Cultivation and Conversion in Multan

Abstract

The recent scholarship on the process of Islamization in India has stimulated a debate on the connections between cultivation, sedentarization and conversion in South Asia. Southwestern Punjab, and the Multan region in particular, has become the object of interestingdiscussions on the issue, given the crucial relationshipit shows between ecology, social structure and religious identity. After showing the relevant role of the Sufi dargahs (tombs) in the process of conversion, the following aims to emphasize that Islamization in Multan does not seem to be connected with cultivation and sedentarization, which developed only in the late 19th century under the British colonization schemes. The process seemed to take place in an environment which remained largely nomadic or semi-nomadic until the colonial period.