{"product_id":"singing-with-the-mountains-the-language-of-god-in-the-afghan-highlands-paperback-softback-9781531505684","title":"Singing with the Mountains; The Language of God in the Afghan Highlands (Paperback \/ softback) 9781531505684","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eSinging with the Mountains\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Language of God in the Afghan Highlands\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eWilliam Sherman (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781531505684\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 5 December 2023\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e277 pages, 1 b\/w illustration and 1 map - 1 Maps\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.413 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner, Carolina's Outstanding Contribution to Middle East and Islamic Studies Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eAn illuminating story of a Sufi community that sought the revelation of God\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the Afghan highlands of the sixteenth century, the messianic community known as the Roshaniyya not only desired to find God's word and to abide by it but also attempted to \u003ci\u003epractice \u003c\/i\u003eGod's word and to develop techniques of language intended to render their own tongues as the organs of continuous revelation. As their critics would contend, however, the Roshaniyya attempted to make language do something that language should not do—infuse the semiotic with the divine. Their story thus ends in a tower of skulls, the proliferation of heresiographies that detailed the sins of the Roshaniyya, and new formations of \"Afghan\" identity.\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eSinging with the Mountains\u003c\/i\u003e, William E. B. Sherman finds something extraordinary about the Roshaniyya, not least because the first known literary use of vernacular Pashto occurs in an eclectic, Roshani imitation of the Qur'an. The story of the Roshaniyya exemplifies a religious culture of linguistic experimentation. In the example of the Roshaniyya, we discover a set of questions and anxieties about the capacities of language that pervaded Sufi orders, imperial courts, groups of wandering ascetics, and scholastic networks throughout Central and South Asia.\u003cbr\u003e In telling this tale, Sherman asks the following questions: How can we make language shimmer with divine truth? How can letters grant sovereign power and form new \"ethnic\" identities and ways of belonging? How can rhyme bend our conceptions of time so that the prophetic past comes to inhabit the \u003ci\u003enow \u003c\/i\u003eof our collective moment? By analyzing the ways in which the Roshaniyya answered these types of questions—and the ways in which their answers were eventually rejected as heresies—this book offers new insight into the imaginations of religious actors in the late medieval and early modern Persianate worlds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePreface: First Words\u003c\/i\u003e   vii\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments   xi\u003cbr\u003e Mountains and Messiahs: An Introduction   1\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e1 \u003c\/b\u003eBayazid's Doubles: Hagiography and History in the Messianic Community   29\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e2 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Dhikr of the Wretch: Text, Practice, and the Roshani Self   62\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e3 \u003c\/b\u003eRevelation through Repetition: The Roshaniyya Write the Word of God   90\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e4 \u003c\/b\u003eVernacular Apocalypse: Poetic and Polemical Emergences of Pashto Literature   118\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e5 \u003c\/b\u003eThe Vanguard of Disbelief: Afghan Ethnicity and Temporality after the Roshaniyya   151\u003cbr\u003e Ishmael's Daydream: A Conclusion   180\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eA Note on Sources\u003c\/i\u003e   189\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNotes \u003c\/i\u003e  193\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBibliography \u003c\/i\u003e  227\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndex \u003c\/i\u003e  253\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52735523586328,"sku":"9781531505684","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/singing-with-the-mountains-the-language-of-god-in-the-afghan-highlands-paperback-softback-9781531505684","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}