Wrestlers, Pigeon Fanciers, and Kite Flyers

Jürgen Wasim Frembgen is an Islamicist, anthropologist, writer, and Senior Curator (Hauptkonservator) of the Islamic Collection at the Munich State Museum of Ethnology. He is also Professor, of History of Religion and Culture of Islam at the Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies,University of Munich. Since 1981, he has taught Anthropology and Islamic Studies at different universities in Germany. In addition, he had been a visiting professor at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, National College of Arts, Lahore, as well as Ohio State University, USA.

Since 1981, Frembgen has annually conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Pakistan (in the Punjab and Sindh as well as in the Karakoram and in Indus Kohistan). His published works include: The Friends of God: Sufi Saints in Islam Popular Poster Art from Pakistan (OUP: 2006), Journey to God: Sufis and Dervishes in Islam (OUP: 2007), At the Shrine of the Red Sufi: Five Days and Nights on Pilgrimage in Pakistan (OUP: 2011), Nocturnal Music in the Land of the Sufis: Unheard Pakistan (OUP: 2012) and The Closed Valley: With Fierce Friends in the Pakistani Himalayas (OUP: 2014).

Paul Rollier has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. He is currently a post-doctoral research associate in Social Anthropology at University College, London, working on a collaborative project on democratic culture and power in South Asia.