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Blain Auer’s book brings a refreshing new approach to the sources of Sultanate history”
– Daud Ali, Associate Professor and Chair of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
“An outstanding contribution, skillfully utilizing intellectual frameworks from religious studies, history and area studies, that explores the array of Islamic values that legitimize constructions of religious and political authority in Muslim South Asia.”
– Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures and Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University.
“This elegantly written book offers a nuanced and innovative reading of Delhi Sultanate historiography, moving beyond earlier approaches to the material by analyzing the discursive formations of royal power and legitimacy. Auer provides a masterful analysis of various narratological devices deployed in the Persian historical sources of the period that promote the religious and political authority of the Delhi sultans. This includes a rich examination of the patterns of sacred authority found in the lives of the prophets, the memorialization of Sufi saints, as well as in architectural, codicological and numismatic displays of power. Auer sheds light on how the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate ideologically grafted themselves into the larger arc of Islamic salvation history and does an excellent job situating this important period within the scholarly field of Islamic studies.”
–Travis Zadeh, Assistant Professor of Religion, Haverford College, Philadelphia.
The sultans of Delhi were situated at the crossroads of history in the Islamic world of the thirteenth century. Mongol rulers were spreading their influence across Central Asia and the Middle East, while in 1258 the Abbasid Caliph was executed, effectively issuing the death knell to the edifice of Sunni authority and legitimacy. In Symbols of Authority in Medieval Islam: History, Religion and Muslim Legitimacy in the Delhi Sultanate, Blain Auer offers a new and highly original look at the emergence of the Delhi Sultanate that explores the intellectual processes through which the first Islamic empire in India was created.
Amidst dramatic political and social changes, Delhi and its sultans stood in a new, elevated relationship of power to the Muslim world. In this context, Auer draws attention to the multiple ways Muslim historians, who functioned under state patronage, narrated the religious values of Islamic courts and their sovereigns through the creative process of history writing. Historians demonstrated their sultans’ affinity, equality and superiority to the exemplary religious figures of Islamic history: the pre-Islamic prophets, Muhammad, the early caliphs and Sufi shaykhs. While aligning the history of the sultans of Delhi with an idealized and universal history of Islam, the Delhi Sultanate was projected as an Islamic empire with the mandate of divine guidance. This work makes a significant contribution to understanding Islamic ideals of religious and political authority at the foundation of Islamic empires. It is essential reading for those with an interest in religion, history, Islamic studies and South Asia. Contents: Preface • Delhi at the Center of Islamic Authority • Pre-Islamic Prophetic Paradigms in Delhi Sultanate Historiography • Muammad’s Example as the Perfect Ruler • Images of the Friends of God in the Lives of Sultans • Caliphal Authority and Representation the Delhi Sultanate • Shariah and Justice • ConclusionISBN - 9788130922652
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Pages : 257
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