Ihsan Ul-Ihthisam Chappangan

Ihsan
Cohort Year: 2021
Research Interests: Indian Ocean History, History of Sound, Sufism in South Asia, Arabi-Malayāḷam and Arabu-Tamil Literary History, Early Modern Malabar and Ma’bar.
Education: MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2020. BA, Jamia Millia Islamia, 2018.

Biography: 

I am interested in the early modern history of South Asia and Southeast Asia in the Indian Ocean World (IOW). My project aims to undertake a historical and anthropological study of the circulation of Sufi texts and sounds, and its reception across the IOW. I would read texts in Arabic, Persian, Malayalam, Arabi-Malayalam, Tamil, and Arabu-Tamil as primary sources for my research. I am also interested in the historical, political, and sociological aspects of various performance traditions among the Māppiḷa Muslims of Malabar.

Research Interests: 

 Indian Ocean Sufism, Arabic in South Asia, Persianate South India, Arabi-Malayalam and Arabu-Tamil Literary History, Early Modern South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Education:

MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2020.

BA, Jamia Millia Islamia, 2018.

Publications:

1. “Paṭappāṭṭus in the Indian Ocean: Connected Literary Sensibilities and the Circulation of Texts and Sounds across Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit Cosmopolises.” In Cosmopolitan Cultures and Oceanic Thought, by Dilip M. Menon and Nishat Zaidi, 115–34, 1st ed. London: Routledge India, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003300939-10.

2. With Rohini Menon, “Is There Singing in the Time of Crisis? Sounding Flood Songs of Coastal and Riverine Malabar in the Indian Ocean.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 45, no. 6 (2022): 1037–1053. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2022.2119026.

3. “Bolly-wooded devotion.” In Seminar, Vol.741, (2021), pp.77-82, https://www.india-seminar.com/2021/741/741_ihsan_ul_ihthisam.htm