When Vasco da Gama asked the Zamorin (ruler) of Calicut to expel from his domains all Muslims hailing from Cairo and the Red Sea, the Zamorin rejected it, saying that they were living in his... Show moreWhen Vasco da Gama asked the Zamorin (ruler) of Calicut to expel from his domains all Muslims hailing from Cairo and the Red Sea, the Zamorin rejected it, saying that they were living in his kingdom “as natives, not foreigners.” This was a marker of reciprocal understanding between Muslims and Zamorins. When war broke out with the Portuguese, Muslimintellectuals in the region wrote treatises and delivered sermons in order to mobilize their community in support of the Zamorins. Such treatises, which had very strong jihadi content, are very interesting to analyze. Most authors of these works extensively invoked classical Islamic texts, such as the Quran and Hadīths, and the theocratic-geographical units of dār al-Islam (“abode of Islam”) in contrast to the dār al-ḥarb (“abode of war”) in order to incite jihad against the Portuguese. Some of them highlighted the Hindu Zamorin as possessing the requisite moral, cultural and political qualities to rule a region, as opposed to corrupt Muslim kings who forged alliances with the “cross-orshipping” Portuguese. This article explores, within the context of “jihad” in Hindu-ruled territories, the background to these writings and the varied socio-cultural activities and preferences of their Muslim authors. Show less
I explore the circulation of Islamic legal texts and ideas between the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean worlds, which shared a “cosmopolis of law”. In the study, I primarily focus on the... Show moreI explore the circulation of Islamic legal texts and ideas between the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean worlds, which shared a “cosmopolis of law”. In the study, I primarily focus on the internal and external dynamics of legal textual circulation, its respective impacts on the intellectual trajectories of the Muslim communities over time and place, and the evident textual traditions developed in the Islamic world. I focus mainly on such Shāfiʿīte manuals like Minhāj of al-Nawawī (1233–1277), Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj of Ibn Hajar (d. 1566) and Fatḥ al-Muʿīn of al-Malaybārī (d. 1583?). I ask how these interconnected texts help us a) understand the dis-continuity within the Shāfiʿī school, b) answer why certain textual genealogies became more significant in the traditional legalist synthesis of texts and practices of both everyday religious lives of laypersons and legal engagements of fuqahā, and c) analyze the school’s spread across the Indian Ocean and eastern Mediterranean worlds. I also ask how a particular school emerged into a standard form of legal practices in South and Southeast Asian and East African coasts. In the context of scholarly-mercantile connections at such nodal points as Damascus, Cairo, Mecca, Ḥaḍramawt, Zanzibar, Malabar and Java, I read this textual corpus. Show less
