The Gināns: A Microcosm of Islamic Articulation

This paper centers upon the gināns, an oral poetic tradition with over 1,000 known, transcribed compositions, which is associated with and claimed by the Shia Nizari Ismaili Muslims of, or tracing their heritage to, South Asia. I argue that while the gināns, with their many terminologies and cosmologies, are certainly a window into the ‘cumulative tradition’ of Nizari Ismailis of South Asia, they are also reflective of larger phenomenological realities and, critically, are windows into how our collective (understanding of) scholarship on Islam must grow. Tracing what Ismail Fajrie Alatas terms as ‘articulatory labors’ across time, texts, and contexts, I highlight how, as an oral tradition, the gināns are variously remembered, voiced, and transcribed, yet their recitation also archives tensions driven by the supposition of ‘orthodox’ and ‘heterodox’ Islamic practice. The gināns are thus sites of emic negotiation, inflected by etic discourses, but nevertheless are an enduring, living tradition.