[Bilimsel Haber] PUBL.- A. Papas, Sufism & Politics between China, Tibet & Turkestan (in French)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Thierry Zarcone <thzarcone@wanadoo.fr>

PUBL.- A. Papas, Sufism & Politics between China, Tibet & Turkestan (in 
French)

Sufism and Politics between China, Tibet and Turkestan. A Study on the
Naqshbandi Khwajas of Eastern Turkestan
by Alexandre Papas

Paris: Jean Maisonneuve, 2005, in-8, iii-291 p., 22 ill., 3 maps. With a
foreword by Marc Gaborieau. (in French)

Caucasian and Tatar World - Central Asia and High Asia series, No 2
(Th. Zarcone, editor) ISBN 2-7200-1150-9 48.00 Euros

To order, see the website: www.maisonneuve-adrien.com

Contact: maisonneuve@maisonneuve-adrien.com

Mail address:
Librairie d'Amerique et d'Orient - Adrien Maisonneuve, Jean Maisonneuve 
succ.
11, rue Saint-Sulpice
75006 Paris
France

Abstract:

Sprung from the depths of Inner Asia to confront Lamas, Shamans and 
whoever they
regarded as idolatrous, Muslim missionaries leapt to the Silk Road in 
the hope
to expand their Islamic faith and mysticism. While the Jesuits were only 
meeting
with little success in the region, these Samarqandi Sufis succeeded in 
rooting
their beliefs, spirituality and power in society. When, in 1680, Afaq 
Khwaja, a
prominent figure among them, ascended the throne of Yarkand and 
established a
regime based on the practical and spiritual principles of Sufism, a new 
ruling
order, yet unheard of in the history of Asian Islam, was founded. At the
outermost borders of China, Tibet and Central Asia, Sufi masters (ishan) 
were
setting up a saintly dynasty and seizing temporal power. Braving both 
the Qing
Empire and the Lamaist Tibet, the Naqshbandi Khwajas of Eastern Turkestan
implemented a political and religious utopia in which the subjects were 
required
to become companions and the saints to become kings. The Khwajas' ideal was
primarily aimed at securing morality and orthodoxy, yet it revealed a
speculative questioning about the world and its sufferings.

Based on unpublished - and for some, unknown - manuscript sources, the 
present
book relates the history of these mystical rulers from their arrival in the
Tarim basin in the 16th-Century up to their definitive ousting by the Manchu
armies by the 19th-Century. Through the concept of Ishanate, the book 
raises the
issues of political Sufism, utopia, power and sanctity.

Alexandre Papas, PhD, is a lecturer in Central Asian History at the 
Ecole des
Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

Contents:

Introduction
The manuscript corpus
The Orient and orientalism on the Khwajas
Sufism and intellectual history

Part I - From the dynastization of the ishans to the great dissension, 
1580-1653

  - Idolaters, Lamas and Sufis
  - Ishaq Khwaja and the Naqshbandiyya Ishaqiyya
  - The great dissension

Part II - The saintly exile of Afaq Khwaja and the outset of the 
Naqshbandiyya
Afaqiyya, 1653-1678

  - The saint in exile
  - A Sufi master among the Lamas
  - Afaq Khwaja on the road to China

Part III - The Ishanate of Afaq Khwaja: a theologico-political utopia

  - A Sufi becomes a ruler
  - The political and religious institutions of the Ishanate
  - Spiritual practices and temporal uses
  - The Ishanate, an utopia faces the question of the world

Part IV - Afaq Khwja's legacy: prologue or epiloguee to the Sufi power?

  - The death of the saintly ishan and its results
  - The resurrection of the Afaqi sanctity: the legatees
  - The Naqshbandi ishans live on (18th-19th-C.)

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Appendix


Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian 
Studies