The Current of Knowledge

Learning by Contact

RUSTAM KHAN-URFF

THE BEKTASHI OF ALBANIA, as well as the Mahaguru of

Ladakh, preserve a belief in learning by contact. This is based

upon the theory that a 'current' of knowledge must run through

all parts of an organisation set up by a teacher or holy man. He

starts with the immediate circle of disciples, each of whom will

become to a greater or lesser degree imbued with his sanctity.

They, in turn, will communicate it to their trainees or to the

people with whom they come into contact. There could be an

argument for claiming that this knowledge behaves like such a

force as electricity, even if only because it is enunciated that, for

optimum transmission effectiveness of the knowledge, it has to

be exerted upon carefully chosen people, and the people themselves

must be collected around a certain 'Point of concentration'—

a place, a series of prayers, etc. In this sense the teacher

and the people whom he has influenced may be likened to an

organism which has come into being for a purpose, and which

derives its nourishment from a total action which radiates from

a centre and suffuses the whole. It may be this doctrine which

underlies the belief that the mere act of induction or initiation

conveys a power or capacity for development which can continue

in the person regardless of whether he is constantly carrying

out the rituals of the cult or not. There are distinct traces in the

above-mentioned and other cults of a belief in the presence of

a 'divine current' in men and women associated by means of

special routines. The terminology used, however, is not scientific

in our modern sense, and it is possible that this has obscured

the doctrine as far as we are concerned.

RUSTAM KHAN-URFF was born in Bokhara and

educated at Mire-Arab College, where he became

Custodian of Manuscripts, as well as being Turkic

expert of the Arg (Palace) Library. He settled in

Albania in 1936, having lived and studied in India,

Kashmir and Yemen. He has published one book in

English, The Diary of a Slave.