The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760

In 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.

Richard M. Eaton is Professor of History at the University of Arizona and the author of several groundbreaking books on India before 1800.

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART ONE BENGAL UNDER THE SULTANS
1. Before the Turkish Conquest
Bengal in Prehistory
Early Indo-Aryan Influence in Bengal
The Rise of Early Medieval Hindu Culture
The Diffusion of Bengali Hindu Civilization

2. The Articulation of Political Authority
Perso-Islamic Conceptions of Political Authority,
Eleventh-Thirteenth Centuries
A Province of the Delhi Sultanate, 1204-1342
The Early Bengal Sultanate, 1342-ca. 1400
The Rise of Raja Ganesh (ca. 1400-1421)
Sultan ]alai al-Din Muhammad (1415-32) and His Political
Ideology
The Indigenization of Royal Authority, 1433-1538
Summary

3. Early Sufis of the Delta
The Question of Sufis and Front-ier Warfare
Bengali Sufis and Hindu Thought
Sufis of the Capital

4. Economy, Society, and Culture
The Political Economy of the Sultanate
Ashraf and Non-Ashraf Society
Hindu Society- Responses to the Conquest
Hindu Religion- the Siva-Siilcta Complex
Hindu Religion- the Vaishnava Complex

5. Mass Conversion to Islam: Theories and Protagonists
Four Conventional Theories of Islamization in India
Theories of Islamization in Bengal
The Appearance of a Bengali Muslim Peasantry
Summary

PART TWO BENGAL UNDER THE MUGHALS
6. The Rise of Mughal Power
The Afghan Age, 1537-1612
The Early Mughal Experience in Bengal, 1574-1610
The Consolidation of Mughal Authority, 1610-1704
Summary

7· Mughal Culture and Its Diffusion
The Political Basis of Mughal Culture in Bengal
The Place of Bengal in Mughal Culture
The Place of Islam in Mughal Culture
The Administration of Mughal Lawthe
Villagers' View
West Bengal: The Integration of Imperial Authority
The Northern Frontier: Resistance to Imperial Authority
East Bengal: Conquest and Culture Change

8. Islam and the Agrarian Order in the East
Riverine Changes and Economic Growth
Charismatic Pioneers on the Agrarian Frontier
The Religious Gentry in Bakarganj and
Dhaka, 1650-1760
Summary

9· Mosque and Shrine in the Rural Landscape
The Mughal State and the Agrarian Order
The Rural Mosque in Bengali History
The Growth of Mosques and Shrines in Rural Chittagong,
1666-1760
The Rise of Chittagong's Religious Gentry
The Religious Gentry of Sylhet
Summary

10. The Rooting of Islam in Bengal
Inclusion
Identification
Displacement
Literacy and Islamization
Gender and Islamization
Summary

11. Conclusion

Appendix 1: Mint Towns and Inscription Sites under Muslim
Rulers, 1204-1760
Appendix 2: Principal Rulers of Bengal, 1204-1757
Select Bibliography
Index