Yohanan Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi • TABLE OF CONTENTS Page FOREW"ORD •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • • • • • ii A NOTE ON TRANSLI'I'ER.iù'IGN.......................... v CHAP1'ER I- THE SOURCES............................ 1 CHAPTER II- THE CONCEPT OF TAJDID ••••••••••••••••• 17 CHAPTER III - THE SELF-IMAGE OF AHIIilAD SIRHINDI..... 29 • CHAPTER IV - PROPHECY AND SAIN'l'HOOD... • • • • • • • • • • • • • 41 CHA Yi' ER V - SIRHINDI 1 S VIEW OF l'BE ISLAIViiC TRADITION I•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 55 1. Sunna, Shari•a and Tariqa................... 55 2. The concepts of Islam and infide1ity 68 (~). 3. Shi'a .••••••••••.•••••••••••••.•••••.•••.••• 72 4. Falsafa. • . • . • . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . 76 5· Theo1ogy (kalam) •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 80 CHAPT ER VI - SIRHINDI' S VIEW OF 'l'HE ISLAMIC TRADI'I'ION II............................. 84 1. The early ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 84 ~üfis 2. Ibn .................•.•.....••.••• 90 al~'Arabr 3. The Naqshbandi order •••••••••••••••••••••••• 100 CHAPTER VII - THE INDIAN ENVIRONJYIENT. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 103 CHAPTER VIII - SIRHINDI AND 'l'HE I'lUGHUL COURT ••••••• 115 CHAP'l'ER IX - THE JUDGMENT OF POS'l'ERI'l'Y ••••••••••••• 130 1. •Abd a1-Haqq Muhaddith Dih1awi and •Abd - ..... a1-Ja1 ••••••••••••••••••.•••••• 131 ~1 ~idd~q~ 2. The hagiographie 1iterature ••••••••••••••••• 139 p • Page ). 'l'he controversy over Sirhindi during the reign of Awrangzëb •••••••••••••••••••••• 142 4· Sirhindi's image in the seventeenth century ......•.........................• 153 The eighteenth century ••••••••••••••••••••• 156 . 6. 'vvakil Ahmad Sikandarpüri ••••••••••••••••••• 160 7· The modern period •••••••••••••••••••.•••••• 162 CHAPl'ER X - CONCLUSION •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 173 AFFEtJDIX a" • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • . • . • • • • • . • • • •' • . • • • • • • • • 177 180 B • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • APPENDIX c ....................................... . 182 NOTES '1'0 CMPl'E.R. I .......•......•.........•...•.•• 184 Ci ·. .A P'l' .1!.:R II • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 193 CrutP'l'ER III •••••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 199 CI-ll\P'l'ER IV ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 203 C EH. V• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 206 I::L.~f'l' CHA P'l' ER VI • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 217 VII •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 221 CHAP'l'~R CR~PTER VIII ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 225 ChAPTErl IX ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 231 CHAPrER X•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 243 BIBLIOG&~PHY •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 244 SHAYKH AHMAD SIRHINDI • AN OUTLINE OF HIS THOUGHT AND A S'l'UDY OF HIS IMAGE IN 'rHE EYES OF POS'fERI'l'Y by YOID\NAN FRIEDV~NN A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, lvlontreal. June 1966. FOREWORD A student of the history of Islam in India is soon confronted with the name of Shaykh Sirhindi A~ad (1563/4-1624). He was a contemporary of the emperors Akbar and Jahangir, was given by his disciples the honorific title of the Renewer of the Second Millennium (mujaddid-i alf-i thani) and is the author of a celebrated collection of letters that came to be known as Imam-i Rabbani. It has been a near con ~~ktübat-i sensus of modern historians that Sirhindi brought about major changes in the development of Islam in India. He is said to have reversed the heretical trends of the period of Akbar, restored the pristine purity of Islam and inspired the orthodox reforma of Awrangzeb. 'rhe purpose of this thesis has been to re-examine the evidence for this assessment. During the process of research a considerable amount of hitherto unknown material bearing on the reception of Sirhindi's ideas by his contemporaries and by posterity has been uncovered. It has also become clear that Sirhindi's known works have been used in a tendentious manner in modern historical works. IVlodern historians have laid great emphasis on Sirhindi's demand for the strict implementation of the shari•a by the state iii and for the purification of Islam from late accretions, to the virtual exclusion of other subjects which are not less important in Sirhindi's thought and constitute the bulk of his writings. For Sirhindi was primarily a He was not a thinker concerned rnainly with the ~ufi. question of religion and state and was not regarded as such by his contemporaries. The present writer has tried to present a more balanced picture of Sirhindi's thought. An effort bas been made to concentrate upon those aspects that have hitherto been neglected. The work does not claim to be exhaustive and much more research will be necessary before a final assessment of Sirhindi's place in the history of can be made. The present writer is convinced ta~awwuf that further studies of Sirhindi will have to be made against the background of Ibn al-•Arabi and &Ala• al Dawla al-Simnani rather than that of Akbar and Jahangir. It is a pleasant duty to express my gratitude to those who assisted me in the preparation of this work. Professer c. J. Adams, Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University, bas read the whole thesis and offered valuable criticism and suggestions. Professer Adams was also of great help in arranging my trip to India in the fall of 1964. Many difficult aspects of Sirhindi's thought have been clarified in my iv discussions with Professer H. Landolt. Sincere gratitude is due to Professer Khaliq of A~nad Ni~ami Aligarh Ivluslim University, whose scholarship and hospitality I had the privilege to enjoy while visiting Aligarh in the academie year 1964-65. I am also grateful to my friend R. Nettler, but for whose help the English style of the thesis would have been worse than it is. ïv1y studies at l>lcGill University in the years 1962-63, 1963-64 and 1965-66, as well as my trip to India in 1964-65, would have been impossible without the generous financial help of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University in Montreal. I should like to s. offer thanks mainly to Dr. Cass, National Chairman, s. Academie Awards Committee, anà to I•;r. Risk, National Honorary Secretary, for their continued interest in my work. A NOTE ON 'l'RANSLI'l':C.:liA'l'IüN The following system of transliteration of Arabie eharaeters has been used: ,. • (exeept when initial) ...b z • t,• (....1 b c:,... t i gh (.."....; > th '-' f t j (J q / cJ t Q k j t., kh 1 ) d ( rn . . .:> dh u n r 0 h ,) s w, u-- ~ 0 .,... o- sh (s y trP s • , (JP d in Arabie; z in Persian and Urdü • j, t • 0 a· at (eonstruet state) ' _,, - a Long vowels: J / u l..s I , 1 , Short vowels: a u i , 1 Diphtongs: aw a y ... (.S" ... iyy (final form i) ""' uww (final Ir, ) form ü) vi Persian and Urdü additions to the .Arabie alphabet: ,_J_,. , (..J p ~ } " b c ) d j, " t z / ,) ,f g () n • Aàditional Urdü vowels: _, il 0- Urdü aspirated consonants have been marked by the addition of b. CHA.PTER I THE SOURCES The main source materials for the present study are the following: 1) Epistles and other works by Sirhindi. 2) Polemical works by Sirhindi's opponents and his supporters' replies. 3) Hagiographies. 4} Modern analyses and evaluations of Sirhindi's thought and s1. gn if.1 cance. 1 1) The most important work in the first group is Sirhindi's letters which came to be known as Maktübat-! Imam-i Rab bani. Though many manuscripts of this work are available in various libraries and the Maktübat have been 2 lithographed several times, as well as translated into Turkish,l Arabic4 and Urdü,5 we do not have the benefit of a scholarly edition of the text or a part it. o~ This is somewhat surprising and disappointing as these letters have been repeatedly hailed as a landmark in the development of Islam in India; one must not forget, how ever, that the preparation of a scholarly edition of this difficult work, comprising nearly 900 pages, would be a stupenduous task requiring a team of scholars working