pashtuns became dominant in the traditionally Ismaili-inhabited areas. In a hostile milieu, under severe persecutions, the local Ismaili identity acquired a tendency of unification with other ethno-religious identities, the principle of taqiyya having been widely spread. Since then, the Ismailis became especially dependent on the political situation in Afghanistan and the policy of its rulers towards ethnic and religious minorities. The War of 1979-1989 turned to be the most dramatic episode in the history of the Ismaili community in Afghanistan when its very survival appeared to be questioned: Ismaili intellectuals left the region, and lower social layers got involved in drug cultivation and trafficking. Supporting any of the conflict’s sides could have led to a community tragedy, possibly to its complete annihilation. The limited information we obtained, including the memoirs of the Afghan War veterans, demonstrate the identity split in the Ismaili community of Afghanistan whose members were fighting on the opposite sides of the armed conflict.

Negotiating Identity and Belonging in the Western Indian Ocean: Fluid Enabling Spaces in M.G. Vassanji’s Uhuru Street

This article analyses the short story cycle Uhuru Street, which describes the life of the members of the minority Ismaili community, whom Vassanji fictionalises as Shamsis, in the context of crucial changes in the history of Tanzania. Diaspora, fragmentation and ethnic multiplicity in a really hierarchical tripartite society will be studied within the framework of cross-cultural networking in the Western Indian Ocean, where complex identity relations are established. Our discussion stems from a brief historical genealogy of the Indian community in Tanzania, it analyses the complex identity relations and affiliations among Tanzanian citizens of Indian descent, and moves on to the analysis of Vassanji’s short stories in order to explore those fluid and enabling spaces where identity and belonging are to be negotiated.

Ginān as Tafsīr Literature: The Exegetical Dimensions of a Tradition

The Ginān tradition form a special place in devotional and religious life in the Shia Imami Ismaili Tariqah. Ginānrecitations are ubiquitous in Ismā’īlī devotional life; played in homes, cars, and recited in Jamatkhana on auspicious religious occasions. Ginān recitation likewise comprise a central element of the congregational life of the Shia Imami Ismaili community within Jamā‘atKhāna. The vast corpus of the Ginān literature has long formed part of the spiritual heritage of the South-Asian Ismā’īlī community, and especially in Sindhi, Khoja and Gujarati South Asian communities. This study uses the genre of the Ginān to critically engage the boundary frameworks that can be considered tafsīrliterature and argues that the ginānic narrative are not only communal ‘liturgical’, but highly exegetical and theologically complex examples of a Subcontinent vernacular Shī’ī exegetical tradition.

Shifting Established Mindsets and Praxis in Libraries: Five Insights for Making Non-Western Knowledge Digitally Accessible through Community Engagement

This paper is a reflection on the challenges encountered and decisions made as part of a multi-year community-based action research project to digitally curate a living oral tradition. At the core of this initiative was an exploration of the ways academic librarians in Canada can leverage existing library services and systems and engage with the community to improve accessibility of non-Western knowledge materials. The author collaborated with several members of the Ismaili community across western Canada to find ways to digitally curate their revered oral tradition of ginans (gnostic and devotional hymns) in a culturally respectful and responsible way. The purpose of this article is to share five insights gained during the course of this exploration: 1) value relationships over tasks; 2) accept community engagement as a continuum; 3) learn to appreciate rather than appropriate materials; 4) consider oral sources to be as important as textual ones; and 5) accept community materials as credible knowledge resources.

Elective Affinity as an Intellectual Connection: a Review of Mohammed Arkoun’s Relation to the Institute of Ismaili Studies

A prominent name in modern-day philosophy and a true public intellectual, Mohammed Arkoun (1928–2010) enjoys an international academic reputation. The present article aims to analyse the relationship Arkoun maintained with a specific learning space, the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS). This research institute, based in London, strives to promote research that focuses on Islam and on Muslims and serves as a junction point for the Ismaili community. This paper will attempt to clarify the processes at play in this collaboration between a thinker and an institution: what are the conditions that influence the institutional ties of an intellectual? How is an affinity formed and negotiated between a specific organisational framework and a personal project?

К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ РЕЛИГИОЗНОЙ ОБЩИНЫ В БОЛЬШОМ ГОРОДЕ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ИСМАИЛИТСКОЙ ОБЩИНЫ МОСКВЫ)

Islam and Russian Muslim community play a significant role in social and political life of Russia. It naturally affects the capital of Russia. The given work focuses on the difficulties of ethnological study of the religious community using the example of Ismailites in Moscow. The paper is based on the “insider” experience of study of the Ismaili community in Moscow. The author raises such issues as ethic aspects, definition of the level of religiosity of the studied community, access to the “intimate secrets” of informants, etc. It seemed that after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and diminishing of antireligious discourse it would be easier for researchers to study Islam in all its dimensions. However, the antireligious discourse was substituted by the “veracity” of this or that Islamic direction. The paper highlights major aspects of Ismailism, describes methodological difficulties, that author faced during his fieldwork. After the years of studying Ismailis in Tajikistan and Russia, the author concludes that an insider researcher has many advantages while working with informants, but he faces several difficulties as well. Sometimes his conclusions are not welcomed by members or leaders of the religious community and can even be treated painfully. The author discovered that during their field work insider researchers could could have too much trust in their informants, which can influence the results.

Scaling value: transnationalism and the Aga Khan’s English as a “second language” policy

Against the backdrop of growing sociolinguistic interest in transnationalism, this paper uses the notion of “scale” as an “ideological project” (Irvine in Scale. Discourse and dimensions of social life, University of California Press, California, 2016: 214) to study situated discursive performances of transnationalism amongst Shia Ismaili Muslims in a village in Hunza, Northern Pakistan and the city of Khorog, Eastern Tajikistan. By virtue of the ideological importance granted to English by the Ismaili community’s spiritual leader, the Aga Khan IV, transnational scaling is studied through the window of discourse on English. Specifically, the paper analyses how Ismailis in these two localities appropriate the Aga Khan’s English as a “second language” policy. Drawing on data collected during ethnographic fieldwork, the paper demonstrates how Ismailis make English into an economic and symbolic resource, which is simultaneously used to underscore community-internal sameness and index Ismaili progress. In bringing together an analysis of the discursive construction of local policy appropriation with reflections on transnational scaling practices, the paper makes a novel contribution to both current debates on the spatialisation of language policy discourse (Canagarajah in Reclaming the local in language policy and practice (xiii–xxx), Routledge, London and New York, 2005; Hult in Int J Sociol Lang 202:7–24, Hult 2010; Mortimer and Wortham in Annu Rev Appl Linguist 35:160–172, 2015) and language commodification and value (Heller in J Sociolinguist 7(4):473–492, 2003, Heller in Annu Rev Anthropol 39:101–114, 2010; Tan and Rubdy in Language as commodity: global structures, local market places, Continuum, London, 2008; Duchene and Heller in Language in late capitalism: pride and profit, Routledge, London and New York, 2012; Park and Wee in Markets of English. Linguistic capital and language policy in a globalizing world, Routledge, London and New York, 2012).

English, motility and Ismaili transnationalism

AbstractThe transnational Ismaili community is made up of local communities of Ismailis living in over 25 countries around the world. Despite diversity within and between these communities, the 2.5–12 million Ismailis worldwide share a common identity as Ismaili. Various structures and resources are used to construct and maintain the community. These include an official language – English. In this article, I aim to explore the role of English in connection with Ismaili transnationalism. Drawing on ethnographic data collected during fieldwork in Northern Pakistan and Eastern Tajikistan, and on data taken from digital spaces, I will focus on the movement of local Ismailis away from Northern Pakistan and Eastern Tajikistan, and on the movement of people and ideas to Northern Pakistan and Eastern Tajikistan. I will thereby argue for the importance of including non-mobile individuals in conceptualizations of Ismaili transnationalism. In doing so, I will apply the concept of “motility”, which points to interconnections between social and spatial mobility, and highlights the potential for mobility; and I will underline the role local settings play for transnational processes. In the course of the article, I also demonstrate that Ismaili transnationalism is not homogeneous. Instead, certain people, places and spaces emerge as more relevant to its construction and maintenance. This becomes coupled with access to English and has implications for this issue’s focus on the relationship between South and Central Asian spaces.

Framing Modernization Interventions: Reassessing the Role of Migration and Translocality in Sustainable Mountain Development in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

The Gojal region in northern Pakistan has a comparatively high level of development, virtually unparalleled in Pakistan’s other mountain areas and rural periphery and representing a significant advance over the extreme poverty, recurrent famine, pervasive illiteracy, and feudal oppression that existed until the 1940s. This article analyzes the factors and conditions that made this possible. Various external modernization interventions by state and nonstate agencies, particularly by the Aga Khan Development Network, have been crucial in this respect. The significance of the framing of such interventions for their acceptance and successful implementation is analyzed for the Ismaili community of Gojal. Findings from this case study underline the central importance of local actors’ agency and their proactive and creative response to the changing conditions and new opportunities created during modernizing interventions. Local households’ mobility and migration strategies, in the context of sectoral and spatial...

Religious Authority and Constitutional Order: A case study of the Conciliation and Arbitration Boards (CABs) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Community

This paper discusses the interpretation of the Constitution of the Shia Imami Ismailis via the constitutionally established institutions of the Conciliation and Arbitration Boards (CABs). It views the Constitution as a variety of non-scriptural “religious text” and discusses the social and historical context of the community, the Constitution and the CABs. The paper argues that the structure and operation of the CABs are designed to balance diverse local and contextual factors within the tradition and doctrine of singular Imamat authority and that, in so doing, the interpretational system of the CABs demonstrates how religious texts may be understood in ways that accommodate plurality and community engagement while still preserving hierarchy and authority.

Community and Societal Development

The Problem. Human Resource Development (HRD) scholars and practitioners need to address the problem of conceptualizing HRD in various community settings. The Solution. To address this need, the authors conducted a case study research to explore the role of HRD in developing the Ismaili community in Minnesota. Data analysis revealed four themes: (a) conceptualization of HRD in the Ismaili community of Minnesota, (b) history and examples of HRD efforts in this community, (c) the role of women in the community’s HRD efforts, and (d) the future of HRD in the Ismaili community of Minnesota. The use of HRD within this community was heavily focused on societal development of the community. The Stakeholders. Recommendations for HRD practice (practitioners) and research (researchers) suggest that HRD, especially within religious communities (members and leaders of such communities), be explored with an open mind for the purpose of creating a pluralistic and civil society (all citizens).

Hashwani v Jivraj: London Court of International Arbitration and others intervening: ([2011] UKSC) 40: Supreme Court (England and Wales): Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers PSC, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Lord Mance, Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, Lord Dyson JJSC: 27 July 2011

Arbitration – Arbitrator – Appointment – Joint venture for purposes of property investment including arbitration clause – Arbitrators to be members of Ismaili community – Whether person appointing arbitrator “employer” – Whether restriction on eligibility for appointment constituting discrimination on religious grounds – Whether membership of religious community “genuine occupational requirement” – Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/1660), Regulations 2(3), 6(1), 7(3) – Council Directive 2000/78/EC, Article 3.

Review of Jonah Steinberg, Isma’ili Modern: Globalization and Identity in a Muslim Community

Jonah Steinberg’s Ismaili Modern is a fascinating look at how the various agencies of the Aga Khan, the current Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, function to help mobilize and solidify a transnational Ismaili identity. With a strong theoretical base, aided by some ethnography, Steinberg develops a nuanced portrait of the Aga Khan institutions, and compares them to the more inward looking jamati institutions of the community. Steinberg suggests that modern Ismaili identity is mobilized by constructing a specific reading of history (p. 17), and the main, continuous argument of his book is the significance of various institutions of the Aga Khan. Although he asserts that Ismailis self-represent as ‘Modern Muslims’ (p. 21), he does not support that claim. He does, however, point out that the portrait of the community he paints is one that can challenge simplistic understandings of Muslims and the ‘Islamic World,’ both within intra-Muslim discourse and in popular, ascriptive definitions of the term ‘Muslim.’ His opening chapter on the background of the Ismaili community is perhaps his weakest. Although the history is sound, he attempts to discuss the community theologically but demonstrates a lack of engagement with Religious Studies. His attempt to put 1400 years of theological thinking into a paragraph does not serve the book well (p. 10). After that misstep, the book generally develops its argument well. His first chapter, dealing with the history of the Ismaili community, manages to cover a wide swathe of history. There are two areas that seem to demand more attention for the way he has structured his argument. The first is his observation that the Aga Khan, in establishing his own development network, is fashioning an Islamic modernity that is in conversation with it’s European counterpart, but distinct from it Cont Islam (2013) 7:233–235 DOI 10.1007/s11562-011-0160-0

Nurdin Jivraj v. Sadruddin Hashwani: The English Court of Appeal Erects a Regulatory Barrier to Appointment of Arbitrators in the Name of Anti-Discrimination

In Nurdin Jivraj v. Sadruddin Hashwani, the English Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the English High Court, which had held that arbitrators are not employees within the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief ) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/1660), and held that arbitrators are employees for the purposes of the Regulations. The English Court of Appeal found that an arbitration agreement stipulating that all the arbitrators should be members of the Ismaili community was unlawful and void because such restrictions were contrary to regulation 6(1), which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief in relation to employment. This decision has the potential to restrict the power of parties over the composition of the arbitral tribunal, thereby limiting party autonomy, one of the fundamental principles of international arbitration.