Abstract:
Sacred places associated with ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (d. 661) exist widely
across Afghanistan and Central Asia. In this lecture, I trace these
place narratives to legends that flourished in the Turko-Persianate
world after the Mongol conquests. These popular legends, which portray
‘Ali as a warrior hero, appear to have become localized to explain the
arrival of Islam and the formation of unusual geographies such as the
Band-i Amir lakes in Bamiyan. But ‘Ali is not merely a culture hero
who intervenes in local history and geography. He is the object of
intense devotion via his epithets Shah-i Mardan (“the king of men”)
and Mushkil-gusha (“the problem solver”). Why did legendary accounts
of ‘Ali flourish so widely across the region? Did a process of
syncretization occur in which ‘Ali was integrated into pre-Mongol
cosmological landscapes? And how do these legends cohere with more
“orthodox” representations of the historical ‘Ali?

Speaker’s Bio:
Shamim Homayun obtained his PhD in anthropology from the Australian
National University, focusing on senses of place and landscape in
Afghanistan. He was awarded a JSPS postdoctoral fellowship in August
2025, and will join the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the
University of Tokyo in November. His postdoctoral project will examine
the late medieval and early modern history of Bamiyan. His
publications include “Unearthing Rabiʿa’s Grave: Placemaking, Shrines,
and Contested Traditions in Balkh, Afghanistan,” which appeared in the
International Journal of Middle East Studies in 2023, and “Deceptive
Sanctity: Fake Shrines, Geopolitical Schemes, and Cunning Intelligence
in Afghanistan,” forthcoming in the journal Cultural Anthropology.