INTRODUCTION

This chapter explores the place that thought and discussion play in the living of a Muslim life in Rowshan. It seeks to refine anthropological analyses of the shape of intellectual activity and critical thought in the lives of village Muslims, and to examine what thought and the living of a ‘mindful’ (zahin) life entails for Rowshan people. ‘Village’ Muslims are often wrongly thought to be either unreflective, or to think solely in ‘religious’ terms. Rowshan people, on the contrary, value the intellect and the play of the mind, and base their claims and arguments on a strikingly wide range of different sources, both ‘secular’ and ‘religious’, and not just unthinking references to the Qurʾan or to addresses made by the village's religious authorities. Far from being confined to the discussion of Islamic doctrine and practice, the intellectual life of Rowshan's village Muslims broaches sensitive issues that are important in the present day, and Rowshan people see the village as both having and needing to sustain an intellectual life. Making contentious remarks, debating (bahus korik), and saying surprising things, are all ways in which Rowshan people enjoy the play of the mind and experience thought in their daily lives.