Elbon Hojibekov

Abstract of the Presentation given at the 37th Congress of the International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS), 16-21 August 2004.

Based on unique data, collected from community members as well as Soviet archives in Tajikistan, the author presents the life and work of one of the most prominent Pirs of the Ismaili community of Badakhshan of the 19th century, Sayed Farrukhsho. The major arguments of the paper are as follows: (a) Ismaili Pirs of Shugnan and Badakhshan were not agents of any foreign power, as the Soviet historiography often labelled them, but patriots and leaders of their community who had obligations to fulfil as their moral duty to their communities and Imam, and (b) the Pirs were not merely religious clerics but people of strong literary and political standing. As such, they contributed to the development of local cultural life and to the Tajik-Persian literature. In order to defend its arguments, the paper brings rich evidence from the writings of Sayed Farrukhsho as well as other sources related to him.