Frontier of Faith
Islam in the Indo-Afghan Borderland
Published on 5. October 2007
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-231-70013-9 (ISBN)
Description
"Frontier of Faith" examines the history of Islam - especially that of local mullahs, or Muslim clerics-in the North-West Frontier. A largely autonomous zone straddling the boundary of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Tribal Areas was established as a strategic buffer zone for British India, and the resulting autonomy allowed local mullahs to assume roles of tremendous power.After Partition in 1947, the Tribal Areas maintained its status as an autonomous region, and for the next fifty years the mullahs supported armed mobilizations in exchange for protection of their vested interests in regional freedom. Consequently the Frontier has become the hinterland of successive, contradictory jihads in support of Pashtun ethnicism, anti-colonial nationalism, Pakistani territorialism, religious revivalism, Afghan anti-Soviet resistance, and anti-Americanism. Considering this territory is said to be the current hiding place of Osama bin Laden, there couldn't be a better time for a sourcebook detailing the intricacies of the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands today and the function of the mullahs and their allies.
Reviews / Votes
A stimulating mixture of history and anthropology and an ambitious attempt to draw on different disciplines and sources of information to illuminate the history of the tribal territories of the North West Frontier. -- David Page, author of Prelude to Partition: The Indian Muslims and the Imperial System of Control, 1920-1932 Haroon offers a fascinating street-level view of frontier life and politics. -- Basharat Peer The Nation 6/30/08 I think what she writes has a tremendous resonance for an understanding of what is happening today. -- Anatol Lieven Five Books - The Browser 1/9/2012More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 127 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-231-70013-9 (9780231700139)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sana Haroon received her BA from Yale University and her Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She was awarded the Isobel Thornley fellowship and the Past and Present postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, and her current research interests focus on the rise and institutionalization of Deobandi Islam in the madrassas of northwest Pakistan.
Content
Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Note on Transliteration Maps and Figures Introduction Ethnography, Cartography and the Construction of the North-West Frontier Tribal Areas Encountering the tribe: ethnographic understanding of the Pakhtun north-west Constructing the frontier Delimitation of the Durand Line and the separation of the 'British-side tribe' from Afghanistan The creation of the Tribal Areas Colonial ethnography An inadvertent arena-Yaghistan, 'land of the free' Islamic Revivalism and Sufism among the Tribal Pakhtuns Discourses of authenticity: the tazkirah and the Sufi silsila Pirs and Sufis among the Pakhtuns up to the nineteenth century The pirimuridi line of Akhund Abdul Ghaffur: institution and ideology The Hadda Mulla Najmuddin Haji Turangzai and the perpetuation of the Hadda Mulla's line Amr-bil maruf-mobilising the revivalist agenda The Hadda Mulla's line in the Tribal Areas Religious Authority and the Pakhtun Clans The mullas' authority andvillage-based religious practice The mullas and tribal inter-relationsUnanimity among the mullas The militarisation of religious authority Patrons of the Saints Darul Ulum Deoband and the Tribal Areas Nationalist Afghanistan and the Tribal Areas mullas Amanullah's policies after the Wars The revolts of 1924 and 1928 and the utility of Amanullah's patronage Consolidating Autonomy 1923-1930 The Waziristan and Khyber resistancesThe valorisation of Ajab Khan Afridi The Mohmand blockade 1926-1927Containing the Malakand states Mulla Mahmud Akhunzada and the Shias of OrakzaiConfronting the Nation, 1930-1950Administered districts politics and the Afridi mobilisation of 1930 The Faqir of Ipi The War and the new politics of partition Kashmir and the first Indo-Pakistan War The Pakhtunistan movement An autonomous national frontier Epilogue-Islamists and the Utility of Autonomous Space: From the Afghan Jihad to Al-Qaeda Glossary Bibliography Index