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.

The Sufis were heirs to a tradition of Islamic mysticism, and they have generally been viewed as standing more or less apart from the social order. Professor Eaton contends to the contrary that the Sufis were an integral part of their society, and that an understanding of their interaction with it is essential to an understanding of the Sufis themselves. In investigating the Sufis of Bijapur in South India, (he author identifies three fundamental questions. What was the relationship, he asks, between the Sufis and Bijapur's 'ulama, the upholders of Islamic orthodoxy? Second, how did the Sufis relate to the Bijapur court? Finally, how did they interact with the non-Muslim population surrounding them, and how did they translate highly developed mystical traditions into terms meaningful to that population? In answering these questions, the author advances our knowledge of an important but little-studied city-state in medieval India. Originally published in 1978. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A modern translation of verses by Bullhe Shah, the iconic eighteenth-century Sufi poet, treasured by readers worldwide to this day. Bullhe Shah’s work is among the glories of Panjabi literature, and the iconic eighteenth-century poet is widely regarded as a master of mystical Sufi poetry. His verses, famous for their vivid style and outspoken denunciation of artificial religious divisions, have long been beloved and continue to win audiences around the world. This striking new translation is the most authoritative and engaging introduction to an enduring South Asian classic.

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.

Nile Green reveals the politics and poetry of Indian Sufism through the study of Islamic sainthood in the midst of a cosmopolitan Indian society comprising migrants, soldiers, litterateurs and princes.

The editor's introduction weaves together the varied strands of the debates on this subject and provides a framework for understanding the peculiarities of Sufism in India. --

Sufism is often regarded as standing mystically aloof from its wider cultural settings. By turning this perspective on its head, Indian Sufism since the Seventeenth Century reveals the politics and poetry of Indian Sufism through the study of Islamic sainthood in the midst of a cosmopolitan Indian society comprising migrants, soldiers, litterateurs and princes. Placing the mystical traditions of Indian Islam within their cultural contexts, this interesting study focuses on the shrines of four Sufi saints in the neglected Deccan region and their changing roles under the rule of the Mughals, the Nizams of Haydarabad and, after 1948, the Indian nation. In particular Green studies the city of Awrangabad, examining the vibrant intellectual and cultural history of this city as part of the independent state of Haydarabad. He employs a combination of historical texts and anthropological fieldwork, which provide a fresh perspective on developments of devotional Islam in South Asia over the past three centuries, giving a fuller understanding of Sufism and Muslim saints in South Asia.

Sufism in Ottoman Damascus analyzes thaumaturgical beliefs and practices prevalent among Muslims in eighteenth-century Ottoman Syria. The study focuses on historical beliefs in baraka, which religious authorities often interpreted as Allah's grace, and the alleged Sufi-ulamaic role in distributing it to Ottoman subjects. This book highlights considerable overlaps between Sufis and ʿulamāʾ with state appointments in early modern Province of Damascus, arguing for the possibility of sociologically defining a Muslim priestly sodality, a group of religious authorities and wonder-workers responsible for Sunni orthodoxy in the Ottoman Empire. The Sufi-ʿulamāʾ were integral to Ottoman networks of the holy, networks of grace that comprised of hallowed individuals, places, and natural objects. Sufism in Ottoman Damascus sheds new light on the appropriate scholarly approach to historical studies of Sufism in the Ottoman Empire, revising its position in official early modern versions of Ottoman Sunnism. This book further re-approaches early modern Sunni beliefs in wonders and wonder-working, as well as the relationship between religion, thaumaturgy, and magic in Ottoman Sunni Islam, historical themes comparable to other religions and other parts of the world.

This work examines the traditions, rituals, experiences, and legacy of the Sābri branch of the Chisht order. Challenging the notion of Sufism as an ossified relic of the past, it presents evidence of growing interaction, accommodation, and intermingling within Sufi orders. It also highlights the active involvement of the Chishti-Sābris in the much discussed reformist upsurge in north India and explains how they addressed questions posed by colonial rule while still adhering to their mystical heritage.

Presents a consolidated timeline of medieval India by taking into account the period that marked the end of ancient India, and focusing on the importance of the transitory centuries when Delhi had begun to surface as the new power center, triggering prominent trends in thought and institutions. This book analyzes the nature of social forces, complexity of causation and the interdependence of change and continuity in the light of the crucial transition from ancient to early medieval India, with the emergence of the Delhi Sultanate and the Vijayanagar-Bahmani kingdoms. Proceeding to detail the most effervescent period in Indian history - the era of the great Mughals - the text provides an insight into the ideological-philosophical basis of the times, focusing on the Sufi and Bhakti movements, and culminates with the rise of the Marathas, the advent of European companies, and the eventual establishment of the British in Bengal. keeping in mind that the history of medieval India has not moved in a linear fashion, and that much of the period saw phases of expansion and realignment of political attributes, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of the much misread period of Indian history with a view that takes into account the resultant interface between the political, social, economic, religious and cultural elements and devotes to this crucial period the attention it deserves.