The Marginalised Historian From Azamgarh

Azamgarh is well-known for its mafia dons, conservative mullahs, wily politicians, revolutionary poets and a motley of other people driven by their passion for excellence in whatever fields they have been assertively marking their presence. Though Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman was of Bihari-origin, and Biharis are no less assertive, he is not known outside the Urdu literary and intellectual circles, despite the fact that he spent a lifetime working at the Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy, at Azamgarh, and writing dozens of books in Urdu on a whole range of themes in medieval Indian history.

Syed Sabahuddin’s three major and early works consist of the Bazm (literally, assembly, or gathering) trilogy: a history of Sufism in the Delhi Sultanate, entitled Bazm-i Sufiya: Ahd-i Taimuri se Qabl Akabir Sufiya (1949) and two monographs on the literary history of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal India, entitled Bazm-i-Mamlukiya (1954) and Bazm-i-Taimuriya (1948), respectively. His works on Islam and politics include Hindustan ke Salatin, Ulama aur Masha’ikh ke T‘alluqat par ek Nazar (An Overview of the Relations between the Sultans, Ulama and the Sufis of Hindustan, 1964) and Musalman Hukmaranon ki Mazhabi Rawadari (The Religious Tolerance of Muslim Rulers, 3 vols, 1975-84), followed by a work of a theoretical nature, Islam Mein Mazhabi Rawadari (Religious Tolerance in Islam, 1987).

The author’s attempts to outline social and cultural history (primarily a response to Elliot and Dowson’s colonial history project) may be seen in his: Hindustan ke Ahd-i Wusta ki jhalak (Glimpses of Hindustan in the Medieval Period, 1958); Hindustan ke Musalman Hukmaranon ke Ahd ke Tamadduni Jalwe (The Cultural Contours of Hindustan During the Reign of Muslim Rulers, 1963); and Hindustan ki Bazm-i Rafta ki Sachchi Kahaniyan (True Accounts from the Social Past of Hindustan), 2 vols, 1968-74. For a kind of patriotism, one may consult, Salatin-e Dehli ke Ahd Mein Hindustan se Muhabbat-wa-Sheftagi ke Jazbat (The Passionate Expression of Love and Affection for Hindustan During the Period of the Delhi Sultans, 1983). Further, Syed Sabahuddin also wrote a biography of the founder of the Mughal empire, Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur (1967/revised in 1986 in the wake of the Babri Masjid crisis). Finally, in consonance with the general thrust of the institution since the time of its early 20th-century founder, Allama Shibli Numani, Abdur Rahman published a five-volume compilation on Islam and Orientalism, Islam aur Mustashriqin 1985-6).

Writing in Urdu from a place like Azamgarh and with a perspective of an Indian nationalist maulvi, Sabahuddin’s work was easily marginalized, especially in a context where historians needed to establish themselves in metropolitan universities, producing their work in English and also serving as flag-bearers of secularism. Besides, the voices of the maulvis are often lost in the narrow bylanes of Muslim slums of the cities, even if some of them might be articulating justifiable opinion on what ails the world around them.

Exploring a middle ground of speaking for Islam from within an Indian nationalist perspective, highlighting in somewhat exaggerated manner the glorious achievements of Muslims in the middle ages, and lamenting the loss of that old world by the early-19th century, Sabahuddin wrote: When the rulers came along with their nobles conquering Hindustan, they also brought with them the traditions and customs of Arabia, Persia, and Turkistan, and while staying in Hindustan they were influenced by the Hindustani environment as well. Thus, according to Sabahuddin, the texture of their social and cultural lives drew on various sources, which acquired the coating of Islam because of the deliberate or subconscious efforts of these rulers, to such an extent that, rightly or wrongly, it came to be known as Islamic culture and society, and all possible effort was made to give a veneer of splendour to it.

In Sabahuddin’s creative imagination, the Muslim rulers had already demonstrated the grandeur and awe of Islamic political and cultural life by constructing Qutb Minar, Lal Qila, and Taj Mahal; it was left to the religious leaders and reformers to engage their anxious hearts and devoted minds to building the Qutb Minar and Taj Mahal of the moral conduct and character of Muslims, and thus transforming their fate. However, the author laments, they could not do this, and by the time some initiatives were taken, it was too late. At the time when daring, self-sacrificing, and shroud-wearing ulama were required to rise to the occasion, they were conspicuously absent.

Departing from the usual struggles of the protagonists of secularism and Hindutva, Sabahuddin formulated a complex argument in this interesting manner: It is a travesty within Indian history that amongst Muslim rulers – most of whom are accused of religious discrimination – those that killed Hindus and demolished temples were born to Hindu mothers. Generally, scholars mention Firuz Shah Tughluq, Sikandar Lodi, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb in connection with the destruction of temples. The mothers of the first four were Hindus; in the case of Aurangzeb, it was not his mother, but his grandmother who was a Rajput princess. Therefore, certain Hindu observers have remarked that the descendents of mixed marriages were much more biased and antagonistic towards Hindus than those of pure Muslim blood. Now, if it is accepted that Aurangzeb’s discriminatory religious policy led to the rise of Shivaji, then the existence of Rana Pratap under a just emperor like Akbar is unintelligible. Both Rana Pratap and Shivaji have become national heroes of the Hindus, but even the most patriotic Musalman is not willing to accept them as his national heroes.

The agenda of communal harmony also exists in the vernacular Islamist tradition as much as in the English. In the preface to the first volume of Musalman Hukmaranon ki Mazhabi Rawadari, Sabahuddin clearly states the purpose of writing this book: Zer-i nazar kitab dilon ko jodne ke liye murattab ki gayi hai, is mein nafrat wa adavat ke jazbat ubhaarne ke bajaye muhabbat wa yaganagat ki khushgawar laher daudti nazar ayegi (The present work has been written to unite the hearts of the people. Instead of raising the sentiments of hatred and animosity, the pleasant themes of love and unity will run through the book). This is further stressed in the dedication to the volume: Hindu-Muslim ki yaganegat, muanesat aur jazbaati ham-ahangi ke naam (For Hindu-Muslim unity, affection and emotional harmony).

Clearly, secularists were not the only academics or propagandists working for religious tolerance and communal harmony. This was recognized by Dr Zakir Husain in his presidential address to the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Darul Musannefin: At a time when most historians were portraying medieval Hindustan as a complex of violent upheaval which saw various strands of Islamic and Hindu cultures getting locked in conflict, the historians of Darul Musannefin attempted to demonstrate that the interaction between the two cultures led to commingling and not quarrel, confluence and not clashes.

In these times of quarrels and clashes, such small voices as those of Syed Sabahuddin tend to get lost in the dust-bin of history. Newspapers can endlessly write about Daud Ibrahim and his aides, but can a Sabahuddin also get a small column?

[Based on a chapter in Raziuddin Aquil and Partha Chatterjee, edited, History in the Vernacular, New Delhi: Permanent Black, paperback edition 2012].