EHESS+EPHE/IISMM Invited Professorships, 2023

May 22

Eric SCHLUESSEL
(G. Washington University)

The Sufis and the Great Houses: How an Islamic Pious Endowment Adapted to Merchant Encroachment
The Qing reincorporation of Xinjiang (East Turkestan) after 1877 involved the close collaboration of a merchant network from the port city of Tianjin, who were meant to fund extensive ‘land reclamation’ projects. Those merchants took advantage of a lend-lease system to funnel money from the provincial government, while capturing agricultural surplus in the form of debt. Their newfound power threatened the status of Islamic pious endowments (waqf, pl. awqāf), who captured surplus from the same areas through rent. This talk explores how one ancient Sufi lineage attempted to recast their pious endowment in the form of a Chinese-style merchant network, leading to a conflict of competing economic elites that came to the head in the 1910s.

Hosting Seminar: Histoire de la Boutique et du Petit Commerce Urbain en Chine (XIXe-XXe Siècles) Research Unit: CCJ/CECMC Contact: Dr Xavier Paulès Venue: 10.30 to 12.30 in Room A-302 at Campus Condorcet – EHESS – 2 Cours des Humanités – 93300 Aubervilliers (Metro Front Populaire)

 

May 23

Sultonbek AKSAKOLOV
(University of Central Asia, Khorog)

Introduction to the Modern and Contemporary History of Ismailism in Badakhshan
The Shia Nizari Ismailis of Upper Badakhshan have a history of survival as an ethnic and confessional minority, in a politically marginalised, culturally isolated, geographically remote and economically unstable area. In the 19th century, the region found itself divided between British and Russian zones of influence. This division deeply affected the life of the community, notably its relations with its leader the Imam of the Time, in British India from the early 20th century on. The closure of the border in the 1930s caused further isolation; it brought about a new form of antireligious pressure, with dramatic consequences for the religious personnel, institutions and sociability. Ismaili devotional practice adjusted to this context, around sacred lineages of men and women of God, now locally venerated in their remit as transmitters of Ismaili Shia Persian high culture — against a new backdrop characterised again, since the early 1990s, by the competitiveness of the religious sphere.

Hosting Seminar: ‘Histoire Intellectuelle du Chiisme Contemporain’ Research Unit: LEM Contact: Prof Constance Arminjon Venue: 04.00 to 06.00 PM in Room 9 at Raspail Campus – EPHE – 54, Boulevard Raspail – 75006 Paris (Metro Sèvres-Babylone)

 

Eric SCHLUESSEL
(G. Washington University)

Beyond Ethnicity, Below the State: Environment, Economy, and Religion in the Study of Republican Xinjiang
Historical scholarship on Republican-era Xinjiang was, until quite recently, overwhelmingly concerned with high politics, particularly in relation to ethnicity and religion. That focus was determined in no small part by political restrictions on research, historians’ own backgrounds and the limits of the available archives. Since the mid-2000s, however, the sudden opening of certain kinds of local archival sources in Chinese, the large-scale reproduction of others and a renewed regard for multilingual research, including sources in Turkic and Russian, have encouraged a reconsideration of the familiar political history. Meanwhile, a new generation of scholarship has engaged with key questions of gender, environment, religion, and economy that previously appeared to be gaps in the field but now find themselves at the center.

Hosting Seminar: ‘La Chine Républicaine (1912-1949): Nouvelles Approches Historiques Research Unit: CCJ/CECMC Contact: Dr Xavier Paulès Venue: 2.30 to 4.30 PM in Room 3-02 at Campus Condorcet – Centre de Colloques – 93300 Aubervilliers

 

Sultonbek AKSAKOLOV
(University of Central Asia, Khorog)

Praising the Panj Tan-i Pak (Five Pure Ones): Devotion to the Ahl al-Bayt among the Shia Ismailis of Badakhshan, Tajikistan
The Shia Ismailis of Central Asia express their devotion to the holy figures of Islam in many ways, ranging from the performance of devotional poetry to dance or shrine visitation as well as through a whole range of crafts. This practice focuses on the Ahl al-Bayt, known in Persian as the Panj Tan-i Pak (Five Pure Ones). Far from disappearing in the Soviet period, it has taken new forms since 1991. Among them: religious poetry, in the classical Arabic and Persian genre of qasida, performed through madhiya khwani (panegyric singing) and worshipping rituals, but also in a variety of more secular gatherings. At the same time, mass labour migration since the 2000s, the development of the social media in the 2010s were bringing these performances out of shrines and prayer-houses to the virtual world, while the digitalisation of Ismaili devotional literature was deeply transforming the community’s rituality and sociability.

Hosting Seminar: Research Unit: Contact: Prof Michel Boivin Venue: 10.00 to 10.30 AM in Room BS1-28 at Campus Condorcet – Bâtiment Recherche Nord – 93300 Aubervilliers

May 24

SUGAWARA Jun
(Lanzhou University)

How Did They Get ‘Satisfied’ (Rāżī)? On ‘Civil Litigation’ of Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang Province Era
During the Xinjiang Province era (1884–1955), civil cases among Turkic Muslims in Southern Xinjiang were said to be generally dealt with by Islamic courts (maḥkima). However, the actual situation is still unclear. This lecture will examine the process of hearing civil suits by focusing on the descriptions of litigation documents, especially on settlement (ṣulḥ) documents. From there, it will approach the question of the mechanisms of dispute settlement which preceded the current ‘people’s settlement system’ (renmin tiaojie zhidu 人民调解制度) and had been in place for centuries in local society.

Hosting Seminar: ‘La Propriété en Islam: L’Empire Moghol et l’Inde’ Research Unit: Centre de Recherche Historique (CRH) Contact: Dr Naveen Kanalu Ramamurthy Venue: 2.30 to 4.30 PM in Room 3.06 at Campus Condorcet – Centre de Colloques – 93300 Aubervilliers

 

June 6

Sultonbek AKSAKOLOV
(University of Central Asia, Khorog)

Religious Education and the Transmission of Learning in the Autonomous Region of Upper Badakhshan: the Soviet and current periods
As one of the main components of religious life of the Ismailis of the Upper Badakhshan Autonomous Region, in Tajikistan, religious education has undergone dramatic change in the Soviet period. Traditional schools disappeared between the 1920s and 1940s, and religious teaching became confined within sacred lineages of okhons (masters) endowed with family libraries. Elements of religious knowledge passed on to cenacles of relatives and acquaintances, and through the devotional performance of sacred panegyrics (maddah khwani). Limited geographically, these networks of masters did not enjoy the partial institutionalisation, in the USSR, of Sunni Islam. The presentation explores the evolution of religious teaching among the Ismailis of Upper Badakhshan between the 1940s and 1991 — through the limitation of Ismaili rituality, on the first hand, but on the other hand the perpetuation of a religious and ethical knowledge (‘ilm) transmitted by classical literary genres.

Hosting Seminar: ‘Atelier Eurasie Centrale’ Research Unit: GSRL Contact: Prof Stéphane A. Dudoignon Venue: 11.00 AM to 01.00 PM in Room 5.067 at Campus Condorcet – Bâtiment Recherche Nord – 14, Cours des Humanités – 93300 Aubervilliers

 

SUGAWARA Jun
(Lanzhou University)

A Sufi Family’s 95 Years: Land, Brotherhood and Family in Pre-Modern Kash-ghar
‌This lecture will attempt to reconstruct the ninety-five years (1841–1936) of the history of a Sufi family living in the northeastern suburbs of Kashghar through their family archives. The latter consist of nearly ninety documents, including land sales, lawsuits, debts, inheritance, private letters and spiritual genealogy (silsila). The period covered was one of multiple political upheavals, including the Muslim Rebellion (1864–77), the establishment of the Xinjiang Province (1884) and the Xinhai Revolution (1911). How did a holy lineage cope with these changes? This talk will examine the family’s various survival strate-gies, paying particular attention to their economic activities, especially real estate management, their religious activities as Sufi guides and their internal ties and conflicts, as revealed in documentary sources.

Hosting Seminar: Le Culte des saints Musulmans: Approches Historique et Anthropologique Research Unit: Centre Chine–Corée–Japon Contact: Dr Marie-Paule Hille Venue: 2.30 to 5.30 PM in Room 25.A at Campus Condorcet – EHESS – 2 Cours des Humanités – 93300 Aubervilliers

 

Eric SCHLUESSEL
(G. Washington University)

A Colonial Muslim History of Xinjiang and the World: The Tarikh-i Hamidi
The Tārīkh-i Ḥamīdī of Mullā Mūsā Sayrāmī (1836–1917) is celebrated as a monument of Uyghur literature and the preeminent Muslim history of nine-teenth-century Xinjiang (East Turkestan). Sayrāmī’s work is also a multilayered, polyvocal text, and one that bears recontextualisation and rereading through different analytical approaches. This talk explores the Tārīkh-i Ḥamīdī in terms of its interaction with other Muslim and Chinese sources and as a colonial, transcultural text that advances insightful observations of Chinese power and new theories about its workings.

Hosting Seminar: Le Culte des Saints Musulmans : Approches Historique et An-thropologique Research Unit: CCJ Contact: Dr Marie-Paule Hille Venue: 02.30 to 05.30 PM in Room 25.A at Campus Condorcet – EHESS – 2 Cours des Humanités – 93300 Aubervilliers

June 7

SUGAWARA Jun
(Lanzhou University)

An ‘Islamic’ Legal Order under Chinese Rule: Introduction to the Study on the Turkic Contractual Documents in the Xinjiang Province (1884–1955)
This talk will present an overview of Turkic contract documents from Xinjiang, made available since the beginning of the 21st century. Called mostly ‘Islamic court documents’, they bear the seal of authentication of the qāżī (Muslim magistrate). They are extremely important for understanding the legal environment and the socioeconomic situation in Xinjiang between the late Qing era and the first decade of the People’s Republic. The talk will present, first, the fundamental information, comprising the size and holdings of documentary sources, relevant literature and current research trends. Next, it will briefly examine some research questions that can be answered through these sources, such as the issues of land sales (<bayʻ), debts (<madyūn), inheritance (<mīrāth), legal disputes (<daʻwā) and pious donations (<waqf).

Hosting Seminar: Journée d’Études : Normes et Pratiques dans la Documentation Juridique Islamique Research Unit: CRH & IISMM Contact: Dr Naveen Kanalu Ramamurthy Venue: 9.00 AM to 5.00 PM in Room 25.B at Campus Condorcet – EHESS – 2 Cours des Humanités – 93300 Aubervilliers

 

 

RedGold ANR Programme – Workshop 2 – June 12–15, 2023

Muslim Holy Life Stories under Communist Rule

See the programme on https://redgold.hypotheses.org/category/events

June 20

SUGAWARA Jun
(Lanzhou University)

The Faith behind the Words: Sainthood Elements in the Contemporary Uyghur Oral Traditions
The contemporary Uyghur oral tradition in question refers to the multiple oral representations that have been handed down until the early 21st century: epics cycles (dastan), songs (qoshaq), sermons (hékaye), funny stories (letipe), riddles (tépishmaq), proverbs (maqal-temsil) and others. These cultural representations are still transmitted and performed by the people today, and distinctly different from the hagiographies (tezkire) which have been textualised and — to use Albert Lord’s expression — ‘dead’ in the past. This talk will try to extract from the aforementioned resources a number of lexical terms related to the veneration of saints, and to identify the characteristics as seen in contemporary oral culture.

Hosting Seminar: Atelier Eurasie Centrale Research Unit: GSRL Contact: Prof Stéphane A. Dudoignon Venue: 11.00 AM to 1.00 PM in Room 5.067 at Campus Condorcet – Bâtiment Recherche Nord – 14 Cours des Humanités – 93300 Aubervilliers

 

 

June 28

Sultonbek AKSAKOLOV
(University of Central Asia, Khorog)

Hagiographic Experiences among the Ismaili Shias of Badakhshan: Texts, Monuments and Rituals
A specific cult of saints has surged since the 1990s among the Ismailis of the Upper Badakhshan Autonomous Region, Tajikistan. Texts in verse en prose have been celebrating religious leaders active in the Soviet period, in their attributions as community leaders and as custodians of faith and high culture. This hagiographic literature of sorts sanctifies local groups of believers who can identify themselves with the presence, among them, of a lineage of spiritual masters through the short 20th century. It mobilises classical literary genres that bear the deep impact of Sovietisation, while trying to adjust to the new requisites of an expanding religious market. Composite and polysemous by essence, these hagiographic experiences associate sacred lineages with writers of much more secular backgrounds, including . . . scholars from regional academic institutions.

Hosting Seminar: ‘Histoire et Anthropologie des Sociétés Musulmanes: Cultures Matérielles et Pratiques Dévotionnelles en Asie du Sud et Au-Delà’ Research Unit: CEIAS Contact: Prof Michel Boivin Venue: 10.00 AM to 01.00 PM in Room A 202 at Campus Condorcet – EHESS – 2, Cours des Humanités – 93300 Aubervilliers

Programme & Posters

• Full Programme (.pdf)
• Poster for Sugawara Jun’s lectures (.pdf)
• Poster for Sultonbek Aksakolov’s lectures (.pdf)
• Poster for Eric Schluessel’s lectures (.pdf)

 

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