Nund Rishi

Poetry and Politics in Medieval Kashmir

Abir Bazaz (Ashoka University)

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Hardback

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English

Cambridge University Press
31 May 2024

Theology; Society & Social Sciences; Politics & government; Political ideologies

Nund Rishi (1378–1440) is considered one of the most important Sufi poets from Kashmir. He is revered as the 'flag-bearer of Kashmir' ('Alamdār-e Kashmir), and his poems draw upon the hyperlocal imagery of the Kashmiri literary universe. Despite his popular status as a spiritual successor of Lal Ded, Nund Rishi's poetry has received next to no attention in modern scholarship. This book embodies Abir Bazaz's enduring engagement with the poetic corpus of Nund Rishi. By unpacking the cryptic philosophical and philological riddles in the poems, Bazaz unearths a negative theology in Nund Rishi's mystical poetry. He argues convincingly that the themes of Islam, Death, the Nothing and the Apocalyptic in these poems reveal an existential politics. Bazaz further suggests that the apophatic style of Nund Rishi's poems is in turn mirrored in mystical poetry across South Asia and the larger Indo-Persian world.

By: Abir Bazaz (Ashoka University)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009100458
ISBN 10: 1009100459
Pages: 250
Publication Date: 31 May 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The Sahaja Islam of Nund Rishi; 2. Practicing Death; 3. Becoming Nothing; 4. Vernacular Apocalypse; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Abir Bazaz is Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University. His teaching and research interests include Kashmiri literature, Urdu literature, South Asian literatures in English, Asian Cinemas, Religion and Cinema, Intellectual History of Islam in South Asia, Sufism, Faith and Literature, Existentialism, Negative Theology, Comparative Mysticism, and Violence Studies. He is also a documentary filmmaker.