An illuminating story of a Sufi community that sought the revelation of God.

In the Afghan highlands of the sixteenth century, the messianic community known as the Roshani-yya not only desired to find God's word and to abide by it but also attempted to practice God's word and to develop techniques of language intended to render their own tongues as the organs of continuous revelation. As their critics would contend, however, the Roshaniyya attempted to make language do something that language should not do--infuse the semiotic with the divine. Their story thus ends in a tower of skulls, the proliferation of heresiographies that detailed the sins of the Roshaniyya, and new formations of Afghan identity.

In Singing with the Mountains, William E. B. Sherman finds something extraordinary about the Roshaniyya, not least because the first known literary use of vernacular Pashto occurs in an eclectic, Roshani imitation of the Qur'an. The story of the Roshaniyya exemplifies a religious culture of linguistic experimentation. In the example of the Roshaniyya, we discover a set of questions and anxieties about the capacities of language that pervaded Sufi orders, imperial courts, groups of wandering ascetics, and scholastic networks throughout Central and South Asia.

In telling this tale, Sherman asks the following questions: How can we make language shimmer with divine truth? How can letters grant sovereign power and form new ethnic identities and ways of belonging? How can rhyme bend our conceptions of time so that the prophetic past comes to inhabit the now of our collective moment? By analyzing the ways in which the Roshaniyya answered these types of questions--and the ways in which their answers were eventually rejected as heresies--this book offers new insight into the imaginations of religious actors in the late medieval and early modern Persianate worlds.

An illuminating story of a Sufi community that sought the revelation of God.

In the Afghan highlands of the sixteenth century, the messianic community known as the Roshani-yya not only desired to find God's word and to abide by it but also attempted to practice God's word and to develop techniques of language intended to render their own tongues as the organs of continuous revelation. As their critics would contend, however, the Roshaniyya attempted to make language do something that language should not do--infuse the semiotic with the divine. Their story thus ends in a tower of skulls, the proliferation of heresiographies that detailed the sins of the Roshaniyya, and new formations of Afghan identity.

In Singing with the Mountains, William E. B. Sherman finds something extraordinary about the Roshaniyya, not least because the first known literary use of vernacular Pashto occurs in an eclectic, Roshani imitation of the Qur'an. The story of the Roshaniyya exemplifies a religious culture of linguistic experimentation. In the example of the Roshaniyya, we discover a set of questions and anxieties about the capacities of language that pervaded Sufi orders, imperial courts, groups of wandering ascetics, and scholastic networks throughout Central and South Asia.

In telling this tale, Sherman asks the following questions: How can we make language shimmer with divine truth? How can letters grant sovereign power and form new ethnic identities and ways of belonging? How can rhyme bend our conceptions of time so that the prophetic past comes to inhabit the now of our collective moment? By analyzing the ways in which the Roshaniyya answered these types of questions--and the ways in which their answers were eventually rejected as heresies--this book offers new insight into the imaginations of religious actors in the late medieval and early modern Persianate worlds.

OpenGrounds is a University of Virginia initiative that builds on a legacy of innovation to create new programs, places, and partnerships; to catalyze new approaches to important challenges; and to inspire new collaborations across and beyond the Grounds. The university was founded as a revolutionary reinvention of higher education. Thomas Jefferson recognized the need for a different kind of institution whose aims and methods aligned with the tenets of the Age of Reason, where the search for knowledge would be unfettered by previous models of thought and institutional constraints. To meet the rapid transformations in contemporary thought and practice, the university has continued this tradition of reinvention by creating a new space, both physical and intellectual, for experimentation, risk taking, and boundary-crossing exploration. Since its launch in 2012, OpenGrounds has engaged students and faculty from all of its schools and disciplines, building partnerships ranging from those between museums and the government to those between innovative corporations and entrepreneurs. It has inspired new directions in research, performance, design, and public service, connecting unlikely collaborators and creative partners.

Link, Learn, Lead, Live introduces to the reader numerous stories from the brief but dynamic history of OpenGrounds. Doctors work with architects on health challenges in Africa. Poets collaborate with musicians to find new forms of expression. Lawyers work with sociologists on impediments to democratization in North Africa. Innovative corporate executives challenge creative students to rethink social media and support healthier life choices. All of these collaborations demonstrate how this unique new initiative translates inspiring intentions into actions with impact.

Distributed for OpenGrounds at the University of Virginia