Sunni-Shi'i Mausoleums and Saint Veneration in the Turko-Persian world (First Workshop)

Convenor Dr. P.Khosronejad

With collaboration of Institute of Iranian Studies (Univ. of St-Andrews) and French Institute in Edinburgh

VENUE: HEBDOMADOR’S ROOM

DATE: MONDAY 14TH DEC. 2009, 11.15 AM

ALL ARE WELCOME

11.15-11.30

Coffee

11.30-12.45

Prof. Pierre- Jean Luizard (GSRL-CNRS/Paris)

The Revival of Shiite Rituals in Iraq Since the Fall of Saddam Hussein’s Regime Since 2003, visits to the mausoleums of the infallible Shiite Imams of Iraq have increased to an unprecedented extent. The exacerbation of the foremost Shiite rituals has been associated with the implantation of a new political system dominated by Shiite parties. Desire for emancipation and revenge, affirmation of identity, but also rivalries between political parties influence increasingly massive demonstrations. Description of the rebirth of a community through religious rites.

Lunch

14.00-15.15

Prof. Thierry Zarcone (GSRL-CNRS/Paris)

Pilgrimage to the “Second Mekkas:” about a Very Controversial Aspect of Saint Veneration in Central Asia

This presentation will examines the case of the so-called “Second Mekkas” in Central Asia including Chinese Turkestan (today Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), that are the mausoleums of some renowned Muslim saints and the places of major pilgrimages, although this term was used also in many other areas of the Muslim world (Bulgaria, India, China) all being places remote from the Hijaz where the genuine Mekka is situated. A substitute of the pilgrimage to Mekka, to which two or three pilgrimages are considered the equivalent of the “hajj,” these mausoleums became very famous in Central Asia, but they were and are still very criticised by the clerics and qualified as a major impiety. In my opinion, the “Second Mecca” paradigm is twofold: it is either 1. a full substitute of Mecca with the mausoleum of the saint sometimes interpreted as the “Mecca of the Ajam,” i.e; of the Persians, the non Arabs (ex. Takht-i Sulayman at Osh, in Kirghizistan; Ashab al-Kahf at Turfan, and Imam Jafar Sadiq at Khutan in Xinjiang), or, 2: a “Mecca” or a “Kaba” of the Sufis or of the ascetic, i.e. a representation of the “Kaba of the Heart,” a well known expression in the Sufi literature. In this last case, the “Second Mekkas” are also depicted as “Kaba of Khurasan” (ex. Yusuf Hamadani at Marv in Turkmenistan), or “Kaba or Turkestan” (ex. Ahmad Yasavi at Turkistan in Kazakhstan). I’ll finally examines the quite fascinating case of a contemporary “Second Kaba,” erected in 1994 in the Kazakh steppe, in the north of Turkistan (Kazakstan), nearby the tomb of a Yasavi saint, which is, architecturally speaking, a copy conformed to the original Kaba.

15.15-16.30

Dr. Stephanie Bunn (Dept. of Social Anthropology, Univ. of St-Andrews)

Spirits in the Landscape

This paper explores the relationship between Saint's graves and sacred, natural phenomena in the landscape in Central Asia, focussing locally on mazars in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, based on fieldwork conducted in both regions. It begins with an examination of significant national Saints’ tombs in Central Asia, including Suleiman To'o in Kyrgyzstan, the tomb of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Kazakhstan, and of Abu Yaqub Yusuf Khamidani in Turkmenistan. The paper then compares practices at these mazars, including the role of food and animals in ceremonies, with practices at specific mazars (both natural sites and ancestors graves) around the Issyk-kul and Jumghal areas in Kyrgyzstan and in Jyrgatal in Tajikistan. My concern is to reveal the relationships between these two kinds of mazar in terms of relationship with land, animals and the wider environment.

Break

17.00-18.15

Dr. Alexandre Papas (EHESS-CNRS/Paris)

Saint Veneration and Rituals in Xinjiang: Past and Present

Based on source material as well as recent fieldworks, this paper will address the question of continuity and discontinuity of rituals in Muslim saint veneration. I will make use of primary sources (pilgrimage accounts, hagiographies, chronicles) and secondary works (mainly Western travelogues and recent ethnographic studies) and compare their data with my own fieldwork observations. From 2001 and 2008, I have visited about forty shrines (mazar) in various parts of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Western China. I will focus on particular shrines and analyse how rituals survived, evolved or disappeared throughout the modern and contemporary periods.

18.15-18.45

Concluding remarks

Prof. Thierry Zarcone
Dr. Pedram Khosronejad

Please book your place at:

pk18@st-Andrews.ac.uk