Books by Alexandre Papas
Brill Handbook of Sufi Studies
Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden , 2017
Table of Contents of the edited volume.
The literature of what has been labeled “Central Asia” was produced in a variety of languages in ... more The literature of what has been labeled “Central Asia” was produced in a variety of languages in a huge area which includes not only the five republics of the former Soviet Union (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), but also Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and parts of Russia and China (Uyghur Autonomous Region). Needless to say the literary works produced in this vast space represent a considerable amount of materials, both oral and written, which would maybe require more attention than they are actually given thus far, at least in the Western academic world. Given the scarcity of publications in the field, the fact that the Cahiers d’Asie centrale is devoting a single issue to this matter is something that deserves due attention.
But this issue is certainly more than a contribution to the study of Central Asian literature. Actually, by aiming to focus on the societal challenges reflected by Central Asian literary production, this volume would like to bring answers, as well as new kinds of questioning regarding the way the various societies and peoples of this geographic area have depicted their time throughout their histories. Within the perspective of examining the way literature can be used as a source of historiography, and more generally speaking with the aim of assessing the interconnectedness of society and literature, the various contributors have devoted a specific attention to the issue of the relationships between culture and power. In this regard the historical timeline which is covered extends from the 15th century up to the present day. It begins with the end of the medieval times, when the Timurid Renaissance achieved the production of its finest hours, and ends with the situation of contemporary Kyrgyz literature, including in the period between the early modern times looked at from the point of view of the mystical writings of an Eastern Turkestanese poet, as well as the Russian colonization and the Soviet era.
In this kind of endeavor it is important to hear the voices of readers who have a privileged access to Central Asian works. This is the reason why we are happy to say that nearly half of the contributors are scholars coming from Central Asia (Gulnara Aitpaeva, Aftandil Erkinov, Boris Koichuev, Zulkhumor Mirzaeva, Eleonora Proyaeva). The other contributors are researchers coming from different parts of “the outside world,” such as United State (Katharine Holt, Samuel Hodgkin), Germany (Ingeborg Baldauf), Italy (Michele Bernardini), and France (Alexandre Papas, Marc Toutant). This variety of academic backgrounds helps to provide a wide range of perspectives, all the more so that these authors employ, cite, and often synthesize a wealth of source materials, including manuscripts that have not been studied so far, local archives and other documents which remain unpublished, as well as more easily accessible written sources ranging from works composed by writers (playwrights, novels, short stories, poems, articles) to reports and contemporary texts published by the administrative authorities.
Papers by Alexandre Papas
Journey among Dervishes between Past and Present, 2023
Handbook of Sufi Studies , 2020
Journal of Sufi Studies, 2021
La rose (gül en turc) est un symbole bien connu dans le soufisme, en particulier dans la poésie m... more La rose (gül en turc) est un symbole bien connu dans le soufisme, en particulier dans la poésie mystique. Métaphore de l'épineuse beauté divine que le rossignol adule, la fleur hérite d'interprétations supplémentaires dans les manuels confrériques, à partir notamment de hadiths apocryphes. L'un de ces écrits, le Traité de la rosace d'Ibrāhīm el-Eşrefī el-Qādirī, cheikh de la branche Eşrefiyye de la Qādiriyya ottomane, explique les significations symboliques de trois représentations de rose sous forme de rosaces cousues sur le couvre-chef porté par les soufis. L'article soutient que les lectures précédentes du traité ont peut-être manqué le véritable enjeu du texte. Pour les mystiques musulmans, par-delà la question du hadith, la rose est bien une métaphore de l'épanouissement du Prophète parmi les humains manifestant la présence de Dieu. Mais plus précisément, la traduction du traité révèle que son auteur envisage la rose comme un signe dont les sens cachés ne sont connus que de quelques maîtres soufis (tels quelques roses dans le désert) ayant reçu mission prophétique et faveur divine.
The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam, 2021
Around the famous episode of the heavenly ascension of the Prophet, the Ottoman world has develop... more Around the famous episode of the heavenly ascension of the Prophet, the Ottoman world has developed a proper aesthetic called miʿrāciyye as well in literature as in religious music, miniature and calligraphy. From the early fifteenth century to the 1920s, many poets devoted either a part of a book or an entire work to the miʿrāc, most often in the form of a mes̱nevī or qaṣīde, of varying lengths. Rather than an intertextual comparison that seeks to classify present and absent themes in order to deduce a typology, as the Turkish scholar Metin Akar had undertaken, this article sketches a short history of literary miʿrāciyye attentive to the authors, to the characteristics of their writings, and to the debates aroused by the ascension of the Prophet. From a sample of nine miʿrācnāmes written in Ottoman Turkish by authors as diverse as Aḥmedī, Ḥaqqānī, Mecīdī, Naẓīm Yaḥyā Çelebī, Levḥī Bursalī, ʿÖmer Ḥāfıẓ Fenārī, Diyārbekirlī Saʿīd Paşa, Kerkükī ʿAbdüsettār and Meḥmed Bahāʾeddīn, I will try to periodise in a simple way subtle literary variations while showing the tensions that they betray in the treatment of the Prophetic figure, without reducing the history of the miʿrāciyye to a linear evolution that would go, for example, from preaching to esoteric discourse. On the corporal or spiritual nature of the ascension, on the state of sleep or awakening of the Prophet, on the content of the encounter between God and Muḥammad, our authors diverge. But it is precisely here, in the renewal of old debates that are now reformulated and taken to new narrative horizons, that we must see the sign of an Ottoman intellectual vitality and even boldness.
Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 2021
Recent discoveries and overlooked documents help us to understand the spread of the Dalāʾil al-kh... more Recent discoveries and overlooked documents help us to understand the spread of the Dalāʾil al-khayrāt in a region stretching from the Tatar lands to the Tarim Basin, passing Bukhara and Kokand along the way. This paper by no means aims to provide a historical survey of al-Jazūlī's prayer book in Central Asia. Rather, I introduce some leads for research on the basis of several manuscripts. A first issue is that of chronology and geography: terminus a quo, terminus ad quem, and the geographical extent of the book's production and circulation should be revised. A second question regards the circuits of circulation: manuscript designs and illustrations reveal influences from various regions and an evolution in uses. A third lead consists in investigating the education: Sufi training and Qurʾanic institutions such as Dalāʾil-khānas played an important role, while Persian interlinear translations, reading notes in Chaghatay Turkish, and commentaries (sharḥs) suggest a complex reception process.
Handbook of Sufi Studies, 2020
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Books by Alexandre Papas
But this issue is certainly more than a contribution to the study of Central Asian literature. Actually, by aiming to focus on the societal challenges reflected by Central Asian literary production, this volume would like to bring answers, as well as new kinds of questioning regarding the way the various societies and peoples of this geographic area have depicted their time throughout their histories. Within the perspective of examining the way literature can be used as a source of historiography, and more generally speaking with the aim of assessing the interconnectedness of society and literature, the various contributors have devoted a specific attention to the issue of the relationships between culture and power. In this regard the historical timeline which is covered extends from the 15th century up to the present day. It begins with the end of the medieval times, when the Timurid Renaissance achieved the production of its finest hours, and ends with the situation of contemporary Kyrgyz literature, including in the period between the early modern times looked at from the point of view of the mystical writings of an Eastern Turkestanese poet, as well as the Russian colonization and the Soviet era.
In this kind of endeavor it is important to hear the voices of readers who have a privileged access to Central Asian works. This is the reason why we are happy to say that nearly half of the contributors are scholars coming from Central Asia (Gulnara Aitpaeva, Aftandil Erkinov, Boris Koichuev, Zulkhumor Mirzaeva, Eleonora Proyaeva). The other contributors are researchers coming from different parts of “the outside world,” such as United State (Katharine Holt, Samuel Hodgkin), Germany (Ingeborg Baldauf), Italy (Michele Bernardini), and France (Alexandre Papas, Marc Toutant). This variety of academic backgrounds helps to provide a wide range of perspectives, all the more so that these authors employ, cite, and often synthesize a wealth of source materials, including manuscripts that have not been studied so far, local archives and other documents which remain unpublished, as well as more easily accessible written sources ranging from works composed by writers (playwrights, novels, short stories, poems, articles) to reports and contemporary texts published by the administrative authorities.
Papers by Alexandre Papas
But this issue is certainly more than a contribution to the study of Central Asian literature. Actually, by aiming to focus on the societal challenges reflected by Central Asian literary production, this volume would like to bring answers, as well as new kinds of questioning regarding the way the various societies and peoples of this geographic area have depicted their time throughout their histories. Within the perspective of examining the way literature can be used as a source of historiography, and more generally speaking with the aim of assessing the interconnectedness of society and literature, the various contributors have devoted a specific attention to the issue of the relationships between culture and power. In this regard the historical timeline which is covered extends from the 15th century up to the present day. It begins with the end of the medieval times, when the Timurid Renaissance achieved the production of its finest hours, and ends with the situation of contemporary Kyrgyz literature, including in the period between the early modern times looked at from the point of view of the mystical writings of an Eastern Turkestanese poet, as well as the Russian colonization and the Soviet era.
In this kind of endeavor it is important to hear the voices of readers who have a privileged access to Central Asian works. This is the reason why we are happy to say that nearly half of the contributors are scholars coming from Central Asia (Gulnara Aitpaeva, Aftandil Erkinov, Boris Koichuev, Zulkhumor Mirzaeva, Eleonora Proyaeva). The other contributors are researchers coming from different parts of “the outside world,” such as United State (Katharine Holt, Samuel Hodgkin), Germany (Ingeborg Baldauf), Italy (Michele Bernardini), and France (Alexandre Papas, Marc Toutant). This variety of academic backgrounds helps to provide a wide range of perspectives, all the more so that these authors employ, cite, and often synthesize a wealth of source materials, including manuscripts that have not been studied so far, local archives and other documents which remain unpublished, as well as more easily accessible written sources ranging from works composed by writers (playwrights, novels, short stories, poems, articles) to reports and contemporary texts published by the administrative authorities.
L’histoire médiévale du soufisme à Multan est relativement bien connue. Une figure aussi célèbre que le cheikh Suhrawardî Bahâ’ al-Dîn Zakariyyâ au XIIIe siècle incarne cette période prestigieuse. Notre article montre que les confréries soufies ont continué de prospérer jusqu’à aujourd’hui, bien au-delà de ce que l’historiographie traditionnelle décrit. À l’aide de sources inexplorées – pour l’essentiel, des hagiographies modernes en ourdou consacrées à l’histoire sainte de Multan –, nous reconstituons la biographie comme la bibliographie de nombreux cheikhs soufis ainsi que les lignages, en particulier Qâdirîs et Chishtîs, dont ils sont issus ; nous identifions plusieurs mausolées et loges à travers la ville ; enfin nous révélons l’existence de mystiques marginaux qui ont marqué la mémoire religieuse de cette cité patrimoniale du Pendjab pakistanais.
Mots clés : Multan, Pakistan, hagiographie, Suhrawardiyya, Qâdiriyya, Chishtiyya, soufis marginaux
The history of Sufism in Multan (Pakistan): new data
The medieval history of Sufism in Multan is relatively well known. A figure as famous as the Suhrawardî Shaykh Bahâ’ al-Dîn Zakariyyâ in the 13th century embodies this prestigious period. Our article shows that the Sufi brotherhoods have continued to flourish until today, far beyond what the traditional historiography describes. Using unexplored sources – mostly modern Urdu hagiographies devoted to the sacred history of Multan – we reconstruct the biography and the bibliography of many Sufi Shaykhs as well as the lineages, especially Qâdirî and Chishtî, from which they come; we identify several mausoleums and lodges across the city; eventually, we reveal the existence of marginal mystics who marked the religious memory of this heritage city of Pakistani Punjab.
Keywords: Multan, Pakistan, hagiography, Suhrawardiyya, Qâdiriyya, Chishtiyya,
marginal Sufis