Ginan
Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"
Meaning
Ginans are devotional poems of the Khojahs, a branch of the Ismailis (a Shi'a sect). The word comes from the Sanskrit jnana, meaning "knowledge". The poems were written in Punjabi, Multani, Sindhi, Kachchi, Hindi and Gujarati, and were sung in ragas (Indian musical modes) during daily prayer. Through them, ideas from the Qur'an were spread in local languages and local musical forms. They show how Islam in India took on regional forms.
Example
The ginans were first passed on orally. Later they were written in the Khojaki script, which came from the "landa" script used by local merchants.
Don't confuse with
- Qawwali: devotional music sung at sufi shrines such as Nizamuddin Auliya's dargah in Delhi. Ginans belong to the Khojah (Ismaili) community, not to the sufi orders.
Related concepts
- Ulama
- Sharia
- Hadis
- Zimmi
- Five pillars of Islam
- Khojahs
- Mihrab
- Regional mosque architecture
- Turushka
- Yavana