Ismaili Hymns from South Asia

The Aga Khans have long played a prominent part on the international stage, but much less tends to be understood about the most important group of their followers, the Khoja Ismailis of South Asia, who are now also settled in many other parts of the world. Even less is generally known about the hymns, called ginans, which have historically formed so central an element in the religious life and rituals of the Ismaili community. The principal aim of this anthology is to fill this gap by providing a sympathetic introduction to this still largely unexplored tradition of South Asian devotional literature, and to draw attention to the many features of remarkable interest which it contains.

Ismaili Hymns from South Asia: An Introduction to the Ginans

Moir, Zawahir

Shackle, Christopher

Reference

Routledge

Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity

This book brings together new approaches to the study of Sikh religion, culture and ethnicity being pursued in the diaspora by Sikh academics in western universities in Britain and North America. An important aspect of the volume is the diversity of topics that are engaged - including film and gender theory, theology, hermeneutics, deconstruction, semiotics and race theory - and brought to bear on the individual contributors' specialism within Sikh studies, thereby helping to explode previously static dichotomies such as insider vs. outsider or history vs. tradition. The volume should have strong appeal both to an academic market including students of politics, religious studies and South Asian studies, and to a more general English-speaking Sikh readership.

Singh, Gurharpal

Mandair, Arvind-Pal S.

Thanks largely to the matchless collection of mystical hymns in the local language of Siraiki, Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1845-1901), of Chacharan in the former princely state of Bahawalpur, continues to enjoy an enormous local reputation. In each area of Pakistan, there is one great figure of the literary past who has achieved the status of a patron saint and a symbol of local identity; and in the Siraiki-speaking area, this figure is unquestionably Ghulam Farid. Comprised of a collection of both his teachings and poems, the present translation brings the wider public direct access to one of the greatest figures in the literary and spiritual past of Pakistan.
The Teachings, recorded first-hand by the Khwaja’s devoted disciple Rukn ud-Din, capture the unblurred vividness of the Khwaja talking to his disciples in a way that leads the mind gradually and seamlessly into the world of classical Islam. Through these lessons, the Khwaja proves himself to be a scholar with wide intellectual interests as well as a spiritual dignitary of the firmest orthodoxy. A master of the poetic form of the kafi, the present work also exposes the reader to the Khwaja’s sensitivity to beauty and magical ability to handle language through poems which appeal to the emotions as much as they convey religious teaching and profound mystical awareness. The blend of traditional Sufi allegories with the Khwaja’s refreshing originality results in the kind of all-embracing poetic language which can perhaps emerge only once in the history of any given literature.

The Teachings and Poems of Khwaja Ghulam Farid: Selections from the Maqabis-ul-Majalis and Diwan-e-Farid (Malfuzat: Wise Words of Sufi Saints)

Biographies & Memoirs

Farid, Khwaja Ghulam

Arts & Literature

Beacon Books

Hindu and Urdu Since 1800: A Common Reader (English, Hindi and Urdu Edition)

Snell,Rupert

History

South Asia Books

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Books by Shackle, Christopher