Florian Schwarz. “Unser Weg schließt tausend Wege ein”: Derwische und Gesellschaft im islamischen Mittelasien im 16. Jahrhundert. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, 226), Berlin, Klaus Schwarz, 2000, 270 p. [“Notre voie inclut des milliers de voies” : derviches et société dans l’Asie Centrale musulmane au 16e s.]
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1“Our path enfolds a thousand paths” deals with the relationship between society at large and mystic brotherhoods in Middle Asia after the Timurid epoch. As the author rightly states, this is a period that has been unjustly neglected, and he desires his study to be regarded as a contribution to challenge major sentiments still hanging in the air about this region: mainly that it was provincial, cut off from the major trade lines, unable to develop an empire state, and constituting a Sunni barrier between a more prolific Safavid Empire and India, to name just a few misconceptions.
2This is not just a study on Sufi orders, but a highly ingenious blend of diverse approaches, including focused analyses of land-holding patterns in the oasis of Bukhara, of the development of Shaibanid apanage-politics, and the integration of Sufi Sheikhs into this complicated web of political relations. Equally wide is the range of sources, featuring hagiographies, chronicles, property contracts and vaqf material. The first three chapters after the introduction build up a background for the understanding of Middle Asian society, the first dealing with the local level of village communities, the second with Shaibanid politics (note here the welcome excursion on the incorporation of Timurid cultural heritage), while the third sets out to bring some order into the wide range of Sufi groups active during this time. The fourth chapter analyses the mutual interconnectedness of politics and brotherhoods in detail and both the formation and subsequent transformation of sheikh-families. It includes the sketch of group profiles as well as biographies of leading protagonists. The final part takes up the book’s title: “The path of the khwajagan includes thousand different paths, even those, which no one has hitherto seen or heard of”. This quotation ascribed to the teacher of Ahmad Kasani demonstrates the dominant position of the Khwajagan/Naqshbandis and their claim to integrate und supersede other movements.
3This work is a feast for historians, those more mystically inclined might be a little bit disappointed. Florian Schwarz’s study deserves more attention outside the narrow circle of specialists covering similar ground than it might have received until now. It is especially recommended to researchers from other fields of Islamic or Persian historical studies, since it carries high potential for comparative issues.
References
Electronic reference
Christoph Werner, “Florian Schwarz. “Unser Weg schließt tausend Wege ein”: Derwische und Gesellschaft im islamischen Mittelasien im 16. Jahrhundert. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, 226), Berlin, Klaus Schwarz, 2000, 270 p. [“Notre voie inclut des milliers de voies” : derviches et société dans l’Asie Centrale musulmane au 16e s.]”, Abstracta Iranica [Online], Volume 26 | 2005, document 258, Online since 08 December 2005, connection on 09 December 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/2881; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.2881
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