Pilgrims of Love : Khawaja Zindapir,
The Anthropology of a Global Sufi Cult,
*[A5] Paperback - 364 pages, Now in Stock and despatching,
by Pnina Werbner,
Published by Hurst Publishers.



Description :


In 'Pilgrims of Love' Pnina Werbner traces the development of a Sufi Naqshbandi order founded by a living saint, Khawaja Zindapir, may Allah have mercy upon him, [Ghamkol Sharif] whose cult originated in Pakistan and has extended globally to Britain, Europe, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. Drawing on twelve years of fieldwork in Pakistan and Britain, she elucidates  the complex organisation of Sufi orders as regional and transnational cults, and examines how such cults are manifested through ritual action and embodied in sacred mythology and global diasporas. A focus of the study is the key event in the order’s annual ritual cycle, (the Urs) a celebration in which tens of thousands of people gather at the saint’s lodge in Pakistan and in streets in Britain.


Werbner challenges accepted anthropological and sociological truths about Islam and modernity, and reflects on her own role as ethnographic observer. 'Pilgrims of Love' is a major contribution to the understanding of diasporic Islamic practices, highlighting the vitality of Sufi orders in the postcolonial world.



Reviews :

‘This excellent book will be of interest not only to those concerned with Pakistan and the new Muslim presence in Europe, but also to those interested in an anthropological study of the region.’ _{— Barbara Metcalf, University of California, Davis}.


‘This is a sympathetic and finely observed narrative about the international development of a Sufi group or “regional cult”. … Werbner demonstrated the dynamism and indeed “modernity” of Sufi practices in a scholarly landscape dominated by the story of Sufism’s decay or reformation into something more akin to scripturalist Islam.’ _{— Faisal Devji, Oxford University}.




Table of Contents :

---Acknowledgements,
------Index of Photographs,
------Index of Figures,
---Spiritual genealogy.


Chapter [1]. Introduction : Sufism as a Transnational religious Movement,
----Regional globalisation and the transnational spread of Sufi cults,
----The reformist critique and the continued vitality of Sufism,
----Sacred intimacy and the mythological imagination,
----Space, person and movement,
----The limits of postmodern anthropology.

Chapter [2]. Regional cult analysis and the political domain,
----Sufi orders and ta'ifas,
----Charisma and modernity
----Violent myths and the problems of syncretism
----Transnational flows and sacred exchange
----The embeddedness of Sufi regional cults in broader social movements.

Chapter [3]. Stamping the earth with the Name of Allah: Zikr, Julus & the sacralising of space,
----Julus,
----Hijra and the sacralising of space,
----The spatial dimensions of Sufi Muslim individual identity,
----The waxing and waning of Sufi regional cults,
----Julus and Hijra,
----Empowering moral space.

Chapter [4]. Karamat : The legendary constitution of a living saint,
----World renouncer, world renewer,
----Lineage,
----The saint's spiritual genealogy,
----Knowledge and commonsense.

Chapter [5]. Wilayat : Axis of the World,
----Axis of the world,
----The encounter with temporal power,
----Wilayat : The Spiritual Dominion of the shaikh,
----The encounter with foreigners and non-Muslims,
----The encounter with religious scholars and 'ulama,
----Conclusion : The commonsense structure of ascetic spirituality.

Chapter [6]. Langar : Pilgrimage, sacred exchange and perpetual sacrifice,
----Pilgrimage and sacred exchange,
----The Hajj as a global text of Muslim pilgrimage,
----Perpetual sacrifice,
----Islamic sacrifice and social hierarchy,
----The encounter between the Good Faith and Bad Faith economies,
----Experiencing the good faith economy.

Chapter [7]. Murids of the Saint : Migration, occupational guilds and redemptive sociality,
----The army saint,
----Proximity to the shaikh,
----The global power of the saint,
----Individual subjectivity and disciplehood,
----The dilemmas of a saint,
----Redemptive success,
----Conclusion : The camaraderie of disciplehood.

Chapter [8]. Khulafa : Lifeworks on the Sufi path--the poet, the structuralist and the organisation man,
----Introduction : Replicating the centre,
----The organisation man : Building a Sufi order in the land of the infidels,
----For the love of my pir : Poet, Sufi and lover,
----The intellectual, and structuralist quest for gnosis,
----The English scientist.
 
Chapter [9]. Nafs : The Journey of the Soul and the Quest for Mystical Revelation,
----The generative structure of Sufi cosmology,
----The practice of Sufism,
----The elaboration of the system,
----The arrogance of the soul,
----Mystical knowledge : The journey of the soul,
----'Amal : Secret Knowledge as social control,
----Conclusion : Sacred intimacy and the mythological imagination.

Chapter [10]. Sukun : Demonic Migrations, Personal Affliction & the Quest for Healing,
----Affliction, and the redistributive economy of the lodge,
----Jinn stories,
----Mulaqat : Meetings with the shaikh,
----Murids' stories of initiation through affliction,
----Demonic migrations.

Chapter [11]. Du'a : Popular culture and Powerful Blessings at the 'Urs,
----Poets, singers and orators,
----Popular culture,
----The symbolic complex of blessing,
----The 'Urs as the organisational nexus of Sufi regional cults,
----Ambivalences of authority.
 
Chapter [12]. Ziyarat : Words and Deeds--the death and rebirth of a Living Saint,
----Sources of charisma,
----Commemoration,
----Organisational continuities and discontinuities,
----In search of the aesthetic,
----Telling the generic.

Chapter [13]. Conclusion: Geographies of charisma & the limits of postmodern anthropology,
----Living charisma,
----Sources of charisma,
----On the politics of travelling theories,
----The dilemmas of postmodern anthropology,
----The limits of dialogical anthropology.


---Glossary,
---References,
---Author Index,
---Subject Index.




*The Cover shows Sufi Abdullah Sahib leading a group of Khulafa during a Julus.

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