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Abstract
The history of the eastern Islamic lands in the 15th century is one of the greatest challenges of late medieval Islamic history as this century is often found as 'confusing' by the students of history. One of the main reasons for this is we do not yet have a refined picture of the intellectual life for that period. Scholarly and Sufi networks is one of the areas where we can expand our knowledge of the intellectual discourse that prevailed through the 15th century. This paper aims to contribute modestly to greater historical issue of the intellectual discourse in eastern Islamic lands in the 15th century through an analysis of the scholarly and Sufi networks of Abdurahman Jami (d. 1492), the well-known scholar. Naqshbandi Sufi and poet. The reason for exploring scholarly and Sufi networks at the same time is scholarly and Sufi activity influenced each other significantly, and these networks and their products constituted parts of the same intellectual/spiritual discourse. To arrive at a relatively comprehensive view of the 15th century intellectual discourse, the scholarly and Sufi networks have to be examined together recognizing their relationship with each other In this paper I will concentrate on two groups of people, Sufis and scholars, i) in their capacity as authoritative figures who influenced Jami in an intellectual-spiritual way ii) with whom Jami came into contact with either physically, or through their works, with the condition that Jami met other individuals who met those authoritative figures -thus, we can still talk about a palpable network-. To answer my research question in a feasible way I will focus on the Sufi network in Herat in especially the first half of the 15th century, and the early Naqshbandiyya chain starting from the earliest Naqshbandi intellectual Muhammad Parsa. As for the scholarly network my starting point will be the famous Taftazani-Jurjani debate. Then I will proceed to the renowned Samarqand astronomy-theology school where Jami was exposed the latest theological ideas before he made his decisive turn in favor of Sufism.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Central Asia
Sub Area
Cultural Studies