Eaton, Richard M. The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760.

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

Richard M. Eaton

Suggested citation:Eaton, Richard M. The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1993. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft067n99v9/
Contents
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Bengal under the Sultans
1. Before the Turkish Conquest
2. The Articulation of Political Authority
3. Early Sufis of the Delta
4. Economy, Society, and Culture
5. Mass Conversion to Islam: Theories and Protagonists
2. Bengal under the Mughals
6. The Rise of Mughal Power
7. Mughal Culture and Its Diffusion
8. Islam and the Agrarian Order in the East
9. Mosque and Shrine in the Rural Landscape
10. The Rooting of Islam in Bengal
11. Conclusion
1. Mint Towns and Inscription Sites under Muslim Rulers, 1204–1760
2. Principal Muslim Rulers of Bengal
Select Bibliography
As in Chittagong, the Sylhet grants combined political with economic objectives. A 1753 sanad stated that the considerable area of 4,387.5 acres (1,125 qulbas) of forest were to be “a madad-i ma‘āsh for the prayer-leader and for the expenses of the students and those who come and go, and to the laborers and the good deeds of the organization of Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘, together with his children.”[95] Three years later another sanad ordered that an area of 975 acres (250 qulbas) of forest lying outside the revenue roll, but capable of being cultivated (jangala-yi khārij-i jam‘, lā’iq al-zirā‘at) was to be issued to the same “organization” (dastgāh), but with important differences. It was to be used
for the purpose of the expenses of a mosque, a house, a Qur’an school, the dependents, those who come and go, and the faqīrs. It is also a madad-i ma‘āsh for the laborers and the good deeds of the organization of Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘ and his children and dependents.…It is agreed that once the aforesaid land is brought into cultivation, its produce shall be used to support the expenses of the mosque, the Qur’an school, those who come and go, the faqīrs, and his own needs, together with those of his children and dependents, and that he shall busy himself in prayers for the long life of the State.[96]
In these documents, Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘ emerges as a figure of considerable charismatic authority and organizational ability. We do not know the identity of the laborers belonging to his “organization,” but he must have commanded considerable manpower in order to clear and cultivate stretches of forest the size of these two grants—a combined 5,363 acres. That Muhammad Rabi ‘’s labor force, his mosque, and the Qur’an school were all to be supported by the harvested crops of the lands suggests that the field laborers were themselves affiliates of these Islamic institutions.
The founders of new villages in Sylhet, as in East Bengal generally, had an enormous impact in shaping the subsequent religious orientation of local communities. In 1898, a time when the colonization of some of the Sylhet forest was still within living memory, a Muslim gentleman of northern Sylhet recalled that whenever a new village was founded, a temple to the goddess Kali was built if the founding landlord were a śākta Hindu, and a temple to Vishnu if he were a Vaishnava. If the majority of the villages were Vaishnava, they would build a shrine (ākhṛā) to Radha and Krishna. If the area were infested with snakes, the patron deity was the snake goddess Manasa, and if the village were founded by Muslims, a shrine to some Muslim pīr would be established.[97] In other words, grants made out to Hindus or Hindu institutions (brahmottar, devottar, vishnottar, śivottar) tended to integrate local communities into a Hindu-ordered cultural universe, while grants authorizing Muslims to establish schools, mosques, or shrines tended to integrate them into an Islamic-ordered cultural universe. Subsequent demographic patterns evolved from these earlier processes.
In Sylhet, although seventeenth- and eighteenth-century forest grants to Hindus outnumbered those to Muslims, two points offset this difference. First, the state alienated a considerably larger total of forest land to Muslims than to Hindus, as a result of which more indigenous peoples living in areas included in the grants would have been exposed to Muslim than to Hindu institutions. Second, grants made to Muslims often mentioned not only “dependents” of the grantee but also those institutional structures that cleared the forest and maintained the workers’ fixed and continued focus. The grants made out for the dastgāh, or “organization,” of laborers working for Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘ supported not only the laborers themselves but also the mosque and the Qur’an school that would regularize the links between the laborers and formal Islam. Grants made over to śākta Brahmans or Vaishnava bairāgīs, on the other hand, mentioned neither dependents nor the sort of community-building mechanisms found in the Muslim grants.
S. N.H. Rizvi, ed., Bangladesh District Gazetteers: Sylhet (Dacca: Bangladesh Government Press, 1975), 68–71.
These included grants by Aurangzeb (ibid., 16: 388; 21, no. 353; 17: 338), Muhammad Shah (16: 9; 19, no. 639; 21, nos. 351 and 374), Ahmad Shah (21, no. 496), and ‘Alamgir II (19, nos. 358 and 578).
Irfan Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556–1707 (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1963), 311.
Fourteen such grants were issued between 1673 and 1707, after the emperor’s order, whereas eleven had been issued before his order (1658–72). Three others are of uncertain date. See “Register of Sanads,” Sylhet District Collectorate Record Room, 17: 75, 243; 18, nos. 94, 154, 158, 279; 19, nos. 334, 618, 619; 20, nos. 851, 853, 959; 21, nos. 397, 400.
“Dar w ajh-i madad-i ma‘āsh-i churgarī va kharj-i ṭalaba va ṣādir-o-vārid ba fa‘alat va karāmat-i dastgāh-i Maulavī Muḥammad Rabī ‘ ma‘ahu farzandān.” Ibid., vol. 21, no. 608.
“Dar wajh-i kharj-i masjid, khāna, va madrasa, va muta‘alliqān va ṣādir-o-vārid va fuqarā; va madad-i ma‘āsh-i fa‘alat va karāmat-i dastgāh-i Maulavī Muḥammad Rabī‘ va farzandān va muta‘alliqān-ish muqarrar gashta, ki arāẓī-yi mażkūr-rā ābād sākhta, az muḥāsil-i ān kharji masjid va madrasa va ṣādir-o-vārid va fuqarā va mā-yaḥtāj-i khūd va farzandān va muta‘alliqān-ish numūda, ba du‘āgū-yi dawām-i daulat [ishtighāl] bāshand.” Ibid., no. 609.



Having investigated the matter, the revenue department has fixed the sum of six shāhī dūn and eight kānī [i.e., 166.4 acres] of jungle land, lying outside the revenue rolls, and located in villages Nayapara and others of pargana Havili Chittagong, as a charity for the expenses of the mosque as well as a charity for the person mentioned above. Once the land is brought under cultivation, the produce of the land must be used for the expenses of the mosque as well as the needs of himself, his descendants, and his dependents. And he must assiduously pray for the survival of the powerful state. He and his descendants are not required to pay any land revenue or non-land revenue, highway taxes, bridge taxes, special cesses, or any other assessments issuing from either the administrative or the revenue branches of government. Nor is he bound to seek a fresh sanad each year. Take great care to execute this order. Dated 2 Rabi I 1077.[38]

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

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

Richard M. Eaton

Suggested citation:Eaton, Richard M. The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1993. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft067n99v9/
Contents
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Bengal under the Sultans
1. Before the Turkish Conquest
2. The Articulation of Political Authority
3. Early Sufis of the Delta
4. Economy, Society, and Culture
5. Mass Conversion to Islam: Theories and Protagonists
2. Bengal under the Mughals
6. The Rise of Mughal Power
7. Mughal Culture and Its Diffusion
8. Islam and the Agrarian Order in the East
9. Mosque and Shrine in the Rural Landscape
10. The Rooting of Islam in Bengal
11. Conclusion
1. Mint Towns and Inscription Sites under Muslim Rulers, 1204–1760
2. Principal Muslim Rulers of Bengal
Select Bibliography
As in Chittagong, the Sylhet grants combined political with economic objectives. A 1753 sanad stated that the considerable area of 4,387.5 acres (1,125 qulbas) of forest were to be “a madad-i ma‘āsh for the prayer-leader and for the expenses of the students and those who come and go, and to the laborers and the good deeds of the organization of Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘, together with his children.”[95] Three years later another sanad ordered that an area of 975 acres (250 qulbas) of forest lying outside the revenue roll, but capable of being cultivated (jangala-yi khārij-i jam‘, lā’iq al-zirā‘at) was to be issued to the same “organization” (dastgāh), but with important differences. It was to be used
for the purpose of the expenses of a mosque, a house, a Qur’an school, the dependents, those who come and go, and the faqīrs. It is also a madad-i ma‘āsh for the laborers and the good deeds of the organization of Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘ and his children and dependents.…It is agreed that once the aforesaid land is brought into cultivation, its produce shall be used to support the expenses of the mosque, the Qur’an school, those who come and go, the faqīrs, and his own needs, together with those of his children and dependents, and that he shall busy himself in prayers for the long life of the State.[96]
In these documents, Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘ emerges as a figure of considerable charismatic authority and organizational ability. We do not know the identity of the laborers belonging to his “organization,” but he must have commanded considerable manpower in order to clear and cultivate stretches of forest the size of these two grants—a combined 5,363 acres. That Muhammad Rabi ‘’s labor force, his mosque, and the Qur’an school were all to be supported by the harvested crops of the lands suggests that the field laborers were themselves affiliates of these Islamic institutions.
The founders of new villages in Sylhet, as in East Bengal generally, had an enormous impact in shaping the subsequent religious orientation of local communities. In 1898, a time when the colonization of some of the Sylhet forest was still within living memory, a Muslim gentleman of northern Sylhet recalled that whenever a new village was founded, a temple to the goddess Kali was built if the founding landlord were a śākta Hindu, and a temple to Vishnu if he were a Vaishnava. If the majority of the villages were Vaishnava, they would build a shrine (ākhṛā) to Radha and Krishna. If the area were infested with snakes, the patron deity was the snake goddess Manasa, and if the village were founded by Muslims, a shrine to some Muslim pīr would be established.[97] In other words, grants made out to Hindus or Hindu institutions (brahmottar, devottar, vishnottar, śivottar) tended to integrate local communities into a Hindu-ordered cultural universe, while grants authorizing Muslims to establish schools, mosques, or shrines tended to integrate them into an Islamic-ordered cultural universe. Subsequent demographic patterns evolved from these earlier processes.
In Sylhet, although seventeenth- and eighteenth-century forest grants to Hindus outnumbered those to Muslims, two points offset this difference. First, the state alienated a considerably larger total of forest land to Muslims than to Hindus, as a result of which more indigenous peoples living in areas included in the grants would have been exposed to Muslim than to Hindu institutions. Second, grants made to Muslims often mentioned not only “dependents” of the grantee but also those institutional structures that cleared the forest and maintained the workers’ fixed and continued focus. The grants made out for the dastgāh, or “organization,” of laborers working for Maulavi Muhammad Rabi ‘ supported not only the laborers themselves but also the mosque and the Qur’an school that would regularize the links between the laborers and formal Islam. Grants made over to śākta Brahmans or Vaishnava bairāgīs, on the other hand, mentioned neither dependents nor the sort of community-building mechanisms found in the Muslim grants.
S. N.H. Rizvi, ed., Bangladesh District Gazetteers: Sylhet (Dacca: Bangladesh Government Press, 1975), 68–71.
These included grants by Aurangzeb (ibid., 16: 388; 21, no. 353; 17: 338), Muhammad Shah (16: 9; 19, no. 639; 21, nos. 351 and 374), Ahmad Shah (21, no. 496), and ‘Alamgir II (19, nos. 358 and 578).
Irfan Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556–1707 (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1963), 311.
Fourteen such grants were issued between 1673 and 1707, after the emperor’s order, whereas eleven had been issued before his order (1658–72). Three others are of uncertain date. See “Register of Sanads,” Sylhet District Collectorate Record Room, 17: 75, 243; 18, nos. 94, 154, 158, 279; 19, nos. 334, 618, 619; 20, nos. 851, 853, 959; 21, nos. 397, 400.
“Dar w ajh-i madad-i ma‘āsh-i churgarī va kharj-i ṭalaba va ṣādir-o-vārid ba fa‘alat va karāmat-i dastgāh-i Maulavī Muḥammad Rabī ‘ ma‘ahu farzandān.” Ibid., vol. 21, no. 608.
“Dar wajh-i kharj-i masjid, khāna, va madrasa, va muta‘alliqān va ṣādir-o-vārid va fuqarā; va madad-i ma‘āsh-i fa‘alat va karāmat-i dastgāh-i Maulavī Muḥammad Rabī‘ va farzandān va muta‘alliqān-ish muqarrar gashta, ki arāẓī-yi mażkūr-rā ābād sākhta, az muḥāsil-i ān kharji masjid va madrasa va ṣādir-o-vārid va fuqarā va mā-yaḥtāj-i khūd va farzandān va muta‘alliqān-ish numūda, ba du‘āgū-yi dawām-i daulat [ishtighāl] bāshand.” Ibid., no. 609.



Having investigated the matter, the revenue department has fixed the sum of six shāhī dūn and eight kānī [i.e., 166.4 acres] of jungle land, lying outside the revenue rolls, and located in villages Nayapara and others of pargana Havili Chittagong, as a charity for the expenses of the mosque as well as a charity for the person mentioned above. Once the land is brought under cultivation, the produce of the land must be used for the expenses of the mosque as well as the needs of himself, his descendants, and his dependents. And he must assiduously pray for the survival of the powerful state. He and his descendants are not required to pay any land revenue or non-land revenue, highway taxes, bridge taxes, special cesses, or any other assessments issuing from either the administrative or the revenue branches of government. Nor is he bound to seek a fresh sanad each year. Take great care to execute this order. Dated 2 Rabi I 1077.[38]