Living Islam: Muslim Religious Experience in Pakistan's North-West Frontier

by Magnus Marsden

Popular representations of Pakistan's North-West Frontier have long featured simplistic images of tribal blood feuds, fanatical religion, and the seclusion of women. The rise to power of the radical Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan enhanced the region's reputation as a place of anti-Western militancy. Immersed in the lives of the Frontier's villagers for more than ten years, Magnus Marsden's evocative study of the Chitral region challenges all these stereotypes. His exploration contributes much to understanding religion and politics within and beyond the Muslim societies of southern Asia.

Genres: Anthropology, Pakistan

314 pages, Hardcover

First published December 19, 2005

Reviews

[Saadullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

can't believe this book has such a low rating. this is a hugely underrated ethnography and possibly the most must-read anthropological text for pakistani readers. while it may seem to discuss an isolated context -- an Ismaili-Sunni village/town in Chitral -- it very much lives up to its ambitious title, and is moreover, a sensitive, moving exploration of life in semi-rural, small-town northern pakistan.

there is a particular sequence i want to talk about. while Marsden is in the village, an Ismaili young man is shot in Chitral city (one of only three recorded violent incidents against Ismailis in pakistan, the others being an earlier incident in Chitral, and one more recent incident of mass violence in Karachi). now this large village/small town is one in which most Sunnis believe Ismailis to be outside the folds of Islam, in which every Friday sermon is a condemnation of their beliefs, their "liberal" behaviors, and involves cautioning Sunnis away from having any Ismaili friends. but once the young man is shot, almost everyone is torn apart: they are shocked, scrambling to conceal the facts of the incident from the victim's mother. the Sunnis may intellectually reject Ismailis, but they cannot help but be deeply devastated by the act, feel a surge of compassion for a fellow parent, and sorrow for a child they have seen be raised and grow old in the same alleys they have all aged. this is a post 9-11 book, so unraveling how believing Sunnis, otherwise convinced their Ismaili neighbors are apostates, manage to be so viscerally traumatized by an act that appears to be executing their convictions is a core part of Marsden's analysis.

this episode does not end here, but i won't spoil it further. it just reads like an ethnography written with a lot of love and compassion, and that's why it is so unforgettable. and unmissable as a piece of writing on pakistan.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating thesis. Marsden attempts to illustrate the intellectual and emotional complexity of the rural peoples of Chitral by illustrating their daily speculation and struggle with Islam and questions of worship and religious respect. In the end, he achieves his point, which is: don't underestimate the rural poor. But there are moments in reading this book in which one can't help but feel this small village is unique, and if his point held true for all small villages, we'd read about a lot less fanatical bloodshed in the name of Islam and cultural tradition. In the end, I can't help but feel confirmed in my sense that traditions, especially religious traditions, are responsible for a great deal of the world's suffering.