The Sound of Salvation

Reviews / Votes

A stunning piece of work. The study of Islam in China has been crying out for works that do justice to the specificities of local traditions while maintaining a productive conversation with the wider field of Islamic studies. This book bridges that divide in a way that few pieces of scholarship have been able to up until now. It is an immensely valuable ethnography in its own right, but also one that is theoretically provocative and that offers scholars outside the immediate field of Islam in China a vantage point from which to rethink their views of Sufi practices and related forms of ritual. -- David Brophy, author of <i>Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia-China Frontier</i> This beautifully written book takes us into the unknown sonic world of China's contemporary Sufi Muslims. Guangtian Ha's deep understanding of these people and their very possibly doomed tradition comes over on every page. This is a marvelous ethnography, rendered with subtlety, sophistication, and panache. -- Caroline Humphrey, coauthor of <i>A Monastery in Time: The Making of Mongolian Buddhism</i> This is a substantial, unpretentious, and compelling ethnographic study focused on Jahriyya liturgical recitation in northwest China. Marked by expository clarity and absence of jargon, it is a wide-ranging and thoughtful, even wise, book that evidences the author's impressive linguistic, historical, ethnographic, and theoretical sophistication. Whether exploring technical issues of multilanguage terminology, gender discrimination, or musicality and textual content of recitation, Ha always keeps larger questions about methodology and historical context, as well as the Jahriyya tradition (and its severely threatened survival), admirably in focus. -- William A. Graham, author of <i>Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion</i> Sensitive and illuminating work. * Inner Asia * Offers new perspectives on the importance of sound to religious practice, the role of gender in Chinese Islam, and the links connecting Chinese Muslims to the broader Islamic world. * Reading Religion * This volume undeniably offers a rare and fascinating insight into Sufism in China. * Religious Studies Review * A nuanced, sophisticated and provocative work that is a welcome contribution to the field of Chinese Islamic Studies. * Journal of Religious History * Thanks to Ha's elaborate and precise prose, which is peppered with sardonic humor, the book sustains readers' attention throughout the pages. * Journal of Asian Studies * This is a fascinating book that would deserve to be widely read no matter when it had been published. In the present moment, it is an essential tribute to the multiplicity of Sufism in China. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *