Seen in the photograph are (from l to r): Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan; Jurgen Wasim Frembgen; the Guest of Honour, Dr Syed Mehdi Raza Shah Subzwari, Sajjada Nashin, Qalandar Lal Shahbaz, Sehwan Sharif; and Atiya Khan, television producer and anchor.
Karachi, 15 March: Oxford University Press launched its latest publication At the Shrine of the Red Sufi: Five Days and Nights on Pilgrimage in Pakistan written by the renowned German cultural anthropologist, Jurgen Wasim Frembgen. Translated from German by Jane Ripken, the book takes the reader on a journey to experience the spiritual rapture, ecstasy, trance, magic, and devotion at the annual urs celebrations held at Sehwan Sharif in honour of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Pakistan's most Sufi popular saint. Stefan Weidner, a renowned writer and expert on Islam, has judged this book [German language version] as "one of the most exciting reports we owe to German cultural anthropology in recent decades".
Dr Jurgen Wasim Frembgen is Chief Curator of the Oriental Department at the Museum of Ethnology in Munich as well as Professor in Islamic Studies at the University of Munich. He has been a visiting professor at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad and the National College of Arts in Lahore. Frembgen has been conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Pakistan on an annual basis since 1981. He has several publications to his credit including The Friends of God Sufi Saints in Islam: Popular Poster Art from Pakistan (2006/OUP) and Journey to God: Sufis and Dervishes in Islam (2008/OUP). He has written extensively on Islam and the Sufi tradition and curated numerous exhibitions dealing with cultures of the Muslim world.
The speakers present at the launch included Samina Quraeshi, author of Sacred Spaces: A Journey with the Sufis of the Indus, and Atiya Khan, television producer and anchor. Dr Syed Mehdi Raza Shah Subzwari, Sajjada Nashin, Qalandar Lal Shahbaz, Sehwan Sharif, was the Guest of Honour at the function. The speakers were of the view that Frembgen's book was of immense value as there is no other record in this depth of pilgrimage in Pakistan to an old and famous shrine, with detailed information of the different kinds of groups that participate, their rites and rituals of devotion, and the sacred geography of shrines and pilgrimages for qalandars in Pakistan. In her welcome address, Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan, said that in recounting his experience, Frembgen has not only shared his perceptions with his readers, but has provided a highly readable and vivid account of one of the most culturally, spiritually and emotionally charged events in our country. Jurgen Wasim Frembgen gave the concluding remarks and read out excerpts from the book.
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