Polymaths of Islam

James Pickett

Description

Polymaths of Islam analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who created a shared culture that integrated Central Asia, Iran, and India from the mid-eighteenth century through the early twentieth. James Pickett demonstrates that Islamic scholars were simultaneously mystics and administrators, judges and occultists, physicians and poets. This integrated understanding of the world of Islamic scholarship unlocks a different way of thinking about transregional exchange networks. Pickett reveals a Persian-language cultural sphere that transcended state boundaries and integrated a spectacularly vibrant Eurasia that is invisible from published sources alone. Through a high cultural complex that he terms the "Persian cosmopolis" or "Persianate sphere," Pickett argues that an intersection of diverse disciplines shaped geographical trajectories across and between political states. In Polymaths of Islam he paints a comprehensive, colorful, and often contradictory portrait of mosque and state in the age of empire.

Sujets

• Histoire
• History of the Middle East
• Middle East
• History of religions
• Islam

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501750830
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

POLYMATHS OF ISLAM

POLYMATHS OF ISLAM

POWE R AND NE T WORKS OF KNOWL E DGE I N CE NT RAL ASI A

J a m e s P i c k e t t

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Publication of this book was made possible, in part, by a grant from the First Book Subvention Program of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Copyright © 2020 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2020 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Pickett, James, 1983– author. Title: Polymaths of Islam : Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia / James Pickett. Description: Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020000455 (print) | LCCN 2020000456 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501750243 (cloth) | ISBN 9781501750250 (epub) | ISBN 9781501750830 (pdf ) Subjects: LCSH: Ulama—Uzbekistan—Bukhoro Region—19th century. | Ulama—Political aspects—Uzbekistan—Bukhoro Region. | Bukhoro Region (Uzbekistan) —History—19th century. | Asia, Central—Civilization—Islamic influences. Classification: LCC DS328.2. P48 2020 (print) | LCC DS328.2 (ebook) | DDC 958.7—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000455 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2020000456

Cover photograph: Students in Mudaris, Samarkand. Detail of a photograph taken between 1905 and 1915 by Sergeĭ Mikhailovich ProkudinGorskiĭ. Source: ProkudinGorskiĭ photograph collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

For Herb Pickett (1943–2018), a polymath in his own right

Co nte nts

Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xiii Technical Note xv

 Introduction: Islamic Scholars and the Central Asian Backdrop 1. Defamiliarizing the Familiar: Conceptualizing Religion and Culture in TurkoPersia 2. Centering Bukhara: The Reconstruction and Mythologization of an Abode of Knowledge 3. Bukhara Center: Islamic Scholars as a Network of Human Exchange 4. Patricians of Bukhara: Turkic Nobility, Persianate Pedagogy, and Islamic Society 5. High Persianate Intellectuals: The Many, Many Guises of the Ulama 6. Between Sharia and the Beloved: Culture and Contradiction in Persianate Sunnism 7. Opportunity from Upheaval: Scholarly Dynasties between Nadir Shah and the Bolshevik Revolution

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viii CONTENTS

8. The Sovereign and the Sage: The Precarious, Paradoxical Relationship between the Ulama and Temporal Power  Conclusion: United in Eclecticism  Epilogue: Efflorescence before the Eclipse

Bibliography 257 Index 291

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A c k n o w l e d g m e nt s

This book has been in the works for over a decade—almost exactly the amount of time students typically spent in a madrasa. I have had a tremendous amount of help along the way, accumulat ing more debts than I can possibly acknowledge here. This research was made possible by funding from the Mellon Foun dation, Princeton’s Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship program, IREX, FulbrightHays/Institute of International Education, and American Coun cils of Learned Societies. The Social Science Research Council’s InterAsia Program, in particular, was instrumental not only in providing vital financial support but also as a forum for intellectual exchange. I began this research at Princeton University, and I am profoundly grateful for the unparalleled mentorship of Stephen Kotkin, who dared me to push boundaries and taught me to think like a historian. Michael Cook and JoAnn Gross were closely involved in my research from the start and imparted indispensable technical depth and regional expertise. At Princeton I am also indebted to the guidance of Amineh Mahallati, Ekaterina Pravilova, Bha vani Raman, Michael Reynolds, Cyrus Schayegh, and Dan Sheffield; and for the support of colleagues in my program, including HannahLouise Clark, Simon Fuchs, Zack KaganGuthrie, Radha Kumar, Christian Sahner, and Seiji Shirane. I would never have set out to study Central Asia in the first place were it not for the undergraduate tutelage of Adeeb Khalid, who has been an active presence ever since then. Eric McGlinchey provided early encouragement to embark on this path, and Scott Levi generously helped me land on my feet in Uzbekistan. My early trajectory was also shaped by superb Georgetown University scholars—James Millward, Richard Stites, and John Voll. I am fortunate to have found an institutional home away from home at the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The scholars there have fundamentally shaped this research: Ulfat Abdurasulov, Justine Landau, Christine NölleKarimi, and Florian Schwarz. I am especially

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