Friday Performance: The Covenant of Love

“Misaq-e-Ishq is an exploration through poetry and music of the dialogue between humanity and divinity.”- Ali Sethi
Dr. Ali S. Asani, Harvard professor, and Ali Sethi, writer and Coke Studio singer, with Noah Georgeson, Grammy-winning musician and producer, chart the evolution of the love metaphor in Indo-Muslim Sufi thought via the poetry of a range of languages, regions, and eras.
This captivating music and poetry event pays tribute to Sufi poets and visionaries including Amir Khusrow, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Shams Sabzwari, as well as to humanist and mystic Moinuddin Chishti, who preached devotion to humankind as a pathway to the divine.
With Asani reciting poetry, and award-winning musicians Sethi and Georgeson leading the accompanying soundtrack, a “galaxy of radical ideas come to light.”
Dr. Ali Asani is Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures at Harvard University. A specialist of Islam in South Asia, Asani’s research focuses on Shia and Sufi traditions in the region. His publications include The Bujh Niranjan: An Ismaili Mystical Poem; and Celebrating Muhammad: Images of the Prophet in Muslim Devotional Literatures. He is particularly interested in the interaction between religion, literature, and the arts in Muslim societies. Asani is engaged in various projects and initiatives to improve religious literacy through a better understanding of religion’s rich subtext and diverse influences, and is the recipient of the Harvard Foundation medal for his outstanding contributions to improving intercultural and race relations as well as the University’s Petra C. Shattuck Prize for Distinguished Teaching.
Ali Sethi is a Pakistani writer and musician. A graduate of Harvard, where he studied with Professor Ali Asani, he trained for more than a decade with the Pakistani classical vocalist Naseeruddin Saami and ghazal singer Farida Khanum. A regular performer on Pakistan’s Coke Studio program, he is known for fusing traditional genres with contemporary arrangements. He has written about Indo-Muslim culture for the New York Times, the New Yorker, and The Caravan, among others.
Noah Georgeson is a Grammy-winning producer, engineer and musician. Born in California, he obtained a Master of Fine Arts from Mills College in 2003. He has since worked with renowned indie acts including Devendra Banhart, The Strokes, Joanna Newsom, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Rodrigo Amarante, and produced the title track for the Netflix series, Narcos.
With support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
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