The Ismaili-Sufi Sage of Pamir: Mubarak-i Wakhani and the Esoteri ...

Note on the Sources

Modern scholarship on Badakhshan is very short of documentary materials, that is, archives, account books and other relevant historical documents concerning Nāir-i Khusraw’s journey to and his mission in Badakhshan in particular and the spread of Islam in the region in general. The only exceptional historical evidence that proves the fact of his presence in the region are some of his own poetic verses from the Dīvān-i Kulliyāt (Collection of Poems) and the Jāmial-ikmatayn (The Sum of Two Wisdoms). In these works, Nāir-i Khusraw merely refers to his exile spent in Yumgān (a valley in modern Afghan Badakhshan), and nothing is said about his movement around the Pamir principalities and the kingdom of Badakhshan.¹⁶ Ironically, there is not much evidence in either of these or other genuine works by Nāir about his convertees, apart from some complimentary verses dedicated to a local ruler, Alī b. Asad.¹⁷ The gap in the historic evidence, nevertheless, is filled by the vast amounts of indigenous legends and anecdotes about Nāir-i Khusraw’s life as well as his mission in Badakhshan. These sources are presented in both oral and some written forms, although the number of the latter is very restricted. Among the conversion narratives, the most remarkable one is Gawhar-Rīz (Treasure-fall), which was falsely attributed to Nāir-i Khusraw, but gradually canonised by several local authors subsequently. Although the problem concerning the authorship of the manuscript still remains obscure, by examining various copies of it, one can affirm that it does not belong to Nāir-i Khusraw. Firstly, the language of the book is closer to the Badakhshani dialect of the Tajik- Persian language, which is mostly used in places like Jurm, Zebāk, Bārak, Ghārān, Ishkāshim, and some villages of Wakhān. Similarly, the book is not composed in Nāir-i Khusraw’s elegant linguistic style, but rather in the popular manner of story narration. Secondly, in one of the two versions of the manuscript, which I came across in Badakhshan, certain authors or most probably scribes (kātib) are named. The first, Musammā bi Gawhar-Rīz, is in the private collection of a khalīfa named Khwāja Ārif from Shughnān (Barkharagh). An examination of this manuscript shows that it is a popular narrative that tends to be a collective work of some learned men of the community, who over the centuries, have tried to collect oral traditions and present them in written form. The writing of the book was probably commissioned at a special meeting in which the representatives of two famous local families of the khūja¹⁸ clan decided to compose the history of Sayyid Suhrāb’s family, to which they claim to belong: