Notes: Sawyer Seminar with Carl Ernst on Islam in South Asia

October 15, 2009

Carl Ernst presented and discussed his draft paper “Reconfiguring the Relation between Religion and World in South Asian Islam since the 18th Century”

He spoke about the challenge of interpreting Islamic intellectual history since the 18th Century in South Asia, and sited the Coral Rosary (sp?), an essential text regarding the intellectual tendencies of South Asian Islam during that period.

He emphasized the the paper in its current form was a draft, and that he’d recently presented it at a conference in Berlin which was about civil society (hence the civil society bit).

• The civil society part was not well integrated into the rest of the paper (according to Carl)
• The paper fits well with our class themes of division and conformity

The “norm of civil society” is itself Orientalist, based on the European model of civil society..

The Coral Rosary gives us a snapshot of the world as the author saw it: India is cast as the cultural center of the world, while the Middle East is the intellectual/religious center.  Coral Rosary is valuable for 4 main reasons:

1. References to India in the Hadith
2. Adam comes to earth in India; Inda = site of culture, art, science, etc.
3. Biographies of the most important Indian Islamic scholars of all time.
4. Rhetoric and prose of Indian literature and poetry (he translates lit/poetry to Arabic and compares with Middle Eastern literature)

Non-Arabs (especially Persians and Indians) are cast as the true source of islamic culture/knowledge (but Arabs get credit for literary history); also underlines the strength of science and literature in India at this time.

Carl talked briefly about Arabic poetry, and the numerical equivalents of each letter (ie: أ = 1; ب = 2; ت = 3; etc.) and gave the example that Arab poets might come up with a flowery phrase to say that the King was triumphant in the year 1702 (and the letters in the phrase would add up to that number)

Haji Imdad Allah invoked the theme of jihad (and his disciples were particularly oposed to anything that seemed Hindu (ie: visiting shrines)

Belgramy ignored the existence of European powers while alive, but they discovered him.

• Interesting note: the earliest issues of  Asiatic Texts feature 4 articles of Belgrany

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Alyse led the discussion after Carl’s talk and she and other attendees made the following points:

• The civil society bit should be scraped; underdeveloped (Alyse)

Professor Seck asked about Sufism and civil society.  In Senegal, politicians are linked with Sufi groups (which are sometimes excluded from civil society (in the Western sense)

Ernst responds: Many people argue that there is no civil society in Muslim cultures, but others disagree

Next question: Imdad Allah represents an increase in lack of acceptance of divserity because of European attitude (ie: European judgement of cultural diversity as threatening –> a decrease in acceptance of diversity in other parts of the world

Class dimmensions are interesting as well: Carl highlighted the tension between leaders and their disciples here.

Study of the Hadith is used by historians to construct biographies (question of whether that is an appropriate use of the Hadith?)

The way we arrange biographies about important people says a lot about the qualities we value in people.  The writing of a bio is a way of constructing a world.  Intellectual biographies are no different, and highlight the intellectual values that were important at the time.

Belgramy does this (above) in a patriotic way that casts India as the center of culture, science, philosophy, and art.

The genre itself (biography) is what you’re comparing over time; perhaps Carl should argue that these two (Imdad Allah and Belgramy) are good representations of the genre at that time, therefore their highlighted qualities represent generally valued qualities in Muslim society in South Asia at that time.

“Adam’s Peak” in India, and the giant footprint site (where Adam is supposed to have arrived on Earth) are sites of pilgrimmage (for Sufis + Hindus and Budhists).

Civil society did not exist in Europe at this time either (really)

Belgramy’s work (in Arabic) was read only by a few highly educated scholars

Imdad Allah’s work was destined for a much broader readership