Ashraf `Ali Thanawi (1863-1943) was one of the most prominent religious scholars in Islamic history. Author of over a thousand books on different aspects of Islam, his work sought to defend the Islamic scholarly tradition and to articulate its authority in an age of momentous religious and political change. In this authoritative biography, Muhammad Qasim Zaman offers a comprehensive and highly accessible account of Thanawi's multifaceted career and thought, whilst also providing a valuable introduction to Islam in modern South Asia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration, Abbreviations, and Other Conventions
INTRODUCTION
Contestation in the religious sphere
Contrasting trajectories
1 LIFE
The intellectual milieu of Deoband
A madrasa career
A spiritual crisis?
At the Sufi lodge
The Khanaqah's scholars
Overlapping communities
2 MUSLIM NATIONHOOD
Indian politics in the early twentieth century
Thanawi and the Khilafat Movement
Muslim separatism in India
The prophet and the king
3 COLONIAL LAW
Apostasy in British India
The Consummate Stratagem
The fight against custom
Conflicting authorities
4 SUFISM IN A TIME OF CHANGE
The Sufi and the jurist
The rhetoric of reconciliation
Ambiguity and flexibility
Training the wayfarer
A shared language
5 THE AMBIGUITIES OF A LEGACY
Sufism
Law
Politics
Thanawi and the Deobandi scholarly tradition

Bibliography
Index