Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations Illustrations and Maps Acknowledgments Preface 1. Delhi at the Center of Islamic Authority 2. Pre-Islamic Prophetic Paradigms in Delhi Sultanate Historiography 3. Mu?ammad’s Example as the Perfect Ruler 4. Images of the Friends of God in the Lives of Sultans 5. Caliphal Authority and Representation in the Delhi Sultanate 6. Shar??ah and Justice Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

Suitable for those interested in Islamic studies, religion, and South Asia, this book investigates the ways three historians living in India during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Minhaj Siraj Juzjani, Ziya' al-Din Barani and al-Din Siraj 'Afif, narrated the religious values of Muslim sovereigns through the process of history writing.

About the Author

Blain H. Auer is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Western Michigan University, Michigan. He specializes in Islam in the context of premodern South Asia. In particular, he studies the representations of Islamic authority exhibited through the use of the Qur'an, Hadith, exegesis and history writing produced during the Delhi Sultanate. A second area of research focuses on modern ritual, pilgrimage and relics connected with the burial places of the special dead in Islam.

Reviews

'Blain Auer's book brings a refreshing new approach to the sources of Sultanate history.' Daud Ali, Associate Professor and Chair of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania. 'An outstanding contribution, skillfully utilizing intellectual frameworks from religious studies, history and area studies, that explores the array of Islamic values that legitimize constructions of religious and political authority in Muslim South Asia.' Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures and Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University. 'This elegantly written book offers a nuanced and innovative reading of Delhi Sultanate historiography, moving beyond earlier approaches to the material by analyzing the discursive formations of royal power and legitimacy. Auer provides a masterful analysis of various narratological devices deployed in the Persian historical sources of the period that promote the religious and political authority of the Delhi sultans. This includes a rich examination of the patterns of sacred authority found in the lives of the prophets, the memorialization of Sufi saints, as well as in architectural, codicological and numismatic displays of power. Auer sheds light on how the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate ideologically grafted themselves into the larger arc of Islamic salvation history and does an excellent job situating this important period within the scholarly field of Islamic studies.' Travis Zadeh, Assistant Professor of Religion, Haverford College, Philadelphia.