"The Ismailis of Central Asia under the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union" with Daniel Beben

AVACGIS Visiting Scholar Brown Bag Series

Wednesday, March 4, 2015 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EST
Johnson Center, Meeting Room D, 3rd Floor

This presentation will examine the history of the Shiʿi Ismaili communities of Central Asia during the late-Tsarist era and the early Soviet period. It will explore the impact of the Russian colonial experience upon conceptions of religious, ethnic, and communal identity among the Ismailis. Particular attention will be given to the issue of textual production and manuscript culture during this period. Despite many widespread assumptions regarding the decline of traditional manuscript culture under Russian rule, the case of the Ismailis in fact demonstrates a flourishing revival of manuscript production in this period, which continued even well into the Soviet era.

Daniel Beben is a Ph.D. Candidate in the departments of History and Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University and is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University.