The Letters of Khwāja ʻUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and His Associates

The Letters of Khwāja ʻUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and His Associates
Author: ʻUbayd Allāh ibn Maḥmūd Aḥrār
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 572
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004126039

This English edition of the correspondence of Khw ja Ubayd All h Ah r r, the fifteenth-century Central Asian Naqshband Sufi shaykh, and his associates provides surprising new insights into the sociopolitical and economic history of premodern Central Asia and the influential roles of Sufi leaders of the time. It contains the extraordinary collection of autograph letters from the Majm a-yi mur sal t, a unique manuscript housed at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with petitions to the Timurid court at Herat. The letters cover such topics as internecine conflict, peacemaking, taxation, property and endowments, trade, migration, Islamic piety and law, material support of shaykhs and students, and relief from oppression. Three introductory chapters discuss the Central Asian Naqshband ya, Khw ja Ubayd All h Ah r r, the social, historical, economic and political significance of the letters, and the manuscript and its authors. With the Persian transcription and a complete facsimile of the manuscript letters reproduced at the end of the work.

The Letters of Khwāja ʾUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and his Associates

The Letters of Khwāja ʾUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and his Associates
Author: Jo-Ann Gross
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2021-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004492429

This English edition of the correspondence of Khwāja 'Ubayd Allāh Aḥrār, the fifteenth-century Central Asian Naqshbandī Sufi shaykh, and his associates provides surprising new insights into the sociopolitical and economic history of premodern Central Asia and the influential roles of Sufi leaders of the time. It contains the extraordinary collection of autograph letters from the Majmū'a-yi murāsalāt, a unique manuscript housed at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with petitions to the Timurid court at Herat. The letters cover such topics as internecine conflict, peacemaking, taxation, property and endowments, trade, migration, Islamic piety and law, material support of shaykhs and students, and relief from oppression. Three introductory chapters discuss the Central Asian Naqshbandīya, Khwāja 'Ubayd Allāh Aḥrār, the social, historical, economic and political significance of the letters, and the manuscript and its authors. With the Persian transcription and a complete facsimile of the manuscript letters reproduced at the end of the work.

Islam, Literature and Society in Mongol Anatolia

Islam, Literature and Society in Mongol Anatolia
Author: A. C. S. Peacock
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2019-10-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108499368

A new understanding of the transformation of Anatolia to a Muslim society in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries based on previously unpublished sources.

The Naqshbandiyya

The Naqshbandiyya
Author: Itzchak Weismann
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2007-06-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134353057

The Naqshbandiyya order has attracted increasing scholarly attention over the last two decades, yet so far there has been no attempt to present a comprehensive picture of the evolution of the rich organization and ideational Naqshbandiyyah tradition This book is therefore by now a highly desirable contribution that will fill this gap in the literature of this important Sufi order Spanning almost a millennium in time and most of the Muslim world in space, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the important Naqshbandiyyah Sufi order

Babur

Babur
Author: Aabhas Maldahiyar
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2024-02-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9357088776

Babur, the visionary founder of Timurid Empire in Hindustan, had a fair share of early struggle following his father’s tragic demise in AD 1494. Then on, Babur embarked on an unyielding pursuit of power amid treacherous political landscapes, the narrative unveils his moniker, ‘the chessboard king,’ portraying his adept navigation through political intricacies and adversities. From his ascent to rulership in Ferghana amidst familial threats to fleeting victories and losses in Samarkand, the book paints a poignant picture of Babur's journey. It portrays his retreat to tribal lands after relinquishing hopes of reclaiming Ferghana, eventually establishing a mountainous kingdom in Kabul, a pivotal milestone preceding his ambition to expand into Hindustan. Recounting his initial endeavour to penetrate Hindustan in AD 1505, his alliances, and subsequent setbacks after Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqarah's demise, leaving him as the sole Timurid prince in power, the book opens a window to Babur's failed second attempt to enter Hindustan, encapsulating the initial thirteen to fourteen tumultuous years of his reign, marked by exile, fleeting victories, and delicate alliances. Gripping, anecdotal and deeply researched Babur: The Chessboard King delves into Hindustan's economic landscape during Timurid rule and portrays Babur as a multifaceted ruler, challenging the typical depiction of an infallible conqueror and a good human being. Meticulously sourced from the Persian manuscript of the Baburnama and other primary sources, this book represents a milestone in Babur's biographical genre, essential for comprehending the ambitions of this enigmatic king.

The Mughals and the Sufis

The Mughals and the Sufis
Author: Muzaffar Alam
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2021-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438484909

Based on a critical study of a large number of contemporary Persian texts, court chronicles, epistolary collections, and biographies of sufi mystics, The Mughals and the Sufis examines the complexities in the relationship between Mughal political culture and the two dominant strains of Islam's Sufi traditions in South Asia: one centered around orthodoxy, the other focusing on a more accommodating and mystical spirituality. Muzaffar Alam analyses the interplay of these elements, their negotiation and struggle for resolution via conflict and coordination, and their longer-term outcomes as the empire followed its own political and cultural trajectory as it shifted from the more liberal outlook of Emperor Akbar "The Great" (r. 1556–1605) to the more rigid attitudes of his great-grandson, Aurangzeb 'Alamgir (r. 1658–1701). Alam brings to light many new and underutilized sources relevant to the religious and cultural history of the Mughals and reinterprets well-known sources from a new perspective to provide one of the most detailed and nuanced portraits of Indian Islam under the Mughal Empire available today.

The Courts of the Deccan Sultanates

The Courts of the Deccan Sultanates
Author: Emma J. Flatt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2019-07-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1108481930

Illuminates the centrality of courtliness in the political and cultural life of the Deccan in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Sufism in Eighteenth-Century India

Sufism in Eighteenth-Century India
Author: Neda Saghaee
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2022-11-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000771849

Sufism in Eighteenth-Century India focuses on one particular treasure from surviving Persian manuscripts in India, Nāla-yi ʿAndalīb, written by Muḥammad Nāṣir ʿAndalīb (d. 1759), a Naqshbandī Mujaddidī mystical thinker. It explores the convergence and interrelation of the text with its context to find how ʿAndalīb revisits the central role of the Prophet as the main protagonist in his allegorical love story with great attention to the circumstances of the Muslim community during the eighteenth century. The present volume elucidates ʿAndalīb’s Sufism calling for a return to the pristine form of Islam and the idealization of the first Muslim community. It considers his Ṭarīqa-yi Khāliṣ Muḥammadiyya as a derivation of the Ṭarīqa-yi Muḥammadiyya, which had an important role in promoting Islam. The book attempts to clarify and systematize all of the concepts which ʿAndalīb employs within the framework of the Khāliṣ Muḥammadiyya, such as the state of the nāṣir and the Khāliṣ Muḥammadī. It addresses controversial topics in religion, such as the struggles between Shiʿa and Sunni Muslims, and the controversies between Shuhūdīs and Wujūdīs. It illuminates two key personalities, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, and two types of relationships, the maʿiyya and ʿayniyya, with the spirituality of the Prophet. The book will be of interest to scholars and students interested in Islamic studies, Islamic mysticism, the intellectual history of Muslims in South Asia, the history of the Mughal Empire, Persian literature, studies of manuscripts, Islamic philosophy, comparative studies of religions, social studies, anthropology, and debates concerning the eighteenth century, such as the transition from pre-colonialism to colonialism and the origins of modernity in Islam.

From the Khan's Oven

From the Khan's Oven
Author: Eren Tasar
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2021-10-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004471170

Spanning the history of Islamic Central Asia from medieval to modern times, this volume features groundbreaking studies of the region’s religious life and culture by leading scholars in the field.

Sufi Bodies

Sufi Bodies
Author: Shahzad Bashir
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2011-08-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231517602

Between 1300 and 1500 C.E. a new form of Sufi Islam took hold among central Islamic peoples, joining individuals through widespread networks resembling today's prominent paths and orders. Understanding contemporary Sufism requires a sophisticated analysis of these formative years. Moving beyond a straight account of leaders and movements, Shahzad Bashir weaves a rich history around the depiction of bodily actions by Sufi masters and disciples, primarily in Sufi literature and Persian miniature paintings of the period. Focusing on the Persianate societies of Iran and Central Asia, Bashir explores medieval Sufis' conception of the human body as the primary shuttle between interior (batin) and exterior (zahir) realities. Drawing on literary, historical, and anthropological approaches to corporeality, he studies representations of Sufi bodies in three personal and communal arenas: religious activity in the form of ritual, asceticism, rules of etiquette, and a universal hierarchy of saints; the deep imprint of Persian poetic paradigms on the articulation of love, desire, and gender; and the reputation of Sufi masters for working miracles, which empowered them in all domains of social activity. Bashir's novel perspective illuminates complex relationships between body and soul, body and gender, body and society, and body and cosmos. It highlights love as an overarching, powerful emotion in the making of Sufi communities and situates the body as a critical concern in Sufi thought and practice. Bashir's work ultimately offers a new methodology for extracting historical information from religious narratives, especially those depicting extraordinary and miraculous events.