TY - JOUR

T1 - Pashtuns’ Tribal Islam: The Beginning of Written History

AU - Pelevin, Mikhail

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The complicated process of the Pashtun tribes’ conversion to Islam is indirectly reflected in tribal genealogies, which bear traces of artificial Islamification. Recorded in the early 17th century, these genealogies are poorly consistent with apocryphal Hadiths and hagiographies intended to prove that Pashtuns had steadily adhered to Sunni Islam since the times of the Prophet Muhammad. The politicised concept of the primordial adherence of Pashtuns to Islam was likely to have been released for wide circulation during the reign of the Lodī sultans in the late 15th century. By the mid-17th century, it became an integral part of Pashtun ethnic identity. However, written sources in Pashto and Persian dating from the same period and originating from tribal areas are unanimous in describing Pashtuns’ religious beliefs and practices as a motley assemblage of Pīrī-murīdī and Pīrparastī customs conforming to the tribalistic ideology of a segmentary Islamic society. More sophisticated forms of Pashtuns’ tribal Islam emerged with the progress of literature in the native vernacular.

AB - The complicated process of the Pashtun tribes’ conversion to Islam is indirectly reflected in tribal genealogies, which bear traces of artificial Islamification. Recorded in the early 17th century, these genealogies are poorly consistent with apocryphal Hadiths and hagiographies intended to prove that Pashtuns had steadily adhered to Sunni Islam since the times of the Prophet Muhammad. The politicised concept of the primordial adherence of Pashtuns to Islam was likely to have been released for wide circulation during the reign of the Lodī sultans in the late 15th century. By the mid-17th century, it became an integral part of Pashtun ethnic identity. However, written sources in Pashto and Persian dating from the same period and originating from tribal areas are unanimous in describing Pashtuns’ religious beliefs and practices as a motley assemblage of Pīrī-murīdī and Pīrparastī customs conforming to the tribalistic ideology of a segmentary Islamic society. More sophisticated forms of Pashtuns’ tribal Islam emerged with the progress of literature in the native vernacular.

KW - Hagiography

KW - Islam in Segmentary Societies

KW - Pashtun Historiography

KW - Pashtuns

KW - Pre-Modern Pashto Literature

KW - Saint-worship

KW - Tribal Genealogies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107924446&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1163/1573384X-20210203

DO - 10.1163/1573384X-20210203

M3 - Review article

VL - 25

SP - 115

EP - 133

JO - Iran and the Caucasus

JF - Iran and the Caucasus

SN - 1609-8498

IS - 2

ER -