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Islam in India and Pakistan
 9004064796, 9789004064799

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ISLAM IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

INSTITUTE OF RELIGIOUS ICONOGRAPHY STATE UNIVERSITY GRONINGEN

ICONOGRAPHY OF RELIGIONS · EDITED BY

TH.

P.

VAN BAAREN,

L. P. VAN DEN BoSCH, L. LEERTOUWl!R, F. and H. BUNINC {Secrelary)

LEEMHUIS

SE CTION XXII: ISLAM FASCICLE NINE

LEIDEN

E.

J. BRILL 1982

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

ISLA M IN INDIA A ND PAKISTAN

~C H I MM E L

ANN EM ARIE

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··StheSufis who....,re instrumental in spreading- lslamk cultun: throui;h "Sind and Hind", and it wa• their ""ah or \nmbs around which faithful ~luslim< gatherrd to wonhip God , prai'" Iii< Prophet, a"d >Sk thesaint.!ivingordcad, forinto...,.,...ion on their behalf. R"l"""'n tativ..,.of the refonn movement s. many of them also Sufis, u'ua\ly condemned popular superstitions connected with saintS tombs. n.. eigbtct nth-cen t\lr}' rdormisMheologian Shih Wa!iul\ah of 0.hli compared ti...... who vi.;1 Ajmer or S!l!r ~fas 'iid' s .tu-inc in Uahraich in the hope of the

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INTRODUCTION

saint's help to the pagans who worshipped Lat and Manat in pre-Islamic Arabia.' However, saints' tombs and shrines (dargiih; kM.nqiih for the larger communal building) reflect very well the development of Muslim architecture in the Subcontinent besides allowing interesting insights into popular forms of religion. The other important external sign of Islam is, as all over the Islamic world, the mosque, which is found in every place where Muslims ever set foot. The mosques range from tiny enclosures, sometimes protected by a tree (fig. 2) in the wilderness of the hills to most elaborate and spacious congregational mosques erected by Muslim rulers all over the country; their architecture is often influenced, particularly in the border zones (Kashmir, Carnatic, etc.), by the building traditions of their Hindu neighbors or by local styles and the material available. Islam was brought first to the Subcontinent in 711, when the young Iraqi commander MuJ:tammad ibn al-Qasim conquered Sind, the lower Indus valley, up to Multan, seat of a famous sun temple, and incorporated it into the Arabic Empire. Although the exact site of Daibul, where the conquest began, has not yet been identified, a mosque in Bhambhore near Karachi can be regarded as the oldest relic of Islam on lndo-Pakistani soil; Fig. 2 its inscription in simple floriated Kufic style bears the date of 294h/906-07 (Pl. I a). Other inscriptions from Cutch, dated 554bJ1159 (Pl. I c) show the presence of Muslims farther south-east, for merchants bad travelled from Iraq and South Arabia along the western Indian coast and had reached South India even earlier than the Muslim conquerors had settled in the Northwest. These southern Muslims developed a culture of their own which was highly admired by the fourteenth-century Moroccan traveller lbn Battuta. who found flourishing seats of learning all along the coast down to Calicut.• The major Muslim conquest, however, began around the year 1000, when MalJmud of Gha211a, "Help of the Abbasid Caliph", entered the Subcontinent seventeen times from his residence in Ghazna, reaching as far as Somnath in Kathiawar, where he destroyed a famous Hindu temple. Al-Biriini, who accompanied him, studied the customs and teachings of the Hindus in an objective work which is still an important source for the historian of religion; but even he, for all his objectivity, could not overlook the basic differences between Hindus and Muslims so that some of his remarks were used, in our time, by the defenders of the Two-Nations theory, which clearly distinguishes Muslim and Hindu cultures. 1 The Muslims introduced special features into the daily life: they were, first of all, largely city dwellers, and their homes were constructed in such a way that the womenA. SCHIMMEL, "The Golden Chain of S incere l\luhanlmadans", in : Bruce ll. Lawrence (ed.). Tlte Rose ond Ille Rock, Duke University 1979, p. 114 . 1 The Reh/a of lbn B"ttula, /\fa/dive l slaxds and Ct)•lon. transl. into Englis h with conlruentary and introduction b)• Pifahdi Husain, 2nd. ed .. Baroda 1976; ~tohd . Yousuf Kokan, A,-tJbi, and Persian in Ca,-nalic 1710.1 96o, 1-fadras 1974. 3 AL·HIMONI, Kz'.t4b fi'l· Hind : Albt,uni's India, an (ICto unJ t>f the reli~io u, philosophy, likrah4re, cJi,onology, a.sl,-onon1.v, cusloms, laW$ and 4$1,.ology of India about 1030, ed. Ed. Sacbau, London 1887; Engl. transl. London 1888, 2nd . ed. 1910. 1

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folk occupied a special tract, not visible from the outside. and generally opening toward an inner courtyard. Their dresses were cut and stitched in a fashion to allow the movements of prayer during which the body should be decently covered, which would be impossible in the loosely draped garments in Indian style; women took usually to shaJ.u,iir qami~. baggy trousers and a wide shirt, along with a dupatta to cover the head, or to full skirts; the graceful Indian saree has often been objected by orthodox reformers as "un-Islamic". Islam in India has always had two faces, "orthodox" and "popular". The orthodox (Pl. II a -b) studied the sacred law and wrote commentaries and supercommentaries on the Koran, collected and sifted the Prophetic traditions, and produced an immense learned literature; in the course of time they, and especially the lower ran ks of mollas trained in the traditional madrasas, became quite immobile in their views; they were often in the forefront of those who tried to rid Indian Islam of the accretions that had contaminated it through the close contact with Hinduism. Particularly the ashriif, the descendants of non-indigenous high-ranking groups of lndo-Muslim society usually regarded themselves as protectors of pure Islam. The ashraf consist mainly of t he sayyids, Muhammad's descendants, who played an important religious and political role thanks to the particular sanctity of t heir family and whose women kept even stricter purdah than other noblewomen. There were also the Mirza, immigrants of Persian and Turkish stock who formed the majority of the military aristocracy. and the Pathans, members of Afghan clans who rather regularly descended into the Indian plains as conquerors and founded more than one dynasty. The loyalty of these groups was often more directed toward their Arabic and Middle-Eastern cultural heritage than to India where they had lived for generations. The common people, on the other hand, tended to a more mystical a nd sometimes superstitious religion which not rarely incorporated religious and social customs of their Hindu ancestors. Their faith in the saint or pir or sayyid sustained them in the hardships of life and at times Muslims and Hindus shared the veneration of the same spiritual guide. The regional languages were developed into literary idioms by mystical bards who translated the secrets of Divine love, longing, and t rust in the Prophet into the vocabulary of farmers, fisher-men and housewives, using largely an imagery parallel to that of bhakti mysticism. As sophisticated mystical and high-flown poetry was alive in every corner of the Subcontinent, it is this simple, "rustic" mystical piety which colors large areas of Indian Islam (Pl. III a-b) The first major Sufi to settle in the Subcontinent was Hujwiri (d. ca. 1071), called Data Ganj Bakhsh by his followers. Known to the historian as the author of the first major treatise on Sufism in Persian, the Kash/ al-ma~jub, be is venerated by the Panjabis in his beautiful tomb in Lahore.• According to one author, Iqbal conceived of the idea of a separate Muslim homeland while meditating at Data $iil)ib's shrine.• H ujwiri became the "gatekeeper" for all later Sufis who came to settle in the Subcontinent; before proceeding further they used to pay a vi.it to bis tomb (s. Pl. IV b). Among them was Mu'inuddin Chishti (d. 1236) whose tomb in Ajmer was and still is one of the most frequently visited places in India; it was particularly patronized by Akbar and his descendants (Pl. XX). Another member of the early Chishtiyya was Qu\buddin Bakhti1.icd.( Fig.3.)

ThcChishti ... intsli\•od in gttat simplicit y, aU di>eiplesd,.·cllinginoncroomin the under the supuvision of the m.a'ltcr (,llfr): they ......, alwa>'5 ..~Uing to "'1arc their

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cnlighi.nmcntfrornttu,maoter.Thesaintwhois mainlyrcsponsiblcforth•institutialtanonthcSutloj (P a ki.i_a n)isstill3nimportantccntcrofpilgrim~c (Pl . Vb). Pcoplcbelie,·tdthat thooe,.·howereablctosqu~uthom...h- .. throughthenarrowcntra~ofhistomb(hmbo of numerous scholars and Toya l persons, for to be buried cl°""' t a saint mate. maH "'1arc in his kl-a.la, hitnc J> pl. 22: Bussagli f:>J. 51) . Relthcgrnwinginflu""""olthe Naqsllbamli•. ThcMoghu!s did1>0\11'S!rictthcircultura!acti\•itiatuthdrca1ritalsAgra,Delhi,andL1.l>o":theyalso ""'=or:Uft\th1-hen: the pictor""J•te tile dewralion is unfortunately almost destro)~). anti thus herurn"" an ideal ~ymbol for thee],..., union of';" 11 'a.U.., religion andsutc,in ltthirtyy.,..,.,,ofhislilcintheDeccan tooonqtter!lijapurin 1686andGolcondao1>erearlakr;butthisconquest resultod in major problem• foc the lloghul •m1ri r~ which ..-... "" longer prote.:;tcd from the r;.jng ~1ar31ha lorcn bi• th""' two buffer '131cs. A number of late minfatuttS show Aurangub

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INTRODUCTION

close to his nineties with his rosary, counting the beads and probably recalling the almost lifty years of struggle in which he had striven to extend the empire as far as possible; however. this very over-extension became the cause for its immediate breakdown after the ruler's death in 1707 (Pl. XXVII a). The eighteenth century is a time during which India was afflicted by both internal feuds and external invaders. Delhi, still the capital of the constantly shrinking Moghul empire, was conquered and pillaged time and again not only by the rising non-Muslims but even more seriously by the Moghuls' co-religionists, above all Nadir Shah, who devastated it in 1739. The troops of his successor, AI:>mad Shah Durrani, who was called into the country by some Delhi noblemen and theologians, plundered the city more than once, and neither AI:>mad Shi!.h's nor the Moghul power was consolidated after he had gained a decisive victory over the Marathas in 1761. The British encroached upon India, beginning from Bengal, and the Sikhs occupied large parts of the Panjab and the Northwestern Frontier. However, in terms of religious movements and mysticism the eighteenth century can be regarded as India's most fertile period. \Vhile Mir Dard, a Naqshbandi mystic of Delhi (d. 1785), wrote the first mystical Urdu poetry during the years of Delhi's breakdown, Shah 'Abdul Latif in Sind and Bullbe Shah in the Panjab as well as RaI:>man Bllbii among the Pashto-speaking tribes composed their immortal poems in their respective languages. Shah 'Abdul La!if's beautiful tomb, with its blue and white flowerlike tiles, echoes his mystical songs which are known and loved by everyone in the Indus valley (Pl. XXVIll b). One of the themes which he took as the basis for a mystical interpretation was often illustrated in eighteenth-century Rajput painting: it is the story of Sohni who swims to her beloved every night and is finally drowned. Sohni and the other heroines of Sindhi and Panjabi folk tales become symbols of the soul who endures all kinds of afflictions on her way towards the Divine Beloved (Pl. XXIX b). One interesting feature of Sind are the tombstones which are attributed to Baloch tribesmen (fig. 13). the Chaukandi tombs; contrary to Islamic custom, they are sometimes decorated with figurative motifs, such as men with weapons, or, in the case of women, with nicely elaborated jewellery. Figurative painting is also found in some eighteenth-century tombs; here rural life and scenes from the epics are illustrated in a pleasant style (Pl. XXIX a). Lately even saints' tombs have been decorated with scenes from Islamic lore (thus 'Ali's white mule Duldul, or the Fig. 13 Ka 'ba in Mecca) or with imaginary Matterhoms and Dutch windmills. The whole countryside in Sind, and to some extent also in the Panjab, is dotted with small and large shrines of saints which are sometimes visited by Hindus and Muslims alike. Some of the shrines in Indo-Pakistan have sacred animals around them; we may mention here the crocodiles of Mangho Pir near Karachi (Pl. VI b); the whitish softshell turtles in the memorial of the ninth-century Persian saint Bayezid Bis\ami in Chittagong (Bangla Desh), the fish in the shrine of Shah jalal in Sylhet (Bangla Desh), and the peacocks around a small sanctuary dedicated to two grandsons of 'Abdul Qadir Gilani in Kallakahar (Salt Range, Pakistan). The various stages of life are celebrated in Muslim India similarly to the customs in other Muslim areas. Miniatures allow us a glance into the private life of the ruling classes where childbirth was c~lebrated with great rejoicing, while the astrologers were called

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INTRODUCTION

to cast the child's horoscope. After childbirth, the rite of chhati, the first bath on the sixth day, is observed, as is the 'aqiqa, the shaving of the baby's hair and almsgiving ; circumcision (at various ages) and the beginning of schooling, usually when the boy is four years, lour months and lour days old. Some miniatures reflect the tender relation of a teacher with his royal pupil. 11 Finally comes the wedding. Ideally, girls should be married immediately alter reaching puberty, and marriages are often arranged with cousins, otherwise preferably with a member of the same social group (a sayyid girl must marry a sayyid; a Kashmiri Panjabi will usually marry another Kashmiri, etc.) . The main part of the marriage arrangement is to fix the mahr, the price which the groom has to pay and which belongs to his wife; usually only a certain amount is given at once while the rest will be paid in case of divorce. One of the most important features of the wedding is the -hndi ceremony in which hands and feet are dyed with henna, further various "purification" rites for both sexes. The marriage contract is signed by the groom in the presence of witnesses and the representative of the bride in the presence of the qlQ.i (Pl. XXXV b); the newlywed couple is supposed to see each other first when the bridegroom looks in a mirror in which he sees bride reading the Koran. The young woman puts on a large nose-ring (Pl. XXXIV b); she is soon taken into the house of her in-laws which she, ideally, should leave again only on the bier. 11 This rule was strictly observed in higher and religious classes, while in the rural areas women do not observe strict purdah because they have to work in the fields. Miniatures show princes in their private-even most private!- moments with lovely women; 11 the representation of decent women is, however, restricted in Muslim painting, and only rarely are true portraits available (Pl. XXXIV a). 11 See for some very beautiful examples AMI pl. 17 and Welch, lnd1'.an Drawings a'ltd Painted Sktkhts N r , 20. 11 Cf. C. VREBDE,.DE Snu-Rs, Pa,.do-a sJudy of Muslim Women's Lift i,. NOf'tltu" India, Assen· New York 1968; Shayeste lkramullah, Ff'om Pardah to Parlr'amenl, London 1964. 11 A. L . DALLAPICCOLA, p,.incesses el cou-rli-s anes 4 lravers les miniatures indUnnes, Gal~rie {l.farO Panjab and Sind .wh.,.., ~l al;mlldofGh:una tn.dto cnish them; theyu·=often pr:r':•«utedand thechronicll."Snt infroquently speak of iW~il ...11\osr: ,.·ho commit incest", which ..,.,n,. 10 repeat the charges against the n rlier Cvmatbians. whow.,..,accuoed of immon.lit rbtecr,andare J~attS . Their maintenance ho'""C\'er becomt:5 more difficult ewn though thel>W/~/dep;ortmcnts ha,·cofliciall}" taken overrt:5ponsibility for them:butthefamili., ofthewjjill/0MifM"are s1iUlargelyTl"OfmMqUt5 in Paki•tan which. for the first time. no longer imitate traditional }foghul archit«:ture but remindthc o1"encerofTurkish 1nodels(PI. Xt.\'l ll a)

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INTRODUCTI ON

The problem of the Islamization of the Subcontinent has been succintly expressed by a Western-trained Indian Muslim, Imtiaz Ahmad, who states: Islan1ization Jlroduccatla, a long scarf that covers the head or is worn around the shoulders. Tailored clothing was introduced to India by the Muslims. - Photo Dr. Jan Marek, Prague. Plate Ilb: Theologian from Rawalpindi (Pakistan). -

Photo Dr. Jan Marek, Prague.

Plate Illa : Woman in ecstasy at a saint's tomb in Hyderabad (Sind.). Prague.

Photo Dr. Jan Marek,

Published in A. Schimmel, 1\1yslical Dime•siMt.s of Isl.am , Chapel Hill 1975, p. 151.

Plate IIIb: Sufi musician from Bulrri (Sind), singing a mystical folksong in the Sindhi language. Photo Dr. Jan Marek, Prague.

Plate IV-VI: Early Sufi Sanctuaries. Plate !Va: Dervish in the black garment of the maJangs at the shrine of L.U Shahblz Qalandar, Sehwan (Sind). The sanctuary of this Sufi saint of the thirteenth century is built on the site of an old Shiva temple on the Indus, and the river is said to be subject to the saint's command. - Photo Dr. Jan Marek, Prague. Literature : Richard Burton, SiM and tlte Races lhaJ inllabit tlu Valley of Ille lfldus, London 1851, repr. 1966; ibid., Sind revisited, Vol. 11, pp. 185. 193: Adrian Druartc, TM Begca,. Saini of S1llwan, and olhn skel,ltt.t of Sind, Karachi s.d. (ca. 1974); I•eter ~tayne, Saints of SiM, London 1956 (facetious but well observed}.

Plate !Vb: Visitors at the oldest shrine in the Subcontinent, Dl!.tl!. Ganj Bakhsh Hujwiri (d. ca. 1071) in Lahore. - Courtesy Ministry of Information, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad.

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CATALOGUE OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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Plate Va: Plan of the shrine of Qu\buddin Bakhtiar Kaki in Mehrauli, Delhi, one of the oldest saints of the Chishti order (d. 1235). Plate Vb: Recitation of the Koran in the shrine of Farid-uddin Ganj-i Shakar (d. 1265) in Pakpattan (Ajodhan) on the Sutlej. Fariduddin was the main organizer of the Chishti order and one of the most influential saints in the Punjab. - Photo Dr. Jan Marek, Prague. Llteraturc: K. A . Nizami, The Life and Times of ShaiAls Farid ud-Din Ganj- i Shakar, Aliga.rh 1955

Plate VIa: Tomb of Niiamuddin Auliya in Delhi. Niiamuddin was the most influential North Indian Chishti saint; he died in 1325, having outlived seven kings.-Drawing from Sangin Beg ibn 'Ali Akbar Beg, S ayr al-m.anazil, MS. Sprenger 234, fol. 98 b.- Courtesy Staatsbibliothek Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Berlin . Plate VIb: One of the numerous crocodiles in the tank of the sanctuary of Mangho Pir near Karachi, founded in the 13th century (a saint turned a llower into a crocdile l) and ever since revered. Plate VII Medieval Su/is in various guises and positins belong to the favorite topics of IndoMuslim artists.

Plate VIia: Dervish with a cat, marbleized paper, Deccan. late 17th century (H. ca 22 cm.). In many pictures a dervish is represented with animals, among which cats play a special role. Courtesy Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad/Deccan. For a related picture in the sa1ne technique see Ed. Binney. India n miniMtr, pl. 68 b.

Plate XV Kashmir came under Islamic rule soon after r320. Its Islamisation was largely due to Sufi missionaries, some of them belonging to the traditional orders, others forming a genuinely Kashmiri Rishi order. P late XVa: Pieces of cloth at the window of Baba Rishi, Gulmarg (ca. 2800 m. a bove sea-level). It is common to bind such pieces at doors, windows, or trees in sanctuaries to " remind" the saint of a vow one has made in the hope for his help. P late XVb: 'urs ("wedding", memorial day of the saint's death) at the shrine of Sayyid 'Ali Hamadhani (d. r385),Srinagar. (October 16, 1980). This Kubrawi saint, a prolific writer, reached Kashmir "with 700 sayyids" in l37I. See.

J. K.

Teufel, Eine Lehensbtsclirtibung dts Scllei.&hs < ,.u;i.of,.... Ju ..dl onk1.Gulbo'P

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