Ginān as Tafsīr Literature: The Exegetical Dimensions of a Tradition

Abstract

The Ginān tradition form a special place in devotional and religious life in the Shia Imami Ismaili Tariqah. Ginānrecitations are ubiquitous in Ismā’īlī devotional life; played in homes, cars, and recited in Jamatkhana on auspicious religious occasions. Ginān recitation likewise comprise a central element of the congregational life of the Shia Imami Ismaili community within Jamā‘atKhāna. The vast corpus of the Ginān literature has long formed part of the spiritual heritage of the South-Asian Ismā’īlī community, and especially in Sindhi, Khoja and Gujarati South Asian communities. This study uses the genre of the Ginān to critically engage the boundary frameworks that can be considered tafsīrliterature and argues that the ginānic narrative are not only communal ‘liturgical’, but highly exegetical and theologically complex examples of a Subcontinent vernacular Shī’ī exegetical tradition.