Description
Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking study, SherAli Tareen presents the most comprehensive and theoretically engaged work to date on what is arguably the most long-running, complex, and contentious dispute in modern Islam: the Barelv-Deoband polemic.
Trade Review"This book is beautifully written in a language accessible for students and colleagues who have not previously engaged with this topic. If you can only read three books on Islam in South Asia, Defending Muḥammad in Modernity needs to be one of them." —Margrit Pernau, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
"No book offers a richer, more illuminating guide to the origins and complex theological relationship of the Barelvi and the Deobandi orientations, which have dominated Sunni Islam in modern South Asia, than Defending Muḥammad in Modernity. SherAli Tareen’s deeply researched, theoretically informed, yet remarkably accessible study will help make Islam in modern South Asia part of wider and much needed conversations among scholars of religion." —Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Princeton University, author of Islam in Pakistan: A History
"Defending Muḥammad in Modernity offers a major contribution to the literature on the history of Muslims (and Islam) in South Asia. SherAli Tareen's detailed exploration of the form and logic of the polemical engagements that marked the development of competing Deobandi and Barelvi visions in the nineteenth century is exceptional and provides a critical backdrop for understanding the divisions that continue to shape the dynamics of South Asian Muslim thinking today. The book is also noteworthy for its deep engagement with Urdu, Persian, and Arabic sources." —David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University, author of Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan
“This book lands like an obelisk at the intersection of several fields. It joins the philological rigor of classical Islamic studies with the theoretical framing of religious studies and the contextual nous of South Asian studies. It will likely be a new point of departure for conversations around Islam in early modern and modern South Asia.” —Jonathan Brown, Georgetown University, author of Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy
“A masterful study of the polemics over Muḥammad’s status that have been occurring for more than a century in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh… it shows us that this polemical tradition is founded in a genuine argument, whose philosophical and juridical implications are meaningful even for those outside its purview.” —Faisal Devji, University of Oxford, author of Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea
“Defending Muhammad in Modernity is dense, meticulously researched, and elegantly written and will set the standard for the study of the two most influential Sunni Muslim movements in the region today.” —The Journal of Asian Studies
"The book is a tremendous contribution to the fields of South Asia and Islamic studies, while its theorizing on the twin forces of religion and secularism also adds greatly to conversations in the study of religion and politics." —New Books Network
"There is little denying the fact that through [Tareen's] account, one learns a huge amount, about theology, method, Islam, and much more. The thoroughness to detail and depth in his commentary and analysis and in the very wide reading that he has undertaken and conveyed to a reader is most welcome and useful and highly recommended. This is a superb book." —H-Asia, H-Net Reviews
"Tareen’s Defending Muhammad in Modernity is a thoroughly researched, well-written, monumental contribution to the scholarly literature on religious construction during colonialism in South Asia." —American Journal of Islam and Society
"Defending Muhammad in Modernity is a groundbreaking study of the conceptual problem space of 'the Deobandi-Barelvi polemic,' a defining intra-Muslim dispute in modern South Asian Islam. . . . [T]his book is indispensable for scholars who want to engage seriously with the intellectual foundations of Muslim sectarianism in South Asia." —Reading Religion
"SherAli Tareen questions the very validity of the transformation-versus-continuity issue altogether in his learned book on the debates between two prominent orientations within Islam: the Barelvī and Deobandī schools." —Journal of the American Academy of Religion
"SherAli Tareen’s Defending Muḥammad in Modernity presents a rich and textured analysis of the Barelvī-Deobandī polemical battle in colonial South Asia.... [T]his is an important book that provides an original engagement with key theological aspects of modern Islamic thought." —Journal of Urdu Studies
Providing rich sources and a strong conceptual base, Defending Muḥammad in Modernity is a must-read for researchers working on South Asian Islam, political theology and those interested in the Barelvi-Deobandi controversy. —Contemporary South Asia
"Tareen approaches his sources with rich theoretical tools, crafted by anthropologists, philosophers, and South Asianists, among others." —Bloomsbury Pakistan
"A must-read text for both scholars and students concerned with South Asian Islam and reformation around the imagination of the Prophet Muhammad in the modern era." —Religion
"A groundbreaking work that greatly contributes to the study of modern South Asian Sunni Islam and the competing orientations among ulama in their intellectual traditions. It is a must-read text for both scholars and students concerned with South Asian Islam and reformation around the imagination of the Prophet Muhammad in the modern era."—Reading Religion
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part 1. Competing Political Theologies
1.Thinking the Question of Sovereignty in Early Colonial India
2. The Perils and Promise of Moral Reform
3. Reenergizing Sovereignty
4.Salvational Politics
5. Intercessory Wars
Part 2. Competing Normativities
6. Reforming Religion in the Shadow of Colonial Power.
7. Law, Sovereignty, and the Boundaries of Normative Practice
8. Forbidding Piety to Restore Sovereignty: The Mawlid and its Discontents
9. Retaining Goodness: Reform as the Preservation of Original Forms
10. Knowing the Unknown: Contesting the Sovereign Gift of Knowledge
Part 3
11. Internal Disagreements
Epilogue
Postscript: Listening to the Internal ‘other’
