Sufi Shrines Research Articles

Morphology and land-use characteristics as key context parameters maintaining the authenticity of living cultural heritage – case of Sufi Shrine (Mazar) of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai Sindh

ABSTRACT The historical, social, political, economic and geographical context plays a significant role in the articulation of a living cultural heritage. Tangible and intangible relationships to heritage add to its authenticity. The complex dynamics of a historic site require insightful documentation, highlighting areas conflicting with the current socio-political and physical built environment. This paper analyzes the case of Mazar of Bhitai, with its focus on the essential role played by morphology and land-use characteristics. Altered and expanded shrines have lost their connection to history, due to major renewals. Socio-spatial connections of place to oldest caretakers need to be documented, respected and supported. Physical mapping of the place and context and qualitative interviews of key stakeholders and participant observation, for performed rituals at the shrine, were mixed methods used. The paper highlights the need to incorporate policies in urban planning and site management of cultural heritage with deep-rooted associations to sustain them.

Religious Inclusiveness and the Medieval Sindhi Sufi Poetry: Intangible Cultural Heritage of Sindh

Cultural heritage in a given society may take the form of both tangible and intangible manifestations. Concerning Sufism in Sindh, manifestations of tangible cultural heritage may include Sufi shrine complexes, sites of meditation and dwellings, Sufi relics, and artifacts of devotion. In contrast, intangible cultural heritage may include, inter alia, Sufi traditions, literary productions, music and dance, festivals, and Sufi ethos. The rich Sufi ethos of multi-ethnic and multi-religious medieval Sindhi society was informed by varied socio-historical traditions. The Sufis of Sindh composed vernacular poetry encompassing the theme of religious inclusiveness and pluralistic accommodation, squarely in line with the eclecticism of the region's religious landscape. It freely imbibed elements from varied local cultural traditions. Sufi poetry, together with centuries-old Sufi practices, allowed fluidity of religious affiliation and created a space where religious identities became inextricably intertwined. However, these identities were communalized and rigidified in colonial and post-colonial periods. Recent years have unfortunately witnessed the growing menace of religious radicalization, considerably undermining the Sufi ethos. The situation calls for devising a coherent strategy to cope with religious radicalization to reclaim and preserve the tolerant cultural heritage of the region.

SUFI SHRINES AND POLITICS OF NEOPATRIMONIALISM: ANALYSIS SINCE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Since the inception of Sufi fraternities, the political elite sought patrimonial relations with them due to their socio-religious prestige, but the twentieth century witnessed the transformation of these relations from patrimonial to neopatrimonial, based on the exchange of services. This paper develops its argument further that sajjadah nashins or care takers of Sufi shrines gave their support in exchange to politico-economic benefits with taking the examples of African and Asian Muslim countries. This research is a qualitative analysis of this mutual exchange based relations of services and benefits, as an impact of growing consumerism in the countries under colonial rule, since the twentieth century. Based on historical empiricism this research finds that those states where political elite saw Sufi fraternities as a potential threat also went through a transformation after the incident of 9/11, for Sufism was categorized as a tolerant side of Islam in contrast to intolerant Islamic militant groups.

Chronic relationships and mental health care: global pharmaceuticals in a local healing shrine in India

The paper explores how chronicities and chronic relationships are fostered at a state-sponsored community psychiatry clinic that has been affiliated with a Sufi shrine in western India. The clinic provides free psychotropic treatment to patients, most of whom are pilgrims visiting the shrine. While the clinic has been lauded for its collaborative approach of blending ‘medicine and prayer’ in the provision of mental health care, observations of clinical encounters reflect the prevalence of a strongly medicalized perspective of mental illness, where local narratives of distress are reframed as globalized categories of mental disorder, thereby permitting pharmacological intervention. Importantly, in a context where free medicines are offered just as other freebies are in development initiatives in India, this results in the creation of long-term, ‘chronic’ relationships with patients who only seem to return for medicines, never recovering. This paper illustrates how ‘chronicity’, in many ways, is built into the project from the beginning itself. It becomes evident in the assumptions of the officials and psychiatrists that mental illness is chronic, in the case files of patients that record their consultation and medication histories, and in the clinical conversations about the importance of compliance to treatment. Given that historically, community mental health emerged in the context of reducing long hospital stays and deinstitutionalizing mental health care, it is important to reflect on how these policies and practices result in the creation of a cadre of chronic out-patients.

Al‐Azhar and the Salafis in Egypt: Contestation of two traditions

<scp>Al‐Azhar</scp> and the Salafis in Egypt: Contestation of two traditions

Politics of Sufism in Pakistan

This paper is an attempt to explicate the emancipatory limits of a historical figure in a caste society. As a case study, it offers a critical analysis of a metaphor of Shah Abdul Latif, the eighteenth-century poet who inherited enormous caste capital as a Sayed and custodian of a Sufi shrine. The poetry and life history of Shah Latif are often invoked by Sindhi nationalists to pose an ontological challenge to the narrative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Situating Latif in the South Asian political context, this paper offers a historiographical analysis of the vernacular literature on the projection of Latif as the prime symbol of emancipation for the Sindhi nation. It contends that Latif, as we know him today, is an anachronistic construct that was initially inspired by the Orientalist motive, and later used by privileged caste Hindus and Ashrafiya morality to feed the performative Sindhi nationalist agenda.

Pilgrimage, performance, and peripatetic kingship: Akbar's journeys to Ajmer and the formation of the Mughal Empire

AbstractBetween 1562 and 1579, the third Mughal emperor Akbar undertook 17 pilgrimages to the Sufi shrine of Muinuddin Chishti in Ajmer in western India. This article analyses them as a form of peripatetic kingship. It studies specific actions of the emperor in and around Ajmer to show how they articulated a specific understanding of monarchy, one that derived legitimacy from the spiritual authority of Sufi masters and sacred sites. It then shows how the strategic location of the town of Ajmer allowed the young emperor to use it as a base for military expansion and political consolidation in western and central India. It also discusses how the journeys allowed Akbar to carry out vital facets of imperial governance, like exploring the realms, forging alliances with local chieftains, and creating public infrastructure. They also served as a public site for the performance of kingship and sovereignty. The final portion of the article explains how a paradigmatic shift in the conceptualisation and performance of Mughal kingship—whereby the ideal of monarchy as a product of Sufi charisma and Islamic piety made way for more universalist and millenarian ideals—brought a sudden end to the pilgrimages after 1579.

Socio-economic and Cultural Impact of Sufi Shrines: A Case Study of Mitthan Kot

Sufi shrines are in large number in Pakistan with having a colossal impact on economic, cultural and social aspects. In the rural areas of Pakistan, mostly people are poor and less educated or uneducated with strong belief and devotion to Sajjada Nasheen. In this context, this study essentially aims to investigate the socio-economic and cultural influence of Sufi shrines in the rural areas of Mitthan Kot (upper Indus basin). This study follows the qualitative research strategy by employing in-depth interviews from different stakeholders. Thematic analysis has been used to analyze the data. The findings of the study also manifest that the local community is closely inter-connected with shrines encompassing different facets. A large chunk of rural population in the proximity of shrines is entirely dependents on shrines for their earnings and engaged in jobs like garments shops, catering services, transportation system etc. All of these employment activities boost up the local economy as well as the national economy. In the same fashion, people also enjoy cultural festivals like Urs and Mela which is a great source of spiritual happiness and entertainment. Besides all of this, various medical facilities like free eye camp and literacy conventions also play a vital role in the betterment of poor people. So there is a dire need for further development, improvement and regulation in the functioning of shrines and money generation thereof for proper incorporation in national economy.

1. Barkat and Happiness: South Asian Sufi Shrines in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

During the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, architectural spaces of Sufi shrines in South Asia affected the ideas, feelings, and behavior of the shrine-based communities. Acting as/Being a medium between humans’ thinking, memory, feeling, and their surroundings, architecture has the capacity to invoke various emotions such as happiness and sadness in them. The intensity with which architecture can influence the human emotion can at times be quite overwhelming. Sacred Sufi architectural spaces in South Asia perform similar functions, where people perform various rituals to attain baraka and experience the emotion of joy and happiness

Review: Four Central Asian Shrines: A Socio-political History of Architecture

Review: <i>Four Central Asian Shrines: A Socio-political History of Architecture</i>

Hierarchy into Heterarchy

Abstract This article addresses the heterarchical dynamism generated by the reorganization of sacred geographies in India and the Arabian Peninsula through contemporary iconographies and religious practices. The cities at the top of the orthodox Islamic/Arab sacred, authoritative hierarchy have lost their status in the current Indian context both concretely and symbolically, and have become equated, embedded, or subordinated to the Indian space. This dynamism is unfolding primarily in Indian vernacular spaces: in the material culture and audiovisual media produced and sold in Islamic bazaars in proximity to Sufi shrines; and in public religious practices that are reshuffling the sacred spaces of both India and the Hijaz, manifesting a polyphonic, at times rhizomatic fabric corresponding to social theorist Kyriakos Kontopoulos’s definition of a heterarchy.

A Culture of Tears: Shrine of Bibi Pak Daman in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The emotion of tears is significant in the history of Sufism. Tears define social relationships between individuals and communities associated with Sufi shrines. This article discusses the role of tears in shaping the social relationships between individuals and communities related to the Shrine of Bibi Pak in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The culture of tears was based on various traditions and stories which were narrated on special occasions.

Sufism, Miracles and Oceanic Fatwas: The Beloved of North Jakarta

Abstract This article examines stories, hagiographies, fatwas, and treatises related to the grave of a sayyid miracle worker (keramat) buried in North Jakarta. It is a product of research that began in 2008 when I first visited the Sufi shrine of the eminent keramat, Habib Hussein al-ʿAydarus (d. 1169/1756), in the village of Luar Batang. Herefrom, I enjoyed access to a series of documents, oral traditions and miracle stories, along with invaluable information via conversations with Sufi elders, devotees, and Habib Hussein’s kinsmen. This article begins by introducing the Luar Batang shrine and stories of the keramat’s apparitions that continue to be told in the village. It discusses a twenty-first century moment when the keramat was seen by some to resist urban redevelopment and collude with controversial Islamists and Sunni vigilantes. His apparitions and miracle stories reminded votaries of his immortal history of resisting colonialism, secularism, Islamophobia and ‘Christianisation’. From this contemporary moment, the article turns its attention towards hagiographies produced in twentieth-century Java by the historians of Sufi networks, before analysing fatwas on the keramat produced in the late nineteenth century by Islamic scholars (ulama) from Yemen, Mecca, Medina and Java concerning revenue, inheritance, and the legality of customs at the Luar Batang shrine. The article works backwards from a contemporary moment in order to introduce readers to the keramat, village and grave and his historical and peripatetic life in Gujarat, Hadramaut and Java, before highlighting how the shrine of a seemingly peripheral village in Jakarta has been a key concern for authorities across the Islamic world and an Indian Ocean-wide devotional community. Miracle stories and hagiographies praising the keramat as the exemplar of Sunnism and Shafiʿism, as well as fatwas defending the customs of his shrine as being inviolable ones, encourage us to discard the still-regnant academic divisions of Sharia/Custom and Sufis/Ulama. Together, they tell a story of miraculous narratives, devotional cultures, social memories and sacral places that are often pushed to the margins of religious studies but refuse to fade into oblivion.

Examples of submerged Sufi shrines in Baghdad (an archaeological study)

This paper is concerned with studying examples of submerged shrines in Baghdad, and they are many, from which we chose three: the tomb of Sheikh Muhammad al-Azhari, the tomb of Qilij Arslan, and the tomb of Ibrahim al-Fadl. Despite the ancient and historical importance of these three tombs, they were neglected and were not previously documented in an archaeological scientific study. That is why the researcher sought to document these three mausoleums with a descriptive and analytical study that relied on field visits, and to develop a plan for each mausoleum showing its exact shape and measurements, and to reinforce that with photographs. As well as studying the tombs and writings that were found on the graves of the owners of the tombs under study and emptying the decorations and writings executed in the form of artistic paintings, in the hope of protecting them from demolition and change carried out by some government institutions. The study has reached results that the researcher hopes will be useful in the field of academic studies specialized in late Islamic antiquities, as they document important landmarks in Baghdad; It contributes to revealing important aspects of religious architecture to make it a link in the chain of shrines recorded in the world of architecture.

The contagion of mental illness: Insights from a Sufi shrine.

In this article, an anthropologist and a psychiatrist examine a Sufi shrine-based concept of affliction known as asrat (an "effect" in Hindi-Urdu, "difficulty" in Arabic) and related practices of healing in urban north India. Rather than being located in an individual body, asrat afflictions are shared, most often within a household or kinship group. Through surveys, clinical assessments, and ethnographic work, we track three different ways in which afflictions move between bodies, and the mechanisms at work in asrat healing processes. Rather than a "collectivist" concept of the psyche, we suggest that a key role of shrine-based therapeutic processes is to manage a "suspicion system," related to experiences of psychic and economic injuries and conflict between intimates and kin. Through a multi-sited research design that moves across a leading Sufi shrine, an urban poor neighborhood in Delhi, and one of India's leading psychiatric facilities, we argue that within asrat-related processes, psychic vulnerabilities are addressed by "re-combining" relations through forms of inter-subjective attunement within a smaller segment of the kin group, potentially making symptoms and the burden of care and conflict more livable. We suggest that shrine-based concepts and practices may be cross-culturally significant, even for secular understandings of the inter-subjective dimensions of mental illness.

Senses of Belonging: Materiality, Embodiment, and Attunement at Sufi Shrines in India

Senses of Belonging: Materiality, Embodiment, and Attunement at Sufi Shrines in India

Sufi Shrine as Space of Hegemonic Struggle in Pakistan

In the post-9/11 period, while the rise of the Taliban and their alliance with Al-Qaeda accelerated radicalism in Pakistan, Sufism and Sufi shrines have been awarded the status of an antidote to counter the extremist propensities of orthodox Islam typically associated with mosques and madrasas. Nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, sectarian schism, loathing and violence have also been witnessed at several Sufi shrines across Pakistan. The article explores the dynamics of power struggle at the shrine of Bari Imam in Islamabad, Pakistan, while examining the role of sectarian conflicts and violence in achieving the desire for social and economic hegemony. Ethnographic research design was employed, involving participant observation while partaking in different activities of the shrine. Also, respondents including members of the Auqaf Department, pilgrims, caretaker(s) of the Bari Imam shrine and inhabitants of the area were interviewed. The respondents include both males and females of diverse age groups belonging to various socio-economic statuses, sectarian affiliation and educational backgrounds. The findings propose that regardless of the spiritual character of the Bari Imam shrine, it has become a pivot of economic and political power struggle, eventually engendering and escalating sectarian discord, violence and detestation.

Book review: Yogesh Snehi. Spatialising Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality

Yogesh Snehi. Spatialising Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality (Routledge, South Asian Edition), Shimla 2019, xx + 256 pp., ₹995 (hb).

Umber Bin Ibad, Sufi Shrines and the Pakistani State. The End of Religious Pluralism

Umber Bin Ibad, Sufi Shrines and the Pakistani State. The End of Religious Pluralism

Spatializing Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality

Spatializing Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality