The Daʾudi Bohras are a community of Shiʿa Ismaili Mustaʿli Tayyibis, centred around a lineage of revered living preceptors known as duʿāt al-muṭlaqīn (s. dāʿī al-muṭlaqThe highest rank in the Mustaʿli Ismaili daʿwa., a summoner with total authority), who currently resides in Mumbai, India. This affluent Gujarati merchant community boasts a rich historical legacy in the Indian Ocean world. Vineet Gupta calls attention to certain historical junctures where modernity has transformed the virtues of authority among the Daʾudi Bohras. The articulation of authority in this Muslim community, Gupta proposes, is a dynamic process based on a complex synthesis of spiritual and material, ceremonial and legal, as well as ethical and genealogical sources, reflecting the Gujarati as well as the Fatimid and Tayyibi heritage of the daʿwaLit. ‘summons’, ‘mission’ or invitation to Islam. Amongst Shi’i Muslims, it was the invitation to adopt the cause of the Imamat. It also refers more specifically to the hierarchy of… (mission).
A Case of Da’udi Bohras of South Asia, 1789-1965
Speakers
Vineet Gupta
PhD (Religion) at the Graduate Department of Religion, Vanderbilt University, Nashville (USA)
Dissertation Title: The Da‘i: Articulating Authority among Da’udi Bohras of South Asia, 1787-1921.
Dagikhudo Dagiev
Senior Research Associate
Dagikhudo Dagiev is a Senior Research Associate at the IIS, where he is also coordinating IIS Scholarships and Fellowships. He completed his MPhil Degree in Eurasian Studies from Oxford University and was awarded PhD in Department of Political Science at University College London (UCL).
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Views expressed in this lecture are those of the presenting scholars, not necessarily of IIS, the Ismaili community or its leadership. Promotion of this lecture is not an explicit endorsement of the ideas presented.
