Julian Millie, Postdoctoral Scholar

Julian Millie is a post-doctoral fellow at Monash University (Australia). His research focuses on observances performed by believers intent on seeking intercession through the agency of saints (wali). Religious practices in which the concept of saintliness is invoked constitute a rich field for the play of intertextualities, for they imbricate saintly biographies into situated practices; the biographical element locates the observance within traditions familiar to Muslims around the globe, while the ritual performance within which the biography is invoked occurs against the background of highly localized understanding of ritual efficacy. Millie carried out field research for one year in West Java, where he attended ritual readings of the manâqib (pious deeds) of one of Islam’s most popular intercessory figures, Abdul Qadir al-Jaelani.

"Manaqib texts and Conversational Narrating:The Intertextuality of Sanctity”