Doctoral Project

Islamization in Times of Danger and Uncertainty? The Veneration of Saints in Central Asia Before and After the Mongol Conquests (12th to 15th Centuries)

The project explores the development of saints? cults in the eastern Islamic world and asks if military threat and existential fears, political turmoil and deep social transformations shortly before, during and after the Mongol conquests led to an enhanced Islamization of Central Asia?s sacred topography.

The study is based on a systematic and comparative analysis of pilgrimage guides, biographical dictionaries and local histories written in the region; supplemental written sources from Central Asia and the results of art historical and archeological research on saints? shrines in the eastern Islamic world are also deployed.