Hagiography in Central Asia - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
Eden, Jeff
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
(1,375 words)
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Islamic hagiography has been written in Central Asia for nearly a millennium, and in that time the prevailing form and evident function of hagiographical texts has shifted dramatically. Elements of hagiography-the lives and deeds of saints, or "friends of God" (awliyāʾ) -can be found in multiple Muslim literary genres, including ṭabaqāt (generations), ḥikāyāt (tales), tadhkira (remembrance), dāstān (story, in Persian), mathnavī (long poem rhyming AA, BB, CC...), and risāla (treatise). Stories about Muslim saints appear in all these genres in Central Asia, defined here as the region between the