Intellectual Relations and the Renewal of Religious Thought in Iran and Muslim India During the Modern Period

Abstracts in alphabetical order by surname of speaker

Revivification of Chishti Tariqa in the Eighteenth-Century-Punjab: The Convergence of Paths and Meeting of Two Sufi Masters - Khwaja Fakhr ud-Din Aurangabadi and Nur Muhammad Maharavi: Some Reflections

Sajida S. Alvi (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada)

Nur Muhammad Maharavi (1730-1790) is regarded a major Sufi master and the initiator of the intellectual and spiritual ascendancy of Chishtiyya tariqa in rural Punjab - 500 years after Baba Farid ad-Din Ganj-i Shakar (d. 1265). I am currently engaged in a major research project covering three generations of Maharavi's successors from 1745 to1860. This presentation is, however, limited to Maharavi and his spiritual guide (pir, murshid), Fakhr ad-Din Awrangabadi Dehlavi (d. 1785). While Maharavi was son of a herder, coming from a relatively lower Jat ethnic group, and grew up in rural Punjab, his master, Khwaja Fakhr ad-Din was a scion of nobility, a man of pen and sword, learned scholar immersed in spirituality, and successor to his father, Nizam ad-Din Aurangabadi (d. 1730), a major Sufi master in Deccan. Both Nur Muhammad and Fakhr ad-Din arrived in Delhi around 1751 - Fakhr ad-Din, a prominent Chishti Sufi spiritual murshid and Nur Muhammad, a penniless student, in quest of knowledge. He ended up in the Madrasa Ghazi ad-Din Khan Firoz Jang in close proximity to where Khwaja Fakhr ad-Din had settled down and started teaching. An enduring student-teacher and master-disciple (pir-murid) relationship developed between them.

Based on an in-depth textual analysis of discourses (malfuzat), correspondence (maktubat), biographies and historical sources, this microscopic study focuses on Maharavi's life, his intellectual and spiritual accomplishments, and interaction with his pir and fellow disciples (murid-bha'i) against the backdrop of a rich and vibrant intellectual, literary and spiritual milieu of Delhi. This presentation will explore (i) socio-political and religious milieu of Punjab contributing to making Maharavi a major figure of his time (ii) his personality, message and khanqah (Sufi lodge), likely reasons of his popularity that resulted in his large following; (iii) his four learned and accomplished successors (khalifas), sustaining his legacy through memory and remembrance; (iv) and the shift of axis from Delhi to a new centre in Southern Punjab?

The mathematical sciences in Safavid Iran: Questions and perspectives

Sonja Brentjes (Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, London, UK)

Safavid mathematical sciences have found little attention until recently when George Saliba and David King pointed to some important texts written at the beginning of the Safavid period and some remarkable instruments produced at its end. The perspectives both scholars offered for situating these products are part of a larger issue that configures our views of Safavid science - the evaluation of scientific activities and their results in early modern Islamic societies on the basis of those undertaken under their historical predecessors several centuries earlier. As a result, the focus is on a vertical, not a horizontal historical investigation. It is content and technique that matter, not the context. In my paper I will try to demonstrate what kind of insights might be gained when supplementing the vertical approach with a diachronic study. I will talk about dedicated manuscripts and their contexts.

A Persian commentary to the Upanishads: Dara Shikoh's Sirr-i akbar

Svevo D'Onofrio (University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy)

The classicist approach to Persian translations from Sanskrit texts - which considered them faulty and biased, an obstacle to the true understanding of Hindu religious and philosophical thought - might be proven partly wrong in the case of one of the most celebrated cultural endeavours of the Mughal Era: Prince Dara Shikoh's translation of fifty Upanishads under the name of Sirr-i akbar.

A reconstruction of the context in which the work was produced, together with a comparative analysis of its contents (in the Sanskrit original and in translation), reveals it to be more than just "A mixture of gloss and text with a flimsy paraphrase of both", as Sir William Jones once said on the Persian translations from Sanskrit in general.

Instead, as a stratigraphic analysis of some specimen texts seems to indicate, the Sirr-i akbar might be profitably thought of as a consistent Advaita bhashya (commentary) on a collection of Upanishads, glossed in turn by a sporadic tika (sub-commentary) of Sufic tendencies - in accordance with the Indian traditional commentary genre.

Two Persian-language travelogues of Mughal India

Richard C. Foltz (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada)

Two fascinating travelogues of India written by visitors from eastern Iran in the 1620's have survived in rare Persian manuscripts. The first is an account by a seventy-year-old musician from Samarqand, 'Motrebi', who travels to Lahore and gains a series of audiences with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. The second, by a young man named Mahmud b. Amr Vali from Balkh, describes his adventure-filled six years of travels around the Indian subcontinent.

The two accounts differ dramatically in that the first focuses entirely on life at the royal court, whereas the second provides detailed accounts of Indian life outside the palace walls. The former focuses on the elite Perso-Islamic culture of India familiar to the Samarqandi visitor, while the latter account emphasizes the exotic aspects of India such as its women, its nature, and local religious traditions.

Influence of Rowzeh-Khwani on the development of Nahwa

Andreas D'Souza (Henry Martin Institute, Hyderabad)

The centuries old exchange between Iran and the Deccan has given rise to a rich intellectual, cultural and religious heritage, which is evident in various aspects of life in Hyderabad, once the capital city of the Qutub Shahis. One example is the development of a genre of elegy known as nawha. During the annual Muharram mourning period Hyderabadi Shiah poets compose and recite this genre of poetry at the end of a majlis when mourners perform matam. The rowzat al-shuhada (the garden of the martyrs) narrating the horrible massacre of the Prophet's family became a standard source for mourning rituals in Iran during the Safavid dynasty. When Qutub Shahis made Shiite Islam a state religion first in Golkonda and then in Hyderabad rowzat al-shuhada played a crucial role in providing inspiration for the development of majlis. The excerpts from it used during the majlis were called rowze khwani and the reciter was known as rowze khwan. In this paper I will show nawha as a derivation of rowzeh-khwani that was particularly adapted to the Deccan during the Qutb Shahi dynasty. I will look at a couple of contemporary Hyderabadi poets who are writing nawhas in Persian and demonstrate how these mournful poems while remaining true to the present context of the Shiahs have close ties with its Iranian source, the rowzat al-shuhada.

The juristic thought of Mirza Muhammad al-Akhbari

Robert Gleave (University of Exeter, Exeter, UK)

Mirza Muhammad al-Akhbari (d. 1233/1818) was a prolific author. Over 50 titles are attributed to him, though none (to my knowledge) have yet been edited and published. Most of these works are connected with fiqh and usul al-fiqh, though there are also tabaqat works and some indication of an interest in kalam and falsafa. His Indian origins are signalled by his 'Akbarabadi' nisba - though he is also known as al-Naysaburi/Nishapuri, indicating his family's original Khorasani origins. Though most of his scholarly career was spent in Iraq and Iran, his disciples (including some of his own sons) scattered across the Shiite world - including India - spreading his particular interpretation of Akhbarism.

This paper begins with an introduction to Mirza Muhammad's life and subsequent influence, including his relationship with Fath Ali Shah (d. 1250/1834). There is some debate about what, exactly, his involvement in the Tsistianov affair might have been. Then I turn to his juristic thought - as found in some manuscript sources - including his criticism of Usulism and his views on the legitimacy of government during the ghayba of the Imam. His thought offers an interesting mix of strict Akhbarism, and various other influences (philosophy, Sufism and even elements of Shaykhism). Given the voluminous nature of his output, any conclusions are bound to be provisional, but this paper hopes to indicate where future research into this colourful character might lead.

The consequences of European pressure on Shiite thought in the Qajar period: The anti-occidental aspects of Muhammad Karim Khan's work

Denis Hermann (IFRI, Tehran, Iran)

The political, military and cultural pressure of the West in the Qajar Period gave rise to fear in the population and particularly in the ulama group. It was always the ulama who felt the threat against the Islamic Iranian identity and surfaced as its most devoted protector. The military capture of Bandar Bushehr in December 1856 by the British naval forces stationed in the Indian subcontinent in order to compel the sovereign Naser al-Din Shah (d. 1314/1896) to renounce his pretensions to Herat provoked a reaction of Muhammad Karim Khan (d. 1314/1896), the third master of the Shaykhi Kermani school. The aim of this article is to analyze this reaction and in this sense to see the evolution of Shiite theology under the influence of this antagonistic relation between Europe and Iran. In his Resaleh-ye naseriyeh dar jihad, Muhammad Karim Khan calls on Iranians to unite against the British and outlines the characteristics that are intrinsic to the West.

Jahangir and his 'brother' Shah 'Abbas: Political competition and circulation between Mughal India and Safavid Iran

Corinne Lefèvre-Agrati (CNRS, Paris, France)

Since the time of Babur, the Safavids - rather than the Ottomans or the Uzbeks - were the dynasty with which the Mughals were the most closely connected. This intimate relationship also entailed a strong territorial and ideological rivalry. Competition with the Mughals played an important role in the new ideological formulas elaborated during the reign of Shah 'Abbas (1587-1629). Whatever the intensity of this rivalry, it never acted as an impediment to the circulation of goods, people, or ideas between the two poles. As a matter of fact, the migration of Iranian elites into Mughal India crucially informed the shaping of Mughal culture and state. This was especially the case under Jahangir (1605-1627) whose reign is generally associated with Iranian administrative hegemony. While the iranophily of the 'world conqueror' has often been deemed a sign of political weakness, it is here thoroughly re-examined.

Jamali Dihlawi's Masnavi on Sufi terminology

Nasrollah Pourjavady (University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran)

Jamal al-Din Kanboh 'Jamali' (d. 1536) of Delhi, one of the great Persian poets in India, was also the author of Mirat al-maani, an esoteric dictionary of the mystical symbolism used in Persian Sufi poetry. Though in some ways Jamali's definitions are more exact and useful than similar Persian works written in prose or verse, including the Gulshan-i raz of Shaykh Mahmud Shabistari, it has not been given the scholarly attention it is due. In my paper, I intend to outline the main characteristics of how Jamali tries to explain Sufi symbolism and poetic metaphors.

Karbala in the Indo-Persian Imaginaire: The Marriage of Qasem and Fatimah Kubra in Mir Alam's Dah Majlis

Karen G. Ruffle (University of Miami)

This paper examines the development of Shiite literature commemorating the battle of Karbala in the Deccan of South India. Just as texts and performances commemorating the battle of Karbala were translated into a Iranian idiom by sixteenth-century Persian writers, notably Mulla Husain Va?ez Kashefi (Rowzat al-Shohada) and Mohtasham Kashani (Karbala-name), so, too, were these texts brought to the Deccan where they acquired distinctive South Indian cultural, ecological and linguistic forms. Close diplomatic and religious ties between the Shiite Safavid dynasty in Iran and the Qutb Shahi dynasty in India, fostered a flowering of the literature and forms of ritual performance commemorating the battle of Karbala. Kashefi's Rowzat al-Shohada and Mohtasham's Karbala-name achieved nearly instantaneous popularity in the Deccan. The popularity of these texts endured as their Persian-Iranian worldview and idiom was translated into a more immediately understandable and relevant Urdu-Deccani form. Taking the account of the battlefield wedding of Qasem, the thirteen year-old son of Imam Hasan to Fatimah Kubra, the daughter of Imam Husain written by Mir Alam, the Diwan of the Nizam Sikandar Jah in 1781, as an example, this paper shall explore the enduring influence of the Persian literary tradition, while highlighting the significant ways in which this Deccani-Urdu account of Karbala reflects an Indic worldview.

The Persian Versions of Indian Sources on Natural and Life Sciences in Muslim India

Fabrizio Speziale (IFRI, Tehran)

During the Mughal's Age, Persian compendiums on Indian medicine were dedicated even to Awrangzeb, and while several Arabic 'classic' works were never the object of important Persian translations or commentaries in India, the Salihotrasamhita was rendered several times into Persian. This paper examines the roles and features of the process of translating Indian sources on natural sciences in Muslim India during the Moghul's Age, which lasted until the Colonial Period. The paper discusses the main grounds and themes that marked this process as well as the intellectual milieus that backed it, and assesses the disciplines and texts that were the major objects of interest.

Hinduism and the Indian commentaries of Suhrawardi's illuminationist philosophy

Muhammad Karimi Zanjani Asl (Independent Scholar, Tehran, Iran)

The work of Shihab al-din Yahya Suhrawardi (d. 587/1191) contains several resemblances with the Buddhism such as it is presented in the Jataka. Suhrawardi assumes an Indian origin that he presents as one of his four main sources of inspiration. The work of Suhrawardi begins to be known in India from the eight/fifteenth century through several channels, in particular by the commentaries of Mir Damad (d. 1041/1631) and Mulla Sadra Shirazi (d. 1050/1640). Many Indian intellectuals had shown interest in these texts. The first Indian commentator of the Hikmat al-Ishraq was Muhammad Sharif Ahmad Harawi. In 1008/1599, he compared for the first time the work of Suhrawardi with Indian philosophy, in particular the Advaita doctrine. The approach of Ahmad Harawi found a great echo in the subcontinent and the Hindu doctrines were compared with Suhrawardi's theosophy, up to recent times. To show this process, we will describe the important treatise of Nihayat al-Zuhur written in 1945 by Qasim Ali Akhgar Haydarabadi.