Narrative Pasts: The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400-1650 PDF
Preview Narrative Pasts: The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400-1650
Narrative Pasts Narrative Pasts The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400–1650 JYOTI GULATI BALACHANDRAN 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries. Published in India by Oxford University Press 22 Workspace, 2nd Floor, 1/22 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 110002, India © Oxford University Press 2020 The moral rights of the author have been asserted. First Edition published in 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. ISBN-13 (print edition): 978-0-19-012399-4 ISBN-10 (print edition): 0-19-012399-0 ISBN-13 (eBook): 978-0-19-099196-8 ISBN-10 (eBook): 0-19-099196-8 Typeset in ScalaPro 10/13 by The Graphics Solution, New Delhi 110 092 Printed in India by Rakmo Press, New Delhi 110 020 For Gopal ḥabībī wa ḥayātī Figures I.1 Gujarat and adjoining territories, c. 1500 xviii 1.1 Part of the Friday mosque complex in Khambayat 41 1.2 Marble cenotaph marking the mausoleum of al-Kāzarūnī 42 3.1 Pilgrimage route of Sultan Bahādur Shāh upon his accession in 1526 according to Ḥājjī al-Dabīr 100 3.2 Entrance to the Sarkhej complex 108 3.2a Shrine of Aḥmad Khattū at Sarkhej 110 3.2b Tombs of Gujarat Sultans within the Sarkhej complex 112 3.2c Palatial structures surrounding Ahmadsar lake 113 3.3 Tomb of Burhān al-Dīn ‘Abdullāh in Vatwa 118 3.3a Famous relic at Burhān al-Dīn ‘Abdullāh’s tomb-shrine in Vatwa 120 3.4 Tomb-shrine of Sirāj al-Dīn Muḥammad in Rasulabad 123 4.1 A small section of ‘Abd al-Malik’s lineage in Gujarat showing the movement of some of his forefathers 132 4.2 Lines of ‘Q ut̤bī ’ and ‘S hāhī ’ descent between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, serving as s ajjāda-nashīn at Vatwa and Rasulabad respectively 139 4.3 Sayyid Burhān al-Dīn ‘Abdullāh and the first generation of Bu kh ārī male descendants in Gujarat 145 Acknowledgements The foundations of this book were laid at the University of California, Los Angeles, where Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Nile Green guided the research and writing of my Ph.D. dissertation. Several years later, the project has evolved in several different ways, particularly in the broadening of its main arguments, and has incurred the debt of many individuals whose love, support, and intellectual engagement sustained the writing of several drafts before the book could take its present form. Sunil Kumar has been a phenomenal mentor and friend who has witnessed and guided the course the ideas in this book have taken as they stalled and developed over the last several years. He was crucial in shaping my historical thinking as a young scholar at the University of Delhi and trained me to read historical texts with rigor and imagi- nation. As I worked on this book, Sunil was extremely generous with his time—he read multiple drafts of my chapters, entertained my long calls to discuss big and small ideas, and often provided written feedback on my writing. I am grateful to Sunil for his questions and insights—this book would not be the same without them. Beyond the enriching intellectual company and Sunil’s unwavering faith in my scholarly capabilities, I am thankful to him for his continuing friend- ship, for always being there to support me in the highs and lows of my life. I’ve been very fortunate to be associated with two amazing history departments that have nurtured my professional and personal growth xii Acknowledgements over the last seven years. At Colgate University, Heather Roller and Andy Rotter helped me navigate the world of a junior scholar right out of graduate school through their remarkable mentorship and friend- ship. Several of my colleagues at Colgate offered advice on the pre- sentation of key ideas of the book in conversations and through their feedback on the book proposal/parts of the manuscript, and I would like to thank Dan Bouk, David Robinson, Heather Roller, and Andy Rotter in particular. I am also thankful to Padma Kaimal, Noor Khan, and Kira Stevens for their support, encouragement, and friendship. At Penn State University, David Atwill has been an extraordinary men- tor. I cannot thank him enough for his kindness, generosity, advice, and encouragement on all matters small and big, and for always tak- ing the time to engage with my writing enthusiastically and posing insightful questions. I have also benefitted from the guidance of Jacob Lee, Kathlene Baldanza, Michael Kulikowski, Kate Merkel-Hess, and Christina Snyder, especially with regard to treading the path to pub- lication with an academic press. Having writing sessions with Jacob kept my revisions on a steady pace and having weekly running ses- sions with Lori Ginzburg and Nina Safran was a great way to keep my head clear! I am thankful to all my other colleagues who have taken keen interest in my progress and made my transition to a research university truly exciting. Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Nile Green have continued to offer prompt advice and guidance whenever I felt stuck. This book has benefitted immensely by the comments of several individuals who read the manuscript or parts of it at various stages of its preparation over the last year. I am grateful to Manan Ahmed, David Atwill, Gopal Balachandran, John Hooker, Sunil Kumar, Pankaj Jha, Teren Sevea, Samira Sheikh, Uthara Suvrathan, and Chitralekha Zutshi for their careful reading, questions, and suggestions. Special thanks to Pankaj and Sunil for their perceptive comments on the final version despite significant time constraints. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their meticulous reading and timely reports. Their comments and critiques helped me sharpen my arguments and clarify several points in the book. Any shortcomings in this book are mine alone. The research for this monograph would have been impossible without the kindness and generosity of several people in Gujarat. Professor Bombaywala at the Pir Mohammad Shah Dargah Library, Acknowledgements xiii Ahmedabad, was always eager to listen and help me locate books and manuscripts relevant for my research. Bhavna Ramrakhiani guided me during my trips to Ahmedabad, accompanied me to Sarkhej on more than one occasion, and introduced me to several people who enthusiastically shared their knowledge of Gujarat’s past and present with me. Bhavna welcomed me into her home and shared her pas- sion for involving local communities in the preservation of historical sites in and around Ahmedabad; her active participation in the recent transformation of the Sarkhej complex gave me important perspec- tives on the evolving significance of the fifteenth-century site for this book. Shahid Kalimi’s enthusiastic conversations on Gujarat’s history at his home and bookstore often led me to old and new publications in Urdu, Persian, Gujarati, and English, many of which are other- wise not easily accessible in libraries or out of print. Shahid’s active involvement in the local publishing business further exposed me to the nature of textual production around Sufis in modern-day Gujarat. I am extremely grateful to Sayyid Muhammad Zakir for opening his personal library to me and for entertaining my very young fam- ily at his home in Mangrol in 2012. Muhammad Zakir went out of his way by not only making a well-bound copy of a manuscript from his personal collection but also driving all the way from Mangrol to Junagarh to personally hand it to me. His relatives in Ahmedabad were equally hospitable and accompanied me to their ancestors’ tombs in and around Vatwa. Many of the ideas in this book were presented in different pro- fessional settings, including the AIIS (American Institute of Indian Studies) dissertation-to-book workshop in Madison, Colgate University Social Sciences Luncheon, Delhi University History Department Seminar Series, Near Eastern Studies Colloquium Series at Cornell University, and the annual meetings of the American Historical Association and South Asian Conference, Madison-Wisconsin. I am grateful to the audiences at these professional platforms and fellow panelists for their questions and comments that helped develop the main threads of several of the chapters. I would like to especially thank Susan Wadley for organizing the dissertation-to-book work- shop and Geraldine Forbes for her encouragement and advice on how to approach the publication process. Geraldine also offered feedback on the early drafts of my book proposal. xiv Acknowledgements Several institutions supported the travel and research for this book. Colgate University and the Penn State College of Liberal Arts provided generous financial support for multiple research trips to India. The staff at the Pir Mohammad Shah Dargah Library and B.J. Institute of Learning and Research in Ahmedabad, the Sarkhej Roza Library in Sarkhej, and the National Archives and Iran Culture House in Delhi were helpful in granting me access to several manuscripts. Mr Iqbal and Mr Pathan Khan of the Sarkhej Roza Committee arranged for access to a manuscript housed in the Roza Library on very short notice. The team at Oxford University Press, India, ensured the timely production of this book, and I am grateful to the team for its prompt- ness in responding to my queries and in keeping the project moving forward. Thanks to Bill Nelson for making the maps in this book. A big gamut of family and friends have cheered me on as I have worked towards finishing this book. The list is too long for me to acknowledge everyone individually here, but I want to specifically thank some of them. My parents Janak Raj and Vijay Gulati have always given me their unconditional love and support. While not sure of how (or why) I do what I do, my parents have found unique ways of expressing interest in my work over the years. They joyfully accom- panied me to Gujarat a couple of times, drove together all the way to the coast of Khambayat overlooking the Arabian Sea, and soaked in several of the sites that I write about in the book. Most importantly, I would not have survived the challenges of publishing a book and raising a young family at the same time without the support of my parents. I am grateful to my brother Deepak who has come to my rescue in the cyber world several times when technology failed me. Deepak and Mansi have always made the effort to visit me no matter what far-flung corner of the USA I was in and I cannot thank them enough for their loving support all these years. My family-in-law has been an incredible source of love and emotional strength, particu- larly my parents-in-law, V.J. and Uma Balachandran, who have always expressed a great sense of pride in what I do. My uncle Vijay Batra and aunt Sudarshan Batra have nourished me countless times with their intellectual curiosity and delicious meals, and I am grateful to them for their generosity. Thanks also to Aneil, Anjana, Liz, Padma, Sivaram, and Subramanian for their kindness and encouragement.
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