Scholars and Religious Movements of Modern South Asia
The seminaries, scholars and religious movements of the subcontinent from Shah Waliullah in the eighteenth century to the present — Deoband and its teachers, the Ahl-i Hadis and Barelvi movements, the Tablighi Jamaat and the Jamaat-e-Islami — followed in chronological order and presented as the sources record them, including where the movements disagree.
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Articles are ordered so each builds on the one before. You can also read them in any order that suits you.
- Shah Waliullah DehlawipersonSouth Asian IslamShah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703-1762 CE), pioneering Indian Islamic scholar and reformer who revitalized Islamic thought through synthesis of Islamic sciences, emphasis on i…
- The Sufi Orders in South Asian IslammovementSouth Asian IslamFour Sufi orders shaped religious life in the Indian subcontinent: the Chishti, Naqshbandi, Qadiri and Suhrawardi. This article traces how they functioned there in the ei…
- Sir Syed Ahmed Khan: Reformer, Educator, and Architect of Muslim Modernity in IndiapersonModern EraSir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) was an Indian Muslim reformer and educator who founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in 1875, which became Aligarh Musl…
- Zulfiqar Ali DeobandipersonSouth Asian IslamAn Indian scholar, educator and writer associated with the founding of Darul Uloom Deoband and with its first consultative council for nearly four decades. He taught at B…
- Darul Uloom Deoband: The Seminary and the School of ThoughtinstitutionSouth Asian IslamDarul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary founded in northern India in 1866 or 1867 and the origin of the Deobandi school of thought. Its innovation was institutional: i…
- The Deobandi MovementmovementSouth Asian IslamA school of Sunni thought and practice that grew from the seminary founded at Deoband in northern India in 1866 or 1867. Its scholars combined the roles of jurist and Suf…
- The Ahl-i Hadis MovementmovementSouth Asian IslamA nineteenth-century Indian Sunni movement that set aside the authority of the historic schools of law in favour of direct recourse to the Qur'an and hadith. Led by schol…
- Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi and the Barelvi MovementmovementSouth Asian IslamAhmed Raza Khan of Bareilly (1856-1921) was an Indian Hanafi jurist, Sufi of the Qadiri order and prolific writer whose defence of the veneration due to the Prophet and t…
- Mahmud Hasan DeobandipersonSouth Asian IslamThe first student of Darul Uloom Deoband, who taught there for forty years and led it from 1890. Known as Shaykh al-Hind, he organised the Silk Letter Movement, was impri…
- Anwar Shah KashmiripersonSouth Asian IslamA Kashmiri scholar of hadith who led Darul Uloom Deoband as its principal and chief teacher of hadith from 1915 to 1927. His major works, including the four-volume Fayd a…
- Mufti Kifayatullah DehlawipersonSouth Asian IslamAn Indian Hanafi jurist widely titled Mufti-e-Azam, or Grand Mufti of India. He led Madrasa Aminia in Delhi, presided over the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind from 1921 to 1940, help…
- Shaykh al-Islam Husain Ahmad Madani: Scholar of Hadith and Advocate of Composite NationalismpersonSouth Asian IslamHusain Ahmad Madani (1879-1957) was an Indian scholar of hadith who taught in Medina, was interned by the British on Malta, and led Darul Uloom Deoband as Shaykh al-Hadit…
- Muhammad Ilyas KandhlawipersonSouth Asian IslamThe Indian scholar who founded the Tablighi Jamaat in the Mewat region during the 1920s. Trained at Darul Uloom Deoband under Mahmud Hasan, he built a movement of lay rel…
- The Tablighi JamaatmovementSouth Asian IslamA movement of lay religious preaching founded by Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi in the Mewat region of northern India in the 1920s. Built on short preaching tours undertaken by…
- Shabbir Ahmad UsmanipersonSouth Asian IslamA scholar of hadith and Qur'anic commentary who taught at Darul Uloom Deoband and Dabhel, completed Tafsir-e-Usmani, and began the Arabic commentary Fath al-Mulhim. He le…
- Mufti Muhammad ShafipersonSouth Asian IslamA Hanafi jurist who served as head mufti of Darul Uloom Deoband and founded Darul Uloom Karachi in 1951. His Urdu commentary Ma'arif al-Qur'an, which began as a radio pro…
- Muhammad Zakariya KandhlawipersonSouth Asian IslamA hadith scholar of Mazahir Uloom Saharanpur who taught for over fifty years and wrote a six-volume Arabic commentary on Malik's Muwatta. His Urdu devotional tracts, coll…
- Muhammad Idris KandhlawipersonSouth Asian IslamA scholar of hadith and Qur'anic commentary who taught at Darul Uloom Deoband, Hyderabad State, Bahawalpur and Lahore. He wrote an eight-volume Urdu tafsir, an Arabic com…
- Abul A'la MaududipersonSouth Asian IslamA journalist, Qur'anic commentator and political thinker who founded the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941. His six-volume Urdu commentary Tafhim al-Qur'an and his writings on the …
- The Jamaat-e-IslamiorganizationSouth Asian IslamAn organisation founded by Abul A'la Maududi in 1941 to form a disciplined body of Muslims trained to lead society according to Islamic norms. After the partition of Indi…
- Muhammad Yusuf KandhlawipersonSouth Asian IslamThe second leader of the Tablighi Jamaat, who directed it from 1944 to 1965 and oversaw its spread beyond South Asia. A graduate of Mazahir Uloom Saharanpur, he compiled …
- Shah Ahmad ShafipersonSouth Asian IslamA Bangladeshi scholar of hadith who led the seminary at Hathazari in Chittagong for more than three decades and chaired the country's Qawmi madrasa education board. Train…
- Muhammad Rafi UsmanipersonSouth Asian IslamA Pakistani Hanafi jurist who led Darul Uloom Karachi as its president from 1986 until his death in 2022. Titled Grand Mufti, he served on Pakistan's Council of Islamic I…
- Muhammad Taqi UsmanipersonSouth Asian IslamA Pakistani Hanafi jurist and writer on Islamic law, trained at Darul Uloom Karachi and in economics and law at Karachi and Punjab. He served on Pakistan's higher courts,…