Description
Book SynopsisWaleed Ziad examines the development of Sufi-led Muslim revivalist networks. From the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi Sufis inspired reformist movements and articulated responses to the fracturing of Muslim political power. They fostered a “hidden caliphate” that sustained cohesion from Afghanistan to Siberia and China.
Trade ReviewBrilliant…An outstanding book, which makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Sufism, modern Islamic thought, and the social and political history of the Persianate world. -- Fitzroy Morrissey * Asian Affairs *
An important work…Ziad provides a riveting account of how history has buffeted the fortunes of the Mujadidi Sufis, from Punjab to the Peshawar valley, Kabul, Bukhara and Turkey. -- Farrukh Husain * Friday Times *
Hidden Caliphate announces the arrival of a major new scholar. By focusing on the more recent past of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Ziad recenters the study of the Sufi tradition, which all too often has been relegated to the realm of metaphysics and poetry. He brings a contested period to light with encyclopedic insight. I heartily recommend this book. -- Omid Safi, author of
The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam: Negotiating Ideology and Religious InquiryA major achievement. In this innovative, well-written book Ziad shows us a region knit together by the networks of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi Sufis. He is the first to set out their massive influence across Central Asia, Afghanistan, and northwest South Asia, and in the process reveals how limited was the understanding of the colonial powers in the Great Game. -- Francis Robinson, author of
The Mughal Emperors: And the Islamic Dynasties of India, Iran and Central Asia, 1206–1925Equipped with an impressive array of primary sources, Ziad skillfully dismantles restrictive notions of region and sovereignty and casts aside binaries such as that of Sufis and ulama. He then offers us a breathtaking view of a Persian cosmopolis held together by vibrant networks of Naqshbandi Sufis in the politically turbulent eighteenth century. This hugely important book should be read across a range of disciplines. -- Supriya Gandhi, author of
The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal IndiaA pioneering study of the Mujaddidi Sufi networks that spanned the eastern Islamic world, from Siberia to India, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Grounded in a prodigious range of sources,
Hidden Caliphate shows how the order’s doctrinal, ritual, and institutional dimensions offered intellectual and social cohesion for Muslims across this vast region before and after the advent of colonial domination. -- Devin DeWeese, author of
Studies on Sufism in Central AsiaRefreshingly original,
Hidden Caliphate shows how the Mujaddidi Sufis combined high textual tradition with ecstatic Sufism and local rituals and thus built a seminal authority to unite diverse communities across Central Asia, Afghanistan, and South Asia. Ziad brings a vital new perspective on a region long understood only through the narrow lens of European imperial histories. -- Muzaffar Alam, author of
The Mughals and the Sufis: Islam and Political Imagination in India, 1500–1750A brilliant transregional study of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi scholastic–religious networks (the
batini khilafat) in Khurasan, Hindustan, and Transoxiana that significantly advances the field of Persianate studies. Ziad traces sacred networks of cultural and economic exchange as well as the leadership structure that helped maintain a degree of stability during a time of political decentralization. A must-read for all interested in Sufism, the Persianate sphere in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the history of the Afghan empire. -- Jo-Ann Gross, Professor of History, Emeritus, The College of New Jersey
