3 Sufi Amnesia in Sayyid Ahmad Khanâs Tahdhib al-Akhlaqââ76

Jamal Malik

Jump to Content

3 Sufi Amnesia in Sayyid Ahmad Khanâs Tahdhib al-Akhlaqââ76

In: Sufism East and West

Author:

Jamal Malik

Jamal Malik
Search for other papers by Jamal Malik in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 76â103

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004393929_005

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

â¬42.00â¬35.00Â excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

One major proponent of anti-Sufi discourse seems to be Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817â1898), the intellectual giant in Muslim South Asia who had a tremendous bearing on Muslim culture and politics in 19th and 20th century India. He is known for his new approach in Urdu historiography, his rationalism and also his Sufi-bashing. Although he wrote quite a bit against traditional Sufism and its practices in British India, thereby silencing and seeking to obliterate Islamic mysticism, his writings nevertheless resonate with Sufi terminology and deliberations harking back to the concept of Tahdhib al-Akhlaqâin Sufi parlance, controlling the carnal self (nafs) by means of reason and in the traditional ashraf culture, the cultivation of man through manners and etiquette. The chapter argues that in his writing in response to European critique, his Muslim ashrafi civility and modernism displayed Sufi traits that can be read as remnants of path dependencies derived from the archives of the self. In doing so, it revisits some of his major contributions such as his âWahhabiâ writings before 1857, the exegesis of the Bible entitled Tabyin al-Kalam (1863ff) and the Urdu journal Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, which he launched in 1870. This ashrafi civility is compounded by some dreams which Sayyid Ahmad Khan narrated to his biographer in his old age, around 1890. Consequently, his Sufi amnesia, strategically employed to silence Sufi accounts, is enmeshed in structural mimesis, such as meticulously following the 19th century natural sciences, and imaginative anamnesis or the remembrance and visualization of the Sufi shaykh, namely the Prophet.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/edcoll/9789004393929/BP000004.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Sufism East and West

Mystical Islam and Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Modern World

Series:Â Studies on Sufism, Volume: 2

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004393929

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 19 Mar 2019

Subjects

Front Matter

Back Matter

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	1994	525	155
Full Text Views	28	6	2
PDF Views & Downloads	46	6	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

3 Sufi Amnesia in Sayyid Ahmad Khanâs Tahdhib al-Akhlaqââ76

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Sufism East and West

Mystical Islam and Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Modern World

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics

3 Sufi Amnesia in Sayyid Ahmad Khanâs Tahdhib al-Akhlaqââ76