Hajj across Empires: Pilgrimage and Political Culture after the Mughals, 1739–1857 (Asian Connections)

"A highly original new history of Muslim political culture across the Indian Ocean from 1739 to 1857. Examining South Asian connections with the Middle East, Rishad Choudhury draws on research in multilingual sources and archives to reveal the imperial entanglements of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half-title Series information Title page Imprints page Dedication Epigraph Contents List of Figures List of Maps List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgments Note on Transliterations and Translations List of Abbreviations Introduction: Hajj in the Crisis of Empire The Great Shift: Power and Pilgrimage after the Mughals A Transregional Rite and Regional History The Itinerary Part I Departures: Experiences and Exchanges in the Indian Ocean 1 Pilgrim Passages Muslim Pilgrims from Empire to Revolution Mughals and Mecca: Before Inqilab Pilgrims and Polities between Old and New Ebb of Empire: Hajj and Revolution across the Indian Ocean Transimperial Trajectories beyond the Mughals Bringing Revolutionary Culture Home Conclusion 2 The Hajj Bazaar Economy The Hajj between the Market and the Gift Meanings of the Market: The Economic Life of the Mughal Hajj The Gifts of the Bazaar Empire and Emporia: Crisis and Continuity after Colonialism A Politics of Presents Conclusion Part II Crossings: Ideologies and Institutions across Empires 3 The ʿUlama on Hajj The Inner and Outer Lives of Scholar-Pilgrims Movements of the .Ulama Webs of Qanunization The Career of a Revivalist The Intellectual as Pilgrim Conclusion 4 Hindi Sufis and the Hajj The Rise of the Indian Sufi Lodge in the Ottoman Empire The View from Istanbul Locations of ''Hindi'' Diplomacy and Death at the Horhor Hindi Lodge Transimperial Sufi Subjects The Porte, the Provinces, and the Politics of Itinerant Piety Networks of the Sultan's Supplicants: The Writ Regimes of Corporate Sufism Conclusion Part III Returns: States between Home and the Haramain 5 The Company Raj and the Hajjis Two Routes to the Early Colonial Hajj Paradoxes of Patronage: From the Bazaar's Traders to a Begum's Travails Patronage by Other Means: Pilgrimage as Political Resource The British Discovery of Mecca: The Company between the Ganges and the Nile Conflict to Comprehension Conclusion 6 Routes of the Muslim State Stately Religion The Muslim State after the Mughals Kingship and Pilgrimage at a Post-Mughal Polity A Kingdom between Home and the Haramain A Religious Sovereignty? Ziyarat: Royal Pilgrimage Conclusion 7 Faqirs and Fanatics, or, Reconfiguring Pilgrimage and Political Culture From Mobile to Militant Muslims: Toward a Genealogy of the Colonial Wahhabi The Problem of Pilgrimage in the Age of Paramountcy Beyond Belief, Beyond Law: Sovereignty and Violence Rebellion and Resolution Postscript: The Raj's Religion Conclusion: The Hajj and the Ends of the Mughal World Bibliography Index Rishad Choudhury presents a new history of imperial connections across the Indian Ocean from 1739 to 1857, a period that witnessed the decline and collapse of Mughal rule and the consolidation of British colonialism in South Asia. In this highly original and comprehensive study, he reveals how the hajj pilgrimage significantly transformed Muslim political culture and colonial attitudes towards it, creating new ideas of religion and rule. Examining links between the Indian Subcontinent and the Ottoman Middle East through multilingual sources – from first-hand accounts to administrative archives of hajj – Choudhury uncovers a striking array of pilgrims who leveraged their experiences and exchanges abroad to address the decline and decentralization of an Islamic old regime at home. Hajjis crucially mediated the birth of modern Muslim political traditions around South Asia. Hajj across Empires argues they did so by channeling inter-imperial crosscurrents to successive surges of imperial revolution and regional regime change.