Witness to Marvels
Witness to Marvels traces the development of a unique genre of Sufi-inspired Bengali romances called pir kathas, whose protagonists and plots are wholly fictive. For five centuries these fabulations have parodied indigenous and Hindu textual traditions. Both mimicking and mocking, these parodies ado...
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| Formato: | Online |
| Idioma: | inglês |
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University of California Press
2021
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| Acesso em linha: | 1005409 |
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| _version_ | 1869523291804270592 |
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| author | Stewart, Tony K. |
| author_browse | Stewart, Tony K. |
| author_facet | Stewart, Tony K. |
| author_sort | Stewart, Tony K. |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Witness to Marvels traces the development of a unique genre of Sufi-inspired Bengali romances called pir kathas, whose protagonists and plots are wholly fictive. For five centuries these fabulations have parodied indigenous and Hindu textual traditions. Both mimicking and mocking, these parodies adopted a subjunctive tone, exploring a magical world of ‘what-if’. They created an Islam-inflected space within a traditional Bengali cultural environment without trying to legislate what ideally ‘should be’ according to tropes common to Islamic history, theology, and law. The tales’ discursive arena, the imaginaire, delineated the realm of possibility for how these tales might exercise the imagination to integrate Hindu and Islamic cosmologies. Tales insinuated themselves into locally relevant discourses through elaborate intertextual connections, subtly shifting presuppositions about the way the world works and what counts as religious authority. As Allah looked on from heaven, the tales routinely assigned Sufi saints, both pirs and bibis, to the pivotal role of avatar, the periodic descent of divinity, equating them to the Hindu god Narayan. Adopting a semiotic strategy to interpret these tales yields a bold new perspective on the subtle ways Islam assumed its distinctive form in Bengal and suggests how we need to reimagine conversion in this region. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-37194 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | University of California Press |
| publisherStr | University of California Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-371942025-01-29T16:51:32Z Witness to Marvels Stewart, Tony K. avatar Bengali conversion katha Hindu Islam imaginaire imagination parody pir romance saint semiotics subjunctive Sufi thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRA Religion: general Witness to Marvels traces the development of a unique genre of Sufi-inspired Bengali romances called pir kathas, whose protagonists and plots are wholly fictive. For five centuries these fabulations have parodied indigenous and Hindu textual traditions. Both mimicking and mocking, these parodies adopted a subjunctive tone, exploring a magical world of ‘what-if’. They created an Islam-inflected space within a traditional Bengali cultural environment without trying to legislate what ideally ‘should be’ according to tropes common to Islamic history, theology, and law. The tales’ discursive arena, the imaginaire, delineated the realm of possibility for how these tales might exercise the imagination to integrate Hindu and Islamic cosmologies. Tales insinuated themselves into locally relevant discourses through elaborate intertextual connections, subtly shifting presuppositions about the way the world works and what counts as religious authority. As Allah looked on from heaven, the tales routinely assigned Sufi saints, both pirs and bibis, to the pivotal role of avatar, the periodic descent of divinity, equating them to the Hindu god Narayan. Adopting a semiotic strategy to interpret these tales yields a bold new perspective on the subtle ways Islam assumed its distinctive form in Bengal and suggests how we need to reimagine conversion in this region. 2021-02-10T12:58:18Z 2019-09-19 15:47:42 2020-04-01T10:07:09Z 2019 book 1005409 OCN: 1135848480 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/24702 9780520306332 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/37194 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/24702/1/witness-to-marvels.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/24702/1/witness-to-marvels.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/24702/1/witness-to-marvels.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/24702/1/witness-to-marvels.pdf University of California Press 10.1525/luminos.76 10.1525/luminos.76 19856893-4bf2-4e3e-9137-c7692d64e4c1 9780520306332 337 Oakland open access |
| spellingShingle | avatar Bengali conversion katha Hindu Islam imaginaire imagination parody pir romance saint semiotics subjunctive Sufi thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRA Religion: general Stewart, Tony K. Witness to Marvels |
| title | Witness to Marvels |
| title_full | Witness to Marvels |
| title_fullStr | Witness to Marvels |
| title_full_unstemmed | Witness to Marvels |
| title_short | Witness to Marvels |
| title_sort | witness to marvels |
| topic | avatar Bengali conversion katha Hindu Islam imaginaire imagination parody pir romance saint semiotics subjunctive Sufi thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRA Religion: general |
| topic_facet | avatar Bengali conversion katha Hindu Islam imaginaire imagination parody pir romance saint semiotics subjunctive Sufi thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRA Religion: general |
| url | 1005409 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stewarttonyk witnesstomarvels |