10
March 2002
Dear ___________,
An Academic
Symposium on Ginans: Texts and Contexts, has been convened by the Society
of Ismaili Studies, with the co-sponsorship of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne (Paris), and the North
Gujarat University (Patan). The symposium will be held in France, at Frejus, on
the Riviera, from Saturday 6 to Sunday 7 April 2002. But the symposium could be
extended by several days to fit in all the scholars interested in attending.
You are invited to present an unpublished communication on a scientific study that you have undertaken on one of the following topics:
Texts of ginans: studies and
comparisons.
Contexts of ginans:
philological, literary, cultural and social.
Musical modes of ginans.
Ginans as source of history
of the Khojas.
Ginans and religious identity
of the Khojas.
Conservation, publication and
translation of ginans and their recordings.
Please let us know the subject of your communication. Please also let us
have your curriculum vitae and your bibliography, indicating those published
books and articles still in print, so that we may put them on sale, on this
occasion. We would also need an abstract of your communication. Your
communication will be critically appreciated by one of your colleagues, and
then put to discussion by all the participants in the symposium. The final text of your communication, together with the reflections
made on them, will remain on our web site, until they are published in our
academic review.
The
Society of Ismaili Studies will assume the cost of the stay, for the symposium,
of all scholars presenting a communication on the ginans. This would cover
accommodation, full board, transfers and excursion. But we cannot pay your
travel to and back from Frejus: your University should be able to take charge
of that. If you wish to be accompanied by one or two persons sharing your own
room, they can be accommodated with full board etc. at a reduced rate.
Participants are expected to arrive at Hotel Azur, 710
avenue de la Corniche d'Azur, 83370 Saint-Aygulf (Phone: + 33 (0)4 9481 0122;
Fax: + 33 (0)4 9481 4166; Email: hotelazur@wanadoo.fr)
on the evening of Friday 5th April. Those who come by train to Saint-Raphael,
or by plane to Nice, should inform us beforehand, so that their transfer to the
hotel is organised.
The
following scholars have already given the subject of their communications:
Michel
Boivin: Ginans, Sufism and Vedanta, as perceived by Sindhi Khojas in the 20th
century.
Balvant Jani: Ginans non-attributed
to Pirs.
Urmila Jani: Satpanthi ginans and Mahapanthi bhajans.
Dominique-Sila Khan: Khoja and
Imamshahi re-evaluation of their sacred literature.
Françoise Mallison: The popular myth of the subjugation of the great
cobra, the demon Kaliya, as treated in the Dasa Avtâra and other ginans.
Samira
Sheikh: Land, trade and poetry: some contexts for ginans in early medieval
Gujarat.
Amrita
Shodan: Governance and the development of Khoja identity.
Subjects
of communication are expected shortly from:
Ali Asani, Pyarali Jiwa, Tazim Kassam,
Zawahir Moir, Latimah Peerwani, Hugh van Skyhawk,
Iqbal Surani, Nagib Tajdin and Shafique
Virani. The following scholars are also being invited: Ghulamhaidar Alidina,
Gulamali Allana, Abualy Aziz, Farhat Daftary, Françoise Delvoye, Abbas Hamdani,
Aziz Ismail, Yves Marquet, Azim Nanji,
Kurbanali Sadiwala, Christopher Shackle,
Aziz and Parveen Talbany-Hasanaly, Mohan Devraj Thontya. Should you know
of any other scholar having worked on the ginans, please let us know his particulars
and his work, so that we may consider inviting him.
You will
find attached herewith a general presentation of our symposium. Please make
this symposium known to all interested Ismailis around you.
Looking
forward to the pleasure of meeting you soon,
A.
Rahmatoullah