A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia

by Manan Ahmed Asif

Overview

Manan Ahmed Asif shows that the Chachnama is a sophisticated work of political theory, embedded in both the Indic and Islamic ethos. His social and intellectual history of this text offers an important corrective to the divisions between Muslim and Hindu that so often define Pakistani and Indian politics today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674660113
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/19/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Manan Ahmed Asif is Associate Professor of History at Columbia University and the author of A Book of Conquest (Harvard).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Note on Transliteration and Translation xi

Introduction 1

1 Frontier with the House of Gold 23

2 A Foundation for History 47

3 Dear Son, What Is the Matter with You? 78

4 A Demon with Ruby Eyes 103

5 The Half Smile 128

6 A Conquest of Pasts 150

Conclusion 180

Notes 187

Works Cited 219

Acknowledgments 235

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

This is an innovative, refreshing, and provocative intellectual history that makes a major intervention in debates surrounding the question of Islam’s ‘advent’ in the South Asian subcontinent. In A Book of Conquest, Manan Ahmed Asif aims at dismantling the dominant origin myth that portrays Islam’s encounter with India as a conquest.
— Ayesha Jalal, Tufts University

A Book of Conquest is an important study that joins a growing conversation about precolonial India, moving beyond both colonial and nationalist tropes concerning the place and origins of Muslims in Indian society. Manan Ahmed Asif’s radical re-reading of the Chachnama aims to correct portrayals of the Muslims of India as descendants of foreign conquerors.
— Richard Eaton, University of Arizona

Ahmed’s re-reading will no doubt provoke scholars in both Pakistan and India. It cuts against the grain of the way the Chachnama has been discussed and taught for centuries. Though its rigorously argued style may not help win the readership it deserves outside academia, the book comes at a pivotal time.
— Kanishk Tharoor The Hindu Business Line

A thorough and detailed study of the early-thirteenth-century Persian narrative Chachnama, by Muhammad Ali Kufi of Uch. Asif’s reading of the narrative seeks to dislodge earlier—particularly colonial and nationalist—interpretations that labeled the Chachnama a book of conquest…By reading the Chachnama as a whole and within its context, Asif convincingly argues that it is a political tract focused on the ethics of political and social relationships and accommodating sacral and other differences.
— Chitralekha Zutshi American Historical Review

From the Publisher

A Book of Conquest is an important study that joins a growing conversation about precolonial India, moving beyond both colonial and nationalist tropes concerning the place and origins of Muslims in Indian society. Manan Ahmed Asif’s radical re-reading of the Chachnama aims to correct portrayals of the Muslims of India as descendants of foreign conquerors.

Richard Eaton

This is an innovative, refreshing, and provocative intellectual history that makes a major intervention in debates surrounding the question of Islam’s ‘advent’ in the South Asian subcontinent. In A Book of Conquest, Manan Ahmed Asif aims at dismantling the dominant origin myth that portrays Islam’s encounter with India as a conquest.

Ayesha Jalal

Ahmed’s re-reading will no doubt provoke scholars in both Pakistan and India. It cuts against the grain of the way the Chachnama has been discussed and taught for centuries. Though its rigorously argued style may not help win the readership it deserves outside academia, the book comes at a pivotal time.

The Hindu Business Line - Kanishk Tharoor

A thorough and detailed study of the early-thirteenth-century Persian narrative Chachnama, by Muhammad Ali Kufi of Uch. Asif’s reading of the narrative seeks to dislodge earlier—particularly colonial and nationalist—interpretations that labeled the Chachnama a book of conquest…By reading the Chachnama as a whole and within its context, Asif convincingly argues that it is a political tract focused on the ethics of political and social relationships and accommodating sacral and other differences.

Chitralekha Zutshin Historical Review

A thorough and detailed study of the early-thirteenth-century Persian narrative Chachnama, by Muhammad Ali Kufi of Uch. Asif’s reading of the narrative seeks to dislodge earlier—particularly colonial and nationalist—interpretations that labeled the Chachnama a book of conquest…By reading the Chachnama as a whole and within its context, Asif convincingly argues that it is a political tract focused on the ethics of political and social relationships and accommodating sacral and other differences.

American Historical Review - Chitralekha Zutshi