Showing posts with label saints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saints. Show all posts
Louw, Maria Elisabeth. Everyday Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Central Asian Studies Series, Vol. 7. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Louw provides an excellent introduction to Sufism, veneration of saints, shrine visits (like the Naqshbandi shrine), and popular Islamic rituals (like bibi Seshanba) in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
Privratsky, Bruce G. Muslim Turkistan: Kazak Religion and Collective Memory. Richmond UK: Curzon, 2001.

Privratsky's book is a good ethnographic survey of contemporary Islamic practice among Kazakhs in Turkistan, Kazakhstan. It discusses, among other things, Sufism, lines of ancestry traced to the first century of Islam, observance (or non-observance) of the five pillars of Islam, shrine visitations like that of the Yasawi Mausoleum, veneration of ancestors, and healing arts. There are interesting discussions about pre-Islamic influences of contemporary religious practices and what are true Islamic practices. 

Contents: Maps and Illustrations; Preface; Abbreviations; Transliteration; The Problem of Kazak Religion; Kiyeli Jer: Muslim Landscapes and Kazak Ethnicity; Taza Jol: The Pure Way of Islam Among the Kazaks; Aruaq: Remembering the Ancestors; Auliye: Remembering the Saints; Emshi: The Kazak Healer; Kazak Religion and Collective Memory; Religion as Culture and Spirit; Appendix: Principal Informants; References Cited; Glossary; Index