The Rise and Fall of Persianate Culture in India

Number of words: 285 In areas where the Persian Islamic traditions were dominant, that distinctive culture (Perso-Islamic) began to represent the culture of the rulers, these were/are the ashraf, the global people, whose ancestors had come from other cultures, or so they averred, and some certainly had but most only so claimed. The ashraf had … Read more

The Cultural Exchange Between Turks and Indians

Number of words: 425 Because most Indo-Persian chroniclers of medieval India identified Islam with the fortunes of their royal patrons, therefore, with sycophantic inaccuracy they reduced accounts of those reigns into such hagiographical nonsense as ‘India’s history’ begins only from when Muslims began to rule areas around Delhi/Agra/Malwa. This attitude can be traced to the … Read more

Evolution of Islamic Society in the Indian Context

Number of words: 222 It is, of course self-evident that Islam is not, just as Christianity or Zoroastrianism are not, indigenous to India, for born elsewhere Islam came to India wielding the evangelising sword of the invader; in consequence it arrived as an outsider and, at least initially, remained just that (an alien faith). But … Read more