Daniel Beben, ‘Cyclical Sanctity and Ismaili Identity: A Framework for Rethinking Conversion to Shi’I Islam in the Iranian World’

How are minority religious communities able to successfully endure and proselytize under adverse conditions of persecution? Through analyzing the Ismaili Shi’i community of Central Asia, Daniel Beben will investigate the inter-related practices of patronage and the elaboration of religious conversion narratives connected with Ismaili saints. Beben will demonstrate how these practices intersect within a process of appropriation and re-appropriation to address the paradox of why Ismailism is a literary and intellectual tradition that has its deepest roots in ‘peripheral’ regions.

Daniel Beben is an assistant professor at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, focusing predominantly in the history of Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and the broader Islamic world.

Contact Tracey Cave for questions. Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies.