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Deobandi tradition: history, institutions and teachings

History, institutions and teachings of a South Asian Sunni reform tradition

This guide expands the short Deobandi introduction.

Founding of Darul Uloom Deoband

Darul Uloom Deoband’s own history dates its opening to Thursday, 15 Muharram 1283 AH (31 May 1866) in Deoband, a town in what is now the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. Encyclopaedia Iranica and Encyclopaedia Britannica give the year as 1867.

Sources name the founders differently. Iranica says the seminary was founded “by a group of religious scholars”. Britannica names Muhammad Abid Husayn. The seminary’s own history highlights a principle proposed by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi: that the institution should rely on public contributions rather than on the government of the day. Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband describes the founding as the work of Nanautavi, helped by Haji Abid Husain and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi.

Iranica describes the aim as training a class of religious scholars dedicated to a version of Islam “stripped of many customary practices deemed deviant”, in an institution “partly inspired by British educational models”. Dawn notes that more than 5,000 seminaries in India were modelled on Darul Uloom Deoband.

Sources: Darul Uloom Deoband — history · Encyclopaedia Iranica — Deoband (B. D. Metcalf) · Encyclopaedia Britannica — Deoband school · Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband · Dawn — the Deoband movement

Teaching and curriculum

  • Iranica: the curriculum was based on the dars-e nizami developed at Farangi Mahall in Lucknow in the 18th century, with less emphasis on “rational” studies and a thorough grounding in the Qur’an and Hadith.
  • Iranica: Urdu was the language of instruction, and Deoband led in establishing Urdu as the language of Indian Muslims; many Arabic and Persian religious texts were translated into Urdu.
  • Britannica: the programme stresses jurisprudence (fiqh), Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), Hadith, scholastic theology (kalam) and philosophy, and Britannica characterises the school as rejecting modern disciplines within its programme.
  • Iranica: the first principal (sadr mudarris) was Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, from 1867 to 1888.
  • Darul Uloom Deoband: students came from the subcontinent and from Afghanistan, Iran, Bukhara and Samarqand, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and parts of Africa.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Iranica — Deoband (B. D. Metcalf) · Encyclopaedia Britannica — Deoband school · Darul Uloom Deoband — history

Law, creed and spirituality

Oxford Reference (Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam) describes the Deoband tradition as teaching Hanafi jurisprudence, Maturidi theology and Sunni Sufism. Britannica says the school’s theology was heavily influenced by the 18th-century reformer Shah Wali Allah.

Oxford Reference also notes that Deobandi scholars criticise what they regard as excesses of popular Sufism, while some Deobandi scholars function as Sufi shaykhs; no single Sufi order is promoted and formal initiation is not required. The Darul Uloom describes itself as a centre “of both the Shariah and the Tariqa”. According to Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi and Mahmud Hasan gave their pledge (bay‘ah) to the Sufi master Haji Imdadullah.

Sources: Oxford Reference — Ashraf Ali Thanvi · Encyclopaedia Britannica — Deoband school · Darul Uloom Deoband — history · Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband — Rashid Ahmad Gangohi

Politics: Jamiat Ulama and Pakistan

  • Iranica: the Deobandis were originally apolitical, but by the 1920s many supported the Indian nationalist movement and later opposed the creation of Pakistan.
  • Dawn: Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind was formed in 1919 by Deoband-trained scholars. Oxford Reference describes Husain Ahmad Madani as its president, allied with the Indian National Congress and opposed to the creation of Pakistan.
  • Dawn (citing Haroon K. Ullah): in 1945 pro-Pakistan clerics split from the Jamiat and formed Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam under Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani.
  • Jamia Millia Islamia: in 1915 Maulana Mahmud Hasan planned a revolt against British rule, communicated in letters written on silk (the Silk Letter, or Reshmi Rumal, movement).
  • Dawn: in Pakistan, Mufti Mahmood led the JUI and served as chief minister of NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) in the 1970s; his son Maulana Fazlur Rehman has led JUI (F) since 1980.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Iranica — Deoband (B. D. Metcalf) · Dawn — the Deoband movement · Oxford Reference — Husain Ahmad Madani · Dawn — Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam at one hundred · Jamia Millia Islamia — Maulana Mahmud Hasan · Dawn — Maulana Fazlur Rehman

Tablighi Jamaat

Dawn reports that the Tablighi Jamaat was started in 1926 in Mewat by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi. Britannica also gives 1926, places its headquarters at Raiwind near Lahore, describes it as a lay preaching movement whose annual gathering draws hundreds of thousands of people, and calls it perhaps the largest grassroots Muslim organisation in the world. Some reference works give 1927 for its start.

Sources: Dawn — the Deoband movement · Encyclopaedia Britannica — Tablighi Jamaat

Major institutions

  • Darul Uloom Deoband, Deoband, India — the original seminary (1866/1867).
  • Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband, Deoband — describes itself as preserving the founders’ legacy since 1982.
  • Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi — founded by Mufti Muhammad Shafi in Shawwal 1370 AH (June 1951) at Nanak Wara, Karachi, and moved to Korangi on 15 Sha‘ban 1376 AH (17 March 1957), on land endowed by Haji Ibrahim Dada Bhai.
  • Mazahir Uloom, Saharanpur — where Shaykh Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi taught for decades (Jamiatul Ulama South Africa).

Sources: Darul Uloom Deoband — history · Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband · Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi — history · Jamiatul Ulama South Africa — Shaykh Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi

Relations with other Sunni traditions

Dawn describes the Deobandi tradition as standing between the Ahl-e-Hadith, whom it calls the strictest, and the Barelvis, whom it describes as more accommodating of local cultural practices. Barelvi and Deobandi scholars have disputed specific doctrines and devotional practices; these arguments are best read with attribution to named scholars rather than as judgements about whole communities. See also Barelvi / Ahl-e-Sunnat and Salafi / Ahl-e-Hadith.

Sources: Dawn — the Deoband movement

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