Download or read book The Muhammad Avat ara written by Ayesha A. Irani and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Muhammad Avatāra: Salvation History, Translation, and the Making of Bengali Islam reveals the powerful role of vernacular translation in the Islamization of Bengal.Its focus is on examines the magnificent seventeenth-century Nabīvaṃśa of SaiyadSultān, who lived in Arakanese-controlled Chittagong to affirm the power of vernacular translation in the Islamization of Bengal. Drawing upon the Arabo-Persian Tales of the Prophets genre, the Nabīvaṃśa ("The Lineage of the Prophet") retells the life of the Prophet Muhammad for the first time to Bengalis in their mother-tongue. Saiyad Sultān lived in Arakanese-controlled Chittagong,in a period when Gauṛiya Vaiṣṇava missionary activity was at its zenith. This book delineates the challenges faced by the author in articulating the pre-eminence of Islam and its Arabian prophet in a place land where multiple religious affiliations were common, and when GauṛīyaVaiṣṇava missionary activity was at its zenith. Sultān played a pioneering role in setting into motion various lexical, literary, performative, theological, and, ultimately, ideological processes that led to the establishment of a distinctively Bengali Islam in East Bengal, while yet shaping a distinctively Bengali Islam. At the heart of this transformation of a people and their culture lay the persuasiveness of translation to refresh salvation history for a people onoin a new Islamic frontier. The Nabīvaṃśa not only kindled a veritable translation movement of Arabo-Persian Islamic literature into Bangla, but established the grammar of creative translation that was to become canonical for this regional tradition. This text-critical study lays bare the sophisticated strategies of translation used by a prominent early modern Muslim Bengali intellectual to invite others to his faith"--

Download or read book The Muhammad Avat ra written by Ayesha A. Irani and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-18 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Muhammad Avatara, Ayesha Irani offers an examination of the Nabivamsa, the first epic work on the Prophet Muhammad written in Bangla. This little-studied seventeenth-century text, written by Saiyad Sultan, is a literary milestone in the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural history of Islam, and marks a significant contribution not only to Bangla's rich literary corpus, but also to our understanding of Islam's localization in Indic culture in the early modern period. That Sufis such as Saiyad Sultan played a central role in Islam's spread in Bengal has been demonstrated primarily through examination of medieval Persian literary, ethnographic, and historical sources, as well as colonial-era data. Islamic Bangla texts themselves, which emerged from the sixteenth century, remain scarcely studied outside the Bangladeshi academy, and almost entirely untranslated. Yet these premodern works, which articulate Islamic ideas in a regional language, represent a literary watershed and underscore the efforts of rebel writers across South Asia, many of whom were Sufis, to defy the linguistic cordon of the Muslim elite and the hegemony of Arabic and Persian as languages of Islamic discourse. Irani explores how an Arabian prophet and his religion came to inhabit the seventeenth-century Bengali landscape, and the role that pir-authors, such as Saiyad Sultan, played in the rooting of Islam in Bengal's easternmost regions. This text-critical study lays bare the sophisticated strategies of translation used by a prominent early modern Muslim Bengali intellectual to invite others to his faith.

Download or read book Who Is Muhammad written by Michael Muhammad Knight and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2023-10-25 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining insights from the best published historical and religious studies scholarship, original research, and rich first-person perspective, this highly readable book offers a comprehensive yet concise introduction to the founder and central figure of the Islamic tradition: the prophet Muhammad. Narrating Muhammad's life story, teachings, and daily practices, and assessing how his legacy is received, interpreted, and applied around the world, Michael Muhammad Knight reveals how the prophet has become simultaneously one of the most beloved historical figures in the world and also one of the most contested, challenged, and disparaged. Knight argues that there was never a singular Muslim vision of Muhammad but rather always multiple perspectives. While Muslims defend Muhammad's legacy against Islamophobic polemics, they also challenge each other regarding the proper authorities through which Muhammad's life and message become comprehensible and applicable in our world. Thinking across time and place, Knight argues that Muhammad is always contextual and contemporary.

Download or read book Reclaiming Karbala written by Epsita Halder and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-18 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analysing an extensive range of texts and publications across multiple genres, formats and literary lineages, Reclaiming Karbala studies the emergence and formation of a viable Muslim identity in Bengal over the late-19th century through the 1940s. Beginning with an explanation of the tenets of the battle of Karbala, this multi-layered study explores what it means to be Muslim, as well as the nuanced relationship between religion, linguistic identity and literary modernity that marks both Bengaliness and Muslimness in the region.This book is an intervention into the literature on regional Islam in Bengal, offering a complex perspective on the polemic on religion and language in the formation of a jatiya Bengali Muslim identity in a multilingual context. This book, by placing this polemic in the context of intra-Islamic reformist conflict, shows how all these rival reformist groups unanimously negated the Karbala-centric commemorative ritual of Muharram and Shī‘ī intercessory piety to secure a pro-Caliphate sensibility as the core value of the Bengali Muslim public sphere.

Download or read book Empires of the Indus The Story of a River written by Alice Albinia and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Alice Albinia is the most extraordinary traveler of her generation. . . . A journey of astonishing confidence and courage.”—Rory Stewart One of the largest rivers in the world, the Indus rises in the Tibetan mountains and flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. It has been worshipped as a god, used as a tool of imperial expansion, and today is the cement of Pakistan’s fractious union. Alice Albinia follows the river upstream, through two thousand miles of geography and back to a time five thousand years ago when a string of sophisticated cities grew on its banks. “This turbulent history, entwined with a superlative travel narrative” (The Guardian) leads us from the ruins of elaborate metropolises, to the bitter divisions of today. Like Rory Stewart’s The Places In Between, Empires of the Indus is an engrossing personal journey and a deeply moving portrait of a river and its people.

Download or read book The Muhammad Avat ara written by Ayesha A. Irani and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Muhammad Avatara, Ayesha Irani offers an examination of the Nabivamsa, the first epic work on the Prophet Muhammad written in Bangla. This little-studied seventeenth-century text, written by Saiyad Sultan, is a literary milestone in the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural history of Islam, and marks a significant contribution not only to Bangla's rich literary corpus, but also to our understanding of Islam's localization in Indic culture in the early modern period. That Sufis such as Saiyad Sultan played a central role in Islam's spread in Bengal has been demonstrated primarily through examination of medieval Persian literary, ethnographic, and historical sources, as well as colonial-era data. Islamic Bangla texts themselves, which emerged from the sixteenth century, remain scarcely studied outside the Bangladeshi academy, and almost entirely untranslated. Yet these premodern works, which articulate Islamic ideas in a regional language, represent a literary watershed and underscore the efforts of rebel writers across South Asia, many of whom were Sufis, to defy the linguistic cordon of the Muslim elite and the hegemony of Arabic and Persian as languages of Islamic discourse. Irani explores how an Arabian prophet and his religion came to inhabit the seventeenth-century Bengali landscape, and the role that pir-authors, such as Saiyad Sultan, played in the rooting of Islam in Bengal's easternmost regions. This text-critical study lays bare the sophisticated strategies of translation used by a prominent early modern Muslim Bengali intellectual to invite others to his faith.

Download or read book South Asian Islam written by Nasr M Arif and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-06 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the historical trajectory of the spread of Islam in South Asia and how the engagements of the past have played a crucial role in the making of the present outfits of South Asian Islam. Islam in South Asia has maintained a distinct role while imbibing cultural, social, ethnic, folk, and artistic networks of the subcontinent in diverse echelons. In an unequivocal analysis, this volume showcases the visible varieties of Islam from an array of regional cultural, ethnic, and vernacular groups. While many characteristics remain distinct in different provinces or regions of South Asia, similarities are palpable in etiquettes, customary laws, art, and architecture. More than regional differences, various ethnic groups from all poles of the Indian subcontinent have paved the way for the dissimilar landscapes of Islam, in tandem with differences in language, culture, and festivals. The case studies in this book exhibit forms of cultural pluralism in the communities, which have helped in building a cohesive community. Part of the ‘Global Islamic Cultures’ series that looks at integrated and indigenized Islam, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of religion, religious history, theology, study of Islamic law and politics, cultural studies, and South Asian Studies. It will also be useful to general readers who are interested in world religions and cultures.

Download or read book Muhammad in History Thought and Culture 2 volumes written by Coeli Fitzpatrick Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-04-25 with total page 857 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This in-depth examination of the life, history, and influence of Muhammad as discussed by leading scholars provides a wide-ranging look at the prophet's legacy unlike any other in the field of Islamic and culture studies. Within the Islamic world, the prophet Muhammad's influence is profound. But even outside of the religion of Islam, this visionary had a wide-ranging impact on history, society, literature, art, philosophy, and theology. Within this work's more than 200 A–Z entries, internationally recognized scholars summarize views of Muhammad from the earliest editors of the Qu'ran to contemporary Muslim theologians. This detailed resource explores the traditions, ceremonies, and beliefs of Islam as they have spread worldwide, and examines Muhammad's role in other religious traditions as well as the secular world. Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God distills 14 centuries of thinking about Muhammad, fully capturing his enduring legacy. This encyclopedia will benefit any reader seeking a greater understanding of the founder of Islam, the fastest-growing religion in the world. No other publication discusses Muhammad at such a high level of detail while remaining easily accessible to non-specialist, Western audiences.

Download or read book Avatar written by Rajesh Jain and published by Partridge Publishing. This book was released on 2016-03-19 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning of time, humanity has longed for the day when justice, peace, equality and compassion will envelop the world. Scripture and holy books of various religions predict a future leader who will unite religions, defeat evil, and establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Today, Jews long for their messiah Meshiack, Christians seek the return of Jesus Christ, Muslims await Imam Mahdi, Buddhists look for the Fifth Buddha Maitreya, Hindus seek the Tenth Avatar Kalki, and Confucian texts speak of a future True Man who will bring peace. But can one man actually fulfill all these religious expectations? Rajesh Jain, a physician by trade, relies on his intuitive experiences, scripture, and research to share a deep examination of various religions and their beliefs regarding the Second Coming, the prophecies of Nostradamus, technological deceptions by elite nations, enigmas of consciousness by Chris King, the American model of unsustainability by Chris Clugston, and the metaphysical concept of Pi by Patrick Mulcahy. Included are his explorations of the education system, the Catholic Church, the labor market, and taxes. Avatar shares a comprehensive examination of the Second Coming through intuitive experiences, scripture, and research.

Download or read book Fabulous Females and Peerless Pirs written by and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mythic figure Satya Pir has a wide following among Hindus and Muslims alike in the Bangla-speaking regions of South Asia. Believed to be an avatara of krsna, or a Sufi saint, or somehow both, he is worshiped for his ability to bring wealth and comfort to a family. At the heart of this worship is the simple proposition that human dignity and morality are dependent upon a proper livelihood-without wealth, people cannot be expected to live moral lives. Men have a special responsibility to create that stability, but sometimes fail miserably, making ill-advised decisions that compromise the women who are dependent upon them. At these threatening junctures, women must take matters into their own hands, and they call on Satya Pir to help them right the wrongs done by their husbands or fathers. In this book, Tony K. Stewart presents lively translations of eight closely related 18th- and 19th-century Bengali folk tales centered on Satya Pir and the people he helps. To extricate her husband and other family members from these predicaments, one heroine dresses in drag, dons armor to fight cutthroats, slays a raging rhino and hacks off its horn, and takes the prize of the king's daughter, to the consternation of all. In another tale, one woman's husband is magically transformed into a ram and kept by a witch as breeding stock, and another's is transformed into a popinjay parrot, the better to elude her jealous father, intent on protecting his good daughter's virtue. In each case the men are rescued and restored to normal by resourceful women. While the worship of Satya Pir is the ostensible motivation for the tales, they are really demonstrations of the Pir's miraculous powers, which authenticate him as a legitimate object of worship. The tales are also wickedly funny, parodying Brahmins and yogis and kings and sepoys. These surprising and entertaining stories fly in the face of conventional wisdom about the separation of Muslims and Hindus. Moreover, the stories happily stand alone, speaking with an easily recognized if not universal voice of exasperation and amazement at what life throws at us.

Download or read book The Light of the Modern World written by Swami Bhajanananda and published by Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India). This book was released on 2016-07-29 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Ramakrishna is regarded variously as a saint, sage, spiritual leader, world teacher, prophet, Avatara of the present age and so on. Finding these terms unsatisfactory, the noted British author Christopher Isherwood described Sri Ramakrishna as a “phenomenon”. The present book published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication house of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India, is a modest attempt to understand that phenomenon in the context of world thought currents and in the light of authentic sources. According to Swami Vivekananda, “With the birth of Sri Ramakrishna the Golden Age has begun.” But today, such an assertion may appear preposterous, with no sign of such a beginning visible. Who was Sri Ramakrishna? What was the purpose of his advent? What is the true dimension of his personality? Was he an Avatara? What is the role of an Avatara? Devotees, followers, and admirers of Sri Ramakrishna encounter these questions at some juncture of their life's journey. And in answer to these questions lies the opening to the realm of an ineffable “Light”, which is the “Light of the Modern World”.

Download or read book The Yoga of Power written by Christian Lee Novetzke and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2024-12-10 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Indian languages from Sanskrit to Marathi, yoga has an enormous range of meanings, though most often it refers to philosophy or methods to control the mind and body. This book argues for a wider understanding, demonstrating that yoga has long expressed political thought and practice. The political idea of yoga names the tools of kings, poets, warriors, and revolutionaries. It encodes stratagems for going into battle and for the demands of governance. This idea suggests routes to self-rule even when faced with implacable obstacles, and it defines righteous action amid the grime and grief of politics and war. Sunila S. Kalé and Christian Lee Novetzke chart a new genealogy of yoga, beginning with uses of the term in the Ṛg Veda, the Mahābhārata, the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Arthaśāstra. In the world of these texts, yoga names everything from war and battle strategy to good governance, espionage, taxation, and welfare. Kalé and Novetzke follow this trail into the modern period, examining the writings and speeches of thinkers such as Gandhi, Tilak, Aurobindo, and Ambedkar as well as the extraordinary story of the Princely State of Aundh, whose ruler saw the Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) as a tool for sovereignty. Offering a novel interpretation of yoga that embraces its long-standing political conceptualization, this book sheds light on South Asian political thought and history from its earliest texts to the present day.

Download or read book J m in Regional Contexts written by Thibaut d'Hubert and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-11-26 with total page 865 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jāmī in Regional Contexts: The Reception of ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān Jāmī’s Works in the Islamicate World is the first attempt to present in a comprehensive manner how ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492), a most influential figure in the Persian-speaking world, reshaped the canons of Islamic mysticism, literature and poetry and how, in turn, this new canon prompted the formation of regional traditions. As a result, a renewed geography of intellectual practices emerges as well as questions surrounding authorship and authority in the making of vernacular cultures. Specialists of Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Georgian, Malay, Pashto, Sanskrit, Urdu, Turkish, and Bengali thus provide a unique connected account of the conception and reception of Jāmī’s works throughout the Eurasian continent and maritime Southeast Asia.

Download or read book Assam Information written by and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Splendor of the True written by and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2013-05-06 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998), the leading figure in the perennialist school of comparative religious thought, remains one of the most provocative voices on religion. Bridging the divide between seeker and scholar, Schuon challenges the prevailing notion that religion should be studied with agnostic neutrality. He speaks to those who are looking for greater interfaith understanding and a deeper penetration to the esoteric heart of specific traditions, while turning the tables on an increasingly noisy chorus of skeptics. In Splendor of the True, James S. Cutsinger selects essential writings that reflect the full range of Schuon's thought on religion and tradition, metaphysics and epistemology, human nature and destiny, sacred art and symbolism, and spirituality and contemplative method. In addition to Schuon's essays, the book includes a number of poems, artworks, and previously unpublished materials drawn from his letters, personal memoirs, and private texts for disciples. An introductory chapter provides a careful examination of Schuon as perennial philosopher, Sufi shaykh, and teacher of gnosis.

Download or read book The Foundations of the Composite Culture in India written by Malik Mohamed and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Foundations of the Composite Culture in India, the focus of the author is the process of establishment of Hindu-Muslim unity as a result of historical, social and cultural factors over a period of ten centuries. Traversing this era, he reveals how the Muslim rulers contributed to such harmony and how the two cultures exchanged and accepted each other's tenets to enrich and formulate a composite Indian culture. To explore the foundations on which the complex culture of India rests, the author examines the contribution of Sufism which inherently connotes syncretism and tolerance, as well as the simultaneous rise of the Bhakti movement in medieval India. This title is co-published with Aakar Books. Print editions not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Download or read book Religion Landscape and Material Culture in Pre modern South Asia written by Tilottama Mukherjee and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-02-10 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book highlights emerging trends and new themes in South Asian history. It covers issues broadly related to religion, materiality and nature from differing perspectives and methods to offer a kaleidoscopic view of Indian history until the late eighteenth century. The essays in the volume focus on understanding questions of premodern religion, material culture processes and their spatial and environmental contexts through a study of networks of commodities and cultural and religious landscapes. From the early history of coastal regions such as Gujarat and Bengal to material networks of political culture, from temples and their connection with maritime trade to the importance of landscape in influencing temple-building, from regions considered peripheral to mainstream historiography to the development of religious sects, this collection of articles maps the diverse networks and connections across regions and time. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, archaeology, museum and heritage studies, religion, especially Hinduism, Sufism and Buddhism, and South Asian studies.