In a study of the vitality of Islam in late nineteenth-century north India, Barbara Metcalf explains the response of Islamic religious scholars ( ulama) to the colonial dominance of the British and the collapse of Muslim political power. Focussing on Deoband, the most important Islamic seminary of the period, she discusses the ways in which the ulama enhanced a sense of cultural continuity in a period of alien rule. Deprived of a Muslim state, the leaders of Deoband sought to renew Islamic spiritual life by teaching early Islamic principles. To this end, they concerned themselves with popular behaviour and the education of both elite and non-elite Muslims through the spoken language, Urdu.

Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 (Oxford India Paperbacks)

History

Metcalf, Barbara Daly

Asia

Oxford University Press

In Islamic Revival in British India, Metcalf explains the response of ulama to the colonial dominance and the collapse of Muslim political power. The Bengal Muslims studies the creation of the Bengali Muslim identity through an examination of the religious literature known as puthis and raises doubts about the validity of any simple explanation. Legacy of a Divided Nation examines the origins of Muslim separatism under the British, the role of AMU and Jamia, and the state of Muslims in India after the Babri Masjid period   Taken together, these three volumes create a comprehensive picture of the evolution of identities of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. With these varied approaches to the subject brought together in the form of the Omnibus, the readers will benefit from the range of perspectives it offers.

India's Muslims: An Omnibus Comprising

Hasan, Mushirul

Ahmed, Rafiuddin

Challenging conventional notions about the place of women in Muslim societies, the Bihishti Zewar (Heavenly Ornaments) gives life to the themes of religious and social reform that have too often been treated in the abstract. This instructional guidebook, used by the world's largest population of Muslims, is a vital source for those interested in modern Indian social and intellectual history, in Islamic reform, and in conceptions of gender and women's roles. The Bihishti Zewar was written in northern India in the early 1900s by a revered Muslim scholar and spiritual guide, Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi (1864-1943), to instruct Muslim girls and women in religious teachings, proper behavior, and prudent conduct of their everyday lives. In so doing, it sets out the core of a reformist version of Islam that has become increasingly prominent across Muslim societies during the past hundred years. Throughout the work, nothing is more striking than the extent to which the book takes women and men as essentially the same, in contrast to European works directed toward women at this time. Its rich descriptions of the everyday life of the relatively privileged classes in turn-of-the-century north India provide information on issues of personality formation as well as on family life, social relations, household management, and encounters with new institutions and inventions. Barbara Metcalf has carefully selected those sections of the Bihishti Zewar that best illustrate the themes of reformist thought about God, the person, society, and gender. She provides a substantial introduction to the text and to each section, as well as detailed annotations.

Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi's Bihishti Zewar

Americas

University of California Press

Focusing on the private and public use of space, this volume explores the religious life of the new Muslim communities in North America and Europe. Unlike most studies of immigrant groups, these essays concentrate on cultural practices and expressions of everyday life rather than on the political issues that dominate today's headlines. The authors emphasize the cultural strength and creativity of communities that draw upon Islamic symbols and practices to define "Muslim space" against the background of a non-Muslim environment. The range of perspectives is broad, encompassing middle-class professionals, mosque congregations, factory workers in France and the north of England, itinerant African traders, and prison inmates in New York. The truism that "Islam is a religion of the word" takes on concrete meaning as these disparate communities find ways to elaborate word-centered ritual and to have the visual and aural presence of sacred words in the spaces they inhabit. The volume includes 46 black-and-white photographs that illustrate Muslim populations in Edmonton, Philadelphia, the Green Haven Correction Facility, Manhattan, Marseilles, Berlin, and London, among other places. The focus on space directs attention to the new kinds of boundaries and consciousness that exist not only for these Muslim populations, but for people from all backgrounds in today's ever more integrated world.

Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe (Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies) (Volume 22)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Metcalf, Barbara Daly. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Metcalf, Barbara Daly

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Metcalf, Barbara Daly. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 (Oxford India Paperbacks)

India's Muslims: An Omnibus Comprising

Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi's Bihishti Zewar

Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe (Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies) (Volume 22)