Islamic Civilizations 184/Religion 1814/HDS 3375

Muslim Devotional Literatures in South Asia:

Qawwalis, Sufiana Kalam (Sufi Poetry) and the Ginans

Instructor: Ali S. Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures (Committee on the
Study of Religion, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, South Asian Studies, and African and
African-American Studies)
• Office: Room 305, Study of Religion, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St.
• Email: aliasani@fas.harvard.edu
• Phone: 617-495-5755
• Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00–11:30, or by appointment. Each student will be expected to
schedule a short meeting with the instructor during the first month of the course.
Teaching Fellow: Aaron Viengkhou, Ph.D student in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
• Email: aaron_viengkhou@mail.harvard.edu
• Phone: 503-473-7957
• Office Hours: Mondays 3:00-4:00 in Lamont Café, or by appointment
Course Description:
This course explores traditions of Islamic spirituality in South Asia through the lens of three genres: the
qawwali, concerts of mystical poetry; sufiana kalam, Sufi romantic epics and folk poems; and the ginans,
hymns of esoteric wisdom recited by the Satpanthi Ismailis. Since these genres represent examples of
language, symbols and styles of worship shared across Islamic and non-Islamic denominational
boundaries, we will also examine their relationships with other Indic traditions of devotion, particularly
those associated with the so-called sant and Hindu bhakti movements. Special emphasis will be given to
the impact of contemporary political ideologies, globalization and the revolution in media technology on
the form and function of these genres and their relationship with contemporary communities of faith in
South Asia and beyond.
Course Requirements:
• Attendance and participation in discussion of readings every week. (20%)
• Beginning on the second week of the course, each student is required to post a 500-word
response to the readings every Tuesday by 9 a.m. An on-time posting will grant you 10 points;
you will lose 2 points for every half hour you are late. The response is not merely a summary of
the readings, but a critical engagement with the texts. Put the texts into conversation with each
other when possible, extract the theses, complicate the issue, offer counter-evidence if you have
some, pose additional questions. What is the author aiming to say and why is it crucial for the
broader discussion concerning Muslim devotional literature in South Asia? Then, by 9 a.m. every
Wednesday (the following day), each student is required to post a 250-word reply to any of the
posts. An on-time reply will grant you 5 points; you will lose 1 point for every half hour you are
late. (30%)
• A research paper (undergraduates 15 pages; graduate students 25 pages) on a topic chosen
with the approval of the instructor or three short reflective essays (10 pages each) on each of
the three literary genres studied in the course. (50%)
Policies and Expectations:

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The use of cell-phones and iPhones, etc., is strictly prohibited in class. All handheld devices must be
silenced and stored away properly for the duration of the course. The occasional buzzes, rings, and even
vibrations can often be distracting to others, so please follow this policy out of courtesy for everyone.
Laptop Policy: Recent studies have demonstrated that taking notes by hand—pen and paper—is more
effective in terms of conceptualizing, processing, and remembering the content of a lecture. Increasingly,
the tendency is to take nearly verbatim notes of a lecture. However, such a process results in shallower
processing of the material. In this course, laptop use will be prohibited, but not because I do not trust you
to pay attention to lecture (as is often the case with this sort of proscription), but because I truly believe it
will have a positive effect on your comprehension of, and engagement with, the material.
Taking long-hand notes demands that you process and reframe the content in your own words before
writing it down. This extra step alone results in an immediate engagement with the material. Remember,
humanities courses are not merely about names, places, and dates, they are about critical thinking and
the conceptualization of ideas. Most importantly, humanities courses train an individual to entertain an
idea other than one’s own. They exercise the imagination in an attempt to enter into the ways various
human cultures from different times and places have understood what it means to be human. If you forget
a date, place, or name, just ask the teaching fellow or me--in person after class, during section or office
hours, or via email. Of course, if you require a laptop for an accommodation, please let me know.
The course follows Harvard University’s policies on plagiarism and collaboration. Specifically, any
material submitted for formal evaluation must be a student’s own work.
Students with diverse needs are welcome in this course. If you have an accessibility consideration that
may require accommodation, please let the instructor know and provide your letter from the Accessible
Education Office (AEO) within the first two weeks of class. If you require accommodation and do not have
a letter, please contact the AEO. Their website is http://aeo.fas.harvard.edu.
Finally, students will be expected to schedule individual meetings with the instructor to discuss issues
relevant to your interests in the course.
Required Texts:
Many of the texts you will be reading this semester have been provided digitally on the website. However,
you will be reading from the following texts for which digital copies have not been provided. They will be
on reserve at Lamont and Andover Theological Library, but they are also available for purchase at The
Coop (or any online retailer of books).
• Shemeem B. Abbas, The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual: Devotional Practices of Pakistan and India
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002). (Available for purchase at the Coop, also available
electronically on Hollis)
• Ali Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literatures of South Asia (London:
I.B. Tauris, 2002).
• Madhumālatī: An Indian Sufi Romance, trans. Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000). (This title is currently out of print, but used copies are readily available
from online retailers and there is a Kindle version as well)
• Jamal Elias (ed. and trans.), Death Before Dying: The Sufi Poems of Sultan Bahu (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1998).
• John S. Hawley, Songs of the Saints of India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

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 Schedule of Class Meetings, Discussions, Readings, and Media
Week 1 (9/5): Introductory Session
Required Readings:
• Barbara D. Metcalf, “A Historical Overview of Islam in South Asia,” Islam in South Asia in Practice
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 1-43.
• Ali Asani, “Muslims in South Asia: Defining Community and the ‘Other,’” Bulletin of the Royal
Institute for Inter-faith Studies 2, no. 2 (Autumn 2000), 103-133.
• Ali Asani, “Muslim Literature in South Asia,” The Muslim Almanac: A Reference Work on the
History, Faith, Culture, and Peoples of Islam, ed. Azim Nanji (New York: Gale Research,
1996), 355-363.
• Carl Ernst, “What is Sufism?” (ch.1), The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston: Shambhala,
1997), 1-31.
Media:

• Abida Parveen and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Chaap Tilak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SDrjwtfKMk
• A ginan recitation:
https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/51867/files/6028217/download?verifier=oB9FKXnbMTCkW88
QzDr8SlUi8LrPzWmuPi2vRQAp&wrap=1
Week 2 (9/12): Introductory—Love Mysticism, Music, and Dance in Islamic Mystical Traditions
Required Readings:
• William Chittick, “The Theological Context” (ch.1) and selections from “The Story of Love”
(ch.2), Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the Path to God (New Haven: Yale University Press,
2013), 3-40, 41-53.
• Nosheen Ali, “From Hallaj to Heer: Poetic Knowledge and the Muslim Tradition,” Journal of
Narrative Politics 3, no. 1 (2016): 2-26.
• Carl Ernst, “Sufi Music and Dance” (ch.7), The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston: Shambhala,
1997), 179–98.
Optional Readings:
• Leonard Lewisohn, “The Sacred Music of Islam: Samāʿ in the Persian Sufi Tradition,” British
Journal of Ethnomusicology 6 (1997): 1–33.
Media:
• Abida Parveen, Ramooz-e Ishq: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0EoMozYWSs
• South Asian dhikr:
https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/51867/files/6028219/download?verifier=ylq9NBNuKDLvNa10
wqjkaAFl4YWr8iguS8MSnUya&wrap=1
Week 3 (9/19): Introducing Qawwali I
Required Readings:
• Syed Akbar Hyder and Carla Petievich, “Qawwali Songs of Praise,” Islam in South Asia in
Practice, ed. Barbara Metcalf (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 93-100.
• Regula Qureshi, Sufi Music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context and Meaning in Qawwali
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 1-45, 77-131.

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 • Neelima Shukla-Bhatt, “A Musical Sufi Practice in South Asia,” 1-22. (Unpublished; PDF on
Canvas)
• Shakeel Hussai, Jashn-e-Khusrau 2013: Celebrating the Genius of Amir Khusrau (New Dehli:
Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 2014), 22-42, 142-156.
Media:
• Javed Bashir and Ali Azmat, Man Kunto Maula (“He Whose Master I Am”):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XcMiqJGkQE
Week 4 (9/26): Introducing Qawwali II
Guest lecture with Sonny Mehta, artistic director for Riyaaz Qawwali.
Required Readings:
• Syed Akbar Hyder, "Commemorative Politics and Poetics" (ch.3) and “Lyrical Martyrdom”
(ch.4), Reliving Karbala (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 73-135.
• Regula Qureshi, “‘Muslim Devotional’: Popular Religious Music and Muslim Identity under British,
Indian and Pakistani Hegemony,” Asian Music 24, no. 1 (1992): 111-21.
• Hussein Rashid, “Shaheed-e Harlem: The Meaning of Malcolm X in the work of Fun^Da^Mental,”
Journal of Africana Religions 3, no. 1 (2015): 116-129.
• Qamar-ul Huda, “Memory, Performance, and Poetic Peacemaking in Qawwālī,” The Muslim
World 97, no. 4 (2007), 678–700.
Media:

• Basant, a short film by Yousuf Saeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2zlN88unuI

• Qawwali example: The Sabri Brothers, Tajdar-e Haram:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCUqEeu9GMI
• Qawwali example: Atif Aslam, Tajdar-e-Haram (Coke Studio): https://vimeo.com/136230324
• Qawwali example: Riyaaz Qawwali, Vaishnav Janto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NGeUhGKEjE
• Qawwali example: Riyaaz Qawwali, Koi Bole Ram Ram (Sikh Shabd):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX2zwHjXgrI
• Qawwali example: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Koi Bole Ram Ram (Sikh Shabd):
https://youtu.be/oAqEcF_-1fk
• Qawwali example: Kun fayakun, from the film Rockstar (2011):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbb7miKWaI
Week 5 (10/3): Introducing Sufiana Kalam—Mystical Romances
Required Readings:
• Aditya Behl, “Studying the Sultanate Period” (ch.1), “Inaugurating Hindavī” (ch.2), and “Creating a
New Genre: the Cāndāyan” (ch.3), Love's Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary
Tradition 1379-1545 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1-26, 30-58, 59-108.
• Annemarie Schimmel, “Mystical Poetry in the Vernaculars,” As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in
Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 135-169.
Week 6 (10/10): Sufiana Kalam I
Required Readings:

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 • Madhumālatī: An Indian Sufi Romance, trans. Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000). (Entirety; text on reserve at Lamont and Andover libraries, and available
online for purchase used or as a Kindle ebook)
Optional Reading:
• Aditya Behl, “Hierarchies of Response” (ch.9), Love's Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary
Tradition 1379-1545 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 286-324.
Week 7 (10/17): Sufiana Kalam II—Sindhi Poetry
Required Readings:
• Annemarie Schimmel, “Woman as Manifestation of God” (ch.7), “The Brides of God” (ch.8), and
“Woman Souls in Indo-Pakistani Poetry” (ch.9), My Soul is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam
(New York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1997), 98-138. (On reserve in Lamont and Andover
libraries)
• Shemeem B. Abbas, “Female Myths in Sufism” (ch.3) and “The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual”
(ch.4), The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual: Devotional Practices of Pakistan and India (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2002), 85-128.
• Annemarie Schimmel, “Shah Abdul Latif’s Life and Teachings” (ch.5), Pain and Grace: A Study of
Two Mystical Writers of Eighteenth-Century Muslim India (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976), 151-189
• Selections from the Risalo (“Message”) of Shah Abdul Latif in Melodies of Shah Abdul Lateef
Bitai, vol. III, trans. Agha Saleem, ed. Saleem Noorhusain: “Sur Umar Marui”, “Sur Sorath,” “Sur
Sarang.”
Optional Reading:
• Ali Asani, “At the Crossroads of Indic and Iranian Civilizations: Sindhi Literary Culture,” Literary
Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, ed. Sheldon Pollock (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2003), 612-646.
• Annemarie Schimmel, “Sufis and Yogis in Shah Abdul Latif’s Poems” (ch.6), Pain and Grace: A
Study of Two Mystical Writers of Eighteenth-Century Muslim India (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976), 190-
235.
Media:
• Tahir Mithu, Pere Pavandi Saan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCP8uv9v0yI
• Abida Parveen, Pere Pavandi Saan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUN2_c0KRo
• Shah Jo Risalo—Sur Kalyan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBkPtKef-
8Y&list=PLDD2AB88F3A2150AE
• Dam o dam mast qalandar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhVzUupsPI
Week 8 (10/24): Sufiana Kalam III—Punjabi and Dakkani Poetry
Required Readings:
• Jamal Elias, Death Before Dying: The Sufi Poems of Sultan Bahu (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1998). (Entirety; on reserve at Lamont and Andover libraries)
• Khaled Ahmad, “Bulleh Shah 1680-1758,” Bulleh Shah: A Selection, trans. Taufiq Rafat (Lahore:
Vanguard, 1982), 1-32, plus selected poems.
• Robin Rinehart, “Interpretations in the Poetry of Bullhe Shah,” International Journal of Punjab
Studies 3, no. 1 (1996): 45-63.

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 • Shemeem B. Abbas, “History and Economy of Women in Sufi Ritual” (ch.1), “Ethnographies of
Communication” (ch.2), The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual: Devotional Practices of Pakistan and
India (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), 1-84
Optional Reading:
• Richard Eaton, “Sufi Folk Literature and the Expansion of Islam,” History of Religions 14, no. 2
(1974): 117-127.
• Richard Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur 1300-1700 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 135-
174.
Media:
• Arif Lohar and Meesha Shafi, Alif Allah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjaH2iuoYWE
• Saain Zahoor and Sanam Marvi, Rabba ho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEjfiBWPHmA
Week 9 (10/31): Sufi, Sant, Bhakta and Sikh
Required Readings:
• John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer, “Introduction,” “Kabir” (ch.2), “Nanak” (ch.3),
“Mirabai” (ch.5), Songs of the Saints of India, 1-7, 35-61, 63-88, 119-140.
• Charlotte Vaudeville, “Sant Mat: Santism as the Universal Path to Sanctity,” The Sants: Studies in
a Devotional Tradition of India, ed. Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod (Berkeley: Berkeley
Religious Studies Series, 1987), 21-40.
• Carl Ernst, “Situating Sufism and Yoga,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 15, no. 1 (2005): 15-
43.
• Linda Hess, “True Words of Kabir: Adventures in Authenticity” (ch.3), Bodies of Song: Kabir Oral
Traditions and Performative Worlds in North India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 112-
148.
• Harjot Oberoi, “Boundaries and Transgressions: The Khalsa Normative Tradition” (ch.1), The
Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 36-91.
Optional Reading:
• Charlotte Vaudeville, “Kabīr and Interior Religion,” History of Religions 3, no. 2 (1964): 191-201
• Linda Hess, “Introduction,” The Bījak of Kabir (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1983), 3-37.
• Harjot Oberoi, “Introduction” The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and
Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 1-35.
Media:
• Meera Bhajan, Mere to Giridhar Gopal Dusro na koi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMdvoMJG6h4
• LIve kirtan from Golden Temple, Amritsar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOR0dqcQN20
Week 10 (11/7): Introducing the Ginans
Required Readings:
• Ali Asani, “Introduction,” Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South
Asia (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002), 1-25.
• Aziz Esmail, “Introduction,” A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics (Richmond,
Surrey: Curzon Press, 2002), 1-52.

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 • Azim Nanji, The Nizārī Ismā‘īlī Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent (Delmar, NY: Caravan
Books, 1978), 99-130.
• Dominique Sila-Khan, Conversions and Shifting Identities: Ramdev Pir and the Ismailis in
Rajasthan (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 1997), 60-96, 127-152, 235-259.
Optional Readings
• Azim Nanji, The Nizārī Ismā‘īlī Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent (Delmar, NY: Caravan
Books, 1978), 33-49, 50-69, 70-83.
Media:
• Ginan selection: Nar Nakalank Keri: http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/19260
Week 11 (11/14): Ginans I
Required Readings:
• Ali Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia (London: I.
B. Tauris, 2002), 54-81, 82-99.
• Shafique Virani, “A Symphony of Gnosis: A Self-Definition of the Ismaili Ginān Tradition,” Reason
and Inspiration in Islam: Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Muslim Thought, ed. Todd
Lawson (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005), 503-521.
• Aziz Esmail, “Interpretive Essay,” A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics
(Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2002), 53-76.
• Tazim Kassam, Songs of Wisdom and Circles of Dance: Hymns of the Satpanth Ismā‘īlī Muslim
Saint, Pīr Shams (Albany: State University of New York, 1995), 92-121, poems no. 79-106.
Optional Reading:

• Christopher Shackle and Zawahir Moir, Ismaili Hymns from South Asia: An Introduction to Ginans
(London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1992), 82-115.
Media:
• Ginan selection: Sat shabad hai guru hamara (“The True Word is our Guide”):
http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/17617
• Ginan selection: Jug men fire shah ji muneri (“The tidings of the Lord have spread through the
world”): http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/27285
• Ginan selection: Eji hun re piasi pia tere darsan ki (“I thirst, O Beloved, for a vision of You”):
http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/17619
• Ginan selection: Eji adam ad nirinjan (“From the beginning of time, God the transcendent, has
existed”): http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/27267
• Ginan selection: Aaj anand pamea man (“Today we have found joy in our hearts”):
http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/27260
Thanksgiving Recess (11/21): No Class!
Week 12 (11/28): Ginans II
Required Readings:
• Ali Asani, “The Ismaili Gināns as Devotional Literature,” The Devotional Literature in South Asia:
Current Research, 1985-1988, ed. R. S. McGregor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992), 101-112.

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 • Karim Gillani, “Sound and Recitation of Khoja Ismaili Ginans: Tradition and Transformation” (Ph.D
thesis, University of Alberta, 2012), 112-134.
• Ali Asani, “The Khojki Script,” Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of
South Asia (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002), 100-123.
• Ali Asani, “From Satpanthi to Ismaili Muslim: The Articulation of Ismaili Khoja Identity in South
Asia,” Modern History of the Ismailis, ed. Farhad Daftary (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), 95-122.
• Shafique Virani, “Taqiyya and Identity in a South Asian Community,” The Journal of Asian
Studies 70, no. 1 (2011): 99-139.
Week 13 (12/5): Devotional Literatures in the Contemporary Context
Required Readings:
• Carl Ernst, “Sufism in the Contemporary World” (ch.8), The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston:
Shambhala, 1997), 199-228.
• Ali Asani, “Transmitting and Transforming Traditions: Salman Ahmad and Sufi Rock,” 1-10.
(Unpublished, PDF provided on Canvas)
• Hisham Aidi, “9,000 Miles…of Sufi Rock” (ch.4), Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim
Youth Culture (New York: Pantheon Books, 2014), 70-85.
• Linda Hess, “Oral Tradition in the Twenty-First Century: Observing Texts” (ch.2), Bodies of Song:
Kabir Oral Traditions and Performative Worlds in North India (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2015), 73-111.
Media:
• India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the World Sufi Forum, March 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYcXPxqB4gw
• “Deeper in the Heart of Texas, Muslim Music Blossoms” (NPR, on Riyaaz Qawwali):
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/16/393367997/deep-in-the-heart-of-texas-muslim-music-blossoms