An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Hamide Elif Üzümcü (IASH-Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellow, 2024-25)
Sufi Stories, Environmental Mysticisms: The Family Journey Through Narratives
Can the ancient stories offer new insights into how we understand and nurture our connection with the environment? This research investigates the moral dimensions of socio-ecological interactions within Sufi traditions, exploring the interplay of mystical Islamic storytelling and environmental ethics in family lives. The Sufi perspective views the environment as a sacred reflection of the Oneness of Being (tawhid), offering a holistic framework for understanding human-nature relationships.
Through narrative interviews with children and parents, the study documents and archives contemporary Islamic environmental anecdotes and sayings, from Hadith and Quranic parables to centuries-old Sufi literary heritage, exploring the contexts in which this oral culture is involved in everyday child-parent relationships in Sufi families. At its core, the project seeks to broaden sociological and relational frameworks by examining how cultural perspectives on the environment are deeply embedded in belief narratives. In this seminar, drawing on the preliminary findings of the ongoing study, I will discuss how children and parents in Sufi families creatively engage with these stories as storytellers, highlighting the holistic ways they understand, approach, and interact with the environment.
Please join in-person, or click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/83015772676
Passcode: b1QpaAD7