Haji Imdadullah

Author: Moin Ahmad Nizami Series: Makers of Islamic Civilization

Haji Imdadullah (1817-1899), a notable Sufi of the Chishti order, settled in Makka after the 1857 Uprising in India. He guided disciples worldwide through letters and books, influencing Islamic movements. His life reflects early Muslim responses to modernization and efforts to minimize disputes within the community.

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Haji Imdadullah (1877-1899) was a prominent Sufi shaikh of the C Haji Imdadullah (1817-1899) was a prominent Sufi shaykh of the Chishti order. The first part of his life coincided with the period when the British were consolidating their power over India. His family were long settled in the small towns in the north of the country. During the repression that followed the 1857 Uprising against British rule, Imdadullah migrated to the Ottoman Hijaz and settled in Makka where he remained until his death. From there Imdadullah was able to establish his authority among a large and dispersed community of scholars and sufis. He continued to guide his disciples from across the Indian Ocean through his correspondence and his books. His authority spread further in India and into the wider Islamic world. His life, works, and legacy offer a window on an early stage of Muslim response to the forced encounter with the processes of modernization just as they gathered momentum. This book explains how Imdadullah came to be respected as a spiritual forefather of key seminaries at Deoband, Saharanpur and Lucknow, and of important movements such as Tablighi Jamaat and Jamiat-i Ulama-i Hind. It highlights some of the major intellectual trends of the period and their continued relevance: the convergence between the sufi and scholarly traditions; the networks that linked South Asian intellectuals with their peers elsewhere in the Islamic world; their use of print and improved transportation to sustain trans-Asian networks and to manoeuvre within them. It explains also how Imdadullah stood out among his contemporaries on account of his commitment to minimizing disputes over ritual and doctrine that were rife among Muslims in India and elsewhere.

About the Author

Moin Ahmad Nizami is Tun Abdul Razak Fellow in the study of Muslim South Asia at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, and a member of the Faculties of History and Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. He specializes in Indo-Muslim social and intellectual history. He is the author of Reform and Renewal in South Asian Islam: The Chishti-Sabris in 18th-19th century North India (Oxford University Press, 2017).