Overview

In the riverine valleys of the Pamir Mountains of Tajik Badakhshan, a thriving millennium-old community of Nizari Ismaili Muslims created a unique spiritual culture in which the performance of music and poetry plays a central role. This book focuses on the central musical and poetic tradition of the Pamiri Ismailis, qasda-khon (also known as maddo), tracing its origins, evolution, and eventual delocalization and relocation in new social contexts. The first study on the musical culture of the Pamiri Ismailis in almost 20 years, this monograph introduces readers to leading performers of qasda-khon and to the Ismaili gnosis that inspires its music and poetry-a foundational source for an understanding of Islam in Badakhshan as an amalgam of diverse cultural practices and multi-layered identities. In an era of cultural globalization, the circulation of qasda-khon and maddo beyond Badakhshan serves as a case study of global cultural flows, diversity, versatility, and connectedness.

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9781399533881

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Chorshanbe Goibnazarov holds the position of Assistant Professor and Research Fellow at the UCA's School of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Development. He teaches Cultural Studies courses at the Khorog and Naryn Campuses of the university. Goibnazarov earned his Ph.D. in Central Asian and Cultural Studies from the Institute of Asian and African Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and holds a Master of Arts in Muslim Cultures from the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations at the Aga Khan University in London, UK. He has been honored with prestigious awards including the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Program Funding for archival research at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2023, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar fellowship at the Music Department of Harvard University for the 2019-2020 academic year, and an Excellence Initiative, German Research Foundation (DFG) doctoral fellowship of Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies in 2010. Prior to joining UCA, Goibnazarov dedicated six years to teaching English at the Health Promotion Training Unit of the Aga Khan Health Service (AKHS) in Tajikistan and worked as a Research Assistant in the Secondary Teaching Education Programme, Department of Curriculum Studies, at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Alongside his teaching responsibilities, he holds the role of Liaison Officer of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD) for Tajikistan.

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