Adopting the standard format for the description of notable individuals,
Fursat reproduces a centuries-old model that structures the relationship
between knowledge and place as one of embodiment: the qualities of a
place are found in the people who represent it. Even though the individuals
mentioned partake of this configuration in different degrees, they
circumscribe a “society” of people eager to learn. This association gives
utter relevance to knowledge, one of the characteristics of Shirazis taken
as a whole.
Historians of Muslim scholarship often describe this embodiment as a
“person-oriented” and “traditional” configuration of knowledge juxtaposed
with a more abstract, “modern” one in which books and other technologies take precedence over people. However, the conceptualization
embedded in the term ahl-i ‘ilm – traditionally used to refer to people
interested in knowledge – emphasizes disposition over personhood. The
term ahl is the first element of many expressions that establish a relation
between a group and an object towards which the attention of this group
is oriented: a place, a trade, an interest or a moral quality or vice. Ahl does
not refer to an “identity” that is already formed and self-contained, a
subject or an individual that “possesses” knowledge. It indicates instead a
disposition towards something, an attraction or a cultivation that results in
an existential link.