"What I really appreciate about this monograph is the richness of the ethnography. . . . The intricate detailed accounts of the Twelver rituals, recitations, festivals, and media worlds are vivid and provide a welcome, lively look at this community and their religious orientations."Kim Shively, author of Islam in Modern Turkey
"Stefan Williamson Fa's important book explores one of the salient questions in the emerging field of sensory Islamic studies: what is the role of sound in shaping the devotional, relational, and affective worlds through which Shi'i life is lived? Grounded in a brilliant ethnographic analysis of sonic and listening practices in Eastern Anatolia, while also oriented toward translocal and transnational Shi'i worlds, Sonic Relations shows that sound functions as the affective medium through which devotional, communal, and transnational relations emerge. This is an indispensable work for anyone seeking to understand the sensory and relational dimensions of Shi'i devotional culture in everyday ritual life."Babak Rahimi, editor of Performing Iran: Culture, Performance, Theatre
"An insightful and original analysis of the sonic infrastructure of Shi'a life in northeastern Turkey. Drawing on a wonderfully rich ethnographic archive, Williamson Fa deftly explores the sensory world of Shi'a ritual, the sounds, images, tastes, and smells by which Shi'a Muslims weave together their own lives with both the Family of the Prophet and the family of the nation. His nuanced analysis of how the intersubjective potentialities of sound enable this minority religious group to navigate the tensions and fissures of their precarious position within the Turkish religious and national landscape is an immense contribution to scholarly discussions of contemporary Islam. A remarkable scholarly achievement!"Charles Hirschkind, author of The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics
"Williamson Fa's monograph provides a meticulous anthropological study of Turkey's Twelver Shiis. By foregrounding the role of sound in creating religious subjectivities and socialities, it equally makes a significant contribution to the Anthropology of Islam more widely."Oliver Scharbrodt, author of Muhammad 'Abduh: Modern Islam and the Culture of Ambiguity
