Shah 'Abd Al-'Aziz Puritanism, Sectarian, Polemics and Jihad

The period studied in the present work, from the death of Shah Wali-Allah in 1176/1762 to the death in action at Balakot in 1246/1831 of Shah 'Abd al-'Aziz's disciple, Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, is marked by intense intellectual activity geared to examining the basis of the contemporary social, religious and economic institutions. The rapid conquests by the English, the dissolution of Mughal rule and the decline of Muslim influence accelerated Muslim intellectual efforts to establish new political, social, economic and religious relationship vis-a-vis the foreign conquerors. This period also saw Sunni and Shi'i ideological differences developing into full-scale Sunni-Shi'i polemical warfare, each side accusing the other of being heretics and infidels. The battles of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid and Shah Isma'il Shahid against the popular forms of sufism venerating past and present pirs (spiritual guides) and against such popular Sunni beliefs as seeking Prophet Muhammad's intercession for sins culminated with Sayyid Ahmad Shahid's Jihad (holy war) against the Sunnis Afghan tribes and the Sikhs and divided the Sunnis themselves into irreconcilable groups. An exceedingly rich polemical and doctrinal literature, written by the leaders of different movements and their followers, characterises this period. Volumes of their correspondence have been preserved and some contemporary biographical and historical material also survives. Modern authors have written whole books or chapters and articles on the basis of the Sunni material and have commented on the Shi'is too, but no modern author seems to have access to the Shi'i material itself. The present work gives both Sunni and Shi'i material, presenting the voluminous Shi'i sources for the first time.