Making Shiʿism an Indian Religion: A Perspective from the Qutb Shahi Deccan

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ReOrient

Volume 5, Issue 2

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Making Shiʿism an Indian Religion: A Perspective from the Qutb Shahi Deccan

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Author(s): Karen Ruffle

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2020

Journal: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Qutb Shahi dynasty, Deccani Shiʿism, Hyderabad-Golconda, Charminar, ta'ziya , Shi'i-dharmic kingship, Safavid dynasty, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Mir Muhammad Mu'min Astarabadi, Kakatiya dynasty, formation of Shi'i identity

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Abstract

Engaging an ethnohistorical approach, this essay examines how the Qutb Shahi sultans represented themselves locally and regionally through the use of built space, sponsorship of ritual and innovation of material practices that enabled diverse constituents of the realm to participate in and remember the martyrdom of the third Shi'i Imam Husain at the battle of Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE in ways that made Shiʿism an Indian religion. I use a case study engaging material culture and built space in imperial Hyderabad to demonstrate how the Qutb Shahi sultans became Deccani, using Shiʿism as both an expression of their identity and a polyvalent religio-cultural mediation with the Hindu majority communities over which they ruled. The essay examines the Charminar of the fifth sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (r. 1580–1612), the monumental gateway to the new city of Hyderabad, as a polyvalent symbol of their status as Shi'i upholders of dharmic kingship.

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Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50009694

Journal ID (jcode): reorient

Title: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2055-5601

ISSN: 2055-561X

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2020

Volume: 5

Issue: 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/reorient.5.issue-2 )

Pages: 287-304

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University of Toronto, Canada

Article

Publisher ID: reorient.5.2.0287

DOI: 10.13169/reorient.5.2.0287

SO-VID: f69ceb16-0819-4003-bb32-b8344be21827

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Literary studies,Religious studies & Theology,Social & Behavioral Sciences,History,Philosophy

Keywords: Deccani Shiʿism,Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah,formation of Shi'i identity,Charminar, ta'ziya ,Qutb Shahi dynasty,Hyderabad-Golconda,Shi'i-dharmic kingship,Mir Muhammad Mu'min Astarabadi,Safavid dynasty,Kakatiya dynasty

References

Alam, M. and Subrahmanyam, S. (2006). When hell is other people: A Safavid view of seventeenth-century Mughal India. In Pfeiffer, J., Quinn, S., and Tucker, E. (eds.), History and Historiography of the Post-Mongol Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 485–528.
Allan, J. W. (2012) The Art and Architecture of Twelver Shiʿism: Iraq, Iran, and the Indian Subcontinent. London: Azimuth Editions.
Babaie, S. (2015) Sacred sites of kingship: The Maydan and mapping the spatial-spiritual vision of the empire in Safavid Iran. In Babaie, S. and Grigor, T. (ed.). Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. London: I. B. Tauris.
Babayan, K. (2002) Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bellamy, C. (2006) Absence, Presence, and the Ecumenical Appeal of Indian Islamic Healing Centers. Hindu Studies. 10, 207–224.
Bilgrami, S. A. A. (1927) Landmarks of the Deccan. Hyderabad: Government Central Press.
Butler Brown, K. (2006) Evidence of Indo-Persian musical synthesis? The Tanbur and Rudra Vina in seventeenth-century Indo-Persian treatises. Unpublished draft.
Chattopadhyaya, B. (2007) Images of raiders and rulers. In Khanna, M. (ed.). Cultural History of Medieval India. New Delhi: Social Sciences Press, 101–25.
Chau, A. Y. (2008) The sensorial production of the social. Ethnos. 73 (4), 485–504.
Dirks, N. (1987) The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eaton, R. (2000) Temple desecration and Indo-Muslim states. Journal of Islamic Studies. 11(3), 283–319.
Eaton, R. (2015) A history of the deccan, 1500–1700. In Haidar, N. N. and Sardar, M. (eds.). Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3–13.
Eaton, R. M. and Wagoner, P. B. (2014) Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India's Deccan Plateau, 1300–1600. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Fischel, R. S. (2012) Society, Space and the State in the Deccan Sultanates, 1565–1636. PhD Diss., University of Chicago.
Ghauri, I. A. (1969) Origin of the Quṭb Shāhs of Golconda. Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. 17, 228–30.
Haidar, N. N. and Sardar, M., eds. (2015) Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hodgson, M.G.S. (1977 [1974]) The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Islam, R. (1982) A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian Relations (1500–1750). Vol. II. Karachi: Institute of Central & West Asian Studies.
Kia, M. (2009) Accounting for difference: A comparative look at the autobiographical travel narratives of Hazin Lāhiji and 'Abd al-Karim Kashmiri. Journal of Persianate Studies. 2, 210–36.
Lambourn, E. (2011) A self-conscious art? Seeing micro-architecture in Sultanate South Asia. Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. 27 (1), 121–56.
Mancini-Lander, D. J. (2018) Tales bent backward: Early modern local history in Persianate transregional contexts. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 28 (1), 23–54.
Michell, G. and Zebrowski, M. (1999) The Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Naqvi S. (1994) Iran-Deccan Relations. Hyderabad: Bab-ul-Ilm Society.
Naqvi, S. (2003) The Iranian Afaquies' Contribution to the Qutb Shahi and Adil Shahi Kingdoms. Hyderabad: Bab-ul-Ilm Society.
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Rizvi, S. A. A. (1986) A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna Ashari Shi'is of India, Volume 1. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Ruffle, K. (2017) Presence in absence: The formation of reliquary Shiʿism in Qutb Shahi Hyderabad. Material Religion. 13(3), 329–53.
Ruffle, K. (2016) Guises of the protective hand: The Alam and the ‘domestication’ of Qutb Shahi Shiʿism. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 32 (1), 54–67.
Said, E. W. (1993) Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage.
Sherwani, H. K. (1974) History of the Quṭb Shāhī Dynasty. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Sherwani, H. K. (1967). Muhammad-Quli Qutb Shah, Founder of Haidarabad. London: Asia Publishing House.
Shurreef, J. (1991) Qanoon-e Islam, Or the Customs of the Mussalmans of India. Translated by Herklots, G. A. 2nd edition. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
Stewart, T. K., and Ernst, C. W. (2003) Syncretism. In Claus, P.J. and Mills, M.M. (eds). South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. New York: Garland Publishing, 586–8.
Subrahmanyam, S. (1992) Iranians abroad: Intra-Asian elite migration and early modern state formation. The Journal of Asian Studies. 51 (2), 340–63.
Sunnah of Applying Surma. http://www.zikr.co.uk/content/view/68/109/. Accessed April 26, 2018.
Tuzuk-e Quṭb Shāhī. Hyderabad: Salar Jung Museum Library, 1275/1858. Ta. 488.
Wagoner, P. B. (2004) The Place of Warangal's Kirti-Toranas in the History of Indian Islamic Architecture. Religion and the Arts 8 (1), 6–36.
Wagoner, P. B. and Weinstein, L. (2017) The Deccani Sultanates and their interregional connections. In Flood, B. F. and Negioğlu, G. (eds.). A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 777–804.
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Alam, M. and Subrahmanyam, S. (2006). When hell is other people: A Safavid view of seventeenth-century Mughal India. In Pfeiffer, J., Quinn, S., and Tucker, E. (eds.), History and Historiography of the Post-Mongol Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 485–528.

[2] Allan, J. W. (2012) The Art and Architecture of Twelver Shiʿism: Iraq, Iran, and the Indian Subcontinent. London: Azimuth Editions.

[3] Babaie, S. (2015) Sacred sites of kingship: The Maydan and mapping the spatial-spiritual vision of the empire in Safavid Iran. In Babaie, S. and Grigor, T. (ed.). Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. London: I. B. Tauris.

[4] Babayan, K. (2002) Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[5] Bellamy, C. (2006) Absence, Presence, and the Ecumenical Appeal of Indian Islamic Healing Centers. Hindu Studies. 10, 207–224.

[6] Bilgrami, S. A. A. (1927) Landmarks of the Deccan. Hyderabad: Government Central Press.

[7] Butler Brown, K. (2006) Evidence of Indo-Persian musical synthesis? The Tanbur and Rudra Vina in seventeenth-century Indo-Persian treatises. Unpublished draft.

[8] Chattopadhyaya, B. (2007) Images of raiders and rulers. In Khanna, M. (ed.). Cultural History of Medieval India. New Delhi: Social Sciences Press, 101–25.

[9] Chau, A. Y. (2008) The sensorial production of the social. Ethnos. 73 (4), 485–504.

[10] Dirks, N. (1987) The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[11] Eaton, R. (2000) Temple desecration and Indo-Muslim states. Journal of Islamic Studies. 11(3), 283–319.

[12] Eaton, R. (2015) A history of the deccan, 1500–1700. In Haidar, N. N. and Sardar, M. (eds.). Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3–13.

[13] Eaton, R. M. and Wagoner, P. B. (2014) Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India's Deccan Plateau, 1300–1600. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

[14] Fischel, R. S. (2012) Society, Space and the State in the Deccan Sultanates, 1565–1636. PhD Diss., University of Chicago.

[15] Ghauri, I. A. (1969) Origin of the Quṭb Shāhs of Golconda. Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. 17, 228–30.

[16] Haidar, N. N. and Sardar, M., eds. (2015) Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[17] Hodgson, M.G.S. (1977 [1974]) The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[18] Islam, R. (1982) A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian Relations (1500–1750). Vol. II. Karachi: Institute of Central & West Asian Studies.

[19] Kia, M. (2009) Accounting for difference: A comparative look at the autobiographical travel narratives of Hazin Lāhiji and 'Abd al-Karim Kashmiri. Journal of Persianate Studies. 2, 210–36.

[20] Lambourn, E. (2011) A self-conscious art? Seeing micro-architecture in Sultanate South Asia. Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. 27 (1), 121–56.

[21] Mancini-Lander, D. J. (2018) Tales bent backward: Early modern local history in Persianate transregional contexts. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 28 (1), 23–54.

[22] Michell, G. and Zebrowski, M. (1999) The Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[23] Naqvi S. (1994) Iran-Deccan Relations. Hyderabad: Bab-ul-Ilm Society.

[24] Naqvi, S. (2003) The Iranian Afaquies' Contribution to the Qutb Shahi and Adil Shahi Kingdoms. Hyderabad: Bab-ul-Ilm Society.

[25] Nayeem, M. A. (2006) The Heritage of the Qutb Shahis of Golconda and Hyderabad. Hyderabad: Hyderabad Publishers.

[26] Nuri, M. A. A. S. (1978) Ḥaidarābād meiṅ, ṣan'at-e 'alam-sāzī (The Art of 'Alam Making in Hyderabad). In Wafa, T.H. (ed.). Ḥaidarābād kī 'azādārī. Hyderabad: National Fine Printers.

[27] Philon, H. (2010) Silent Splendour: Palaces of the Deccan, 14th-19th Centuries. Mumbai: Marg.

[28] Rizvi, S. A. A. (1986) A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna Ashari Shi'is of India, Volume 1. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

[29] Ruffle, K. (2017) Presence in absence: The formation of reliquary Shiʿism in Qutb Shahi Hyderabad. Material Religion. 13(3), 329–53.

[30] Ruffle, K. (2016) Guises of the protective hand: The Alam and the ‘domestication’ of Qutb Shahi Shiʿism. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 32 (1), 54–67.

[31] Said, E. W. (1993) Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage.

[32] Sherwani, H. K. (1974) History of the Quṭb Shāhī Dynasty. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

[33] Sherwani, H. K. (1967). Muhammad-Quli Qutb Shah, Founder of Haidarabad. London: Asia Publishing House.

[34] Shurreef, J. (1991) Qanoon-e Islam, Or the Customs of the Mussalmans of India. Translated by Herklots, G. A. 2nd edition. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.

[35] Stewart, T. K., and Ernst, C. W. (2003) Syncretism. In Claus, P.J. and Mills, M.M. (eds). South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. New York: Garland Publishing, 586–8.

[36] Subrahmanyam, S. (1992) Iranians abroad: Intra-Asian elite migration and early modern state formation. The Journal of Asian Studies. 51 (2), 340–63.

[37] Sunnah of Applying Surma. http://www.zikr.co.uk/content/view/68/109/. Accessed April 26, 2018.

[38] Tuzuk-e Quṭb Shāhī. Hyderabad: Salar Jung Museum Library, 1275/1858. Ta. 488.

[39] Wagoner, P. B. (2004) The Place of Warangal's Kirti-Toranas in the History of Indian Islamic Architecture. Religion and the Arts 8 (1), 6–36.

[40] Wagoner, P. B. and Weinstein, L. (2017) The Deccani Sultanates and their interregional connections. In Flood, B. F. and Negioğlu, G. (eds.). A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 777–804.

[41] Zore, M. Q. (1941) Mir Muhammad Mu'min. Hyderabad: Sab Ras Kitab Ghar.