LEADER 00000cam  2200613 i 4500 
001    on1089279590 
003    OCoLC 
005    20191105075825.7 
006    m     o  d         
007    cr ||||||||||| 
008    190228t20192019cau     ob    001 0 eng c 
010      2019009927 
020    9780520973688|q(ebook) 
020    0520973682|q(ebook) 
020    |z9780520306332|q(paperback ;|qalkaline paper) 
035    (OCoLC)1089279590 
037    22573/ctvrbgdk0|bJSTOR 
040    PUL|beng|erda|cPUL|dOCLCO|dJSTOR 
042    pcc 
043    a-ii--- 
049    CKEA 
050 10 PK1701 
082 00 891.4/409382|223 
100 1  Stewart, Tony K.,|d1954-|eauthor. 
245 10 Witness to marvels :|bSufism and literary imagination /
       |cTony K. Stewart. 
263    1911 
264  1 Oakland, California :|bUniversity of California Press,
       |c[2019] 
264  4 |c©2019 
300    1 online resource 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    computer|bc|2rdamedia 
338    online resource|bcr|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references and index. 
505 0  Heavenly orchestrations : the world of the legendary pirs 
       of Bengal -- The enchanting lives of the pirs : structures
       of narrative romance -- Subjunctive explorations : the 
       parodic work of pir kath? -- Mapping the imaginaire : the 
       conditions of possibility -- Manipulating the cosmic 
       hierarchy : a practical act of conceptual blending -- 
       Pragmatics of pir lath? : emplotment and extra-discursive 
       effects -- Epilogue. 
520    "Witness 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"--Provided by 
       publisher. 
588 0  Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; 
       resource not viewed. 
650  0 Bengali literature|xSocial aspects|zIndia|zBengal. 
650  0 Romance fiction, Bengali. 
650  0 Islam and literature|zIndia|zBengal. 
650  0 Sufism|zIndia|zBengal. 
650  0 Hinduism|zIndia|zBengal. 
650  7 Bengali literature|xSocial aspects.|2fast
       |0(OCoLC)fst00830440 
650  7 Hinduism.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst00957121 
650  7 Islam and literature.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst00979875 
650  7 Romance fiction, Bengali.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst01003001 
650  7 Sufism.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst01137257 
650  7 RELIGION / Islam / History.|2bisacsh 
651  7 India|zBengal.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst01213579 
776 08 |iPrint version:|aStewart, Tony K., 1954-|tWitness to 
       marvels.|dOakland, California : University of California 
       Press, [2019]|z9780520306332|w(DLC)  2019005276 
914    on1089279590 
994    92|bCKE