Thursday 24th February, 16:30-18:00 UK time

Fayaz Ahmad (University of Kashmir)

Sufism, Gender and Literature: Rishi Silsila and the female Sufis of Kashmir

This paper is a humble effort to bring to academic focus two ignored but inter-related aspects regarding the role and presence of women in the literary and spiritual arenas in pre-modern South Asia. The case study taken for this purpose is a Sufi movement and the Marsiya-the Elegy writing tradition among Kashmiri Muslims of Indian subcontinent. Sufi movement in the Islamic world is presumed to have remained a strictly male domain, baring a few prominent individual female practitioners like Rabia of Basra. However, the indigenous Sufi movement of Kashmir known as Rishi Silsila (originated in the early 15th century C.E) possessed a separate female wing, well institutionalized, with its headquarter sub-regional Centers as well as established Sufi- master chains. Contemporary textual evidence, when creatively investigated, provides detailed evidence on this, which is complemented by the present day existing sites of spiritual retreats in memory of these female saints, situated across the Himalayan valley of Kashmir.

Related to this is the ignored fact that the first ever Marsiya composed in the Kashmiri language originated out of this female wing of the Rishi Silsila by a prominent member named Shaam Bibi, who was also a prominent disciple of Nund Rishi/Shaikh-ul Aalam, (c.1377-1440) the founder of the Rishi Silsila of Sufism. Fortunately the full Marsiya is preserved in a manuscript form in the Persian script. Unusual as it is, this first Marsiya of the Kashmiri language is written not on the tragic death of Imam Hussain and his family members or the event of Karbala as the tradition goes but on the demise of and as a poem of longing for Shaikhul Aalam. Both the 'female wing of the Rishi Silsila' and the first Marsiya composed in the Kashmiri language by a female Sufi provide documented cases of the presence and active engagement of women in the pre-modern spiritual and literary spheres. The paper intends to bring both the proposed aspects to academic cognizance.

Frederique Darragon (Sichuan University)

Re-visiting the primary textual sources about the ancient 'Nüguo' matriarchal queendoms of the Chinese borderlands.

'Medieval' studies refer to a period of European history extending from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. Texts of Chinese Annals describing the 'Nüguo' queendoms (east and west of Tibet) are precisely within this time frame, with entries dating from 445 to 1307 CE depicting facts from 445 to 742 related to real matriarchal societies.

The Annals were written by the emperors' scribes, obviously all males, which resulted in western scholars labeling these specific sections as 'male-imaginary-erotic-constructs'. Yet, some sinologists, as Rockhill of Pelliot, or more recently Bielenstein, wrote thorough studies without taking a position on the matter. These ancient Chinese documents are now digitalized and easily accessible for Chinese readers. However, unfortunately, present-day Western researchers are choosing other topics, despite acknowledging that the Yinyang concept could result in a non-strictly patriarchal philosophical view of male-female balance. English-speaking Chinese scholars refrain from mentioning these manuscripts for fear of being regarded as supporters of the Bachofen-Engels Evolutionist Theory.

Since 2013, I have presented papers associated with that subject and 24 years of personal field studies in the Sino-Tibetan Marches, where a few matrilineal marriage-less societies still exist among ancient towers. This presentation will analyze the Imperial Annals documents describing 17 missions from the queendoms received at the emperors' courts. The numerous entries give the local names and a rough location of these queendoms and also describe their customs and social organization in which 'women rule and are held in high esteem, while men are only warriors or agriculturists'. Six queens and many envoys are named and were bested titles. Two Chinese emperors did meet in person with 2 of the queens. The queendoms were invaded first by the Tuyuhun, then by Tibet, and became kingdoms after 742.

These Annals' sections being the only ever textual sources describing ancient matriarchal societies by coexistent contemporaneous writers, it is critical to bring them to western scholars' attention.