Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia

Ali S. Asani's Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia, published by I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies in 2002, is the standard scholarly treatment of the ginan corpus, the devotional hymns of South Asian Ismaili communities, addressing their languages, their Khojki manuscript tradition and their continuing place in community life. Its strength is that Asani is an established Harvard scholar of Ismaili studies and the book is co-published with the Institute of Ismaili Studies itself, giving it standing within the tradition as well as in the academy. Its limit is that it focuses on the South Asian Ismaili ginan tradition specifically, so a claim about Ismaili devotional literature from a different regional tradition needs a separate source.