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

Acknowledgments

For permission to have an unrestricted access to Mubārak-i Wakhānī’s manuscripts as well as providing personal assistance, grateful thanks are extended to the following staff members of the Mubārak-i Wakhānī’s Museum-Shrine in Yamg, Tajikistan: Mamadbek Qurbonov, the village khalīfa, Haydarmamad Malikmamadov, the director of the museum-shrine, Ahmadbek Bandishoev, the custodian of the museum-shrine, and Lutfullah Zaraboev, Mubārak’s great-grandson and the main keeper of the poet’s manuscripts.

Likewise, I owe thanks to my interviewees, Jumaqul Davlatqadamov, Muborakqadam Bandishoev and Jahan Ara, who provided me with enormous legends and anecdotes about Mubārak-i Wakhānī and the indigenous Pamiri Ismāīlī tradition.

I am grateful also for the support of Dr. Charles Melville, my MPhil and PhD supervisor at Cambridge University, Dr. Magnus Marsden for the proofreading of my manuscript and my colleagues at the Institute of Ismāīlī Studies Rahim Gholami and Otambek Mastibekov for the kind suggestions concerning Persian translations and transliterations.