Combat with the Self | Beyond the Classroom Series
Join Historian Ali Khan Mahmudabad to discuss how poetry has been used by devotees of Islam as a tool of philosophical enquiry for over a thousand years.
Ashoka Staff
29 April, 2020 | 2 min read
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In our eighth seminar of Beyond the Classroom, Prof. Khan will bring alive a thousand years of Islamic mysticism through poetry in his talk “Islamic Poetry: Combat with the Self”. Religious traditions, and their practitioners, are often viewed as rigid and inflexible. However, the literary and poetic traditions of Islam tell a different story. Using poetry from Arabic, Persian and Urdu sources, Prof. Ali Khan Mahmudabad will chart a thousand-year journey of devout Muslims across cultures and languages using poetry as a way to engage with, and even question religious philosophy, tradition, and orthodox practice.
Speaker Bio:
Prof. Khan earned his Ph.D. from the Univesity of Cambridge in History. He recently published his first book, Poetry of Belonging: Muslim Imaginings of India 1850-1950. His interests have focused on matters of religious identity, democracy, culture, politics, and security in both South Asia and West Asia. He writes regularly for various publications in English and also writes a column called Sadā-e Dil, for the Urdu daily, Inqilab.
Please submit any questions to: btc@ashoka.edu.in
Time: 8:30-9:30 pm | Date: April 29, 2020 | Day: Wednesday
Check YouTube for live streaming options.
