The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760In all of the South Asian subcontinent, Bengal was the region most receptive to the Islamic faith. This area today is home to the world's second-largest Muslim ethnic population. How and why did such a large Muslim population emerge there? And how does such a religious conversion take place? Richard Eaton uses archaeological evidence, monuments, narrative histories, poetry, and Mughal administrative documents to trace the long historical encounter between Islamic and Indic civilizations. Moving from the year 1204, when Persianized Turks from North India annexed the former Hindu states of the lower Ganges delta, to 1760, when the British East India Company rose to political dominance there, Eaton explores these moving frontiers, focusing especially on agrarian growth and religious change. |
Contents
PART ONE BENGAL UNDER THE SULTANS | 3 |
The Articulation of Political Authority | 22 |
A Province of the Delhi Sultanate 12041342 | 32 |
The Early Bengal Sultanate 1342ca 1400 | 40 |
The Rise of Raja Ganesh ca 14001421 | 50 |
Sultan Jalal alDin Muhammad 141532 and His Political | 56 |
The Indigenization of Royal Authority 14331538 | 63 |
Summary | 69 |
PART TWO BENGAL UNDER THE MUGHALS | 137 |
Mughal Culture and Its Diffusion | 159 |
Islam and the Agrarian Order in the East | 194 |
Mosque and Shrine in the Rural Landscape | 228 |
Conclusion | 305 |
Mint Towns and Inscription Sites under Muslim | 317 |
Principal Muslim Rulers of Bengal | 323 |
343 | |
Common terms and phrases
Adina Mosque Afghan agrarian Ahmad Akbar Allah Arabic ashraf Asiatic Society Bakarganj Bangladesh Bengali Muslims Bihar Brahmans Buddhist Calcutta chieftains Chishti Chittagong Chittagong District coins Collectorate Record Room communities conquest cult cultivation culture Dacca deities Delhi Delhi sultanate delta Dhaka Dhaka District District Collectorate Record dynasty early East Eastern Bengal forest frontier Ganges Gaur goddess governor grants Hindu History holy Husain Ibid Ibn Battuta imperial indigenous inscription Islam Khan Jalal al-Din jungle Kamrup Karim king Kuch Lakhnauti land Manrique mosque Mughal authority Muhammad Murshidabad Nathan North India officers Pakistan Pandua pargana patronage patronized peasant Persian pīrs political population premodern province Qur'an Raja Ganesh Rajshahi region religion religious revenue rice ritual River rule rulers rural saint Saiyid sanad Sena Shah Shaikh shrines sixteenth century social Society of Bengal Sonargaon Sufi Sultan Sylhet temples Thana tion tradition trans Translated Turkish village West Bengal wrote zamīndārs