And so can you talk a little bit about that?

Yes, well that figure is Maulana Ashraf Ali Tanmi who was a Sufi theologian and also a Quran scholar, an exegete of the Quran, a Muslim reformer, a jurist of the Hanafi law school who lived in colonial India from 1863 to 1943.

He wrote in many genres, and of course this is not unique to him, but one of the reasons I have spent the last, I would say, 20 years studying him is is because he wrote in all sorts of genres.

And at first, I used to think that maybe I could divide the genres of his production, of his oeuvre, of his archive, of his corpus of writings, into the scholastic genres, which would be Quran exegesis, commentaries on hadith, the fatwa genre or the legal response literature that he authored, theological treatises on one side, and what I at that time called ordinary life genres, which stemmed out of the ritual practices of his Sufi lodge in North India.

And so the majalis, the council sessions would be the crucible for the malfuzat genre.

So the council literature, the moral councils, these were transcribed by disciples and they were edited before they were published and made available to a broader readership.

Another genre that stems out of the practice of the Sufi tradition within the context of the Sufi lodge is the correspondence between disciples and masters, the maktubat genre.

Sure.

And so can you talk a little bit about that?

Yes, well that figure is Maulana Ashraf Ali Tanmi who was a Sufi theologian and also a Quran scholar, an exegete of the Quran, a Muslim reformer, a jurist of the Hanafi law school who lived in colonial India from 1863 to 1943.

He wrote in many genres, and of course this is not unique to him, but one of the reasons I have spent the last, I would say, 20 years studying him is is because he wrote in all sorts of genres.

And at first, I used to think that maybe I could divide the genres of his production, of his oeuvre, of his archive, of his corpus of writings, into the scholastic genres, which would be Quran exegesis, commentaries on hadith, the fatwa genre or the legal response literature that he authored, theological treatises on one side, and what I at that time called ordinary life genres, which stemmed out of the ritual practices of his Sufi lodge in North India.

And so the majalis, the council sessions would be the crucible for the malfuzat genre.

So the council literature, the moral councils, these were transcribed by disciples and they were edited before they were published and made available to a broader readership.

Another genre that stems out of the practice of the Sufi tradition within the context of the Sufi lodge is the correspondence between disciples and masters, the maktubat genre.

Sure.

And so can you talk a little bit about that?

Yes.

Well, that figure is Maulana Ashraf Ali Tanmi, who was a Sufi theologian and also a Quran scholar, an exegete of the Quran, a Muslim reformer, a jurist of the Hanafi law school who lived in colonial India from 1863 to 1943.

He wrote in many genres, and of course this is not unique to him, but one of the reasons I have spent the last 20 years studying him is is because he wrote in all sorts of genres.

And at first, I used to think that maybe I could divide the genres of his production, of his oeuvre, of his archive, of his corpus of writings, into the scholastic genres, which would be Quran exegesis, commentaries on hadith, the fatwa genre or the legal response literature that he authored, theological treatises on one side, and what I at that time called ordinary life genres, which stemmed out of the ritual practices of his Sufi lodge in North India.

And so the majalis, the council sessions would be the crucible for the malfuzat genre.

So the council literature, the moral councils, these were transcribed by disciples and they were edited before they were published and made available to a broader readership.

So maybe you could walk us through some of the genres of humor or prophetic humor, as you call it, that shows up.

And so can you talk a little bit about that?

Yes.

Well, that figure is Maulana Ashraf Ali Tanmi, who was a Sufi theologian and also a Quran scholar, an exegete of the Quran, a Muslim reformer, a jurist of the Hanafi law school who lived in colonial India from 1863 to 1943.

He wrote in many genres, and of course this is not unique to him, but one of the reasons I have spent the last 20 years studying him is is because he wrote in all sorts of genres.

And at first, I used to think that maybe I could divide the genres of his production, of his oeuvre, of his archive, of his corpus of writings, into the scholastic genres, which would be Quran exegesis, commentaries on hadith, the fatwa genre or the legal response literature that he authored, theological treatises on one side, and what I at that time called ordinary life genres, which stemmed out of the ritual practices of his Sufi lodge in North India.

And so the majalis, the council sessions would be the crucible for the malfuzat genre.

So the council literature, the moral councils, these were transcribed by disciples and they were edited before they were published and made available to a broader readership.

So maybe you could walk us through some of the genres of humor or prophetic humor, as you call it, that shows up.

And so can you talk a little bit about that?

Yes, well that figure is Maulana Ashraf Ali Tanmi who was a Sufi theologian and also a Quran scholar, an exegete of the Quran, a Muslim reformer, a jurist of the Hanafi law school who lived in colonial India from 1863 to 1943.

He wrote in many genres, and of course this is not unique to him, but one of the reasons I have spent the last 20 years studying him is is because he wrote in all sorts of genres.

And at first, I used to think that maybe I could divide the genres of his production, of his oeuvre, of his archive, of his corpus of writings, into the scholastic genres, which would be Quran exegesis, commentaries on hadith, the fatwa genre or the legal response literature that he authored, theological treatises on one side, and what I at that time called ordinary life genres, which stemmed out of the ritual practices of his Sufi lodge in North India.

And so the majalis, the council sessions would be the crucible for the malfuzat genre.

So the council literature, the moral councils, these were transcribed by disciples and they were edited before they were published and made available to a broader readership.

Another genre that stems out of the practice of the Sufi tradition within the context of the Sufi lodge is the correspondence between disciples and masters, the maktubat genre.

But I would love to know more about this particular approach and also the story of love and falling in love that shows up in this chapter.