Mullahs on the mainframe : Islam and modernity among the Daudi Bohras / Jonah Blank.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blank, Jonah.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ismailites--India.

Ismailites.

India.

Ismailites--Pakistan.

Pakistan.

Physical Description:

viii, 408 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Summary:

In Jonah Blank's important, myth-shattering book, the West gets its first look at the Daudi Bohras, a unique Muslim denomination who have found the core of their religious beliefs largely compatible with modern ideology. Combining orthodox Muslim prayer, dress, and practice with secular education, relative gender equality, and Internet use, this community serves as a surprising reminder that the central values of "modernity" are hardly limited to the West."This is a groundbreaking work. . . . This brilliant study is both academically rigorous and a welcome introduction to the real success of this Islamic community in the modern world. Highly recommended."--Library Journal"[Blank's] book should be read for his portrait of a group trying to carve out a place for their practices while maintaining peaceful relations with religious activists and secularists alike, a delicate tightrope act that he chronicles well."--John R. Bowen, Washington Post Book World

Contents:

Part I Ethnography 11

Chapter 1 Historical Background: The Roots of the Faith 13

Chapter 2 Rituals of a Daudi Bohra Life 53

Chapter 3 Rituals of the Daudi Bohra Year 82

Chapter 4 Bohra Domestic Life: Kinship, Sex, and the Status of Women 111

Chapter 5 Qasr-e Ali: The Royals 134

Part II Analysis 157

Chapter 6 Maintenance of Spiritual and Political Hegemony 159

Chapter 7 Specifics of Orthopraxy: Dress and Economics 184

Chapter 8 Education 207

Chapter 9 Dissidents and Control 229

1. Line of Musta'li Tayyibi Ismaili Imams 289

2. Line of Daudi Bohra Da'is 290

3. Questionnaire Used for Issuing Certificates of Orthopraxy 292

4. Analysis of Gulshan-e Malumat Data 296

5. Kinship Ties of the Daudi Bohra Da'is 299.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-392) and index.

ISBN:

0226056767

0226056775

OCLC:

44502485