Ginans

The Ginans are a vast corpus of devotional literature in the form of lyrics and hymns worshiping and praising God, and has been the living tradition of Nizari Ismailis particularly from the South Asia. The word is Hindustani, and derived from the Sanskrit word jñāna "knowledge, wisdom". See Works of Pir Sadardin

It was an oral rendition mostly by Pirs, first among whom to come to South Asia was Pir Satgur Nur in the 12th century. Ginans are composed in many languages of the South Asia, especially Gujarati, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and many more. Similar religious traditions exist in the form of qasīdas (قصيدة) amongst Nizaris of Arab, Persian and Central Asian origins authored by likes of early Muslim duˤāt such as Qadi Noman, Nasir Khusraw and others.

References

• Esmail, Aziz, A scent of sandalwood : Indo-Ismaili religious lyrics (Ginans), Richmond, Surrey UK: Curzon (published 2002), ISBN 0700717684 
• Asani, Ali Sultaan Ali, Ecstasy and enlightenment : the Ismaili devotional literature of South Asia, London: I B Tauris (published 2002), ISBN 1860648282 

This Islam-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.