12/03/2022
Sunday, December 4, 2022
20:00 Chicago time
21:00 Eastern time
18:00 Pacific time
Zoom link:
https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/947854860
A Deluge of Tears: The Conflux of Persian Shiʿi Literature, Ritual, and Identity in Martyrdom Narratives
Dr. Paul Anderson, Harvard University
«طوفان اشکها: تلاقی هویت، مناسک، و ادبیات شیعی ایرانی در روایتهای شهادت (مقاتل)»
پال اندرسون، دانشگاه هاروارد
دوشنبه ۱۴ آذر، ۵:۳۰ صبح به وقت ایران
This lecture presents the first English in-depth study of one of the most important maqtals (martyrdom narratives) ever written in Persian, the Rowz̤at ol-Shohadā’ (Meadow of the Martyrs) by Ḥoseyn b. ʿAlī Beyhaqī Kāshefī (d. 910 A.H./1504 C.E.). Through the broader lens of the literary apotheosis of a historical figure, Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (d. 61 A.H./680 C.E.) into an epic hero, I argue that 1) Kāshefī’s text largely changed the landscape of Iranian Twelver Shiʿism by recasting Ḥusayn’s story, resulting in the rise of Persian martyrdom literature; 2) Kāshefī’s decision to compose the book in Persian, instead of Arabic, as well as his incorporation of references from Iranian legend, resulted in a maqtal that was particularly appealing to a Persian-speaking audience; 3) after Kāshefī’s death, the Safavid dynasty encouraged the creation of a mourning cult with the Rowz̤at as its centerpiece. With this, the Safavids laid out their vision for the conversion of Iran to a Persianized Twelver Shiʿism. This dissertation also critiques the concept of syncretism, proposing the paradigm of memory relics as a methodological tool in analyzing the genealogy of religious, linguistic, and socio-cultural interactions without relying on Orientalist constructs of religion.
Dr. Paul Anderson is a lecturer of Persian literature at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in 2021. He obtained his M.A. in Arabic Literature and Islamic Studies from the American University in Cairo (2013), where he spent five years conducting research on classical Islamic philosophy and Arabic linguistics. He specializes in Shiʻi intellectual history, with specific areas of interest focusing on Persian, Arabic, Urdu, and Gujarati literature, historical linguistics, Islamic philosophy, Ismaʻili doctrines, the ghulāt movements, minority religions in the Muslim-majority world, and the Safavid period. His Ph.D. dissertation, “A Deluge of Tears", recently won the Foundation for Iranian Studies 2020-2021 Best Ph.D. Dissertation of the Year. Dr. Anderson's forthcoming article, “Epiphany: A Comparative Consideration of Omniscience According to the Philosophies of Śāntarakṣita and Suhrawardī,” combines his expertise in Islamic philosophy with his ongoing interest in Indic intellectual history, exploring the commonalities between Islamic and Buddhist epistemologies of particulars and universals.
Northwestern University Shia Muslim Association (SMA)
SMA: Northwestern University Shia Muslim Association
