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SUMMARY:The Festival of Gul-i Surkh: A Bactro-Sogdian Cultural Survival al
 ong the Silk Roads - Jonathan Lee
DTSTART:20221007T130000Z
DTEND:20221007T140000Z
UID:TALK183614@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Katie Campbell
DESCRIPTION:The shrine of ‘Ali b Abi Talib (Shah-i Mardan) in Mazar-I Sh
 arif\, northern Afghanistan\, is an important centre for the celebration o
 f Nauroz (New Year). At the same time this shrine is the focus for two oth
 er consecutive events/festivals: Janda Bala –the raising of a banner-pol
 e said to having miraculous healing powers – and Gul-i Surkh (Red Flower
 /Rose). The lecture will discuss the historical background to this shrine 
 which claims to be the last resting place of ‘Ali b Abi Talib\, through 
 the lens of the Balkh region’s ancient association as a major cult centr
 e in pre-Islamic times. It will then discuss what is known of the customs 
 and traditions of the Gul-i Surkh festival\, including accounts of similar
  ‘red flower’ festivals recorded in the Bukhara and Ferghana regions i
 n the nineteenth to early twentieth century. The lecture will then to sugg
 est the possible origins of the Gul-i Surkh tradition in the ancient relig
 ious and cultural traditions of the region\, such as the ‘Mourning for S
 iyawash’\, as well as wider influences such as the Armenian Vardavar fes
 tival\, and Hellenistic and Near Eastern influences. This examination lead
 s to the conclusion that the Bactrian-Sogdian region played an important r
 ole in the exchange\, interaction and remoulding of religious and cultic t
 raditions along the Silk Road\, as well as demonstrating how such ancient 
 traditions were adapted to accommodation the prevailing Islamic ethos.\n\n
 Dr. Lee is a British-born independent researcher who has spent most of his
  career working and studying in the area of Afghanistan and Central Asia. 
 He has also worked as a short-term consultant for Aid agencies and Non-Gov
 ernment Organisations. His academic publications include numerous articles
  on the archaeology\, social and religious history of Afghanistan and the 
 Indo-Iranian frontier. He is the author of The Ancient Supremacy: Bukhara\
 , Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh\, 1732-1901 (Brill\, Leiden\, 1996)
  and Afghanistan\, a History 1260 to the present Day (Reaktion Books\, Lon
 don\, 2022). His current project is a History of the Armenian community of
  Afghanistan to be published by Edinburgh University Press. The present le
 cture is based on Dr Lee’s unpublished doctoral thesis presented to the 
 Dept\, of Religious Studies\, University of Leeds. He is now semi-retired 
 and he and his wife currently live in the Greater Auckland area of New Zea
 land.
LOCATION:Audit Room\, King's College and Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/meet
 ing/register/tZErd-GgqjMtGNGBjaTi-oeJh4ndY-owLaxY
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