Illustrations: 2 colour and 1 B/w illustration, 2 Maps Description: This work seeks to study Sufism as a psycho-historical phenomenon. The author finds it efficacious to combat social and political upheavals which are brought about by prolonged political revolutions, associated with autocratic oppression and economic deprivation. It is divided into two volumes. The present volume outlines the history of Sufism before it was firmly established in India and then goes on to discuss the principal trends in sufi developments therefrom the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. Chronologically it is concerned with sufi history from the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate to the beginning of the Mughal Empire. Naturally it lays great emphasis on the Chishtiyya, Suhrawardiyya, Firdausiyya and Kubrawiyya orders, but the contributions made by qalandars and legendary and semi-legendary saints have also not been neglected. A detailed discussion of the interaction of medieval Hindu mystic traditions and Sufism shows a unique polarity between the intolerant rigidity of the orthodox and the flexibility of the Sufis in India. The present volume starts with a brief discussion of the mystical philosophy of Ibn 'Arabi, which played a pivotal role in the development of sufic thought and practices in India, as it did in other Islamic countries. The work then deals with the Qadiriyya, Shattariyya, Naqshbandiyya and the Chishtiyya orders. It also analyses the role of Indian Sufis in the wider Islamic world, as well as sufi perception of politics and Hinduism.

With more than 3,000 entries and cross-references on the history, main figures, institutions, theory, and literary works associated with Islam's mystical tradition, Sufism, this dictionary brings together in one volume, extensive historical information that helps put contemporary events into a historical context. Additional features include: · chronology of all major figures and events · introductory essay · glossary of 400 Arabic, Berber, Chinese, Persian, and Turkish terms · comprehensive bibliography Ideal for libraries, as well as students and scholars of religion.

With more than 3,000 entries and cross-references on the history, main figures, institutions, theory, and literary works associated with Islam's mystical tradition, Sufism, this dictionary brings together in one volume extensive historical information that helps put contemporary events into a historical context.

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.

Despite late reconsideration, a dominant paradigm rooted in Orientalist essentialisations of Islam as statically legalistic and Muslims as uniformly transgressive when local customs are engaged, continues to distort perspectives of South Asia's past and present. This has led to misrepresentations of pre-colonial Muslim norms and undue emphasis on colonial reforms alone when charting the course to post-coloniality. This book presents and challenges staple perspectives with a comprehensive reinterpretation of doctrinal sources, literary expressions and colonial records spanning the period from the reign of the 'Great Mughals' to end of the 'British Raj' (1526-1947). The result is an alternative vision of this transformative period in South Asian history, and an original paradigm of Islamic doctrine and Muslim practice applicable more broadly.