Islam and Yoga: Sitting Together, or Worlds Apart?

For anyone entering a yoga studio today, the world of Islam might feel a million miles away. Yet for more than a thousand years, practitioners of Yoga have lived side by side with the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. The history of Islam and Yoga, of Muslims and Hindus, is more than a tale of simple coexistence, though. It’s also a story of close interactions and careful comparisons, of Persian translations of Sanskrit texts, and Arabic investigations of Yogi doctrines, along with a shared concern with the spiritual value of breath-control. In this episode of Akbar’s Chamber, we’ll be looking at some of the most influential Muslim authors on such topics, including al-Biruni (d.1048) and Muhammad Ghaws (d.1562). But far from burying our heads in recondite manuscripts, we’ll be placing these figures in their living environments, where Sufis regularly encountered ‘Jogis,’ and wondered what they had in common. We’ll also be asking how these medieval encounters can inform our understanding of religious pluralism in Asia today. Nile Green talks to Carl W. Ernst, the author of Refractions of Islam in India: Situating Sufism and Yoga (Sage, 2016).