Essays on Islam and Indian History

Spanning twenty-five years of research and writing, the essays in this volume focus on historiography and Indo-Islamic civilization. The author begins by exploring the place of Islam in world history, religious conversion as a world historical theme, and the historical significance of the city of Calicut. He then investigates the history and historiography of temple desecration in pre-colonial India, and also throws light on the evolution of India’s Subaltern studies movement and its implications for the study of the subcontinent’s pre-colonial history. Historically, the long encounter between Islamic and Indic civilizations stirred remarkably creative energies among peoples of the subcontinent, producing one of the most vital centres of Islamic culture in the world. In the second half of the volume, Eaton investigates how, between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries, Islamic culture took root and flourished in three South Asian regions—the Deccan, Punjab, and Bengal. This book will be read avidly by students and scholars of Islamic studies, medieval Indian history, sociology, as well as the interested general reader.