The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam (South Asia Across the Disciplines)

A work of history richly informed by the anthropology of religion and art, __The Millennial Sovereign__ traces how royal dynastic cults and shrine-centered Sufism came together in the imperial cultures of Timurid Central Asia, Safavid Iran, and Mughal India. By juxtaposing imperial chronicles, paintings, and architecture with theories of sainthood, apocalyptic treatises, and manuals on astrology and magic, Moin uncovers a pattern of Islamic politics shaped by Sufi and millennial motifs from the end of the sixteenth century to the turn of the first Islamic millennium. He also shows how alchemical symbols and astrological rituals enveloped the body of the monarch, casting him as both spiritual guide and material lord. These findings offer a striking new perspective on the history of Islam and the religious and political developments linking South Asia and Iran in early-modern times. At the end of the sixteenth century and the turn of the first Islamic millennium, the powerful Mughal emperor Akbar declared himself the most sacred being on earth. The holiest of all saints and above the distinctions of religion, he styled himself as the messiah reborn. Yet the Mughal emperor was not alone in doing so. In this field-changing study, A. Azfar Moin explores why Muslim sovereigns in this period began to imitate the exalted nature of Sufi saints. Uncovering a startling yet widespread phenomenon, he shows how the charismatic pull of sainthood (wilayat)—rather than the draw of religious law (sharia) or holy war (jihad)—inspired a new style of sovereignty in Islam. A work of history richly informed by the anthropology of religion and art, The Millennial Sovereign traces how royal dynastic cults and shrine-centered Sufism came together in the imperial cultures of Timurid Central Asia, Safavid Iran, and Mughal India. By juxtaposing imperial chronicles, paintings, and architecture with theories of sainthood, apocalyptic treatises, and manuals on astrology and magic, Moin uncovers a pattern of Islamic politics shaped by Sufi and millennial motifs. He shows how alchemical symbols and astrological rituals enveloped the body of the monarch, casting him as both spiritual guide and material lord. Ultimately, Moin offers a striking new perspective on the history of Islam and the religious and political developments linking South Asia and Iran in early-modern times.

Marcel Duchamp is often viewed as an "artist-engineer-scientist," a kind of rationalist who relied heavily on the ideas of the French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré. Yet a complete portrait of Duchamp and his multiple influences draws a different picture. In his 3 Standard Stoppages (1913-1914), a work that uses chance as an artistic medium, we see how far Duchamp subverted scientism in favor of a radical individualistic aesthetic and experimental vision.

Unlike the Dadaists, Duchamp did more than dismiss or negate the authority of science. He pushed scientific rationalism to the point where its claims broke down and alternative truths were allowed to emerge. With humor and irony, Duchamp undertook a method of artistic research, reflection, and visual thought that focused less on beauty than on the notion of the "possible." He became a passionate advocate of the power of invention and thinking things that had never been thought before.

The 3 Standard Stoppages is the ultimate realization of the play between chance and dimension, visibility and invisibility, high and low art, and art and anti-art. Situating Duchamp firmly within the literature and philosophy of his time, Herbert Molderings recaptures the spirit of a frequently misread artist-and his thrilling aesthetic of chance.

Columbia University Press

The idea of the fabrication -- The 3 standard stoppages in the context of the large glass. The pane of glass as a materialized plane intersecting the visual pyramid -- Depersonalizing straight lines. The thread as a metaphor of the visual ray -- The 3 standard stoppages as paintings. Gravity and line : the "rephysicalization" of the ideal straight -- Duchamp's application of the new standard measures -- Painting of chance. Art as an experiment -- 1936 : Duchamp transforms the painting into an experimental setup. On the title : Roussel's "method"--An excursion into the world of shop signs and windows -- Humorous application of non-Euclidean geometry. A brief digression on Tu m' -- The crisis of the scientific concept of truth -- Pataphysics, chance, and the aesthetics of the possible -- Radical individualism The idea of the fabrication The 3 standard stoppages in the context of the large glass. The pane of glass as a materialized plane intersecting the visual pyramid Depersonalizing straight lines. The thread as a metaphor of the visual ray The 3 standard stoppages as paintings. Gravity and line : the "rephysicalization" of the ideal straight Duchamp's application of the new standard measures Painting of chance. Art as an experiment 1936 : Duchamp transforms the painting into an experimental setup. On the title : Roussel's "method" An excursion into the world of shop signs and windows Humorous application of non-Euclidean geometry. A brief digression on Tu m' The crisis of the scientific concept of truth Pataphysics, chance, and the aesthetics of the possible Radical individualism. At the end of the sixteenth century and the turn of the first Islamic millennium, the powerful Mughal emperor Akbar declared himself the most sacred being on earth. The holiest of all saints and above the distinctions of religion, he styled himself as the messiah reborn. Yet the Mughal emperor was not alone in doing so. In this field-changing study, A. Azfar Moin explores why Muslim sovereigns in this period began to imitate the exalted nature of Sufi saints. Uncovering a startling but widespread phenomenon, he shows how the charismatic pull of sainthood (wilayat)?rather than the draw of Islam and the millennium The lord of conjunction: sacrality and sovereignty in the age of Timur The crown of dreams: Sufis and princes in sixteenth-century Iran The alchemical court: the beginnings of the Mughal imperial cult The millennial sovereign: the troubled unveiling of the savior monarch The throne of time: the painted miracles of the saint emperor The graffiti under the throne. "This book brings into dialogue two major fields of scholarship that are rarely studied together: sacred kingship and sainthood in Islam. In doing so, it offers an original perspective on both. In historical terms, the foucs here is on the Mughal empire in sixteenth-century India and its antecedents and parallels in Timurid Central Asia and Safavid Iran."--Introduction, p. [1]