Ginans ( ur, گنان, gu, ગિનાન; derived from sa, ज्ञान ''jñana,'' meaning "knowledge") are devotional hymns or poems recited by Shia Ismaili Muslims. Literally meaning gnosis, ginans are the devotional literature of the Nizari Ismailis of South Asia, spanning topics of divine love, cosmology, rituals, eschatology, ethical behavior and meditation. Ranging from three verses to hundreds of pages, ginans are attributed to the Pirs, who were second only to the Imams in the Ismaili hierarchy. Virani, Shafique N. “Symphony of Gnosis: A Self-Definition of the Ismaili Ginān Literature.” Chap. 55. ''In Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Muslim Thought.'' Edited by Todd Lawson, 503-521. London: I.B. Tauris in association with Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2005. www.academia.edu/36984287/Symphony_of_Gnosis_A_SelfDefinition_of_the_Ismaili_Ginan_Literature It was originally an oral rendition mostly by Pirs, first among whom to come to South Asia was Pir Satgurnoor in the 12th century. Ginans are composed in many languages of South Asia, especially

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Punjabi, Sindhi,

Burushaski Burushaski (; ) is a language isolate spoken by Burusho people, who reside almost entirely in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, with a few hundred speakers in northern Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by people in ...

and many more. They are based on Verses from the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

. Like Ginans, Qaseedas are recited in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Tajik Tajik, Tadjik, Tadzhik or Tajikistani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Tajikistan * Tajiks, an ethnic group in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan * Tajik language, the official language of Tajikistan * Tajik (surname) * Tajik cu ...

by Ismailis in Central Asia, Iran and Syria. Ismailis from the subcontinent recite these as well as Arabic and Persian qasidas which are recited before or after the prayer in the

Jamatkhana Jamatkhana (from fa, جماعت خانه , literally "congregational place") is an amalgamation derived from the Arabic word ''jama‘a'' (gathering) and the Persian word ''khana'' (house, place). It is a term used by some Muslim communities ar ...

. Ginan Central is a web portal developed at the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Library to safeguard ginans and promote research and education. Ginans are devotional hymns recited by the

Nizari The Nizaris ( ar, النزاريون, al-Nizāriyyūn, fa, نزاریان, Nezāriyān) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers. Nizari teachings emphasize independent ...

Ismaili communities in South Asia. The recitation of ginans is not restricted to just Nizari Ismailis evidenced by the recitation of ginans by many established non-Nizari Ismaili singers such as

Abida Parveen Abida Parveen (Urdu, sd, ; born 20 February 1954) is a Pakistani singer, composer and musician of Sufi music. She is also a painter and entrepreneur. Parveen is one of the highest paid singers in Pakistan. Her singing and music has earned he ...

who recited the ginan Ya Ali Khub Majalis in the presence of the 49th present and living

Imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

of the Nizari Ismailis, His Highness Prince

Aga Khan IV Shāh Karim al-Husayni (born 13 December 1936), known by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imam by his Ismaili followers and elsewhere as Aga Khan IV, is the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailis, a denomination within Shia Islam. He ha ...

, the accessibility to view current transcripts and translations of ginans, and the academic literature written on ginans which is made accessible to the larger public. Although ginans can be recited, studied, and listened to by non-Nizari Ismailis, ginans hold a special role in the cultural practice and rituals of Nizari Ismailis, specifically the community of Khojas, a caste of South Asians of whom the majority now identify as Nizari Ismaili. The Khojas, contextualized by the history of these Ismaili Pirs and Sayyids, came to follow the Satpanthi tradition; Satpanthi means the “true path”.

History

Recited in Jamatkhanas throughout the world, ginans were preached by Ismaili Pirs and Sayyids in the South Asian region. The ginans are a unique as literature because while they were meant to spread the Ismaili doctrine and basic theological principles to South Asians, they incorporated local elements of the region which inadvertently included what we now label as Hindu references. Perhaps the clearest connection to ginans and what we now conceive of as Hindu tradition is the theme of Kalki which is the tenth incarnation of Vishnu (Dasa Avatara). In ginan literature, the first Shia Imam, Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, is likened to this tenth incarnation which is re-labeled as Nakalanki. It is because of these pluralistic elements in the ginans that Khojas identified neither as Hindu nor as Muslim which lead to complications as the modern conception of religion created rigid boundaries of these religious identities. Ismailis view ginans as a means through which to understand the message of the Qur’an and get closer to the essence of the Divine light. Therefore, even though Ginans are often an outwardly practice of the faith (zahir), they provide the vessel through which the inner meaning of the faith (batin) can be understood. Some ginans are also written in the style of the virahini; that is in the perspective of a woman who is waiting with desire to be meet and be united with her Beloved who is a metaphor for God. There are many important figures in the tradition of Ginans. These include Pir Shams, Pir Sadr al-Din, Pir Hasan al- Kabir Din, Nur Muhammad Shah, Imam Begum Shah, etc. These individuals wrote and actively contributed to the Ginan tradition. While the message and text of Ginans remains important, important academic has been done to demonstrate that just as the text, theological importance, and ritualistic practice is important to ginans, the musicality and performance level of ginans as a rite in Jamatkhanas is significant as well.

Ginanic Discourse

In their expression of the Satpanthi doctrine, ''ginan''s draw on multiple traditions prevalent in western India, including the Vaishnava Hindu, Sufi, ''sant'' and ''bhakti'' traditions. These traditions provide the frameworks within which ideas central to Satpanth, such as the authority of the Imam, come to be articulated. The Vaishnava Hindu discourse is especially discernible in earlier ''ginan''s such as the ''Das Avatara'', in which an equivalence is established between the Ismaili concept of imam and the Hindu concept of ''avatara''. The Ismaili imam (proclaimed to be living in the west) is represented as the long-awaited tenth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. In such ''ginan''s, Satpanth comes to be represented as the culmination of the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. Many ''ginan''s formulate their teachings within a Sufi framework, using Sufi terminology to explain and discuss concepts central to the Satpanth tradition. The interaction between Sufi and Ismaili traditions particularly in Iran has a long history traceable to the 13th century. Reiterating this relationship, ''ginan''s not only describe Ismaili Imams and their representatives in Sufi terms, but also regularly evoke concepts, such as ''didar'' (vision of the divine), ''nur'' (light), and ''batin'' (esoteric, as opposed to zahir, exoteric), central to the Sufi tradition. A third discourse discernible in the ''ginan''s is that of the ''sant''s, “a group of lower-caste poet-saints who were part of a powerful anti-ritual and anti-caste movement” influential in India. Satpanth can be thought of as one of the many formal organizations called ''panth''s (paths) that crystallized around some of these ''sant''s. ''Ginan''s utilize much of the “idiom of sant poetry”, and demonstrate a similar concern with “challenging the efficacy of ritualism and rote learning as paths to salvation”. Finally, ''ginan''s draw on the bhakti tradition, an influential movement of Hindu devotionalism, in describing the relationship of devotion between disciples and the Imam. ''Ginan''s portray the Imam as an “object of love and veneration” in describing this relationship in the language of bhakti poetry. Many ''ginan''s describe the human soul as the ''virahini'', a female figure longing for her beloved, best exemplified by Radha in her longing for the Hindu god Krishna. The beloved to whom the human soul must turn with such devotion is almost always identified as the Imam (. In line with the female portrayal of the human soul, many ''ginan''s are composed in the female voice, even though their authors may be male.

Example translation of a Ginan

''Sahebaji tun more man bhave: Verses I-VIII'' God, My heart is fond of you. I think of no-one else. None else pleases my heart. Oh my lord, My heart is fond of you. So readily, my lord, You give me Whatever I ask of you. You indulge me In so many ways, My lord. In all four ages, I went about, Looking hard. I found none To match you, my lord. My lord, my heart Is fond of you. Come, come, My maiden friends, Let us go To view the groom. He's the one, the beloved I've attained. He comes to my home, The beloved, He but for whom A minute is hard to pass. How should we call him Unhappy - He whose lord Is one such as this? How should we find fault With the merciful? What's written In our karma Is what we shall have. Ram and Raheman Are but one Deity. Of this mystery, The fool is quite unaware. Says Saiyad Mohamadshah: I am bonded to you, My lord. Leaving you, At what other door Am I to knock? My lord, My heart is fond of you. I think of no-one else. None else pleases my heart. God, My heart is fond of you.Retrieved from the Institute of Ismaili Studies Website; Originally Published in: Esmail, Aziz. ''A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics''. (London: Curzon in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2002), 128-9.

Some acclaimed Ginan singers include

*Khursheed Nurali (Sheerazi) *Aziz Tejpar *Alidina Jamal Jivraj *Shamshuddin Bandali Hajji *Dr. Hassanali Walji *Jaffersadiq Surmawala *Pandit

Rattan Mohan Sharma Rattan Mohan Sharma (born 14 June 1971) is an Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the Mewati gharana. He performs classical music forms such as khyal and tarana as well as light classical forms such as Haveli Sangeet, Tappa and Bhajan as we ...

*Aly Sunderji *

Hemant Chauhan Hemant Chauhan is an Indian writer and singer associated with Gujarati literature and music. He was born on 7 November 1955 in Kundni village in Rajkot district of Gujarat. He specializes in Bhajan, religious and Garba songs and other folk gen ...

*Karim Bhoja *

*Anaar Kanji *Rashmi Laljee *Tanya Wells *Niranjan Rajyaguru *Shamshu Jamal *Yasmin Rayani *

Salim Merchant Salim, Saleem or Selim may refer to: People *Salim (name), or Saleem or Salem or Selim, a name of Arabic origin *Salim (poet) (1800–1866) *Saleem (playwright) (fl. 1996) *Selim I, Selim II and Selim III, Ottoman Sultans * Selim people, an e ...

Sulaiman Merchant Sulaiman is an English transliteration of the Arabic name that means "peaceful" and corresponds to the Jewish name Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה‎, Shlomoh) and the English Solomon (/ˈsɒləmən/) . Solomon was the scriptural figure who was king of wh ...

Allan Fakir Allan Fakir (1932– 4 July 2000) ( Sindhi: ''علڻ فقيرُ'', Urdu: ''علن فقیر''), was a Pakistani folk singer. He was particularly known for his ecstatic style of performance, marked with extreme devotional rhetoric and Sufi dance-si ...

References

{{Reflist

Further references

*Esmail, Aziz. ''Scent of Sandalwood''. Routledge. *Gillani, Karim, Qureshi, Regula B., and Waugh, Earle. ''Sound and Recitation of Khoja Ismaili Ginans: Tradition and Transformation'', 2012, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. *Kassam, Tazim R. ''Songs of Wisdom and Circles of Dance : Hymns of the Satpanth Ismāʻīlī Muslim Saint, Pīr Shams''. McGill Studies in the History of Religions. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. *Shackle, C., Moir, Zawahir, and University of London. School of Oriental African Studies. ''Ismaili Hymns from South Asia : An Introduction to the Ginan''s. SOAS South Asian Texts ; No. 3. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1992.

External links

Example translation of a Ginan
Ismaili literature Islamic terminology