Our research
The unit is working on a number of research projects related to Muslims in South Asia, including:
- Developing an annotated bibliography of vernacular sources relevant to South Asian studies
- Documenting the migration and process of acculturation of various Ismaili groups (e.g. Persians accompanying Imam Hasan Ali Shah to India; the South Asian Ismaili migration to East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America; migration due to the 1947 India/Pakistan partition and subsequent separation of Bangladesh, etc.)
- Exploring poetic and other literary expressions of devotion to Imam ‘Ali amongst Satpanth IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 765), as his successor., as well as Chishtī and Qādirī Sufi orders in Gujarat and the Deccan
- Investigating shared networks of devotional texts and performance between Sufi, Dādūpanthī, Satpanth and Sayyidḳhānī Ismā‘īlī communities
- Reconstructing epistemologies of musical knowledge amongst Ismā‘īlī, Sufi, and Bhakti communities
Publications
- Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia by Ali S. Asani
- A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics by Aziz Esmail
- Crossing the Threshold: Understanding Religious Identities in South Asia by Dominique-Sila Khan
- Selected Speeches and Writings of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Ed. By K.K. Aziz
- The First Aga KhanA title granted by the Shah of Persia to the then Ismaili Imam in 1818 and inherited by each of his successors to the Imamate.: Memoirs of the 46th Ismaili Imam by Daniel Beben and Daryoush Mohammad Poor
- Fifty Years in the East: The Memoirs of Wladimir Ivanow by Farhad Daftary
