HISA 2002 Medieval India
Mr. Barnett Fall 2016 Ofc. Hrs: Thurs 2-3:15 384 Nau Hall 4-6396
Goals of the course
Ancient India was an Indic Civilization; medieval and modern South Asia became Indo-Islamic. This course goes beneath the political, cultural, and ethnic warfare of present-day South Asia to discover and assess the growth and development of this Indo-Islamic legacy. By challenging various communalist, regionalist, and colonial postures, we suggest how Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi publics (and their well-wishers) might revise the ideologically-driven, media-exploited, and socially devastating stereotypes of their medieval and early modern pasts.
Topical Focus
We cover Medieval Indo-Muslim civilization and political systems from the time Muslims arrived there; Turkic invasions; the urban revolution of the 14th and 15th centuries CE; major Islamic dynasties, especially the Delhi Sultanate; Indian Sufi mysticism; Bhakti mysticism; the cosmopolitan Vijayanagara Empire; the Mughals; imperial decentralization; the rise of regional political systems and the massive cultural revival associated with them; early Europeans in South Asia; establishment of English domination of the maritime provinces and hegemony over some hinterland states; finally, the beginnings of the British Raj.
Emphasis will be on cultural and intellectual as well as political history, on major ethnic and confessional identities within India, and on the South as well as the North. Our geographical spread is modern Afghanistan to East Bengal, and Kashmir to Sri Lanka, with a lecture- discussion format, student participation, audio-visual materials, frequent handouts of study aids, and a free-wheeling narrative style.
Requirements: You may choose between the two plans below, according to your personal aptitudes:
I II
One mid-term 50% 10-page paper or in-class report 30%
The final exam 50% One mid-term 35%
The final exam 35%
Suggested background aids
This course has no prerequisites. Those wishing to familiarize themselves with the ancient history and geography of South Asia, or with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam as interrelated complexes of historical institutions, may consult the following:
Burjor Avari, India: the Ancient Past (2007)
A. L. Basham, ed., A Cultural History of India Fazlur Rahman, Islam
R. Thapar, ed., Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History
D. N, Jha, Ancient India T. J. Hopkins, The Hindu Religious Tradition
J. Schwartzberg, ed., A Historical Atlas of South Asia (referred to below as HASA; this
large prize-winning atlas is also an important part of our required reading;
several copies are on reserve in Alderman and Clemons; ask at the reserve desk)
HASA is also available on line; just google it.
Texts and Assignments
Readings are grouped topically, divided into required and suggested. All required readings are on 2-hour reserve. A photocopy packet is available at N.K. Print & Design on Elliewood Avenue, and is denoted below as PHOCO. Our texts are in University Bookstore:
Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India Before Europe (Cambridge U.P., 2006)
Annemarie Schimmel, The Empire of the Great Mughals (London: Reaktion Books, 2004)
Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier (Berkeley: U.C. Press, 1993)
Lectures and Readings.
All are very strongly urged to read ahead of the lectures. Asking in an uninformed way about something in class that is clearly presented in the readings will reveal what you have not done, and will reduce everyone’s level of comfort.
Note: the lectures, not being crammed into predigested time slots, are not dated. The reason? It allows free play of discussion, Q & A, and tangents such as connections to news items in class. If this bothers you, do not take this class.
I. Instructor orientation. Introduction to course; geography as destiny in South Asia
II. Background to medieval India
Required
Asher & Talbot, 1-24
Ashok K. Dutt, “India: A Geographic Preface,” in Neil DeVotta, ed., Understanding
Contemporary India, 2nd ed., 22-10 (PHOCO)
Benjamin Cohen, “The Historical Context,” in DeVotta, ed., 31-65 (PHOCO)
Suggested
R. B. Inden & R. W. Nicholas, Kinship in Bengali Culture
K. M. Ashraf, The Life and Condition of the People of Hindustan
André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, vol. 1
III. Ghaznavid expeditions; Turkic occupation of Upper India
Required
Asher & Talbot, 25-35
Eaton, xxi-21
A. Embree, “Introduction” to Alberuni’s India (PHOCO)
M. Mujeeb, "The Qutb Complex as a Social Document," in his Islamic Influence on
Indian Society, 114-127 (PHOCO)
Suggested
Yusuf Husain, Indo-Muslim Polity (Turko-Afghan Period)
K. S. Lal, Muslim Slave System in Medieval India
IV. The Delhi Sultanate; “Slave” Sultans; Raziyya Sultana
V. Indianization of the Khalji polity
VI. Early Indo-Muslim ethnic and cultural accommodation
Required
Asher & Talbot, 35-52
Muhammad Habib, "An Introduction to the Study of Medieval India (A.D. 1000-1400),"
in his Politics and Society During the Early Medieval Period (K. A. Nizami,
ed.), 3-32 (PHOCO) Eaton, 22-70
Suggested
Simon Digby, War-Horse and Elephant in the Delhi Sultanate
H.A.R. Gibb, ed., The Travels of Ibn Battuta, vol. III
K. S. Lal, History of the Khaljis
VII. The Tughluqs; political decentralization; regional political systems
Required
Asher & Talbot, 84-105
Eaton, 71-112
K. A. Nizami, Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in India During the 13th Century,
89-149 (PHOCO)
Suggested
M. Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims, 168-235
K. S. Lal, Twilight of the Sultanate
Iqtidar Husain Siddiqi and Q. H. Ahmad, A Fourteenth-Century Arab Account of India
Under Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq
Muzaffar Alam, “Shari’ah and Governance in the Indo-Islamic Context,” in David
Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence, eds., Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking
Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia (Gainesville: Univ. Of Florida
Press, 2000), 216-245
VIII. Muslim mystics, conversion, and Indo-Muslim synthesis
Required
Asher & Talbot, 105-114 Eaton, 113-134
Richard M. Eaton, “Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States,” David Gilmartin and
Bruce B. Lawrence, eds., Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious
Identities in Islamicate South Asia (2000), 246-281 (PHOCO)
Suggested
Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Tradition in Bengal
Charlotte Vaudeville, Myths, Saints, and Legends in Medieval India
K. A. Nizami, The Life and Times of Farid ud-Din Ganj-i Shakar
Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam
M. Ishaq Khan, Kashmir’s Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis
Bruce Lawrence, Nizam ud-Din Awliya
IX. Medieval South India; Vijayanagar
X. Configurations of 15th-century South Asia; Afghan political experimentation in Hindustan
Required
Asher & Talbot, 53-83
Burton Stein, Vijayanagar (New Cambr. History of India), xi-12, all plates, 140-146
(PHOCO)
HASA, 38, pl. V.2(a-e); 39, pl. V.3 (a-d); 41, pl. V.5 (a-c) (Clemons or Alderman)
Philip B. Wagoner, “Harihara, Bukka, and the Sultan: The Delhi Sultanate in the Political
Imagination of Vijayanagar,” in David Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence, eds.,
Beyond Turk and Hindu 300-326 (PHOCO)
Suggested
B. Stein, ed., South Indian Temples, 11-46
George Mitchell, The Architecture and Art of Southern India: Vijayanagara and the
Successor States, 1350-1750 (1995) R. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire
Mid-term examination (1/2 multiple choice, 1/2 essay). NB: Exam date fixed by the progress made in class. If we go beyond, or fall short, of this point on the syllabus, correspondingly more or less will be covered in the mid-term. The exam is an open-book, untimed, take-home gift on a silver platter, but the questions demand some deep thinking and diligent attention to the readings.
XI. Early Mughal political competition; Babur, Humayun
Required
HASA, 40, pl. V.4 (a-e); 44, pl. VI.A.1 (a-c)
Asher & Talbot, 115-123
Schimmel, 7-8, 15-19, 21-31
Eaton, 137-158
Suggested
Yusuf Husain, Two Studies in Early Mughal History, Part II, "The Emergence of the
Empire," 74-114
Mohibbul Hasan, Babur I. Prasad, The Life and Times of Humayun
I. H. Siddiqui, Mughal Relations with the Indian Ruling Elite
Rumer Godden, Gulbadan: Portrait of a Rose Princess at the Mughal Court
Zahir ud-din Muhammad Babur, Babur Nama (Note: this has been translated
several times, with varying success; one of the more attractively-produced
translations is by Harvard’s Persian and Arabic professor, Wheeler M.
Thackston (New York: OUP / Freer Gallery, 1996).
XII. The Rise of Akbar
XIII. Agrarian, military and administrative aspects of the Mughal system
Required
HASA, 45, pl. VI.A.2
Asher & Talbot, 123-151 Eaton, 159-193
Schimmel, 32-45, 65-81, 107-141
Suggested
Catherine B. Asher, Architecture of Mughal India (New Cambridge History of India)
Milo C. Beach, Mughal and Rajput Painting (New Cambridge History of India)
D N. MacLean, “Real Men and False Men at the Court of Akbar: the Majalis of Shaykh
Mustafa Gujarati,” in David Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence, eds., Beyond
Turk and Hindu, 199-215
Abul Fazl, The Akbar-Nama, 3 vols. (H. Beveridge, trans.)
XIV. Mughal political processes: the imperial social order
XV. Imperial patronage and new art forms
Required
HASA, 48, pl. VI.A.5
Asher & Talbot, 152-185
Suggested
Michael Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat
Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India
J. F. Richards, ed., The Imperial Monetary System of Mughal India
XVI. The Mughal Empire, 1605-1707, reconsidered
Required
Asher & Talbot, 186-224
Eaton, 194-227
Schimmel, 167-224
Suggested
Yohanan Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi
Ahsan Jan Qaisar, ed., Art and Culture: Endeavors in Interpretation (1996)
XVII. Aurangzeb, Orthodoxy, and Reaction to his predecessors' image of tolerance; the Sikhs
Required
J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (New Cambridge History of India), xiii-41
(PHOCO)
Asher & Talbot, 225-236
Schimmel, 51-55, 225-261
Suggested
Munis D. Faruqui, The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504-1719 (CUP, 2012)
W. H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community, 1-19, 37-58
M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb, 1-68, 74-94
W. H. McLeod, "Sikhism," in Basham, A Cultural History of India, 294-302
Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity,
and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition
XVIII. Aurangzeb and the Marathas
Required
HASA, 49, VI.B.1; 50, VI.B.2
Stewart N. Gordon, The Marathas 1600-1818 (New Cambridge History of India),
178-195 (PHOCO)
Eaton, 228-267
Asher & Talbot, 236-255
Suggested
Stewart N. Gordon, “Maratha Patronage of Muslim Institutions in Burhanpur and
Khandesh,” in Gilmartin and Lawrence, eds., Beyond Turk and Hindu, 327-338
Andre Wink, Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the
Eighteenth-Century Maratha Svarajya
XIX. Early European Activity in India
XX. Mughal decline; 18th-c. Political Systems
Required
Eaton, 268-316
Schimmel, 299-302
Asher & Talbot, 256-286
J. B. Harrison, "The Portuguese," in Basham, ed., Cultural History, 337-347 (Clemons)
R. B. Barnett, North India Between Empires, 1-41 (PHOCO)
HASA, 51, VI.B. 3; 52, VI.B.4; 53, VI.B.5; 54, VII.A.1
Suggested
M. N. Pearson, The Portuguese in India (New Cambr. Hist. of India)
Bernard S. Cohn, "Political Systems in Eighteenth Century India: the Banaras Region,"
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1962, 312-320
M, Athar Ali, "The Passing of Empire: the Mughal Case," Modern Asian Studies 9:3
(1975): 385-396
Satish Chandra, Parties & Politics at the Mughal Court
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Sinners and Saints: the Successors of Vasco da Gama
Sushil Chaudhury, From Prosperity to Decline: Eighteenth-century Bengal
XXI. The Struggle for another Empire
XXII. Pulasi, Baksar and the establishment of British rule in Bengal
XXIII. British Orientalism
Required
HASA, 55, VII.A.2; 59, VII.A.6
R. Barnett, North India Between Empires, 240-252 (PHOCO)
Asher & Talbot, 287-291
Hermann Goetz, "The Crisis of Indian Civilization in the 18th and early 19th Centuries,"
University of Calcutta Reprint, 1938 (PHOCO)
Suggested
P. J. Marshall, Bengal: The British Bridgehead, 1740-1828
P. J. Marshall, East Indian Fortunes: the British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century
R. Russell & K. Islam, Three Mughal Poets
S. N. Mukherjee, Sir William Jones and British Attitudes to India
David Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance
XXIV. Warren Hastings; Land Revenue Settlement; the Rule of the East India Company
XXV. Early British Social Relations with Indians
Required
P. Spear, The Nabobs, 1-41, 126-148 (PHOCO)
HASA, 56, pl. VII.A.3; 60, pl. VII.B.1; 61, pl. VII.B.2; 62, pl. VII.B.3
Suggested
C. A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen, and Bazaars
Seema Alavi, The Sepoys & the Company: Tradition & Transition in North India 1770
-1830
HISA 2002 OUTLINE AND VOCABULARY PAGE 1
Background to the arrival of Turks in North India
A. Geography’s influence on political and social configurations
1. Rivers and river valleys
2. The Gangetic and Indus plains versus the segmented terrain of South India
3. Conclusions regarding communication, invasion routes, population, the rise of empires, taxable surplus wealth, and southern conquests
B. Indian society and political organization before the Muslims’ arrival
1. Basics, implications, and limitations of caste rules and restrictions
2. Kshatriya and other ruler statuses
3. Brahmins as teachers, priests, custodians of sacred texts and rites, and
(occasionally) advisors (and agents of legitimation) to kshatriya rulers
4. Avoiding the image of a static, uniform South Asian society & polity
C. Prequel to the northern rule of the Turks: the Arab invasion of Sindh and Multan
1. Trade and traders in the Arabian Sea and Indian littoral
2. Conflict between the brahmin ruler of Sindh and al-Hajjaj, the Ummayad
governor of Iraq (661-714)
3. Muhammad ibn Qasim’s “punitive” campaign of 711-12 in Sindh
a. Dahar, the “offending” ruler of Sindh, defeated and killed
b. The conquest of Multan in 713
c. Political change in Damascus causes Md. ibn Q (not yet 19
years old) to be recalled, jailed
d. Arabs now in the lower Indus Valley to stay, even though
they cannot conquer more Indian territories
4. Principles of Arab rule, and precedents for later Muslim political hegemony
a. Conciliation, not annihilation: make better deals with local magnates
b. High degree of sensitivity to Hindu and Buddhist values, customs
c. Classifying Hindus and Buddhists as ahl-i kitab, thus dhimmi
(zimmi) or “protected people of the book” rather than kafirs
d. Temples maintained as before; cow killing banned in Multan
5. Abbasid Revolution (750 CE) barely affects Arab rule in Indus Valley; 10th- century CE Fatimids in Egypt sever Sindh and Multan from Baghdad’s control, but local intermarriage, cultural accommodation succeeds in Indianizing and domesticating Muslims there (Sindhi replaces Arabic, etc.)
6. Riverine changes, fluctuating deserts did not allow Arab architecture to survive
umma “Brahmanábád” vaishya shudra misr (pl. amsár) Shari’ah Law