Ginan Central: Ginan Studies

The current field of Ginan Studies came to be when W. Ivanow decided to gather various studies on Satpanth (Indian Ismailism) and ginans and edited them in a volume titled Collectanea in 1948. The volume was published for the Ismaili Society by E. J. Brill. This followed a wave of aspiring scholars who took up ginans as part of their graduate research. The purpose of this website is to encourage and facilitate continued scholarly attention and contributions to Ginan Studies as a relevant and significant field of study within Ismaili Studies. In addition to presenting a comprehensive bibliography of scholarly research and publications on ginans, this website also highlights select works of past and present scholars and their contributions to the field of Ginan Studies. This website is maintained by Karim Tharani, tenured librarian and faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. Visit Ginan Central for more resources on ginans. For more information or questions, please contact

From the scholarly point of view, the gināns are of special interest on several counts. They throw light on various aspects of the process of conversion to the Ismaili Islam. In particular, they illustrate the different ways in which the Ismaili movement adapted itself to the Indian literary and cultural milieu... Their scholarly importance, notwithstanding, the gināns have yet to be studied in a systematic fashion. Thus far, the studies on the genre, significant as they are, discuss it only from certain limited perspectives. Professor Ali Asani Harvard University Source: The Harvard Collection of Ismaili Literature in Indic Languages: A Descriptive Catalog and Finding Aid, 1992.