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Islam is often described as abstract, ascetic, and uniquely disengaged from the human body. Scott Kugle refutes this assertion in the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body. Examining Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century, Kugle demonstrates that literature from this era often treated saints' physical bodies as sites of sacred power. Sufis and Saints' Bodies focuses on six important saints from Sufi communities in North Africa and South Asia. Kugle singles out a specific part of the body to which each saint is frequently associated in religious literature. The saints' bodies, Kugle argues, are treated as symbolic resources for generating religious meaning, communal solidarity, and the experience of sacred power. In each chapter, Kugle also features a particular theoretical problem, drawing methodologically from religious studies, anthropology, studies of gender and sexuality, theology, feminism, and philosophy. Bringing a new perspective to Islamic studies, Kugle shows how an important Islamic tradition integrated myriad understandings of the body in its nurturing role in the material, social, and spiritual realms. Printed Pages: 368 with 4 figures and 1 map.
Title: Sufis and Saints' Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality & Sacred Power in Islam
Categories: Islam, Sufism, India,
Edition: First Indian Edition
Publisher: New Delhi, India, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.: 2009
ISBN: 8121512042
ISBN 13: 9788121512046
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: New
Jacket Condition: New
Size: 16 x 24 Cm
Seller ID: 029121
Keywords: Sufi Sufism Islam India Sufis