01
The Travels of Risalo
Prompted by the writings of Shah Abdul Bhitai Latif (1689-, I travelled across lower Sindh with my companions Saalik Khan and Filza Marri in the summer of 2024. I was compelled to see how the themes of Latif’s writing continue to pulse through the lives of people across the land he once wandered.
Like many intellectuals of his period, Latif was likely trained in Arabic and Persian and travelled widely in his studies on theology and philosophy yet he is remembered mostly for his Sindhi text the Shah Jo Risalo. In the Risalo, Bhitai used prominent folklore from Sindh and its surrounding regions to illustrate what he considered to be the essential principles of piety. While much of these ideas were formed through Islamic sources, the Risalo offers a sociologically wider vision of piety than most Persianate texts from this period. For example, most of the Risalo’s exemplary characters are young women, many of whom perform their unwavering belief in God (tawhīd) through exercising their freedom to love whom they choose. Most of Latif’s characters are from modest backgrounds and demonstrate a fierce pride for their kinsman and way of life. In Sur Kalyan, Latif especially dignifies the Hindu mystics and yogis that travel across lower Sindh and with whom Bhittai journeyed with for many years as a young man.
Another radical dimension of the Risalo is that Latif composed it with the preliterate communities of Sindh in mind. The book is separated into sur, which connotes singing, but in this case also designates chapters as each segment is sung to a specific raag. Bhitai invented a musical instrument (tamboro) to accompany this singing, as well as a distinct style of singing, called ‘Vaī’, for the portions of Risalo that are spoken by female characters. We encountered the Risalo in numerous forms and settings during our trip. Firstly, we were able to hear to Fakir Juman Shah perform at the Shrine of Shah Latif at Bhit Shah, these nightly performances begin at sundown and conclude at sunrise. We visited what some consider to be the shrine of Sohni Mehar, the fiery protagonist of Latif’s Sur Sohni, to see Latif’s verses inscribed on her shrine. And even in the corners of the deserts of Thatta, we serendipitously came across a group of travelling singers singing Latif beside an abandoned Jain temple. In the city of Umerkot we met with Raja Sandh whose award winning app ‘Shah Jo Risalo’ offers translations of the Risalo in English and numerous Indic languages, along with commentaries on each chapter.
The Risalo is now a keystone text within Sindhi culture; it is often through the Risalo that Sindhi children are taught to read and in many households it is placed alongside the Quran, and similarly wrapped in a ‘ghilāf’ (covering). Perhaps more so than any other text I have encountered, the Risalo has a living presence in the regions that its author was determined to speak to directly. Here is a quick preview of Safar-i Risalo (Travels of Risalo), a project that is still emerging but which is interested in—among other things—the enduring yet fluid relationship between romantic love and revolutionary politics in Sufi writing.
Special thanks to Saalik Khan for his overseeing the audio and visual documentation of this trip, Hammad Mari for arranging our itinerary, Filza Marri for acting as our guide, translator, and liaison, and the many other people who facilitated this first leg of our journey.
Like many intellectuals of his period, Latif was likely trained in Arabic and Persian and travelled widely in his studies on theology and philosophy yet he is remembered mostly for his Sindhi text the Shah Jo Risalo. In the Risalo, Bhitai used prominent folklore from Sindh and its surrounding regions to illustrate what he considered to be the essential principles of piety. While much of these ideas were formed through Islamic sources, the Risalo offers a sociologically wider vision of piety than most Persianate texts from this period. For example, most of the Risalo’s exemplary characters are young women, many of whom perform their unwavering belief in God (tawhīd) through exercising their freedom to love whom they choose. Most of Latif’s characters are from modest backgrounds and demonstrate a fierce pride for their kinsman and way of life. In Sur Kalyan, Latif especially dignifies the Hindu mystics and yogis that travel across lower Sindh and with whom Bhittai journeyed with for many years as a young man.
Another radical dimension of the Risalo is that Latif composed it with the preliterate communities of Sindh in mind. The book is separated into sur, which connotes singing, but in this case also designates chapters as each segment is sung to a specific raag. Bhitai invented a musical instrument (tamboro) to accompany this singing, as well as a distinct style of singing, called ‘Vaī’, for the portions of Risalo that are spoken by female characters. We encountered the Risalo in numerous forms and settings during our trip. Firstly, we were able to hear to Fakir Juman Shah perform at the Shrine of Shah Latif at Bhit Shah, these nightly performances begin at sundown and conclude at sunrise. We visited what some consider to be the shrine of Sohni Mehar, the fiery protagonist of Latif’s Sur Sohni, to see Latif’s verses inscribed on her shrine. And even in the corners of the deserts of Thatta, we serendipitously came across a group of travelling singers singing Latif beside an abandoned Jain temple. In the city of Umerkot we met with Raja Sandh whose award winning app ‘Shah Jo Risalo’ offers translations of the Risalo in English and numerous Indic languages, along with commentaries on each chapter.
The Risalo is now a keystone text within Sindhi culture; it is often through the Risalo that Sindhi children are taught to read and in many households it is placed alongside the Quran, and similarly wrapped in a ‘ghilāf’ (covering). Perhaps more so than any other text I have encountered, the Risalo has a living presence in the regions that its author was determined to speak to directly. Here is a quick preview of Safar-i Risalo (Travels of Risalo), a project that is still emerging but which is interested in—among other things—the enduring yet fluid relationship between romantic love and revolutionary politics in Sufi writing.
Special thanks to Saalik Khan for his overseeing the audio and visual documentation of this trip, Hammad Mari for arranging our itinerary, Filza Marri for acting as our guide, translator, and liaison, and the many other people who facilitated this first leg of our journey.
📚 Research
01 The Travels of Risalo
📚 Teaching
Coming Soon
📚 Reading 4 — Thursday
Samuel Beckett, Part 1
📚 Reading 5 — Friday
Samuel Beckett, Part 2
📚 Reading 6 — Saturday
Samuel Beckett, Part 3
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