Muslim Shrines in India

 Muslim Shrines in India : Their Character, History and Significance.
Hardback - 327 pages.
by Marc Gaborieau.


Description :

The rhythm of Muslim life in India has always been marked by customs and festivals relating to saints and their tombs. The dargahs, or shrines erected on an around these tombs remain some of the finest specimens of Indo-Muslim architecture.


This book brings together documentary, interpretive, and theological approaches to the study of the dargah. It describes the location, architecture, rituals, and vaious kinds of worship that take place in the country's major Muslim shrines. It also looks at pilgrims who are drawn to the dargah--their aspirations, their faith, their general social and religious outlook.


The collection includes contributions from a number of eminent scholars in the field. A new introduction, written especially for this edition by Marc Gaborieau, addresses the developments that have taken place in the research on Muslim shrines since this book was first published.


Review:

'A reprint of Muslim Shrines in India is most welcome, and reading the volume again of great profit to anyone interested in Sufism, Indian Islam and contemporary politics in India.' _{---The Medieval History Journal}.


Contents :

---Introduction to the New Edition, Marc Gaborieau;
---Preface to the First Edition;
---Introduction;
---List of Contributors;


---Part One : Documentary,

---The Early Chishti Dargahs;
---The Dargah of Sayyid Mas'ud Ghazi in Bahraich:
---Legend, Tradition and Reality;
---A Note on the Dargah of Sayyid Mas'ud in Bahraich in Light of Historical Sources;
---Mughal Documents relating to the Dargah of Khawaja Muin al-Din Chishti;
---Rituals and Customary practices at the Dargah of Ajmer;
---The Major Dargah's of Ahmedabad;
---Perceptions of the Dargahs of Patna;


---Part Two : Interpretive,

---The Mystery of the Nizamuddin Dargah:
---The Accounts of Pilgrims;
---Soul of the Soulless:
---An Analysis of Pir-Murid Relationships in Sufi Discourse;
---Religion, Money and Status:
---Competition for Resources at the Shrine of Shah Jamal, Aligarh;
---Significance of the Hazratbal Dargah in the Religious & Political Life of Kashmiri's.


---Part Three : Theological,

---Shah WaliUllah and the Dargah;
---A Nineteenth-Century Indian Wahhabi;
---Tract against the Cult of Muslim Saints:
---Al-Balagh Al-Mubin;


---Part Four : Reviews,

---Saints and Dargahs in the Indian Sub-Continent : A Review, 
---Qawwali and Mahfil-i-Sama;
---New Light on Bihar's Eminent Sufi Shaykh Sharafuddin Maneri and His Times;
---Sufism in Indian History;
---Some recent studies in Muslim Religious Thought;
---Index.