Mittwoch, 14. Jänner 2026, 17:00 - 18:30 iCal
Ringvorlesung Turkologie Wintersemester 2025/2026
Sufi Teaching in the Margins: Ritual, Pedagogy, and Intertextuality in a Kubrawi Manuscript from 15th c. Badakhshan by Bruno De Nicola
Hörsaal (1F-01-38), Institut für Orientalistik
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 4, 1090 Wien
Antrittsvorlesung, Public Lecture, Vortrag
Abstract:
This lecture examines the production, circulation and reception of a little-studied Kubrawi manuscript produced in 15th-century Badakhshan. The codex was copied in the late 1430s and comprises eight texts associated with Kubrawi circles at a time when the order was undergoing significant transformation following the upheavals of the early 15th century. While earlier scholarship has highlighted the broader trajectories of Kubrawi expansion from Central Asia into Iran, Kashmir, and India, the Badakhshani branch of the order remains poorly documented. The manuscript offers rare evidence for the intellectual and devotional practices of these communities in a moment marked by political fragmentation and sectarian division. Beyond its textual corpus, the codex preserves traces of lived Sufi engagement in the form of marginal annotations, ritual instructions, and pedagogical glosses that illuminate how texts were taught, performed, and transmitted. By examining these paratextual and intertextual features, the lecture explores how the manuscript functioned as a teaching tool and ritual aid, revealing the dynamics of authority, memory, and creativity in a peripheral yet vital setting of the Kubrawi tradition.
Bio:
Bruno De Nicola is Distinguished Researcher at the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Since 2020 he is the Principal Investigator in the FWF STARTPrize project NoMansLand, “Nomads’ Manuscripts Landscape”. He has formerly held positions at at the University of St Andrews and Goldsmiths College (University of London). He has published two monographs, Women in Mongol Iran: The khātūns, 1206–1335 (EUP, 2017) and more recently The Chobanids of Kastamonu: Politics, patronage and religion in 13th century Anatolia (Routledge, 2024). He has published several articles and book chapters on the history of the Mongol Empire, pre-modern history of Iran, Anatolia and Central Asia and manuscript studies.
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Kontakt
Ayse Dilsiz Hartmuth
Institut für Orientalistik
+43-1-4277-43405
ayse.dilsiz.hartmuth@univie.ac.at
Erstellt am Dienstag, 07. Oktober 2025, 09:51
Letzte Änderung am Dienstag, 21. Oktober 2025, 11:53