Thesiss

Resurface | Remember seeks to investigate, embody, and remember human connection with natural elements of the earth through the spiritual, somatic, and creative self. Influenced by the philosophies of Shintoism, an indigenous Japanese religion that cultivates harmony between hum…

My research, undertaken at the shrines associated with two medieval Sufi saints in North India, demonstrates how women--as "ritual specialists" who perform services for others, as exceptional murids (disciples of a pir , or spiritual guide), and as "de facto" pirs --can function…

The shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar is located in the rural city of Sehwan in Sindh, Pakistan. Sehwan is a site of pilgrimage for thousands of devotees at the annual festival known as urs, spanning three days to commemorate the death anniversary of the saint. Men, wome…

This study seeks to analyze the function of Islamic athar (lit. traces, vestiges) in an eighteenth-century northern Indian context, and how their use in Indo-Muslim society had far-reaching significance for shaping socio-political identities. From an art historical methodology, …

In Cairo and Damascus, the Ahl al-bayt are commemorated in a variety of shrines and mosques, small and large, old and of recent date. Many of these shrines and mosques are still standing and are being used today; some have been lost and others are neglected or in ruins. My disse…

Malerkotla is the only Muslim majority region remaining on the Indian side of Punjab. At the center of this town is the tomb of its founder, a Sufi saint popularly known as Haider Shaikh. At his tomb the simultaneous presence of Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims challenges received not…

The two shrine complexes examined were established as independent institutions in the thirteenth century but became part of the Bektashi network in the classical Ottoman period (ca. 1453-1600). The focus of this dissertation is on the remodeling of the two shrines and an associa…