Report
On October 19, 2025, a lecture entitled “Legends of ‘Ali b. Abi Talib and Sacred Geographies in Central Asia” was held, featuring Dr Shamim Homayun, who will serve as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at IASA from November 2025. Dr Homayun is conducting anthropological research on the legend of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib’s dragon-slaying and the development of veneration in the Bamiyan region of Afghanistan. In this lecture, drawing on fieldwork at the Band-e Amir Lakes, he analyzed the narrative structure and historical background of the legend, and theoretically examined how specific spatial settings and pilgrims’ ritual practices contribute to making these legends perceived as realities among local communities. The lecture, held online, attracted 17 participants, and was followed by a lively discussion that addressed various issues such as the management systems of the sacred sites.
Event Details
Lecture Title: Legends of ‘Ali b. Abi Talib and Sacred Geographies in Central Asia
Speaker: Dr Shamim Homayun (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, IASA, from November 2025)
Chair: Professor Kazuo Morimoto (IASA / Japan Office, ASPS)
Date and Time: 19 October (Sun) 2025, 16:00-17:30 (JST)
Venue: Online via Zoom
Abstract:
Sacred places associated with ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (d. 661) exist widely across Afghanistan and Central Asia. In this lecture, I trace these place narratives to legends that flourished in the Turko-Persianate world after the Mongol conquests. These popular legends, which portray ‘Ali as a warrior hero, appear to have become localized to explain the arrival of Islam and the formation of unusual geographies such as the Band-i Amir lakes in Bamiyan. But ‘Ali is not merely a culture hero who intervenes in local history and geography. He is the object of intense devotion via his epithets Shah-i Mardan (“the king of men”) and Mushkil-gusha (“the problem solver”). Why did legendary accounts of ‘Ali flourish so widely across the region? Did a process of syncretization occur in which ‘Ali was integrated into pre-Mongol cosmological landscapes? And how do these legends cohere with more “orthodox” representations of the historical ‘Ali?
This event is co-organized by the Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid “‘Sunnis’ and ‘Shiʿis’: Historical Inquiries into Confessional Identities and Mutual Perceptions” (23K25371), the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo (organized by the Regular Research Project W-1: Approaches to the “Persianate World” as a Tobunken Seminar), and the Japan Office of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (as a Gilas Lecture).