Seminary par excellence

Though guilty of a blind idealisation of Shia and Sufi mysticism, Francis Robinson's book on Farangi Mahall is a seminal text, says SHAJAHAN MADAMPAT.

The worst of scholars is he who visits princes and the best of princes is he who visits scholars.

The worst of scholars is he who accepts help from princes, and whose welfare and salvation is dependent upon and stems from fear of princes.

THE quotes, attributed to Prophet Muhammad and to Jalaluddin Rumi respectively, provide a fine yardstick by which one could judge the integrity not only of the ulama, the learned men (and women) of Islam, but also intellectuals and "intellect workers" of other hues. Whatever the authenticity of the axioms, their basic postulate seems to have weighed heavily on the Muslim minds while "marking" their holy men. The ulama of Farangi Mahall, according to Francis Robinson, the distinguished British historian of South Asian Islam, appears to have famously passed this stringent test of "alimness", of course, with a few notable exceptions.

Francis Robinson's new book on the Farangi Mahall and its learned men is an exceptionally well-written, and near-comprehensive account of the rise and fall of an illustrious family of Islamic scholars and Sufi mystics, spanning a period of three centuries. The learned men of Farangi Mahall, Robinson argues, tempered the potential materiality of their profession as scholars and teachers with profound mysticism, and took utmost care not to let their mysticism slip into religious relativism and excessive self-indulgence.

The Farangi Mahallis trace their lineage, through the great scholar and mystic 'Abd Allah Ansari of Herat (1006-88), to Ayyub Ansari, the prophet's friend and standard bearer. Mulla Hafiz, a contemporary of the Emperor Akbar, is arguably the first in the family to have risen to eminence. He had received a generous madad-I-ma'ash grant in 1559 from Akbar. On the murder in 1692 of Mullah Qutub al-Din, a descendant of Mullah Hafiz and a fine alim, the emperor Aurangazeb recompensed his four sons by gifting them a European merchant's house in Lucknow and by providing grants to support their work. Around 1695, the family moved from Sihali in Awadh to their new house, now rechristened after its previous occupants.

Since then, Farangi Mahall has remained one of the pivotal centers of scholarship and mysticism in the Perso-Islamic tradition well into the second half of the 20th Century, drawing pupils and murids from all over the Muslim world and churning out a phenomenal number of outstanding works in theology, rational sciences, mysticism and jurisprudence. They also left behind a plethora of biographical sketches, as if they had foreseen scholarly attention on them later!

Till 1905, the Farangi Mahallis carried on their work without any central organising institution, "members of the family simply taught those who came to them in the porches and front rooms of their homes". It was only in 1905 that they managed to evolve an institutional framework, the madrasa-yi-'Aliya Nizamiyya, which continued to impart religious knowledge up to 1969. The most illustrious of the Farangi Mahall Ulama were Mullah Nizammuddin (died 1748), Mullah Mubin (died 1810-11), and Maulana 'Abd al- Bari (1878-1926), to name but a few. Maulana 'Abd al-Bari, the best known among them, was to become a key figure in the Khilafat movement, besides having played a major role in founding and spearheading such significant movements as the Jam'iat al-ulama- yi-Hind, Bazm-I suffiya-yi Hind, and the (in) famous Anjuman-I Khuddam-I Ka'ba.

The Farangi mahallis encapsulated their moderate vision of Islam in their dars-I-nizamiyya course, which drew heavily "on the rationalist traditions of scholarship derived from Iran". In fact, the Farangi Mahall remained to its very last a bastion of Perso-Islamic culture in India. While the Deobandis, Ulama of another major seat of Islamic learning, gave emphasis on the manqulat (revealed sciences), the Farangi Mahallis assigned primacy to ma'qulat (the rational sciences), which was criticised by their detractors as "a source of arid intellectualism and confusion".

The major shortcoming of the book is the blissful uncriticality that underlies the author's treatment of the subject. He tends to celebrate the Farangi Mahall, leaving even the lay reader skeptical. The fact that he bases much of his laudatory conclusions about the Farangi Mahallis on data, mostly written and partly oral, produced or furnished by themselves is a major drawback. Not even once he looks askance at the self-idolising narrations contained in the biographical sketches that constitute a lion's share of the author's primary sources. It would have immensely added to the credibility of the book had he, along with views of the the present generation of the Farangi Mahall, made an attempt at gathering the views of Muslim groups that are at odds with the Farangi Mahalli version of Islam. The conflicting views of a host of scholars from Shah Waliullah onwards should have been analysed in detail if a balanced position was to emerge.

Among academic scholars of Islam, Robinson included, a blind idealisation of the Shia and Sufi mysticism as representing the true spirit of Islam is a commonplace. They denigrate the reform movements, especially the scripturalist ones, as essentialist and backward looking. Though this reviewer partly agrees with this, it is also true that such movements have immensely contributed to stemming the tide of religious or spiritual corruption in the name of esotericism and mysticism. Islam can never be subjected to priestly or "saintly" exploitation if the basic principle of oneness of God, the imperative of direct communication between God and human beings, is firmly established. Tomb worship, a pet practice of the Farangi Mahallis, has been one of the most disgusting sources of exploitation among the Muslims for centuries. (For instance, see the way holiness is commercialised in Ajmere, the greatest center of spiritual mafia in India). Robinson also turns a blind eye to such superstitious practices that Perso-Islamic culture has perpetuated.

There are many other points on which one could join issue with the author. However, there cannot be two opinions on the fact that this is a seminal text that would go a long way in enhancing the available scholarship on Islam in South Asia.

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