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037			_5BiblioBoard
245	0	0	_aWitness to Marvels _cTony K. Stewart.
020			_a9780520973688
024	8		_a10.1525/luminos.76
029	1		_ahttps://library.biblioboard.com/ext/api/media/e65071f5-cfcc-4da4-a1d9-3cc4a982d6a1/assets/thumbnail.jpg
040			_aScCtBLL _cScCtBLL
100	1		_aStewart, Tony K. _eauthor.
264		1	_bUniversity of California Press,
300			_a1 online resource (1 p.)
506	0		_aAccess copy available to the general public. _fUnrestricted _2star
520			_aWitness to Marvels traces the development of a unique genre of Sufi-inspired Bengali romances called pir kathas, whose protagonists and plots are wholly fictive. For five centuries these fabulations have parodied indigenous and Hindu textual traditions. Both mimicking and mocking, these parodies adopted a subjunctive tone, exploring a magical world of 'what-if'. They created an Islam-inflected space within a traditional Bengali cultural environment without trying to legislate what ideally 'should be' according to tropes common to Islamic history, theology, and law. The tales' discursive arena, the imaginaire, delineated the realm of possibility for how these tales might exercise the imagination to integrate Hindu and Islamic cosmologies. Tales insinuated themselves into locally relevant discourses through elaborate intertextual connections, subtly shifting presuppositions about the way the world works and what counts as religious authority. As Allah looked on from heaven, the tales routinely assigned Sufi saints, both pirs and bibis, to the pivotal role of avatar, the periodic descent of divinity, equating them to the Hindu god Narayan. Adopting a semiotic strategy to interpret these tales yields a bold new perspective on the subtle ways Islam assumed its distinctive form in Bengal and suggests how we need to reimagine conversion in this region.
588	0		_aDescription based on print version record.
650		7	_aReligion / Antiquities & Archaeology _2bisacsh
650		7	_aHistory / Asia _2bisacsh
650		0	_aReligion
655		0	_aElectronic books.
758			_iIs found in: _aKnowledge Unlatched _1https://openresearchlibrary.org/module/2774bc74-146a-484f-a7ba-ab1d6a09bbfb
856	4	0	_uhttps://openresearchlibrary.org/content/e65071f5-cfcc-4da4-a1d9-3cc4a982d6a1 _zView this content on Open Research Library. _70
999			_c32591 _d32591