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Caste System Among Muslims
Muslim communities in South Asia have a system of social stratification arising from concepts other than "pure" and "impure", which are integral to the caste system in India. It developed as a result of relations among foreign conquerors, local upper-caste Hindus convert to Islam (''ashraf'', also known as ''tabqa-i ashrafiyya'') and local lower-caste converts (''ajlaf''), as well as the continuation of the Indian caste system by converts. Non-''ashrafs'' are backward-caste converts. The concept of ''"pasmanda"'' includes ''ajlaf'' and ''arzal'' Muslims; ''ajlaf'' status is defined by descent from converts to Islam and by ''pesha'' (profession). These terms are not part of the sociological vocabulary in regions such as Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh, and say little about the functioning of Muslim society. The Biradari system is social stratification in Pakistan and, to an extent, India. The South Asian Muslim caste system includes hierarchical classifications of ''khandan'' (dynasty, ...
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Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the last Islamic prophet. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous Islamic holy books, revelations, such as the Tawrat (Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injeel (Gospel). These earlier revelations are associated with Judaism and Christianity, which are regarded by Muslims as earlier versions of Islam. The majority of Muslims also follow the teachings and practices attributed to Muhammad (''sunnah'') as recorded in traditional accounts (hadith). With an estimated population of almost 2 billion followers, Muslims comprise around 26% of the world's total population. In descending order, the percentage of people who identify as Muslims on each ...
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Siyasatnama
''Siyāsatnāmeh'' (, ), also known as ''Siyar al-mulûk'' (, ), is the most famous work by Nizam al-Mulk, the founder of Nizamiyyah schools in medieval Persia and vazier to the Seljuq sultans Alp Arslan and Malik Shah. Nizam al-Mulk possessed "''immense power''" as the head administration for the Seljuq empire over a period of 30 years and was responsible for establishing distinctly Persian forms of Islamic government and administration which would last for centuries. A great deal of his approach to governing is contained within the Siyasatnameh which is in a tradition of Persian-Islamic writing known as the "Mirrors for Princes". Written in Persian and composed in the eleventh century, the Siyasatnameh was created following the request by Malik Shah that his ministers produce books on government, administration and the troubles facing the nation. However, the treatise compiled by Nizam al-Mulk was the only one to receive approval and was consequently accepted as forming " ...
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Fatwa
A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', and the act of issuing fatwas is called ''ifta. Fatwas have played an important role throughout Islamic history, taking on new forms in the modern era. Resembling ''jus respondendi'' in Roman law and rabbinic ''responsa'', privately issued fatwas historically served to inform Muslim populations about Islam, advise courts on difficult points of Islamic law, and elaborate substantive law. In later times, public and political fatwas were issued to take a stand on doctrinal controversies, legitimize government policies or articulate grievances of the population. During the era of mass European/Christian invasions, fatwas played a part in mobilizing resistance against foreign aggressors. Muftis acted as independent scholars in the classical ...
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Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.Delhi Sultanate
Encyclopædia Britannica
The sultanate was established around in the former Ghurid Empire, Ghurid territories in India. The sultanate's history is generally divided into five periods: Mamluk dynasty (Delhi), Mamluk (1206–1290), Khalji dynasty, Khalji (1290–1320), Tughlaq dynasty, Tughlaq (1320–1414), Sayyid dynasty, Sayyid (1414–1451), and Lodi dynasty, Lodi (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, as well as some parts of southern Nepal. The foundation of the Sultanate was established by the Ghurid conqueror Muhammad of Ghor, Muhammad ...
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Ziauddin Barani
Ziauddin Barani (‎; 1285–1357) was an Indian political thinker of the Delhi Sultanate located in present-day Northern India during Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firuz Shah's reign. He was best known for composing the ''Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi'' (also called ''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi''), a work on medieval India, which covers the period from the reign of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq to the first six years of the reign of Firoz Shah Tughluq; and the ''Fatwa-i-Jahandari'' which promoted a hierarchy among Muslim communities in the Indian subcontinent, although according to M. Athar Ali it was not based on race or even like the caste system, but taking as a model of Sassanid Iran, which promoted an idea of aristocracy through birth and which was claimed by Persians to be "fully in accordance with the main thrust of Islamic thought as it had developed by that time", including in the works of his near-contemporary Ibn Khaldun. Life Barani was born in 1285, to an Indian Muslim family native t ...
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Louis Dumont
Louis Charles Jean Dumont (11 August 1911 – 19 November 1998) was a French anthropologist. Dumont was born in Thessaloniki, in the Salonica Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. He taught at Oxford University during the 1950s, and was then director of the '' École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales'' (EHESS) in Paris. A specialist on the cultures and societies of India, Dumont also studied western social philosophy and ideologies. Works His works include '' Homo Hierarchicus: Essai sur le système des castes'' (1966), ''From Mandeville to Marx: The Genesis and Triumph of Economic Ideology'' (1977) and ''Essais sur l'individualisme: Une perspective anthropologique sur l'idéologie moderne'' (1983), in which he contrasts holism with individualism. Dumont died in 1998, aged 87, in Paris. See also *Alliance theory Alliance theory, also known as the general theory of exchanges, is a Structuralism, structuralist method of studying kinship relations. It finds its origins in ...
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Sharif
Sharīf or Sherif (, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad ( ). It may be used in three senses: #In the broadest sense, it refers to any descendant of Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim (the Banu Hashim or Hashimites, already in Muhammad's day an established clan within the Meccan tribe of the Quraysh), including all descendants of Muhammad's paternal uncles Abu Talib (the Talibids) and al-Abbas (the Abbasids).. #More often, it refers to a descendant of Ali, a son of Abu Talib and a paternal cousin of Muhammad (the Alids), especially but not exclusively through Ali's marriage with Muhammad's daughter Fatima (the Fatimids). In the sense of descendants of Fatima and Ali (the most common one), the term effectively refers to all descendants of Muhammad. # ...
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Muslim Conquests In The Indian Subcontinent
The Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent mainly took place between the 13th and the 18th centuries, establishing the Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent, Indo-Muslim period. Early Muslim conquests, Earlier Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent include the invasions which started in the Northwest India (pre-1947), northwestern Indian subcontinent (modern-day Pakistan), especially the Umayyad campaigns in India, Umayyad campaigns during the 8th century. Mahmud of Ghazni, sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire, preserved an ideological link to the suzerainty of the Abbasid caliph, Abbasid Caliphate and invaded vast parts of Punjab and Gujarat during the 11th century. After the capture of Siege of Lahore (1186), Lahore and the end of the Ghaznavids, the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor laid the foundation of Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent, Muslim rule in India in 1192. In 1202, Bakhtiyar Khalji led the Muslim conquest of Bengal, marking the easternmost expansion of ...
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Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India.. Quote: "The realm so defined and governed was a vast territory of some , ranging from the frontier with Central Asia in northern Afghanistan to the northern uplands of the Deccan plateau, and from the Indus basin on the west to the Assamese highlands in the east." The Mughal Empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a Tribal chief, chieftain from what is today Uzbekistan, who employed aid from the neighboring Safavid Iran, Safavid and Ottoman Empires Quote: "Babur then adroitly gave the Ottomans his promise not to attack them in return for their military aid, which he received in the form of the ...
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Arabs
Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years. In the 9th century BCE, the Assyrians made written references to Arabs as inhabitants of the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Throughout the Ancient Near East, Arabs established influential civilizations starting from 3000 BCE onwards, such as Dilmun, Gerrha, and Magan, playing a vital role in trade between Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean. Other prominent tribes include Midian, ʿĀd, and Thamud mentioned in the Bible and Quran. Later, in 900 BCE, the Qedarites enjoyed close relations with the nearby Canaanite and Aramaean states, and their territory extended from Lower Egypt to the Southern Levant. From 1200 BCE to 110 BCE, powerful kingdoms emerged such as Saba, Lihyan, Minaean, Qataban, Hadhramaut, Awsan, and ...
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South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's population. As commonly conceptualised, the modern State (polity), states of South Asia include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, with Afghanistan also often included, which may otherwise be classified as part of Central Asia. South Asia borders East Asia to the northeast, Central Asia to the northwest, West Asia to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. Apart from Southeast Asia, Littoral South Asia, Maritime South Asia is the only subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. The British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of Atolls of Maldives, 26 atolls of the Maldives in South Asia lie entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian subcontinent ...
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Ahl Al-bayt
() refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In Sunni Islam, the term has also been extended to all descendants of the Banu Hashim (Muhammad's clan) and even to all Muslims. In Shia Islam, the term is limited to Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, his cousin and son-in-law Ali, and their two sons, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn. A common Sunni view adds the wives of Muhammad to these five. While all Muslims revere the Ahl al-Bayt, Shia Muslims assert that members of the Ahl al-Bayt are spiritual successors to Muhammad, possessing divine knowledge and infallibility. The Twelver Shiʿa also believe in the redemptive power of the pain and martyrdom endured by the members of the Ahl al-Bayt, particularly Husayn. Sunni Muslims, who do not believe in spiritual succession to Muhammad, only hold the Ahl al-Bayt in high regard. Definition When () appears in construction with a person, it refers to his blood relatives. However, the word also acquires wider meanings with other nou ...
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