Presenter
Cooper Timothy - Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomPanel
60 – New Perspectives in the Study of Isma’ilism in South Asia: Institutions, Economies, and EthicsAbstract
In Northern Pakistan, Nizari Isma’ili and Twelver Shi’i communities use painted or arranged rocks to write monumental messages on the Karakoram Mountain range. On one side of the Hunza River, and the Gojal Valley, mountain writing celebrates the continuation of the Imamat, a supra-national institution led by the forty-ninth Imam. Messages congratulate the Nizari Isma’ili community on experiencing Didar, an event that puts them in the presence of “Hazar” or present Imam. In Nagar, on the other side of the river, Twelver Shi’i communities signal their loyalty to their own system of Imamat, which paused at the hidden Twelfth Imam, Mahdi, whose return promises to restore justice to a world bereft of it. Nizari Isma’ili and Twelver Shi’i mountain writing is in direct conversation, continuing a long-standing dialogue between the communities over the relationship between the temporal present, presence, and divinely appointed authority.
