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Shari‘a, Shi‘as and Chishtiya Revivalism: Contextualising the Growth of Sectarianism in the Tradition of the Sialvi Saints of the Punjab

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2014

TAHIR KAMRAN  and
AMIR KHAN SHAHID
TAHIR KAMRAN
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, [email protected]
AMIR KHAN SHAHID
Affiliation:
G.C. University, Lahore
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Abstract

This article discusses the transformation that took place within the Chishtiya silsilah after its revival in the Punjab in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Within this Chishtiya revival an exclusionary streak emerged, embedded within a shari‘a-centred orientation, leading to Shi‘a and Chishti Sunni antagonism in the Punjab. As a result, the composite and all-inclusive ethos epitomised by earlier Chishti Sufis of the thirteenth century was jettisoned. Underpinning these developments was the advent of the Usuli faction among the Shi‘a of Awadh, whose influence was resonating in the Punjab by the turn of the twentieth century. The khanaqah of Sial Sharif in Sargodha district illustrates this exclusionary trend, as reflected in the texts such as the Mazhab-i Shi‘a by Khawja Qammar ud Din Sialvi.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 24 , Issue 3: Isna ‘Ashari and Isma‘ili Shi‘ism: from South Asia to the Indian Ocean , July 2014 , pp. 477 - 492
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2014 

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