Commerce and the Cult of Khizr: The Sacred Geography of Healing in the Indian Ocean World

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Lauren Minsky, New York University Abu Dhabi
 
The talk specifically focuses on the spaces of long-standing commercial production and trade in the wider Indian Ocean world to illuminate the presence of an expansive healing cult dedicated to Khizr, an enigmatic water saint and patron of the Sufis. The talk considers how Khizr’s cult suggests possible ways to rethink the global rise of scientific medicine by foregrounding a vast trans-regional network of institutions that promoted empirically-grounded knowledge about the body and the environment, and that aimed to set the ritual conditions necessary for ensuring the health of those engaged in commercial activities of production and exchange