عنوان

All the works and days of hands: An exploration of trade manuals from Xinjiang (rislāh) and a translation

TL48992

انگلیسی

All the works and days of hands: An exploration of trade manuals from Xinjiang (rislāh) and a translation

[Thesis]

Michael Krautkraemer

DeWeese, Devin

Indiana University

2016

95

Committee members: Bovingdon, Gardner; Sela, Ron

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-369-09812-9

M.A.

Central Eurasian Studies

Indiana University

2016

All the Works and Days of Hands is an exploration of trade manuals, risālah, from Southern Xinjiang, or Altishahr, home to the Turkic group now called Uyghurs. It focuses on the first decades of the twentieth century and examines the context, both religious and social, of these manuscripts. It explores the way in which risālahs were used and transmitted, as well as the role they played as badges of membership in a trade guild. It argues that the risālah as a genre fulfilled a social function, namely the sacrilization of labor. These risālahs, translated in English as "trade manual," are fascinating for the way in which they tell potential readers virtually nothing about the trade with which they are associated. Rather they give instructions as to how to participate in that trade in a sacred way. In addition to serving as a mechanism by which a tradesman could, in theory, at least, make the creation of a commercial good a sacred or religiously meritorious act, these texts were used in communal gatherings and, it is argued, served as yet another way in which communal identity was constructed and manifested among the Turkic Muslims who would one day be called Uyghur.

Religious history; Asian Studies; Islamic Studies

Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;Handicraft;Risalah;Trade manual;Turkestan;Uyghur;Xinjiang

Cooke, Samantha

DeWeese, Devin

Central Eurasian Studies

Indiana University

1836765207; 10154719

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y