The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760In all of the South Asian subcontinent, Bengal was the region most receptive to the Islamic faith. This area today is home to the world's second-largest Muslim ethnic population. How and why did such a large Muslim population emerge there? And how does such a religious conversion take place? Richard Eaton uses archaeological evidence, monuments, narrative histories, poetry, and Mughal administrative documents to trace the long historical encounter between Islamic and Indic civilizations. Moving from the year 1204, when Persianized Turks from North India annexed the former Hindu states of the lower Ganges delta, to 1760, when the British East India Company rose to political dominance there, Eaton explores these moving frontiers, focusing especially on agrarian growth and religious change. |
Contents
PART ONE BENGAL UNDER THE SULTANS | 3 |
The Articulation of Political Authority | 22 |
Early Sufis of the Delta | 71 |
Economy Society and Culture | 95 |
Theories and Protagonists | 113 |
PART TWO BENGAL UNDER THE MUGHALS | 137 |
Mughal Culture and Its Diffusion | 159 |
Islam and the Agrarian Order in the East | 194 |
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Adina Mosque Afghan agrarian Akbar Allah Arabic ashraf Asiatic Society Bakarganj Bengali Muslims Bihar Brahmans Buddhist Calcutta chieftains Chishti Chittagong Chittagong District coins Collectorate Record Room communities conquest cosmologies cult cultivation culture deities Delhi Delhi sultanate delta Dhaka Dhaka District District Collectorate Record dynasty early East eastern Bengal forest frontier Ganges Gaur Ghiyath al-Din goddess governor grants Hindu hinterland History holy Hooghly Husain Ibid Ibn Battuta identified imperial indigenous inscription Islam Khan Jalal al-Din jungle Karim king Kuch Lakhnauti land Manrique Mughal authority Muhammad mullās Murshidabad Muslim Mymensingh North India officers Pakistan Pandua pargana patronage patronized peasant Persian pīrs poet political population Prophet province Qur'an Raja Ganesh Rajshahi region religion religious revenue rice ritual River rule rulers rural saint Saiyid Sultan sanad Sanskrit Sena Shah Shaikh sixteenth century social Sonargaon Sufi superhuman agencies Sylhet Thana tion tradition trans Turkish village West Bengal wrote zamīndārs