Hybride lecture by Bruno De Nicola | Institute of Iranian Studies, ÖAW

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.

POSTER (PDF)

Attendance in person at:

Campus of the University of Vienna
Department of Near Eastern Studies' Auditorium

Or online:

ZOOM

This is the seventh lecture in the webinar series for the academic year 2025-26, this year organised by the NoMansLand research project (FWF Y 1232) dedicated to the study of Islamic manuscripts in pre-modern Iran and Central Asia in collaboration with the Institut für Orientalistik (Universität Wien) as part of the Lecture series "Beyond the Codex: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Manuscript Cultures."

Visit our YouTube channel to watch recordings of past lectures:

https://www.youtube.com/@IFI_Media

For a list of upcoming lectures in the webinar series, please see Webinar series "Pre-modern Islamic manuscripts"