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III. Competition and Co-existence: Indo-Islamic Interaction in Medieval North India*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Muzaffar Alam
Muzaffar Alam
Affiliation:
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
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Extract

The study of Islam and Muslims in relation to local non-Muslim population and their religious beliefs and social practices in medieval India has often tended to be conducted eventually along two lines, seemingly opposed to each other. On the one hand, there are communal historians who have reduced the history of medieval India into the conflict between Hindus and Muslims, which they have projected as having resulted from their divergent religious outlooks. The period was Islamic in their view, and the state a conversion machinery and an organ to bring Hindus under the hegemony of Islam. This was a mission in which the state could not succeed fully, largely because of ‘Hindu’ resistance. On the other hand, there are a large number of ‘liberal’ historians to whom the hallmark of medieval Indian society has been an amity between the two communities, the various tensions and encounters over economic and political matters notwithstanding. The medieval period, in the opinion of such historians, saw the evolution and efflorescence of a composite culture to which medieval rulers, nobles, sufis and Persian and Urdu poets contributed significantly. The later animosity between Hindus and Muslims and clashes over religious matters, they argued, were the handiwork of the British.

Type
Article
Information
Itinerario , Volume 13 , Special Issue 1: India and Indonesia: General Perspectives , March 1989 , pp. 37 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1989

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References

Notes

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13 Ek Niranjan Alha mera, Hindu Turak duhu nahin nera, Kahai Kabir chetahu re bhaundu, Belan Hara Turakna Hindu.

14 For a different view cf. Aziz Ahmad, Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment (reprint; Karachi 1970) 144–145.

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17 While Shaikh Abd-ul-Wahhab and other ulama discouraged the teaching of the ‘heresy’ of Ibn-al-Arabi (d. 1248), the famous Hispanic propounder of the doctrine of wahdat-ul-wujud Shaikh Nizam-ud-Din of Amethi (d. 1517), a Chishti saint, snatched Ibn al-Arabi's well-known book on the theme, Eusus-ul-Hikam from the hand of the son of a sufi and gave him another book. The Shaikh wanted his disciples to limit their readings only to the orthodox sufic treatises, compare Mujeeb, , Indian Muslims, 274–275 and 306–307Google Scholar.

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20 Khwurd, , Siyar-ul-Auliya, 45–47Google Scholar.

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24 Magray, Saiyid Ali, Tarikh-i Kashmir (Research and Publication Department, Srinagar, ACC,Google Scholar No. 739). For this reference and for the one to Nur Nama I am indebted to Mr. A. Hamid Rather of Kashmir University.

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32 Maqamat-i Mazhari, 23–24.

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34 Kashkul-i Kalimi (Delhi 1308/1890–1891) 10.Google Scholar In his letters to his disciples, Shah Kalim Allah and following him, his khalifas, Shaikh Nizam-ud-Din and Shaikh Fakhru-ud-Din laid special emphasis on the lives of the Prophet and his companions as models for Muslims and on spreading, preaching and glorifying the ‘word of Allah’. Cf. Nizami, K.A., Tarikh-i Mashaikh-iChist (Urdu) V (Delhi 1984) 105–106,Google Scholar 161–162, 215–216.

35 Maqamat-i Mazhari, 99–101; Anjum, Khaliq, Mirza Mazbar fan-i Janan ke Khutut (Urdu translations of Mirza's letters) (Delhi 1962) 94Google Scholar.

36 Basharat-i Mazhariya (Aligarh MS). For this reference I am thankful to my friend Dr. Fozail Ahmad Qadri of Manipur University, Imphal.

37 Maqamat-i Mazhari, 99–100; Anjum, , Mirza Mazhar, 93Google Scholar.

38 MSS of these works are available in Salar Jan Museum, Hyderabad and Raza Library Rampur.

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47 Ibidem, 195–197.

48 Ibidem, 150.

49 Jamali, , Siyar-ul Afrin (Delhi 1311/1893–1894) 159–160Google Scholar.

50 Rihla. Urdu tr. by Jafari, R.A. (Karachi 1977) 68Google Scholar.

51 Akhbar-ul-Akhyar, 53–54.

52 Dadu 13/48; 16/53, 54and 55; 16/44 and 28; 14/32–34.

53 Akhbar-ul-Akhyar, 306. Kashmir, however, presents a different case. The Rishis there claimed the Shaivite poetess, Lai Ded, as ‘Rabia, the Second’, incorporating her message in their compositions in the local language. Compare Khan, M. Ishaq, Indian Economic and Social History Review 23, 2 (1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Dabislan-i Maiahib (Kanpur 1903) 179–180. The printed text, however, reads ‘wa rah-ijog ai Nabi…fara girazta’Google Scholar.

55 Compare Digby, Simon, ‘Abd-ul-Quddus Gangohi (1456–1537): The Personality and Attitudes of a Medieval Indian Sufi’, Medieval India: A Miscellany III (Bombay 1975) 28Google Scholar.

56 Ibidem, 30; Makhtubat-i Quddusiya, letter to Sikandar Lodi.

57 Ibidem, 33–34; Makhtubat-i Quddusiya, letter to Babur.

58 Allah, Shah Muhibb was, however, an exception. Compare Digby, ‘Abd-ul-Quddus Gangohi’, 12–14Google Scholar.

59 Makhtubat-i Imam Rabbani.

60 Ibidem.

61 Ibidem.

62 Alaud-Daula Simnani (1261–1336) was the first to challenge the concept of Wahdat-ul-wujud in Iran. Simnani had a large number of disciples, some of whom visited India and influenced Saiyd Muhammad Gesu Daraz (d. 1422).

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65 Zia-Ud-Din Barani, Sahifa-i Nat-i Muhammadi and Nizami, , Studies in Medieval Indian History and Culture, 23Google Scholar for Iltutmish, ; Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi, 289–292Google Scholar and Habib, Muhammad and Nizami, K.A. eds., A Comprehensive History of India V (Delhi 1970) 362–366Google Scholar for Ala-ud-Din's conversation with Qazi Mughis.

66 Barani, , Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi, 216Google Scholar.

67 Hasan, Agha Mahdi, Tughlaq Dynasty (reprint; Delhi 1976)Google Scholar and Nigam, S.B.P., Nobility under the Sultans of Delhi (Delhi 1968) 74–92Google Scholar for Hindu officials under the Tughlaqs; Tarikh-i Farishta for Sikandar's introduction of Persian for Hindus.

68 Compare Political Theory of the Delhi Sultanate, an English translation of Barani's Fatawa-i Jahandari by Habib, Muhammad and Begam, Afsar Jahan. See also the text edited by Ms. Khan, A. Salim (Lahore 1972) 217–231Google Scholar.

69 Badaoni, , Munlakhab-ul-tawarikh II.Google Scholar English tr. by W.H. Low, 253.

70 Francois Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, 1656–1668. English tr. by A. Constable (reprint; New Delhi 1972) 303.

71 Ibidem, 306.

72 Ibidem, 313–314.

73 Compare Baini Prasad, History of Jahangir (reprint; Allahabad 1962) 202–231Google Scholar.

74 Compare Sarkar, J.N., Fall of the Mughul Empire II (reprint; Delhi 1971) 395–396Google Scholar; Ibidem III (reprint; Delhi 1975) 20–22, 196–222.Wink, Andre, Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth-Century Svarajya (Cambridge 1986) 41Google Scholar.

75 Bernier, , Travels in the Mogul Empire, 336Google Scholar.

76 Ibidem, 334.

77 Ibidem, 321.

78 Even though Tahirid established the first Persian dynasty in Khorasan, the SafTarids (867–892), the Samanids (874–999) and the Buyids (934–1055) were the first consciously Persian principalities. The Samanids claimed to be the descendants of the pre-Islamic Sassanid nobleman, Saman, while the Buyids mentioned Yezdger, a Sassanid king, as their ancestor. Rudaki and Daqiqi, the first Persian poets were patronised by the Samanids. Later, the Turks, the Ghaznavidss, the Seljuqs and the Khwarizmshahis became enthusiastic patrons of Persian language and culture. Compare Brown, E.J., A Literary History of Persia II (Cambridge 1964)Google Scholar.

79 Compare Shahnama: The Epic of the Kings. English tr. by Levy, Reaben; rev. by Banani, Amin (London 1967)Google Scholar particularly the last sections. The poet's support to the Ajam is illustrated in the letter he mentions to have been written by Rustam to Sa'd bin Wiqas.

80 Compare Sircar, D.C., Selected Inscriptions II (Delhi 1983) 650–664;Google ScholarGupta, P.L., Coins (Delhi 1969) 204–205,Google Scholar Nos. 215–218. I owe to my colleague, B.D. Chattopadhyaya for these references.