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L U C I S C O N F E R E N C E<br />
ANTINOMIAN MOVEMENTS IN ISLAM<br />
Ideas of Violence and N<strong>on</strong>-Violence <strong>in</strong> Islamic Mysticism<br />
C<strong>on</strong>vened by Asghar Seyed-Gohrab<br />
W E D N E S D A Y 3 & T H U R S D A Y 4 J U N E 2 0 1 5<br />
M A I N C O N F E R E N C E R O O M U N I V E R S I T Y L I B R A R Y ( W I T T E S I N G E L 2 7 , L E I D E N )<br />
<br />
<br />
www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/lucis/activiteiten<br />
Registrati<strong>on</strong> via lucis@hum.leidenuniv.nl<br />
LUCIS<br />
Leiden University Centre for<br />
the Study of Islam and Society
Ant<strong>in</strong>omian Movements <strong>in</strong> Islam<br />
Ideas of Violence and N<strong>on</strong>-Violence <strong>in</strong> Islamic Mysticism<br />
Programme<br />
Day One: Wednesday, 3 June 2015<br />
9:15 Coffee/tea<br />
9:45 Welcom<strong>in</strong>g address: Asghar Seyed-Gohrab<br />
Chair: Le<strong>on</strong>ard Lewisohn<br />
10:00-11:00 Alan Williams – Ant<strong>in</strong>omianism as a Mystical Trope <strong>in</strong> Rumi’s Masnavi<br />
11:00-12:00 Ahmet Karamustafa – The Abdals of Rum <strong>in</strong> the Mirror of Hagiography<br />
12:00-13:30 Lunch (Only for speakers and <strong>in</strong>vitees)<br />
Chair: Asghar Seyed-Gohrab<br />
13:30-14:30 Le<strong>on</strong>ard Lewisohn – The Spiritual Reality, Social Significance and<br />
Poetic Topos of the Wildman (Qalandar) <strong>in</strong> 14-15th Century Persian<br />
Poetry<br />
14:30-15:30 Rokus de Groot – Qalandar transformati<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's<br />
performances<br />
15:30-16:00 Break<br />
16:00-17:00 Mohammad-Reza Shafi’i-Kadkani – Qalandar: a Def<strong>in</strong>iti<strong>on</strong><br />
D<strong>in</strong>ner (Only for speakers and <strong>in</strong>vitees)
Day Two: Thursday, 4 June 2015<br />
9:00-9:30 Coffee/tea<br />
Chair: Rokus de Groot<br />
9:30-10:30 Jan Schmidt – From heretic revoluti<strong>on</strong>aries to <strong>in</strong>trigu<strong>in</strong>g courtiers; the<br />
role of mystics <strong>in</strong> Ottoman history<br />
10:30-11:30 Mathew Thomas Miller – The ‘Rogue Lyrics’ of Medieval Persian Poetry:<br />
The Qalandariyyat as Heterotopic Countergenre of the Sufi Carnival<br />
11:30-12:00 Break<br />
12:00-13:00 Michiel Leezenberg – Ant<strong>on</strong>omianism am<strong>on</strong>g the Kurds: Language,<br />
Law, Religi<strong>on</strong><br />
13:00-14:30 Lunch (Only for speakers and <strong>in</strong>vitees)<br />
Chair: Jan Schmidt<br />
14:30-15:30 Alireza Korangi – Qalandar, Qalandarī and ‘Ayyarī <strong>in</strong> Indo-Persian<br />
Literature: A case of Proto-“Indian Style” Bū Alī Qalandar and His<br />
Muhammadan Poetics<br />
15:30-16:30 Asghar Seyed-Gohrab – The Recepti<strong>on</strong> of the Qalandars <strong>in</strong> the<br />
Caucasus? Nizami Ganjavi and Other Poets of the Regi<strong>on</strong><br />
16:30-17:00 F<strong>in</strong>al remarks
Titles, Abstracts and Biographies<br />
Alan Williams (University of Manchester and British Academy)<br />
این ثنا گفتن ز من ترکِ ثناست<br />
کین دلیلِ هستی وهستی خطاست<br />
Ant<strong>in</strong>omianism as a Mystical Trope <strong>in</strong> Rumi’s Masnavi<br />
Whereas Rumi’s ghazals are full of extravagances of expressi<strong>on</strong> that often appear to<br />
be <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong> and anti-shariʿa, they are <strong>in</strong> fact extended shaṭḥhā, ecstatic<br />
utterances. The Masnavi <strong>on</strong> the other hand is known as a more sober text,<br />
extravagant perhaps <strong>on</strong>ly <strong>in</strong> its great size and depth. However there are <strong>in</strong>deed<br />
passages <strong>in</strong> the Masnavi that seem to extol unreas<strong>on</strong>, unbelief and <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong> ideas<br />
as preferable to mundane wisdom, c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>al belief and everyday morality. In<br />
this paper I explore the noti<strong>on</strong> that <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong>ism for Rumi is a mystical (ʿerfāni)<br />
trope. It is <strong>on</strong>e of the major weap<strong>on</strong>s <strong>in</strong> his arsenal of combat <strong>in</strong> the greater struggle<br />
aga<strong>in</strong>st the double entrapment of sensualist c<strong>on</strong>formity and dualistic th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g. The<br />
shackles of religious literalism enable the nafs to c<strong>on</strong>t<strong>in</strong>ue to dom<strong>in</strong>ate the ruḥ and<br />
dogmatism to triumph over true piety. Rumi’s <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong> tropes resemble<br />
explosives that de-centre c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>al forms of thought: neither practical , nor<br />
theoretical nor purely literary <strong>in</strong> type, his <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong>ism is didactic of a mystical<br />
understand<strong>in</strong>g. Evasive of <strong>in</strong>tellectual formulati<strong>on</strong>, they thrive <strong>in</strong> the live<br />
envir<strong>on</strong>ment of poetry, fed by metaphor, hyperbole and imag<strong>in</strong>ati<strong>on</strong>. But they<br />
become desiccated and shrivelled when prised out <strong>on</strong>to the cold ground of prose<br />
philosophy and theology.<br />
Alan Williams (b.1953, W<strong>in</strong>dsor, England) was educated at the universities of<br />
Oxford and SOAS, L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>. He is Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative<br />
Religi<strong>on</strong> at the University of Manchester and c<strong>on</strong>currently British Academy Wolfs<strong>on</strong><br />
Research Professor. His research <strong>in</strong>terests span the literatures and cultures of pre-<br />
Islamic and Islamic Iran, with published studies of Pahlavi, Classical and Modern<br />
Persian texts. His most recent books are Spiritual Verses (Masnavi I), Pengu<strong>in</strong><br />
Classics, 2006 and The Zoroastrian Myth of Migrati<strong>on</strong> … Qeṣṣe-ye Sanjān, Brill, 2009.<br />
He is currently work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>on</strong> a new study and complete translati<strong>on</strong> of Rumi’s Masnavi.<br />
***<br />
Ahmet T. Karamustafa (University of Maryland)
The Abdals of Rum <strong>in</strong> the Mirror of Hagiography<br />
What is nowadays called the Alevi-Bektaşi traditi<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> Turkey is def<strong>in</strong>itely not a<br />
unitary traditi<strong>on</strong>, and the outl<strong>in</strong>es of its early history, especially before the sixteenth<br />
century, are fuzzy at best and obscure at worst. Turkish speakers clearly benefited<br />
from multiple sources <strong>in</strong> fashi<strong>on</strong><strong>in</strong>g their religious thought and practice, and my aim<br />
<strong>in</strong> this talk is to direct attenti<strong>on</strong> to <strong>on</strong>e of those wellspr<strong>in</strong>gs they drew from, namely<br />
dervish piety as represented by a nebulous group that historians of Anatolia and the<br />
Balkans refer to as abdalan-ı Rum, follow<strong>in</strong>g the example of the chr<strong>on</strong>icler<br />
Aşıkpaşazade (d. 889/1484). Whether or not the abdals of Rum may have been<br />
<strong>in</strong>terc<strong>on</strong>nected as a loose social group<strong>in</strong>g through master-disciple relati<strong>on</strong>ships,<br />
regi<strong>on</strong>al attachments, dist<strong>in</strong>ctive practices and the like rema<strong>in</strong>s a matter of<br />
c<strong>on</strong>jecture, but it is likely that what led c<strong>on</strong>temporary observers such as<br />
Aşıkpaşazade to subsume them under a s<strong>in</strong>gle head<strong>in</strong>g was their l<strong>in</strong>guistic practice:<br />
as opposed other dervish groups like the Qalandars, Ḥaydarīs, Jāmīs, and Shams-i<br />
Tabrīzīs, who most probably spoke Persian (at least dur<strong>in</strong>g the thirteenth and<br />
fourteenth centuries), the abdals of Rum spoke Turkish. The richest historical<br />
sources for this Turkish dervish piety are, of course, hagiographical texts <strong>in</strong> Turkish<br />
that beg<strong>in</strong> to proliferate dur<strong>in</strong>g the sec<strong>on</strong>d half of the fifteenth century, and my talk<br />
will be an attempt to tap this sizeable hagiographical corpus for what they can<br />
reveal to us about abdal piety, its salient features and its social as well as cultural<br />
c<strong>on</strong>text.<br />
Ahmet T. Karamustafa is Professor of History at the University of Maryland,<br />
College Park. His expertise is <strong>in</strong> the social and <strong>in</strong>tellectual history of Sufism <strong>in</strong><br />
particular and Islamic piety <strong>in</strong> general <strong>in</strong> the medieval and early modern periods.<br />
His publicati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>in</strong>clude God’s Unruly Friends (University of Utah Press, 1994) and<br />
Sufism: The Formative Period (Ed<strong>in</strong>burgh University Press & University of California<br />
Press, 2007). He is currently work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>on</strong> two book projects titled The Flower<strong>in</strong>g of<br />
Sufism and Vernacular Islam: Everyday Muslim Religious Life <strong>in</strong> Medieval Anatolia.<br />
***<br />
Le<strong>on</strong>ard Lewisohn (University of Exeter)<br />
The Spiritual Reality, Social Significance and Poetic Topos of the Wildman (Qalandar) <strong>in</strong><br />
14-15th Century Persian Poetry<br />
The type of radical Sufi who could comb<strong>in</strong>e the c<strong>on</strong>traries of both faith and <strong>in</strong>fidelity<br />
with<strong>in</strong> himself was represented by several pivotal terms <strong>in</strong> Persian poetic symbolism.
References <strong>in</strong> Persian poetry to these terms—such as qalandar (‘wildman’ – a rov<strong>in</strong>g<br />
mystic unattached to religious formalities, the Persian versi<strong>on</strong> of the H<strong>in</strong>du Saddhu)<br />
r<strong>in</strong>d (rogue) and qallāsh (rascal)—as J.T.P. de Bruijn has noted, “were traditi<strong>on</strong>ally<br />
subsumed under the head<strong>in</strong>g kufriyyāt [‘S<strong>on</strong>gs of Infidelity’].” 1<br />
Although the qalandariyyāt genre of poetry (‘Wild-man Poetry’) featured blasphemous<br />
poetic images, and was literally <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong>, its authors were usually themselves “pious<br />
Muslims who put much emphasis <strong>on</strong> the obedience to God’s will as it was laid down <strong>in</strong><br />
the sharī‘at.’ 2 Typically, the qalandar’s abode was the kharābāt, the Tavern of Ru<strong>in</strong><br />
which ubiquitously encompassed good, evil, beauty, ugl<strong>in</strong>ess, and every k<strong>in</strong>d of faith<br />
and <strong>in</strong>fidelity. C<strong>on</strong>sequently, <strong>in</strong> the literary genre of kufriyyāt and qalandariyyāt, the<br />
true ‘<strong>in</strong>fidel’ is beheld as the poet’s (and by extensi<strong>on</strong>, the reader’s) own ego. To<br />
expound the subtleties of Sufi <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong> theology and elaborate the paradoxical faith<br />
susta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g such mystical <strong>in</strong>fidelity, chapters of books and sometimes whole treatises<br />
were composed by some of the major Persian Sufi masters from the 13 th to 16 th<br />
centuries.<br />
As a quasi-Sufi <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong> movement, the <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong>ism of the qalandar dervishes<br />
had basically three characteristics:<br />
• By eschew<strong>in</strong>g ritual obligati<strong>on</strong>s, they c<strong>on</strong>travene the Sharī‘a “<strong>in</strong> spirit if not<br />
always <strong>in</strong> letter, by adopt<strong>in</strong>g patently scandalous and antisocial practices.” 3<br />
• They were c<strong>on</strong>stantly engaged <strong>in</strong> music-mak<strong>in</strong>g, us<strong>in</strong>g tambour<strong>in</strong>es, drums,<br />
danc<strong>in</strong>g and s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> public cerem<strong>on</strong>ies. 4<br />
• They were radical dissenters from established religi<strong>on</strong>. “The [qalandar]<br />
dervishes negated the exist<strong>in</strong>g social structure <strong>in</strong> all its dimensi<strong>on</strong>s…They<br />
cheerfully proceeded to replace the prescriptive and proscriptive of the sharī‘ah<br />
by another code of behaviour, <strong>in</strong> which deliberate eschewal of the religious law<br />
played a role.” 5<br />
1 “The Qalandariyyāt <strong>in</strong> Persian Mystical Poetry, from Sanā’ī Onwards,” <strong>in</strong> Le<strong>on</strong>ard Lewisohn (ed.), The<br />
Heritage of Sufism, vol. 2: The Legacy of Mediæval Persian Sufism (1150-1500), (Oxford: Oneworld 1999), p.<br />
85.<br />
2<br />
J.T.P. de Bruijn, Persian Sufi Poetry: an Introducti<strong>on</strong> to the Mystical Use of Classical Poems (L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>:<br />
Curz<strong>on</strong> 1997), p. 75.<br />
3 Ahmet Karamustafa, God’s Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups <strong>in</strong> the Islamic Later Middle Period, (Salt Lake<br />
City: University of Utah Press 1994), p. 18.<br />
4 Ibid, p. 19.<br />
5 Ibid, p. 22.
In this lecture, I will explore the spiritual reality, social significance and poetic topos of<br />
the wildman (qalandar) <strong>in</strong> classical Persian poetry <strong>in</strong> general, focus<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> particular <strong>on</strong><br />
the lyrical poems (ghazal) of six less-known Persian poets of the fifteenth century:<br />
Luṭfu’llāh Nīshabūrī (d. 812/1409), Shāh Ni‘matullāh Walī (d. 835/1431), Kamāl<br />
Ghiyāth Shīrāzī (d. 847/1443), Khiyālī Bukharā’ī (d. 850/1446), Shāh Dā‘ī Shīrāzī (d.<br />
870/1465), Muḥammad Lāhījī (d. 913/1507).<br />
Le<strong>on</strong>ard Lewisohn has written extensively <strong>on</strong> Persian Sufism. He is the author of<br />
Bey<strong>on</strong>d Faith and Infidelity: The Sufi Poetry and Teach<strong>in</strong>gs of Mahmud Shabistari<br />
(L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>: Curz<strong>on</strong> Press 1995), and The Wisdom of Sufism (Oxford: Oneworld 2001).<br />
He is the editor of The Heritage of Sufism (Oxford: Oneworld Publicati<strong>on</strong>s 1999), vol.<br />
1: The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism, vol. 2: Classical Persian Sufism from its<br />
Orig<strong>in</strong>s to Rumi Classical Persian Sufism from its Orig<strong>in</strong>s to Rumi, vol. 3 (with David<br />
Morgan): Late Classical Persianate Sufism: the Safavid and Mughal Period cover<strong>in</strong>g a<br />
millennium of Islamic history. He is also editor (with Christopher Shackle) of The<br />
Art of Spiritual Flight: Farid al-D<strong>in</strong> Attar and the Persian Sufi Traditi<strong>on</strong> (L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>: I.B.<br />
Tauris and the Institute of Ismaili Studies, forthcom<strong>in</strong>g 2006) His articles have<br />
appeared <strong>in</strong> the Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd Ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd<br />
Ed., The Encyclopedia of Religi<strong>on</strong>, 2nd Ed., Encyclopedia Iranica, Iran Nameh, Iranian<br />
Studies, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Bullet<strong>in</strong> of the School of Oriental &<br />
African Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, British Associati<strong>on</strong> for the Study of<br />
Religi<strong>on</strong> Bullet<strong>in</strong>, African Affairs, and Temenos.<br />
He was Research Associate <strong>in</strong> Esotericism <strong>in</strong> Islam at the Department of Academic<br />
Research and Publicati<strong>on</strong>s of the Institute of Ismaili Studies (L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>) from 1999-2005.<br />
S<strong>in</strong>ce 2004 he has been Lecturer <strong>in</strong> Persian and Iran Heritage Foundati<strong>on</strong> Fellow <strong>in</strong><br />
Classical Persian and Sufi Literature at the The Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, at<br />
the University of Exeter <strong>in</strong> England.<br />
Rokus de Groot (University of Amsterdam)<br />
***<br />
Qalandar transformati<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's performances<br />
The figure of the qalandar received worlwide renown <strong>in</strong> the 1980s and 1990s<br />
through the performances of the Pakistani s<strong>in</strong>ger Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-<br />
1997) <strong>on</strong> world music stages and <strong>in</strong> films. His most famous s<strong>on</strong>g was Dam mast
Qalandar, relat<strong>in</strong>g to Muhammad Uthman Marandi, nicknamed Lal Shahbaz<br />
Qalandar (1177-1274), a sa<strong>in</strong>t from S<strong>in</strong>dh. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's render<strong>in</strong>gs of<br />
this s<strong>on</strong>g were ecstatic, and the public, especially <strong>in</strong> Pakistan, resp<strong>on</strong>ded likewise.<br />
As the source of his own performances, he referred to the qawwali practice at Sufi<br />
dargahs (tombs) <strong>in</strong> Pakistan and India, at which the praise of sa<strong>in</strong>ts is sung, This<br />
presentati<strong>on</strong> will c<strong>on</strong>centrate <strong>on</strong> the shift of qawwali practice from the sacred space<br />
of the tomb to public halls by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, his justificati<strong>on</strong> to do so, while<br />
assum<strong>in</strong>g a spiritual role as a s<strong>in</strong>ger, and the role of Dam mast Qalandar <strong>in</strong> this<br />
process.<br />
Rokus de Groot (*1947 Aalst, Netherlands), musicologist and composer, c<strong>on</strong>ducts<br />
research <strong>on</strong> music of the 20th and 21st centuries, especially about aesthetics and<br />
systems of compositi<strong>on</strong>, about the <strong>in</strong>teracti<strong>on</strong> between different cultural and<br />
religious traditi<strong>on</strong>s, and about musical c<strong>on</strong>cepts as a metaphor (polyph<strong>on</strong>y,<br />
counterpo<strong>in</strong>t). He is Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of<br />
Amsterdam. Am<strong>on</strong>g his publicati<strong>on</strong>s are: 'Rumi and the Abyss of L<strong>on</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g', <strong>in</strong> The<br />
Mawlana Rumi Review Vol. 2, ed. L. Lewisohn, Cyprus: Rumi Institute, Near East<br />
University, and Exeter: the Rumi Studies Group of the Institute for Arab and Islamic<br />
Studies, University of Exeter, 2011, p. 60-93; 'Edward Said and Polyph<strong>on</strong>y', <strong>in</strong> A.<br />
Iskandar and H. Rustom (eds.), Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipati<strong>on</strong> and<br />
Representati<strong>on</strong>, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, p. 204-228; 'Music,<br />
Religi<strong>on</strong> and Power: Qawwali as Empower<strong>in</strong>g Disempowerment', <strong>in</strong> M.B. ter Borg<br />
and J.W. van Henten, Powers, Religi<strong>on</strong> as a Social and Spiritual Force, New York:<br />
Fordham University Press, 2010, p. 243-264. He composes music theatre for s<strong>in</strong>gers,<br />
musicians and dancers from different traditi<strong>on</strong>s, such as S<strong>on</strong>g of s<strong>on</strong>gs: The Love of<br />
Mirabai (New Delhi 2005), Layla and Majnun: A Compositi<strong>on</strong> about the Night<br />
(Amsterdam 2006), ShivaShakti (Chennai, 2009) and Hosgeld<strong>in</strong> (Ankara and Burdur,<br />
2014). These are examples of mutual learn<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong>tercultural polyph<strong>on</strong>y.<br />
***<br />
Mohammad-Reza Shafi’i-Kadkani (Tehran University)<br />
Qalandar: a Def<strong>in</strong>iti<strong>on</strong>
Mohammad-Reza Shafi’i-Kadkani is a Persian writer, poet, literary critic, editor,<br />
and translator. Born <strong>in</strong> Nishapur <strong>in</strong> 1939, Shafi’i-Kadkani graduated from Tehran<br />
University with a doctorate degree <strong>in</strong> Persian literature. He was a student of<br />
prom<strong>in</strong>ent figures as Badi’ al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Mohammad Mo’<strong>in</strong>, and Parviz<br />
Natel-Khanlari. He is currently professor of literature at Tehran University. He is<br />
known for his works <strong>on</strong> history of Sufism, literary criticism and modern Persian<br />
poetry. He has published more than hundred articles and many books <strong>on</strong> a wide<br />
range of topics.<br />
***<br />
***<br />
Jan Schmidt (Leiden University)<br />
From heretic revoluti<strong>on</strong>aries to <strong>in</strong>trigu<strong>in</strong>g courtiers; the role of mystics <strong>in</strong><br />
Ottoman history<br />
The paper discusses some aspects of the all-pervad<strong>in</strong>g presence of mystics and<br />
mysticism <strong>in</strong> Ottoman society and literature. From the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g dervish sheiks also<br />
played an important role <strong>in</strong> Ottoman politics. In early days they sometimes were<br />
able to act as local chiefta<strong>in</strong>s, <strong>in</strong> the ‘classical age’ and afterwards they had often a<br />
remarkable power over rul<strong>in</strong>g sultans. The suppressi<strong>on</strong> even of the Bektashis <strong>in</strong> the<br />
early 19 th century or the closure of the tekkes under Atatürk <strong>in</strong> the 1920s did not<br />
end the pervasive <strong>in</strong>fluence of the dervish traditi<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> some circles <strong>in</strong> Turkish<br />
society.<br />
Jan Schmidt is lecturer of Turkish studies at Leiden University. His teach<strong>in</strong>g and<br />
research is primarily c<strong>on</strong>cerned with the history and culture of the Ottoman Empire.<br />
He compiled a catalogue of the Turkish manuscripts kept <strong>in</strong> Dutch public libraries<br />
and museums. His latest publicati<strong>on</strong> is an editi<strong>on</strong> of the corresp<strong>on</strong>dence of the<br />
assyriologist Fritz Rudolf Kraus dur<strong>in</strong>g his exile <strong>in</strong> Istanbul (1937-1949).<br />
***<br />
Matthew Thomas Miller (University of Maryland)<br />
The ‘Rogue Lyrics’ of Medieval Persian Poetry: The Qalandariyyat as Heterotopic<br />
Countergenre of the Sufi Carnival
Although scholars of Sufism frequently discuss qalandari poetry <strong>in</strong> their treatments<br />
of <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong> modes of Sufi piety, these “rogue lyrics” (qalandariyyāt) have<br />
received little attenti<strong>on</strong> to date from literary scholars. Build<strong>in</strong>g <strong>on</strong> J.T.P. de Bruijn’s<br />
prelim<strong>in</strong>ary study of Sanā’ī’s qalandariyyāt, <strong>in</strong> this paper I will map the generic<br />
c<strong>on</strong>tours of the qalandari poetry of Sanā’ī,‘Attār, and ‘Erāqī and adumbrate a new<br />
(heuristic) typology of the qalandariyyāt. Mov<strong>in</strong>g from the generic to <strong>in</strong>tergeneric<br />
level of analysis, I will then positi<strong>on</strong> the qalandariyyāt with<strong>in</strong> the broader generic<br />
landscape of early medieval Persian poetry and argue that it should be read as a<br />
heterotopic countergenre that parodies for spiritual effect medieval panegyric court<br />
poetry (madh/madhiyyāt) and religious-homiletic poetry (e.g. zuhdiyyāt, mawe’zeh).<br />
Matthew Thomas Miller is currently a Roshan Institute Research Fellow (2014-<br />
2015) at University of Maryland, College Park and c<strong>on</strong>sultant for Roshan Institute's<br />
Digital Project <strong>in</strong> Persian Humanities (2014-2015). He is also a PhD student <strong>in</strong> the<br />
Program <strong>in</strong> Comparative Literature and graduate certificate program <strong>in</strong> Women,<br />
Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Wash<strong>in</strong>gt<strong>on</strong> University <strong>in</strong> St. Louis, where<br />
he is complet<strong>in</strong>g his dissertati<strong>on</strong> entitled “The Poetics of the Sufi Carnival: The<br />
‘Rogue Lyrics’ (Qalandariyyāt) of Sanā’ī, ‘Attār, and ‘Erāqī.” Previously, he was<br />
dissertati<strong>on</strong> fellow at Wash<strong>in</strong>gt<strong>on</strong> University <strong>in</strong> St. Louis (2013-2014), a Roshan<br />
Cultural Heritage Institute Fellow (2012-2013), and a Mell<strong>on</strong> Sawyer Doctoral<br />
Fellow (2011-2012). He is the author of the forthcom<strong>in</strong>g (2015) “Fakhr al-Dīn ‘Irāqī:<br />
Poet and Mystic,” <strong>in</strong> Religious and Mystical Literature (Volume VI of A History of<br />
Persian Literature Series).<br />
***
Michiel Leezenberg (University of Amsterdam)<br />
Ant<strong>on</strong>omianism am<strong>on</strong>g the Kurds: Language, Law, Religi<strong>on</strong><br />
The recent, near-genocidal persecuti<strong>on</strong> of the Yezidis <strong>on</strong>ce aga<strong>in</strong> br<strong>in</strong>gs home the<br />
dist<strong>in</strong>ct place of the Kurds <strong>in</strong> the Middle Eastern religious landscape. Kurdish<br />
communities like the Yezidis, the Haqqa, and the Kakais or Yaresan have often been<br />
accused of <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong>ism or heresy; but these claims generally come from hostile<br />
sources. The members of these communities themselves reject such accusati<strong>on</strong>s;<br />
and some of their apparently most deviant behavior turns out to have a background<br />
<strong>in</strong> Sufi ideas about blame (malâmat), or about the devil (Iblîs) despite appearances<br />
be<strong>in</strong>g God’s most loyal servant.<br />
After a brief discussi<strong>on</strong> of legalism and <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong>ism am<strong>on</strong>g these heterodox<br />
groups, I will turn to a seem<strong>in</strong>gly unrelated phenomen<strong>on</strong>: the emergence of<br />
language-based nati<strong>on</strong>alism am<strong>on</strong>g the Kurds. The emergence of nati<strong>on</strong>alism am<strong>on</strong>g<br />
Middle Eastern peoples is often described as result<strong>in</strong>g from the import of Western<br />
European ideas assumed to be alien to local realities; but it was prepared by local<br />
processes of vernacularizati<strong>on</strong> that occurred especially <strong>in</strong> Sufi-<strong>in</strong>spired medrese<br />
circles. These processes, moreover, <strong>in</strong>volved qualitative changes <strong>in</strong> the perceived<br />
relati<strong>on</strong>s between language, religi<strong>on</strong>, and law. I will discuss these <strong>in</strong>terrelati<strong>on</strong>s, first<br />
by discuss<strong>in</strong>g Evliya Çelebi’s doctr<strong>in</strong>es of the vernacular languages spoken <strong>in</strong> the<br />
Ottoman empire and, sec<strong>on</strong>d, <strong>on</strong> discuss<strong>in</strong>g the l<strong>in</strong>guistic and religious dimensi<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of Kurdish vernacularizati<strong>on</strong>. One of the biggest <strong>in</strong>novati<strong>on</strong>s implicit <strong>in</strong> works like<br />
Elî Teremaxî’s eighteenth-century Tesrîfa Kurmancî, the first-ever grammar of<br />
Kurdish, turns out to be the belief that any language other than Arabic can have<br />
rules or laws of grammar (sarf). Early modern vernacularizati<strong>on</strong> thus <strong>in</strong>volved<br />
major rearticulati<strong>on</strong>s of language, law and religi<strong>on</strong>, and turns out to have significant<br />
– if generally tacit – political implicati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
Michiel Leezenberg teaches <strong>in</strong> the Philosophy department and <strong>in</strong> the MA<br />
programme "Islam <strong>in</strong> the Modern World" of the University of Amsterdam. In 2001,<br />
he published Islamic Philosophy: A History (<strong>in</strong> Dutch), which w<strong>on</strong> the Socrates cup<br />
for the best Dutch-language philosophy book of the year. His current research<br />
<strong>in</strong>terests focus <strong>on</strong> the <strong>in</strong>tellectual history of the modern Islamic world, the history<br />
and philosophy of the humanities, and the Kurdish questi<strong>on</strong>. He has given guest
lectures at various universities, at th<strong>in</strong>k tanks and at policymak<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>s. He<br />
regularly c<strong>on</strong>tributes to the Books secti<strong>on</strong> of the nati<strong>on</strong>wide daily NRC Handelsblad.<br />
Alireza Korangy (University of Virg<strong>in</strong>ia)<br />
***<br />
Qalandar, Qalandarī and ‘Ayyarī <strong>in</strong> Indo-Persian Literature: A case of Proto-“Indian<br />
Style” Bū Alī Qalandar and His Muhammadan Poetics<br />
In Persian literature, the noti<strong>on</strong>s of lover and beloved have g<strong>on</strong>e through a myriad<br />
of changes when c<strong>on</strong>cern<strong>in</strong>g post-Safavid poetics. With<strong>in</strong> the poetic paradigm of the<br />
lover as prescribed by a l<strong>on</strong>g history of Persian verse, the idea of qalandarī has been<br />
<strong>on</strong>e of value <strong>on</strong> so many levels, most important of which be<strong>in</strong>g how it creates the<br />
poets’ desired ambiguity as c<strong>on</strong>cerns malāmatī and Sufi ideas and ideals regard<strong>in</strong>g<br />
love and forgo<strong>in</strong>g the self. In what is now post-rati<strong>on</strong>alized as “Indian Style”<br />
literature, qalandar and all that is thematically bound to it <strong>in</strong> terms of poetic and<br />
philosophical ethical observances are treated <strong>in</strong> accordance with a new<br />
understand<strong>in</strong>g of the lover and the beloved and the newly found geo-political<br />
nuances that necessarily were <strong>in</strong>fluential <strong>in</strong> creat<strong>in</strong>g a new understand<strong>in</strong>g. What are<br />
miss<strong>in</strong>g from the prescribed formula for the “Indian Style” <strong>in</strong> terms of historicity are<br />
the Indian poets who were writ<strong>in</strong>g Persian poems l<strong>on</strong>g before the Safavids and l<strong>on</strong>g<br />
before any noti<strong>on</strong> of Bahar’s co<strong>in</strong>age of the “Indian Style” <strong>in</strong> the subc<strong>on</strong>t<strong>in</strong>ent. That<br />
said, this talk aims to discuss the religious motif of qalandarī and ‘ayyārī (and by<br />
extensi<strong>on</strong> the time immemorial lover-beloved relati<strong>on</strong>ship) <strong>in</strong> the poetry of Bū Alī<br />
Qalandar who is the first to write li<strong>on</strong>izati<strong>on</strong>s of the prophet <strong>in</strong> the subc<strong>on</strong>t<strong>in</strong>ent and<br />
had a very str<strong>on</strong>g element of tafrīd <strong>in</strong> his other poetry. What is of particular<br />
importance is how such a poet treated ‘ayyārī and qalandarī at a time when poets <strong>in</strong><br />
India who wrote <strong>in</strong> Persian were hardly ever discussed or even known. Did they<br />
deviate from a path already set for them or did they pave a dist<strong>in</strong>ct path of<br />
<strong>in</strong>dividuality when it came to the idea of qalandar or ‘ayyār? How did religi<strong>on</strong><br />
<strong>in</strong>fluence the noti<strong>on</strong> of the qalandar and was this <strong>in</strong>fluence, if any, lessened <strong>in</strong> the<br />
post-Safavid period?<br />
Alireza Korangy received his Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern<br />
Languages and Civilizati<strong>on</strong>s at Harvard University. His field of research is Classical<br />
Persian and Arabic philology with a special emphasis <strong>on</strong> poetics, rhetoric, and
l<strong>in</strong>guistics. He has also d<strong>on</strong>e extensive research <strong>on</strong> the c<strong>on</strong>temporary l<strong>in</strong>guistics of<br />
Iran and its corresp<strong>on</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g folkloric traditi<strong>on</strong>s (Sorani Kurdish, Kurmanji Kurdish,<br />
Gilaki, Lori, Baluchi, etc.). His first book discussed the development of ghazal poetry<br />
<strong>in</strong> Iran, by highlight<strong>in</strong>g the extensive <strong>in</strong>fluences of the pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and<br />
Classical Arabic poetry <strong>on</strong> the birth of ghazal poetry. Currently he is edit<strong>in</strong>g<br />
numerous volumes of essays deal<strong>in</strong>g with a myriad of subjects such as Persian and<br />
Arabic philology, Islamic philosophy, Islamic historiography, the beloved and Urdu<br />
poetics. His next two m<strong>on</strong>ographs discuss martyrdom <strong>in</strong> Iran and Gilaki literature<br />
respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Middle<br />
Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Virg<strong>in</strong>ia where<br />
he teaches Classical Persian literature, Iranian languages, and other courses <strong>on</strong> the<br />
Middle East and Near East. Previously he taught at the University of Colorado at<br />
Boulder. He is <strong>on</strong>e of the editors <strong>in</strong> chief (with A.A. Seyed-Gohrab) of Internati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
Journal of Persian Literature published by Penn State University Press.<br />
***<br />
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (Leiden University)<br />
The Recepti<strong>on</strong> of the Qalandars <strong>in</strong> the Caucasus?<br />
Nizami Ganjavi and Other Poets of the Regi<strong>on</strong><br />
The <strong>ant<strong>in</strong>omian</strong> dervishes became popular <strong>in</strong> Persia from around the 12 th Century.<br />
These mystics celebrated w<strong>in</strong>e and gambl<strong>in</strong>g, had pierc<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong> their ears, noses and<br />
genitals, <strong>in</strong>dulged <strong>in</strong> the pleasures of homo-erotic love. While criticiz<strong>in</strong>g Islam, they<br />
praised other religi<strong>on</strong>s such as Zoroastrianism and Christianity. Their urge to reject<br />
society and outward piety of the clerical class made them choose nudity, rejecti<strong>on</strong> of<br />
marriage, shav<strong>in</strong>g all facial hair, and us<strong>in</strong>g narcotics. While provok<strong>in</strong>g the clergy<br />
with their irreligious behaviour, they craved for rejecti<strong>on</strong> and criticism, which they<br />
used as a shield to protect their piety. They were afraid that admirati<strong>on</strong> of their<br />
followers would become a source of hypocrisy, and that they would believe <strong>in</strong> their<br />
own sa<strong>in</strong>tly status. In this paper, I will analyse how these mystics and their ideas<br />
were received <strong>in</strong> the Caucasus and Central Asia, <strong>in</strong>vestigat<strong>in</strong>g why several of their<br />
ideas were rejected while certa<strong>in</strong> tenets became popular <strong>in</strong> a wide area both <strong>in</strong><br />
literature and arts.
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab is Associate Professor at Leiden University. His<br />
publicati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>in</strong>clude Soefism: Een levende traditie, (Amsterdam: Prometheus / Bert<br />
Bakker, 2015); Literature of the Early Twentieth Century: From the C<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>al<br />
Period to Reza Shah (ed., Volume XI of A History of Persian Literature, L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> / New<br />
York: I.B. Tauris 2015), Layli and Majnun: Love, Madness and Mystic L<strong>on</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong><br />
Nizami’s Epic Romance, (Leiden / Bost<strong>on</strong>: Brill, 2003), Mirror of Dew: The Poetry of<br />
Ālam-Tāj Zhāle Qā'em-Maqāmi, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Ilex<br />
Fundati<strong>on</strong> Series 14, 2015), Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments <strong>in</strong> Early<br />
Persian Poetry, (Leiden: LUP, 2008, 2010); The Treasury of Tabriz: the Great Il-<br />
Khanid Compendium, (West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University Press, ed. together<br />
with S. McGl<strong>in</strong>n, 2007); (2007) Seyed-Gohrab, A.A. & Gog and Magog: The Clans of<br />
Chaos <strong>in</strong> World Literature, (West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University Press,<br />
together with F. Doufikar-Aerts & S. McGl<strong>in</strong>n, 2007); One Word – Yak kaleme: A 19 th -<br />
Century Persian Treatise Introduc<strong>in</strong>g Western Codified Law (Leiden: LUP, 2008, 2010,<br />
together with S. McGl<strong>in</strong>n); C<strong>on</strong>flict and Development <strong>in</strong> Iranian Film, ed. together<br />
with K. Talattof, (Leiden: LUP, 2013). He has translated several volumes of modern<br />
Persian poetry <strong>in</strong>to Dutch, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the poetry of Sohrâb Sepehri, Forugh<br />
Farrokhzâd, Mohammad-Rezâ Shafi’i-Kadkani, and (together with J.T.P. de Bruijn)<br />
Ahmad Shâmlu, Nâder Nâderpur, and Hushang Ebtehâj. He headed the project Of<br />
Poetry and Politics: Classical Poetic C<strong>on</strong>cepts <strong>in</strong> the New Politics of Twentieth Century<br />
Iran, f<strong>in</strong>anced by a five-year research grant from the Netherlands Organizati<strong>on</strong> for<br />
Scientific Research (NWO). He is the found<strong>in</strong>g general editor of the Iranian Studies<br />
Series at Leiden University Press and the Modern Persian Poetry Series.