Table Of ContentThe hnage o·i the Prophet in
Bengali fViuslim Piety
1850-1~ 7
Amit Dey
AN t412736 Code I·E·2H6346'25
IS UNIVERSITY Of NJCHIGAH
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THE IMAGE OF THE PROPHET IN
BENGALI MUSLIM PIETY, 1850-1947
AMIT DEY
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KOUCATA • 700 075
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THE IMAGE OF THE PROPHET
IN BENGALI MUSLIM PIETY, 1850-1947
by AMIT DEY
OAmitDey
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First P11b/isud
. January, 2006
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Dedicated to my Preceptor
Professor Francis Robinson
and Parents
Mrs. Naseema Dey
and
Professor Amalendu De
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My research has been sponsored by the Commonwealth
Scholarship Commission in UK which functions through
collaboration with The British Council. Without the financial support
of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, it would not have
been possible for me to carry out my research leading to PhD in
History in the Royal Holloway College, University of London. I also
appreciate the kind cooperation of the Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Department of Education, Government of India,
during my research. While I was doing my field-work in West
Bengal and Bangladesh, the Central Research Fund, University of
London offered my some financial help for photocopying and_
travelling inside Bengal. During the writing up stage of my research,
I also received some funding from the Hammond Trust and the
Mary Trevelyan Fund. I am grateful for all these helps.
I had to visit several libraries in UK, West Bengal and.
Bangladesh for my research, such as the India Office Library,
SOAS Library, and the Royal Holloway College Libraries in UK,
National Library, Calcutta, Dhaka University Library, Bangla
Academy and Islamic Foundation in Bangladesh. I remember with
gratitude the cooperation I have received from the librarians ~d
staff of these libraries.
Apart from including many Arabic and Persian .w ords, the
Bengali Muslim writers often used many Persian and Urdu
quotations. Moreover, I have also consulted two or three Urdu
Journals and books, and for my linguistic skill, I am heavily indebted
to my Persian and Urdu teacher, late Dr M. R. Shibli. My
knowledge in Urdu and Persian proved very helpful as I had to
translate many Bengali folk songs and punthis full of Persian
words.
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My field-work in Bangladesh was successful mainly due to the
guidance I have received from Professor Ratanlal Chakravarty,
Dr Nurul Huda Abul Mansur, Associate Professor, (both from
Dhaka University) and Mr Kajalendu De, Associate Professor,
Dhaka City College. Besides, Mr Mainuddin Ahmad, Associate
Professor, Dhaka City College, late Professor Ahmad. Sharif,
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Mr Asim Saha, poet, Mr Asaduznman, Administrative: Officer,
Mrs Sur111a Zakariyah Chawdhury, Associate Professor, .Dhaka
Univesity, Dr Nazr11a Khan Majlis, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh,
Dr Sarachish Sarkar and Mr Muhammad Saidur of Bangla
Academy, Dr Shamsuz:raman Khan, director, Silpakala Academy,-
all proved very helpful. .
While I was typing out my thesis in the computer, Mr Chris
Horton, Computer Centre, Royal Holloway College, and my friend
Dr Sang Seon Yun helped me a lot with . their computing skills.
Besides, Dr Yoginder Sikand, Dr Mubashar Chughtai and Dr F.
Ramutsindela also helped me to solve some computing problems.
I offer my thanks to a-11 of them.
I very much appreciate the kind cooperation of the Kalyani
University Authorities for granting me nearly four years leave which
enabled me to complete my research. I am particularly grateful to
my former colleague~ Professor Rakhal Chandra Nath, Sri Alok
Ghosh, Professor Amal Oas and others in the History Deparbl1ent
of Kalyani University for sharing the teaching load amongst
themselves duing my prolonged absence alongside boosting up my
morale during those years. My telephonic interaction with professor
Nath was really helpful.
Dr Sarah Ansari, Lecturer in History, Royal Holloway, took the
pain to go thrc,ugh my thesis and her constructive criticism of my
work proved extremely helpful. My discussion with Dr Vanessa
Martin, Lecturer in History, Royal Holloway, Dr Claudia Liebeskind,
And Dr Azra A. Ali was also very fruitful.
I was privileged enough to have the likes of Professor Tapan
Raychaudhuri (Oxford) and Dr Avril Ann Powell SOAS) as my
thesis examiners. Their suggestions proved extremely enriching. In
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spite of their busy schedule, they had been phenomenally quick to
arrange my viva-voce which proved convenient. Dr Powell provided
me. with the opportunity to stay in touch with her even after I got
the PhD degree from the University of London in 1999. My
postdoctoral interaction with an erudite scholar like her proved
enriching for me.
Calcutta based historians such as Professor Binay Bhushan
Chaudhuri, Late Professor Nemai Sadhan Bose, Professor
Chittaranjan Panda, Secretary and Curator, Victoria Memorial,
Professor Suranjan Das, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs,
Calcutta University, Professor Chittabrata Palit, Professor Pranjal
Kumar Bhattacharya, Professor Gautam Bhadra, late Professor
Sachindra Kumar Maity, ·P rofessor Basudeb Chattopadhyay,
Professor Arun Bandopadhyay, Professor Bhaskar Chakraborti,
Dr Suparna Gooptu and others also obliged me by taking keen
interest in my day to day progress. I am extremely grateful to
Professor ·Chittaranjan Panda who initially inspired me to visit UK
for my doctoral research and to Professor Suranjan Das who
provided me with some rare books ·while we met in UK.
My parents, Mrs Naseema Dey and Professor Amalendu De,
my sister Tapti and cousin Jhoton supported me both emotionally
and academically during my research. Our long time family friends
and my local guardians in UK, Mrs Jayasree Roy and Mr Arup
Roy along with their school-going daughters Rue and Rupon did
not allow me to feel homesick during that long period of research
through their remarkable hospitality which indeed included Jayasree
di's matchless culinary skill.
The manuscript went to press after I got married. My relation
with Soma is so personal that I do not think it wise to for111alize it
my expressing my gratitude in words for her constant cooperation
during the publication phase. My 10 months old daughter Jija
(Teesta), also played her part during the final phase by her
inimitable gestures to dislodge me from my reading desk whenever
I needed respite from proofreading. I also offer my heart felt
thanks to Mr Ramaprasad Chandra of Readers Service for taking
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the necessary initiative to publish my thesis .
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during the publication phase, I had the opportunity to visit several
US Universities such as the North Carolina State University, The
University of Chicago and Louisiana State University. In those
places, my long discussions with professors Tony K Stweart, Carl
Ernst, David Gilmartin, Mt1zaffar Alam, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Joanna
Kirkpatrick and Arthur Buehler over my thesis proved extremely
enriching ·for me. Among these noted scholars, I have never met
Professor Joanna Kirkpatrick, South Asia/Bengal/Bangladesh
Studies Bennington College, retd., however my regular e-mail
correspondence with her from 1999 onwards proved extremely
useful. On my way back home from the US, I was invited by
Professor Mario Prayer to deliver a talk at the Faculty of Oriental
Studies, University of Roma. My interaction with Mario was very
fruitful. -
Indeed, my greatest debt intellectually is to my supervisor
Professor Francis Robinson who like a 'Kami/ Murshid' initiated
into the world of historical research by familiarizing me with
me
the latest historiographical trends. He has been kind enough to write
the Preface of this book as soon as the manuscript went to press
in spite of his busy academic schedule. I can never forget the warn,
hospitality of Mr and Mrs Robinson during my research days. At
their residence and elsewhere, Professor Robinson gave me the
opportunity to meet many great scholars such as Professors
Mushirul Hasan, Barbara D Metcalf, Howard Brasted, Farhan
Nizami and late Annemarie Schimmel. All these meetings were
Highly illuminating.
June,2004 AMIT DEY
History Department,
Calcutta University
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NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
Many different ways of spelling people's and places names are
used in South Asia. ln order to maintain consistency the following
conventions have been observed. Place names within Bengal have
been spelled according to the Census of India, 1931, vol-V,
Bengal and Sikkim, parts I and 11 Before the emergence of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh in 1971, 'Dhaka' used to be spelled
as 'Dacca', so, while mentioning the books published before that
date, the latter spelling has been used. As regards the names of
people, preferences have been given to the spellings as fancied by
the respective individuals. For ·example, in case of Mozammel
Haque, his surname has been spelled in tune with the spelling he
used. ln · case of others, this surname has been spelled either as
'Huq' or 'Haq', according to the preferences of the persons
concerned. All non-English words and ter111s (with the exception
of those included in the main text of the OED, 1987, such as
muezzin) have been italicized, but to make things easier, diacritical
marks have been avoided. With the same aim in view, the
difference between long and short vowels have not been recognized.
All the italicized terms have been spelled either according to
the spelling listed in the supplement of South Asian words section
of the OED ( 1987) or according to the spelling provided in
Annemarie Schimmel's And Muhammad Is His Messenger; The
Veneration of The Prophet In Islamic Piety, Chapel Hill, 1985.
To avoid odd spellings, some of the words of Sanskrit origin have
been spelled according to the conventional method observed in the
OED ( 1987), for example, vyakula rather than byakula. For all other
Bengali words, which are not mentioned in the OED, the following
standard method of transliterations has been observed .
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