Yohanan Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi

259 Pages·2013·10.01 MB·English

Yohanan Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi
•
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
FOREW"ORD •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • • • • • ii
A NOTE ON TRANSLI'I'ER.iù'IGN.......................... v
CHAP1'ER I- THE SOURCES............................ 1
CHAPTER II- THE CONCEPT OF TAJDID ••••••••••••••••• 17
CHAPTER III - THE SELF-IMAGE OF AHIIilAD SIRHINDI..... 29
•
CHAPTER IV - PROPHECY AND SAIN'l'HOOD... • • • • • • • • • • • • • 41
CHA Yi' ER V - SIRHINDI 1 S VIEW OF l'BE ISLAIViiC
TRADITION I•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 55
1. Sunna, Shari•a and Tariqa................... 55
2. The concepts of Islam and infide1ity 68
(~).
3. Shi'a .••••••••••.•••••••••••••.•••••.•••.••• 72
4. Falsafa. • . • . • . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . 76
5· Theo1ogy (kalam) •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 80
CHAPT ER VI - SIRHINDI' S VIEW OF 'l'HE ISLAMIC
TRADI'I'ION II............................. 84
1. The early ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 84
~üfis
2. Ibn .................•.•.....••.••• 90
al~'Arabr
3. The Naqshbandi order •••••••••••••••••••••••• 100
CHAPTER VII - THE INDIAN ENVIRONJYIENT. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 103
CHAPTER VIII - SIRHINDI AND 'l'HE I'lUGHUL COURT ••••••• 115
CHAP'l'ER IX - THE JUDGMENT OF POS'l'ERI'l'Y ••••••••••••• 130
1. •Abd a1-Haqq Muhaddith Dih1awi and •Abd
- .....
a1-Ja1 ••••••••••••••••••.•••••• 131
~1 ~idd~q~
2. The hagiographie 1iterature ••••••••••••••••• 139
p
•
Page
). 'l'he controversy over Sirhindi during the
reign of Awrangzëb •••••••••••••••••••••• 142
4· Sirhindi's image in the seventeenth
century ......•.........................• 153
The eighteenth century ••••••••••••••••••••• 156
.
6. 'vvakil Ahmad Sikandarpüri ••••••••••••••••••• 160
7· The modern period •••••••••••••••••••.•••••• 162
CHAPl'ER X - CONCLUSION •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 173
AFFEtJDIX a" • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • . • . • • • • • . • • • •' • . • • • • • • • • 177
180
B • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
APPENDIX c ....................................... . 182
NOTES '1'0 CMPl'E.R. I .......•......•.........•...•.•• 184
Ci ·. .A P'l' .1!.:R II • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 193
CrutP'l'ER III •••••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 199
CI-ll\P'l'ER IV ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 203
C EH. V• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 206
I::L.~f'l'
CHA P'l' ER VI • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 217
VII •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 221
CHAP'l'~R
CR~PTER VIII ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 225
ChAPTErl IX ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 231
CHAPrER X•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 243
BIBLIOG&~PHY •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 244
SHAYKH AHMAD SIRHINDI
•
AN OUTLINE OF HIS THOUGHT AND A S'l'UDY OF HIS IMAGE
IN 'rHE EYES OF POS'fERI'l'Y
by
YOID\NAN FRIEDV~NN
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies
and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Institute of Islamic Studies,
McGill University,
lvlontreal. June 1966.
FOREWORD
A student of the history of Islam in India is
soon confronted with the name of Shaykh Sirhindi
A~ad
(1563/4-1624). He was a contemporary of the emperors
Akbar and Jahangir, was given by his disciples the
honorific title of the Renewer of the Second Millennium
(mujaddid-i alf-i thani) and is the author of a
celebrated collection of letters that came to be known
as Imam-i Rabbani. It has been a near con
~~ktübat-i
sensus of modern historians that Sirhindi brought about
major changes in the development of Islam in India. He
is said to have reversed the heretical trends of the
period of Akbar, restored the pristine purity of Islam
and inspired the orthodox reforma of Awrangzeb. 'rhe
purpose of this thesis has been to re-examine the evidence
for this assessment. During the process of research a
considerable amount of hitherto unknown material bearing
on the reception of Sirhindi's ideas by his contemporaries
and by posterity has been uncovered. It has also become
clear that Sirhindi's known works have been used in a
tendentious manner in modern historical works. IVlodern
historians have laid great emphasis on Sirhindi's demand
for the strict implementation of the shari•a by the state
iii
and for the purification of Islam from late accretions,
to the virtual exclusion of other subjects which are
not less important in Sirhindi's thought and constitute
the bulk of his writings. For Sirhindi was primarily a
He was not a thinker concerned rnainly with the
~ufi.
question of religion and state and was not regarded as
such by his contemporaries.
The present writer has tried to present a more
balanced picture of Sirhindi's thought. An effort bas
been made to concentrate upon those aspects that have
hitherto been neglected. The work does not claim to be
exhaustive and much more research will be necessary before
a final assessment of Sirhindi's place in the history of
can be made. The present writer is convinced
ta~awwuf
that further studies of Sirhindi will have to be made
against the background of Ibn al-•Arabi and &Ala• al
Dawla al-Simnani rather than that of Akbar and Jahangir.
It is a pleasant duty to express my gratitude
to those who assisted me in the preparation of this work.
Professer c. J. Adams, Director of the Institute of
Islamic Studies at McGill University, bas read the whole
thesis and offered valuable criticism and suggestions.
Professer Adams was also of great help in arranging my
trip to India in the fall of 1964. Many difficult
aspects of Sirhindi's thought have been clarified in my
iv
discussions with Professer H. Landolt. Sincere
gratitude is due to Professer Khaliq of
A~nad Ni~ami
Aligarh Ivluslim University, whose scholarship and
hospitality I had the privilege to enjoy while visiting
Aligarh in the academie year 1964-65. I am also grateful
to my friend R. Nettler, but for whose help the English
style of the thesis would have been worse than it is.
ïv1y studies at l>lcGill University in the years
1962-63, 1963-64 and 1965-66, as well as my trip to
India in 1964-65, would have been impossible without
the generous financial help of the Canadian Friends of
the Hebrew University in Montreal. I should like to
s.
offer thanks mainly to Dr. Cass, National Chairman,
s.
Academie Awards Committee, anà to I•;r. Risk, National
Honorary Secretary, for their continued interest in my
work.
A NOTE ON 'l'RANSLI'l':C.:liA'l'IüN
The following system of transliteration of
Arabie eharaeters has been used:
,.
• (exeept when initial) ...b z
•
t,•
(....1 b
c:,... t i gh
(.."....; > th '-' f
t
j (J q
/
cJ
t Q k
j
t., kh 1
) d ( rn
.
.
.:> dh u n
r 0 h
,)
s w,
u-- ~ 0
.,...
o- sh (s y
trP s
•
,
(JP d in Arabie; z in Persian and Urdü
•
j, t
•
0 a· at (eonstruet state)
'
_,,
-
a
Long vowels: J / u l..s I
, 1
,
Short vowels: a u i
,
1
Diphtongs: aw a y
... (.S"
...
iyy (final form i) ""' uww (final
Ir,
)
form ü)
vi
Persian and Urdü additions to the .Arabie alphabet:
,_J_,. ,
(..J p ~
}
"
b c ) d
j,
" t
z /
,)
,f
g () n
•
Aàditional Urdü vowels:
_, il 0-
Urdü aspirated consonants have been marked by the
addition of b.
CHA.PTER I
THE SOURCES
The main source materials for the present
study are the following:
1) Epistles and other works by Sirhindi.
2) Polemical works by Sirhindi's opponents and his
supporters' replies.
3) Hagiographies.
4} Modern analyses and evaluations of Sirhindi's thought
and s1. gn if.1 cance. 1
1) The most important work in the first group
is Sirhindi's letters which came to be known as Maktübat-!
Imam-i Rab bani. Though many manuscripts of this work are
available in various libraries and the Maktübat have been
2
lithographed several times, as well as translated into
Turkish,l Arabic4 and Urdü,5 we do not have the benefit
of a scholarly edition of the text or a part it.
o~
This is somewhat surprising and disappointing as these
letters have been repeatedly hailed as a landmark in the
development of Islam in India; one must not forget, how
ever, that the preparation of a scholarly edition of this
difficult work, comprising nearly 900 pages, would be a
stupenduous task requiring a team of scholars working