Īshān ( chg, ایشان; kk, ишан; ky, эшен; tg, эшон; tt-Cyrl, ишан; tk, işan; ug, ئىشان, label=
Uyghur; uz, eshon; ; russian: иша́н; all deriving from
Persian 'they') is an honorific title given to
Sufi leaders in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...
. Quoting Jianping Wang, "In the Sufi doctrine found in
E stTurkestan, the ''ishan'' has a divine nature, acting as an intermediary between
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abra ...
and
Allah
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", ...
. An ''ishan'' has absolute power in his group, and can nominate his khalifa and hafiz as well as initiating maulid and buwi into the suborder. Usually, an ''ishan'' will have inherited his position from within his family and pass it on to his descendants."
List of īshāns
*
Āfāq Khwāja
*
Dūkchī Īshān
See also
*
Shaykh
References
{{authority control
Persian words and phrases
Religious leadership roles
Sufism