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Waleed Ziad, PhD

historian of Afghanistan, central & southern Asia, and the Persianate world

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Oxus to the Indus in Photos

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The Oxus to the Indus in Photos

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Wishing friends Eid Mubarak with one of my favorit

Wishing friends Eid Mubarak with one of my favorite monuments of all time, an obsession since I was young, which I finally got to see with friends and fellow academics Francisco Jose Luis and Carina Dreyer. The twisted 52-meter-high minaret, with its distinctive spiral staircase, was part of the 9th c. grand mosque of Samarra – then the biggest mosque in the world.

Except we weren’t allowed up the winding stairs due to some restoration work, which was a cause of much frustration for me and Carina, but not for Francisco, whom I had threatened to push from the top several times over the course of the journey. 😊

#waleedziad

Samarra. North of Baghdad. The resting place of th

Samarra. North of Baghdad.
The resting place of the 10th and 11th Imams, Imam ‘Ali al-Naqi (d. 868) and Imam Hasan al-Askari (d. 874, upon them be peace), and below the shrine, in the now mirrored passageways, the site of the Great Occultation. The shrine is built upon the very camp in which the Imams were imprisoned and martyred.

I am grateful to my dear friends for bringing me here and arranging for the shrine administration to host us for the day. Heartwarming to witness the restoration efforts underway, following the tragic events of 2006.

Bibi Sahiba, the Naqshbandi Sufi master and protagonist of my next book, is a lineal descendant of Imam Hasan al-Askari through Sayyid ʿAbdullah (ʿAli al-Akbar).
#waleedziad

Ottoman Baghdad, part 1 One of the big surprises

Ottoman Baghdad, part 1

One of the big surprises for me in Baghdad was seeing how Ottoman period architecture was so-heavily inflected with the Timurid-Safavid aesthetic – the turquoise domes, geometric motifs occasionally featuring Kufic legends, the particular use of negative space. These were mostly commissions of the governors in the 16th all the way to the early 19th centuries. Here are some of my favorite spots:

Al-Wazir, right on the Tigris River, which you can enter only through the old Souq al-Sarai, and named after the wazir Hasan Pasha, who commissioned it in 1599. Just a few blocks away is the Hayder Khana mosque, which was originally an Abbasid mosque – named after a Sufi saint. It went through major renovations and expansions in 1827. And right off of al-Maydan square, downtown, is al-Ahmadiyya, a relatively modern (1797) masterpiece.

#waleedziad #baghdad #hiddencaliphate

A select few regional private collections inspire

A select few regional private collections inspire gratitude, humility, and exhilaration all at once. Extending my thanks to Malik Farooq Chamkani for introducing me to Mian Tariq Shah, from the Kakakhel Sufi lineage of Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mian Tariq Shah’s meticulously catalogued collection, abundant with rarities, is particularly strong in Pashto manuscripts, although with plenty of Arabic and Persian material across genres. It is a sophisticated assembly, and I am looking forward to spending some time here (inshallah).

Kashif Chauhan was leafing through this 1909 edition of "the Afghan" and happened upon a few articles by my great-grandfather Sahibzada Aftab Ahmad Khan :)

An afternoon with Queen Zubayda. Baghdad. Spent a

An afternoon with Queen Zubayda. Baghdad.

Spent a day with Carina Dreyer roaming around Karkh, the western suburbs of classical Baghdad, where the markets used to be – and the shrines of some of the most famous early Sufis.

First stop was the tomb of Queen Zubayda (d. 809), which towers over a historic cemetery where the saint Ma’aruf Karkhi is also buried. Zubayda was Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid’s wife – at the time the empire stretched from India to North Africa – thus, one of the most powerful women in Muslim history. (She even had coins minted in her name.) The tomb was patronized by yet another queen, Zamarrud Khatun, mother of the Caliph al-Nasir. It is one of Baghdad’s iconic monuments.

My grandmother was named after her.
#waleedziad #hiddencaliphate #baghdad

Living childhood dreams in Iraq. #1: The arch of

Living childhood dreams in Iraq.

#1: The arch of Ctesiphon, Madain. Just the remaining portion of the imperial palace of the Sasanian emperors, generally attributed to Khusru I Anushirvan (6th c CE), the paradigm of virtuous kingship. Some believe it to be older. The structure is an architectural marvel; at 30 m tall, it's the longest brick arch in the world.

Ferdowsi mentions the construction of the arch in his epic Book of Kings. And it’s just a stone’s throw from the shrine of Salman al-Farsi ( r ).

#waleedziad #hiddencaliphate #iraq

Decided, amidst pressure, to start posting somethi

Decided, amidst pressure, to start posting something from the last 6 months, starting with the Iraq winter vacation, with dear friends Francisco Luis and Carina Dreyer.

Since I'm just finishing a chapter on Suhrawardi Sufis of the Thar Desert for my next book, I'll begin with the 12th c. shrine of Hd. 'Umar Suhrawardi ( r ), with its characteristic conical muqarnas dome that was all the rage under the Seljuqs. It is right at the edge of Baghdad, surrounded by ramshackle automotive shops; a highway flyover runs right between the shrine and its graveyard and remnants of the Abbasid-period city walls.

#hiddencaliphate #waleedziad #sufism #baghdad #iraq

Noor Mohammad Nizami's home village is just across

Noor Mohammad Nizami's home village is just across the road from the Bhallar Stupa, the tallest around Taxila, where Lord Buddha is said to have sacrificed his head.

From Xuanzang, visiting in the 7th c.:
"On feast days it glows with light, and divine flowers fall around it, and heavenly music is heard… this is the spot where Tathagata [Buddha; one who has thus gone or come] formerly dwelt when he was practicing the discipline of a Bodhisattva; he was then the king of a great country… he cut of his head, earnestly seeking the acquirement of Bodhi: and this he did during a thousand successive births.

#hiddencaliphate #Taxila #sufism #naqshbandi #buddhism

Finally! A weekend visit to the celebrated library

Finally! A weekend visit to the celebrated library of Raja Noor Muhammad Nizami in Taxila, with scholars Kashif Chohan and Malik Farooq Chamkani. We've been planning to visit for ages.

While we will be looking at the manuscripts on a subsequent visit, the collection of published works is notably strong on the Potohar region; there is a whole wall of shelves dedicated to Sufism, and another on regional histories. Nizami sahab gifted me his new book, on the Mujaddidi Sufi Baba Hasan Abdali.

https://www.afikra.com/talks/conversations/waleedz

https://www.afikra.com/talks/conversations/waleedziad

Thanks, Mikey Muhanna, for having me on the afikra | عفكرة Arab world podcast.

Waleed Ziad — author of "Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints beyond the Oxus and Indus" — joins us on the afikra podcast to demystify Sufism. Ziad explains the mystical and scientific aspects of Sufism and its far reaching geographies that surpass today's "securitized" borders and colonial conceptions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East as "reified zones". We also learn about the concept of sovereignty in the Islamic world and how modern day understandings of Sufism and abandonment of meditative practices differ from the realities of the pre-20th century Muslim world.

#hiddencaliphate #waleedziad #sufism #Afghanistan #Pakistan #uzbekistan #Peshawar #Kabul #bukhara

Honored that the Arabic translation of my book, Hi

Honored that the Arabic translation of my book, Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints beyond the Oxus and Indus (Harvard, 2021) by Ninawa Publishing House, Damascus is finally out, and making its debut at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair!

Thanks to خولة سلمان for doing a stellar translation.
Thanks to Dunya Hayati for reviewing the text.

#hiddencaliphate #sufism #Afghanistan #Pakistan #uzbekistan #naqshbandi #mujaddidi #Waziristan #qoqon #bukhara #Kabul #Peshawar #swatvalley

For all those in Islamabad - Join us next Saturday

For all those in Islamabad - Join us next Saturday (Jan 27th) for a book talk on Hidden Caliphate (Harvard, 2021), hosted by the Asian Study Group at the Serena.

This was supposed to align with the local publication of the book, but the in-country publisher (Sang-e-Meel) has delayed the publication until next month.

#hiddencaliphate #waleedziad

Giving 2 talks at Afkar e Taza ThinkFest this week

Giving 2 talks at Afkar e Taza ThinkFest this weekend at Lahore! (yes, the pic is v old!)

Talk 1: Saturday, 5:45 PM, Gallery, Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints beyond the Oxus and Indus

Talk 2: Sunday, 12:45 PM Gallery, Sufi Masters of the Afghan Empire: Bibi Sahiba and her Sacred Networks

"We are happy to welcome Dr Waleed Ziad, who is Associate Professor of Religion at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
His research concerns the historical and philosophical foundations of Muslim revivalism and the varying revivalist responses to internal political fragmentation and colonialism in the ‘Persianate’ world (South and Central Asia and Iran).
He has written two exceptional books: "Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints beyond the Oxus and Indus" (Harvard, 2021) and "Sufi Masters of the Afghan Empire: Bibi Sahiba and Her Sacred Networks" (forthcoming) which he will talk about at #ThinkFest2024.
Don't miss out his captivating sessions scheduled at ThinkFest 2024, January 13-14, at the Alhamra, Mall Road, Lahore.
#ThinkFest2024 #ThinkFestLahore #ThinkFestPK
#Come #Think #Question #WinterofDiscontent
#FreeEntry #NoTicketsRequired #OpenToAll

Friends in Karachi, join me next Friday on the 12t

Friends in Karachi, join me next Friday on the 12th of Jan, 6 PM, for a book talk on Hidden Caliphate at Mohatta Palace.
Thank you, Saima Zaidi!
#hiddencaliphate #waleedziad

The sthan (astana) of the seven sisters. North of

The sthan (astana) of the seven sisters. North of Umerkot. Next to the ancient Shiv Mandir. This is the one of three shrines of seven sisters I encountered just in this last summer trip.

The tragic heroine Marvi is often said to be one of these seven.

#hiddencaliphate #Tharparkar #waleedziad #TurquoiseRoad
#sindh

At Yale Law School, tomorrow.

At Yale Law School, tomorrow.

a wooden mountain shrine in the Hindu Kush. Shah

a wooden mountain shrine in the Hindu Kush.
Shah Burya Wali (aka Shahbur Wali, ca. 1600), adjacent to the old royal cemetery of the Mehtars of Chitral. Some say he came from Baltistan, others claim Iran.

#HinduKush #waleedziad #TurquoiseRoad #hiddencaliphate

The jami mosque of Chitral, next to the royal pala

The jami mosque of Chitral, next to the royal palace. Commissioned by the Queen whose shrine now adorns the mosque courtyard. (Second pic)

Had a memorable (unplanned) sitting with the imam (of the Kaka-khayl family), whose ancestor turned out to be a historical Sufi personality of the Hindu Kush region.

#hiddencaliphate #waleedziad #TurquoiseRoad

Ayun, Chitral. The old congregational mosque at th

Ayun, Chitral. The old congregational mosque at the end of the old bazaar, the courtyard looking out onto the Hindu Kush. An underrated gem.

#hiddencaliphate #waleedziad #TurquoiseRoad

Grateful to historian Hasan Nawaz Shah for introdu

Grateful to historian Hasan Nawaz Shah for introducing us to yet another Sufi deputy of Fazl Ahmad of Peshawar, the subject of Hidden Caliphate, this time based in Potohar, northern Punjab, on the ancient highway running from Kabul to Kashmir, close to Mankiala Buddhist stupa, the tallest of its kind in Punjab. Qazi Muhammad Muhsin Arazvi (1803-46) hailed from a lineage of judges and scholars who are said to have arrived at the time Babur conquered India. His descendant, Qazi Abdul Rahman, author and bibliophile, has preserved over 100 manuscripts from his family in his library.

Never ceases to amaze how Fazl Ahmad's disciple network could tie together the Volga, Xinjiang and the Punjab.

#hiddencaliphate #TurquoiseRoad #waleedziad

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