Geography of the Akabir of Deoband - V1 - 8.23.13

8/10/2019 Geography of the Akabir of Deoband - V1 - 8.23.13

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GEOGRAPHY OF THE A KABIR OF D EOBAND

A Tutorial for Orientation to MajorNames and Locations in the History

of Deoband

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Objectives

This tutorial is meant for people who have a generalknowledge of Deoband, its history, and its akabir (seniorscholars), but have difficulty keeping track of them all in

an organized manner. It aims to provide a framework forthinking about the akabir of Deoband based on the

geographical locations that have historical significance tothe movement.

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Table of ContentsPart I: Introduction

o Nisbah in the Arabic Naming Formato Review of the Early Akabir

Part II: Geographyo Indian Subcontinent at a Glanceo Uttar Pradesh Province

SaharanpurMuzaffarnagarMiscellaneous Districts

Part III: Conclusiono Exercises for Further Studyo Dua and Contact Information

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Nisbah : A Tool For Studying theAkabir

Nisbah is a particular part of a persons Arabic namethat indicates where they are from. Nisbah is a powerful

tool to help study the akabir of Deoband.If we understand the nisbahs of the akabir, we then

have a clue as to where they were from. This knowledgeallows us to organize the akabir in our heads, and keep

track of who is who.



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How to Recognize Nisbahs

English names are set up differently than Arabic names. In the English naming system, the

last name indicates the name of the family .

Ex. John SmithJohn : His personal given nameSmith : The name of his family

In the Arabic naming system, however, the last name doesnt indicate the name of thefamily. Rather, it indicates the name of the place the person is from . We call it thepersons nisbah .

Ex. Imam Jalaluddin as-Suyuti (a famous Egyptian Islamic scholar)

Jalaluddin : His personal given nameAs-Suyuti : His nisbah , indicating the city he was from the city of Asyut inEgypt.

Just by looking at Imam as- Suyutis name, we were able to guess where he was from!



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See how we can use the nisbahs in the names of the akabir tomap them out geographically?


Rashid Ahmad Gangohi

Given Name Nisbah , referring to hishometown of Gangoh (inNorthern India, Uttar Pradeshprovince, Saharanpur district)

Let us look at another example of nisbahs at play, this timeexamining the name of one of the akabir of Deoband.


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Given Name Nisbah Corresponding Location

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi Delhi

Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlawi Delhi

Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi Rae Bareili

Mamluk Ali Nanautwi Nanauta

Muhammad Qasim Nanautwi Nanauta

Rashid Ahmad Gangohi Gangoh

Muhammad Yaqub Nanautwi Nanauta

Muhammad Mazhar Nanautwi Nanauta

Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri SaharanpurAshraf Ali Thanwi Thana Bhawan

Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi Kandhla

Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi Kandhla


This table shows how the nisbah portion of the akabirs names correspond tothe name of their hometowns. In the next part of this tutorial, we will findthese towns on the map.


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Shah Waliullah

Shah Abdul Aziz

Sayyid AhmadShaheed

Haji Imdadullah

ShahMohammad

Ishaq

Shah AbdulGhani

Rasheeduddin

Mamluk Ali


As we conclude the introduction, let us remind ourselves of the teacher-studentrelationships between some of the major akabir of Deoband using this extremelysimplified chart.

Qasim Nanautwi Rasheed AhmadGangohi Yaqub NanautwiMazhar

Nanautwi

Dar al-Ulum Deoband

First Generation : Shaykh al-Hind, Ashraf Ali ThanwiSecond Generation : Husayn Ahmad Madani, Anwar Shah Kashmiri

Mazahir al-Ulum Saharanpur

First Generation: Khalil Ahmad SaharanpuriSecond Generation: M. Zakariyya Kandhlawi


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GEOGRAPHY

Part II:


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Most of theakabir hailedfrom thenorthern IndianSubcontinent,where Dar al-Ulum Deobandis also located.

Lets zoom in

and take acloser look.



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The Indian Subcontinent is made up of three modern- day countries

Pakistan India Bangladesh



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The Indian Subcontinent is bordered by

Iran and theMiddle Eastfrom the West

Afghanistan andCentral Asia from

the Northwest

Nepal, China,and South EastAsia in theNortheast

Bodies ofwater fromtheSouthwestandSoutheast



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Delhi is the capital ofmodern India as well as

the former MughalEmpire.

It is where the greatproto -Deobandi ulama,such as Shah Waliullah,Shah Abdul Aziz, ShahMuhammad Ishaq, andShah Abdul Ghani used toteach.

Youll notice, therefore,that all there namescontain the nisbahDehlawi .



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Delhi is also important inthe history of Deobandbecause the foundingmembers of Deoband

(such as Qasim Nanautwi,Rashid Ahmad Gangohi,and others) wereeducated at Delhi College (1825-1857).

Although it was a Britishinstitution, MaulanaMamluk Ali Nanautwi (astudent of the family ofShah Waliullah) was thehead of its Arabicdepartment, and it is fromhim that most of thefounding members ofDeoband studied theIslamic sciences.



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This map also shows therest of Indias numerous

provinces. Notice theprovince directly to theeast of Delhi: Uttar Pradesh .

This is an extremely

important province in thehistory of Deobandbecause this is wheremost of the early akabirwere from.

Lets zoom in on theprovince of Uttar Pradeshand take a closer look.



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Here we see thegeography of UttarPradesh. Notice that thisprovince contains manyrivers.

Locate two particularrivers on the map: theGanges and the Yamuna .The land between thesetwo rivers is called theDoab (in the Indianlanguages, Do meanstwo and Ab meanswater).

Many of the early akabirwere from the Doabregion of Uttar Pradesh.

Ganges

Yamuna


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This is a political map ofUttar Pradesh thatshows all of the districtswithin the province.

Country Province District City/Town

Can you find the Doab region that we learnedabout on the previousmap? Which districts it iscomprised of?



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Here is the Doabregion. If you scan theregion from north tosouth, youll notice

that it contains manydistricts:

Saharanpur,Muzaffarnagar,Meerut, Bijnor,Ghaziabad,Bulandshahar, Aligarh,and others.

Doab

Lets zoom in onSaharanpur district,

since it is the mostimportant one.


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Saharanpur is the

northernmost districtof the province ofUttar Pradesh.

Its capital city is alsocalled Saharanpur.

Its southern border isthe district ofMuzaffarnagar .



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The four most importantcities/towns in this

district for our purposesare:

1. Deoband2. Saharanpur3. Gangoh

4. Nanauta

Think of them as roughlyforming a triangle.

Saharanpur

Nanauta

Gangoh

Deoband


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Saharanpur

Nanauta

Gangoh

Deoband

The hometownof RasheedAhmad Gangohi

The hometown of Qasim Nanautwi (mainfounder of Deoband), as well as YaqubNanautwi (first head teacher), and MamlukAli Nanautwi (the teacher of them both atDelhi College)

The location of Dar al-Ulum Deoband , theOxford of all Deobandimadaris, and the firstto be founded. Itsgraduates carry thenisbah of Qasmi inreference to QasimNanautwi, its mainfounder and visionary.

The location of Mazahir al-Ulum , thesecond madrasah founded by theAkabir. If Deoband is the Oxford of allDeobandi madaris, Mazahir al-Ulum

would be Cambridge. This is also thehometown of Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri (its first Hadith teacher), and KhalilAhmad Saharanpuri (his student).

Notice how thenisbahs in the

akabirs names arereflective of their

hometowns.


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Here, again, is thepolitical map of UttarPradesh. We justlooked at Saharanpurdistrict. Now let uszoom in on the district

just south of it:Muzaffarnagar .


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This is a map of Muzaffarnagar district, the hometown of many Akabir. Its capital city isalso called Muzaffarnagar.

The Yamuna and Ganges rivers form its western and eastern borders. Saharanpur district isto its north, and Meerut district is to its south.


P a t h w a y o

f Y a m u n a R i v e r

P a t h w a y o f G a n g e s R i v e r


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The three most important locations in Muzaffarnagar lieapproximately in a line: Thana Bhawan, Shamli, and Kandhla.

Shamli

Thana Bhawan

Kandhla


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Shamli

Thana Bhawan

Kandhla

The hometown of Ashraf Ali Thanwi ,and the site of his khanqah. HajiImdadullah was also born here, but

he is more often known as Muhajir-Makki by nisbah , referring to hismigration to Makkah later in his life.

The hometown of the Kandhlawi family, which produced multipleimportant Akabir (see next slide)

The site of the Battle ofShamli , in which many earlyakabir participated underthe leadership of HajiImdadullah. The battle wasa part of a larger set ofuprisings against the British,collectively called the Indian Rebellion of 1857 .British victory in thisrebellion led to greatpersecution of the ulama,and prompted the akabir toform Dar al-Ulum Deobandas a way to safeguardreligious knowledge.


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Muhammad

Ismail Kandhlawi

MuhammadIlyas Kandhlawi

MuhammadYusuf Kandhlawi

MuhammadYahya

Kandhlawi

MuhammadZakariyyaKandhlawi

This is a tree of the Kandhlawi family of scholars who made great contributionsto the legacy of Deoband. They were all from the town of Kandhla , inMuzaffarnagar.

The patriarch of the family, he married into the familyof Muzaffar Husayn Kandhlawi, a student of ShahMuhammad Ishaq Dehlawi.

Founder of the Tablighi

Jamat, and its first Ameer.

Second Ameer ofthe Tablighi Jamat,and author of thewell-known book,Hayat al-Sahabah .

A talented scholar andclose disciple ofRasheed AhmadGangohi as well as KhalilAhmad Saharanpuri.

Well-renownedscholar and Hadithteacher, spiritualguide to manycontemporary seniorWestern Deobandiulama, and author ofthe popular book,Fazail -i Amaal .


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Here we again see themap of the districtswithin Uttar Pradeshprovince. We have justdiscussed Saharanpurand Muzaffarnagardistricts.

What are some otherimportant districts tobe aware of?


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Lucknow is the capital ofUttar Pradesh. In Mughaltimes, it was the home ofthe Farangi Mahal familyof scholars (with the

nisbah of Laknawi ). Thecurriculum that theFarangi Mahalis taughtwas eventually adaptedby the Akabir ofDeoband to create theDars-i Nizami curriculumused in DeobandiMadaris.

Lucknow is also thelocation of Dar al-UlumNadwat al-Ulama ,

popularly known asNadwa , a madrasa thatgrew out of Deoband.Their graduates carry thenisbah of Nadwi .


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Aligarh is the location ofAligarh Muslim Universityfounded by Sir SayyidAhmad Khan. He was acontemporary of Qasim

Nanautwi, and the twoshared common teachers.

Sir Sayyid favored Britishcolonization of India andthe promotion of Westerneducational systems, avision very different fromthe Akabir of Deoband.Nevertheless, the faculty ofIslamic studies at Aligarhhas had a close relationshipwith Dar al-Ulum Deoband.

Indeed, Sir Sayyidappointed MaulanaAbdullah Ansari, who wasthe son-in-law of QasimNanautwi and the grandsonof Mamluk Ali, to be thefirst dean of the

department.


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Rae Bareli and Bareillyare two differentlocalities that are oftenconfused because theysound similar.

Rae Bareli is thehometown of SayyidAhmad Shaheed, astudent of Shah AbdulAziz. He was consideredthe reformer of his time,and the Akabir ofDeoband trace theirlegacy back to hismovement to reconnectthe Muslims of colonialIndia to the Sunnah.

Bareilly is the hometownof Ahmad Raza Khan,founder of the Barelvimovement.

Bareilly

Rae Bareli


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Finally, notice how nearDehli is to the locations wehave just studied. It makessense, then, that the earlyAkabir went to Delhi topursue their studies in theIslamic sciences with therenowned Waliullahischolars.


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CONCLUSION

Part III


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Exercises for Further Study

This tutorial focused mostly on the early Akabir, up tothe second generation. Try looking at Akabir of thethird, fourth, and fifth generations and mapping out

their hometowns and later centers of knowledge. Find a map and locate other important Deobandi

centers such as Gujurat and Hyderabad, as well ascenters in other countries, particularly Pakistan,Bangladesh, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

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Please make dua that Allah forgives the sins of the authorof this presentation, Shoaib A. Rasheed; that He imbibesthe faith and sincerity of the Akabir into the author and

readers; and that we are all resurrected behind theirleader on the Day of Judgment.

Any comments, errors, or suggestions for future versionscan be forwarded to [email protected].

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Geography of the Akabir of Deoband - V1 - 8.23.13