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The Emergence and Tides of a Contemporary Saint: Bibi Nushin of Shibirghan, Afghanistan

A Lecture by Ingeborg Baldauf, Humboldt University, Berlin

Friday, November 18, 2011
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
10383 Bunche Hall
UCLA

In the spring of 1996 a young girl from Shibirghan was killed in mysterious circumstances. Phenomena which soon started to occur next to Bibi Nushin’s burial place suggested an exceptional spiritual rank of the deceased. Within a few weeks the place turned into a major pilgrimage site, attracting the sick, needy, deprived and persecuted from nearby and far away. At the same time the spiritual rank of Bibi Nushin and other important issues were heavily contested.

This presentation will focus on:

• The interrelation of event and legend
• Religious and mundane discourses around the case of Bibi Nushin
• Some links between saint cult and politics

 

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Program on Central Asia conference, Great Games? Afghan History through Afghan Eyes, November 17-18, 2011 in the Young Research Library at UCLA.

www.international.ucla.edu/asia/central asia

Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Asia Institute, Program on Central Asia, Center for the Study of Religion