Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

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Isma'ilism, one of the most colourful and dynamic sects of Islam, boasts a rich and fascinating history. This thesis studies the life and works of Nur Muhammad Shah, a gifted exponent of the Isma'ili Sat Panth movement in Indo-Pakistan during the 15th/16th centuries. Sat Panth, the Path of Truth, is the highly mystical form of Isma'ilism which resulted from conversion efforts in the Subcontinent during the eleventh and subsequent centuries. The legacy of the order which was fostered is to be found in its corpus of sacred religious literature known as Ginans, an appellation that suggests supreme, gnostic knowledge. The Sat Panthi Isma'ilis consider the Ginans to be the embodiment, par excellence, of the Qur'an's esoteric dimension. Nur Muhammad Shah is the last of the Sat Panth authors for whom a large body of Ginanas has been preserved. / This work gives a historical background of the Isma'ili movement in Indo-Pakistan, examines the career of Nur Muhammad Shah from the earliest available primary sources and disproves suggestions by previous scholars that he forsook his allegiance to the Isma'ili Imam and became the founder of his own rival sect. In addition, it provides for the first time a scholarly translation of a significant portion of the Nur Muhammad Shah's Sat Veni Moti or Tale of Truth (Larger), an important Sat Panthi mystical text.

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Metaphors of "journey" or "rootlessness" are often used to describe movements of people across cultural and social spaces, and physical geographies. Such journeys whilst revealing stories that speak of a people's voice, are rarely seen as embodying an implicit quest for a narrative unity with a teleology and pedagogy, sui generis. This inquiry focuses upon the narrative journey of one such community of "travellers," the Indian Ismailis, who left their timeworn homeland in the North Western region of the Indian Subcontinent at the end of the nineteenth century and travelled to colonial Eastern Africa to make the land their new home. In the early 1970' s , however, political unrest in this now "postcolonial" region prompted the succeeding generations of the earlier pioneers to once again uproot their African home and undertake yet another journey, this time towards the so-called modern societies of Canada and other Western countries. This historical and often turbulent intergenerational voyage of over a hundred years is also a continuous journey of a modern selfhood in aporia as it experiences and traverses the various institutions, practices, and milieus of modernity, while attempting to engage with or update its own biographical narrative. Using the important and primary genre of shared conversations implicit within a narrative and hermeneutical inquiry, this project acts as witness and delves into the narratives of a diverse group of individuals from four generations of these travellers. It is proposed that in these intergenerational conversations and stories lie experiences and expressions of praxis that also reveal or point towards moral enablements of practices and virtues, and arguments that make present a "living tradition." This tradition, it is felt, can act as a significant and inescapable horizon - a robust historical consciousness - from which a modern selfhood in aporia can once again begin to update its own narrative as part of a continuous story of a community with a teleology, and which the current and future generations of these "travellers" can recognize, argue, update, and ultimately possess as they venture purposefully into the community's shared future.

This dissertation offers for the first time an extensive scholarly translation of an anthology of 106 ginans (sacred hymns) attributed to the Isma'ili saint-composer, Pir Shams. The Ginan tradition is a sacred corpus of devotional poetry belonging to a sub-sect of the Shiah Muslims known as the Satpanth Isma'ili Khojahs. Composed in various North Indian dialects, ginans are part of a broader rich and complex heritage of Indo-Muslim folk literatures in the Indian subcontinent. For centuries, however, the Satpanth Isma'ilis have carefully guarded this sacred tradition for fear of persecution. By thus presenting a major translation of ginans attributed to a pivotal figure in Satpanth Isma'ilism, this dissertation aspires to advance significantly the academic study and knowledge of this scarcely examined sacred literature. / To date, the syncretic nature of Satpanth Isma'ilism has been viewed within a framework of conversion. Thus, generally, the ginan literature has been explained as the creative attempts of Isma'ili pirs (venerated teachers) to effect changes in religious orientation by conveying Nizari Isma'ili teachings through Hindu symbols and themes. However, an examination of the internal evidence in the ginans of Pir Shams--who belonged to the beginnings of Satpanth--in conjunction with events in Sind and the greater Isma'ili world at the time, has brought into focus crucial social and political factors that may also have instigated the formation of Satpanth Isma'ilism.

The Muslims of Pakistan and other countries such as Egypt are groping for ways to change their situation. The phenomenon of Islamic Resurgence in Pakistan is one major expression of this frantic desire of the Muslims to improve their lot through the acquisition of the control of the nation's political machinery. This political concern is something new and volatile. It has affected the life of Pakistan as a whole and that of the various Muslim groups within it. The Khojah Isma$ sp{ rm c}$ili response to the process of Islamization in Pakistan is reflected in their re-thinking of many aspects of religious traditions and beliefs, mainly those related to the concept of religious authority. The transition in the community's self-definition is that from the emphasis on its inherited traditional beliefs concerning the authority of the Imam to a posture more accommodating to the ethos of Pakistani Islam. Tensions have been generated as a consequence of this tradition, as well as social and economic mechanisms to cushion these tensions. The nature of Isma$ sp{ rm c}$ili response to the changing situation can be grasped through the understanding of their religious beliefs.

Metaphors of "journey" or "rootlessness" are often used to describe movements of people across cultural and social spaces, and physical geographies. Such journeys whilst revealing stories that speak of a people's voice, are rarely seen as embodying an implicit quest for a narrative unity with a teleology and pedagogy, sui generis. This inquiry focuses upon the narrative journey of one such community of "travellers," the Indian Ismailis, who left their timeworn homeland in the North Western region of the Indian Subcontinent at the end of the nineteenth century and travelled to colonial Eastern Africa to make the land their new home. In the early 1970' s , however, political unrest in this now "postcolonial" region prompted the succeeding generations of the earlier pioneers to once again uproot their African home and undertake yet another journey, this time towards the so-called modern societies of Canada and other Western countries. This historical and often turbulent intergenerational voyage of over a hundred years is also a continuous journey of a modern selfhood in aporia as it experiences and traverses the various institutions, practices, and milieus of modernity, while attempting to engage with or update its own biographical narrative. Using the important and primary genre of shared conversations implicit within a narrative and hermeneutical inquiry, this project acts as witness and delves into the narratives of a diverse group of individuals from four generations of these travellers. It is proposed that in these intergenerational conversations and stories lie experiences and expressions of praxis that also reveal or point towards moral enablements of practices and virtues, and arguments that make present a "living tradition." This tradition, it is felt, can act as a significant and inescapable horizon - a robust historical consciousness - from which a modern selfhood in aporia can once again begin to update its own narrative as part of a continuous story of a community with a teleology, and which the current and future generations of these "travellers" can recognize, argue, update, and ultimately possess as they venture purposefully into the community's shared future. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate