This work seeks to study Sufism as a psycho-historical phenomenon. The author finds it efficacious to combat social and political upheavals which are brought about by prolonged political revolutions, associated with autocratic oppression and economic deprivation. It is divided into two volumes. The present volume outlines the history of Sufism before it was firmly established in India and then goes on to discuss the principal trends in sufi developments therefrom the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. Chronologically it is concerned with sufi history from the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate to the beginning of the Mughal Empire. Naturally it lays great emphasis on the Chishtiyya, Suhrawardiyya, Firdausiyya and Kubrawiyya orders, but the contributions made by qalandars and legendary and semi-legendary saints have also not been neglected. A detailed discussion of the interaction of medieval Hindu mystic traditions and Sufism shows a unique polarity between the intolerant rigidity of the orthodox and the flexibility of the Sufis in India.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi
Dr. S.A.A. Rizvi, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt. has been working as Reader in the department of Asian Civilizations at the Australian National University, Canberra since 1967. in 1969 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Before joining the A.N.U. he worked as Head of the History Department, Jammu and Kashmir University, and earlier as Secretary of the History of the Freedom Movement Committee, Government of U.P. Dr. Rizvi was a Research Associate in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, during 1962-63 and was a Fellow in the same institution in 1969. In 1972 he was a Visiting Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Among Dr. Rizvi’s most important publications, are the following: Source Book on Medieval Indian History, in Hindi, Vols. I-X (Aligarh Muslim University, 1955-62); Freedom Struggle in U.P. Vols. I-VI (U.P. Government, Lucknow, 1957-61); Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the 16th and 17thCenturies (Agra, 1965); Fatehpur Sikri (New Delhi, 1972); Fatehpur Sikri in collaboration with Dr. V.J.A. Flynn (Bombay, 1975); Hindi translations of the Maqaddamah of Ibn Khaldun (Lucknow, 1961); Haqa’iq-i-Hindi (Varanasi, 1957); Alakh Bani (Aligarh, 1971); Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbar’s Reign 1556-1605 with special reference to Abu’l-Fazl (New Delhi, 1975); A History of Sufism in India, Vol. I (New Delhi, 1978); A History of Sufism in India, Vol. II (1983); Shah Wali-Allah and his times (Canberra, 1980) and Iran: Royalty, Religion and Revolution (Canberra, 1980); Landmarks of South Asian Civilizations (New Delhi, 1984). He has also contributed chapters to the Cambridge History of Islam Vol. II (Cambridge, 1970); the Cultural History of India (Oxford, 1975) and in the World of Islam (London, 1976). His research articles have been published in various international Journals. Forthcoming: A History of Islamic Proselytisation in India, A Short History of Sufism in India, Awrangzib and his time to be published by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
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