Muslim Devotional Art in India

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'The breadth of coverage of issues related to Muslim popular visual culture . . . for insights, as well as the extraordinarily rich collection of images that will serve as a comprehensive reference for many years to come, this book is highly recommended to scholars and other readers alike.'

Sandria Freitag, Indian Economic Social History Review

'Saeed takes us on a journey throughout India, where we encounter visual art [in Islam] in the form of calligraphy, chromolithographs of Sufi saints, architecture, items of clothing, and ritual paraphernalia in abundance, especially within and around the compounds of the many dargahs that dot the landscape of India.'

Frank J. Korom, Religious Studies Review

'Yousuf Saeed's delightful book provides readers with a rare glimpse into the visual culture of Muslim communities in South Asia. Drawing on the author's personal experiences and extensive research, it sensitively explores diverse aspects of Muslim devotional life through a vivid and vibrant tradition of popular art. Masterfully narrated and beautifully illustrated, this unique book is "a must read" for anyone interested in the popular religion of South Asia.'

Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

'In this welcome volume, Yousuf Saeed surveys significant examples of the colourful lithographs and other images that form a part of the devotional experience of many Indian Muslims. The work is historical, with attention to the importance of technological innovations in photography, print and transportation. It also takes into account central themes in cultural and political history, including the impact of Partition, and devotional and reformist currents that alternately encouraged and disapproved of many of these images. This is a vivid account on a subject that will be of wide interest to lay and specialist readers alike.'

Barbara D. Metcalf, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Davis, USA

'Yousuf Saeed writes with passion and verve, taking his readers along the alleys of his own experience and observations of Islam as practised in South Asia. He explores the South Asian Muslims' appetite for images in their everyday religious piety, together with an incisive discussion of its context. In the process, he raises several significant questions to enable us to appreciate the distinctive features of indigenous Muslim culture. He also shows how the recent melee of "Arabisation" and pristine purity threatens to affect and disfigure the nuanced beauties of its icons.'

Muzaffar Alam, George V. Bobrinskoy Professor in South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, USA

'This highly original and indeed path-breaking study of Muslim devotional art in India is full of visual beauty and intellectual surprises. It is destined to become the most important precedent and source for future studies on the important and hitherto-neglected subject of Islamic visual culture in South Asia.'

Faisal Devji, University Reader in Modern South Asian History, University of Oxford, UK