The Making of a Saint for All Seasons
The Saintly Body, the Ecumenical Tradition of North India, and the Hagiographical Account of Haji Waris Ali Shah’s Life
Keywords:
affect, body, ecumenical, SufiAbstract
Haji Waris Ali Shah (1818/9-1905) of Dewa, India, became a Sufi saint of lasting significance within South Asia. With a large and eclectic community of believers coming from various religious backgrounds, Haji Waris Ali Shah proves to be an ecumenical figure. While several hagiographies exist, I use Mirza Muhammad Ibrahim Beg Shaida Warsi's 1938 text S'ai al-haris fil-rayahin al-waris, a text revised and edited by Razi Ahmed, a contemporary claimant to his legacy through the Dargah Warsi Association at Dewa Sharif, the saint's mausoleum, to argue that the saint's power was concentrated in his body and its affective influence. His manner of dress, his itinerant lifestyle, his manner of speaking, and the documented power of his eyes were all subtly capable of reaching devotees of different personal inclinations and religious training. Focusing on his body as a living shrine at which believers gathered, I hope to lend weight to an affective history of religion where the affective reach of saints gains a place to explain their often enormous impact on their believers, primarily during the saint's life but also after.
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