USHA SANYAL

Invitation to a Conference

webmaster — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:20:36 +0000

I’ve been invited to give a paper next summer on a new project, a women’s Quran study group called Al-Huda International. I’ve been an online student for three months and am planning a paper on the online experience. The group is quite interesting and growing fast.

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The Urdu translation of my book hasn’t begun, though, because my friend in Karachi hasn’t yet decided on a translator.

Something Completely Different

webmaster — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:27:47 +0000

I’m in the throes of winding up an editing project. Deadline, Monday morning! It’s a legal ms, very interesting, with different contributors arguing for and against the prosecution of Bush Administration lawyers (esp. John Yoo) for breaking the law.

‘Islam in South Asia in Practice,’ Princeton University Press

webmaster — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:47:14 +0000

The Princeton University Press book with my article in it is out. Barbara Metcalf passed around her one and only advance copy at the conference.

The book is a collection of maybe 30 contributions, it’s quite a heavy volume. I hope to get a copy of my own by and by. My paper – Chapter 12 – is all of 5 pages long: “Sufi Ritual Practice among the Barkatiyya Sayyids of U.P.: Nuri Miyan’s Life and Urs, Late Nineteenth – Early Twentieth Centuries.”

Heavenly Ornaments: Three Books for Women

webmaster — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:26:16 +0000

I’ve sent in my paper for the conference – Changing Concepts of the Person in Two Ahl-e Sunnat/Barelwi Texts for Women: The “Sunni Bihishti Zewar” and “Jannati Zewar.” It looks at similarities and differences among three books, all of which are called Heavenly Ornaments, and are directed at women.

The first, written a century ago by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi of Deoband, is according to Barbara Metcalf, “one of [the twentieth century’s] most influential books.” The second, from the “Barelwi” or Ahl-e Sunnat wa Jama’at movement, which opposes the Deobandis on a number of issues, is more recent. The third, the “Jannati Zewar” (which also translates as Heavenly Ornaments), is also a Barelwi book.

Although the two latter books differ from the Deobandi original on the issues that have divided the movements historically, I found that the overall message for women in the Deobandi book and the two Barelwi books, namely, the Sunni Bihishti Zewar for Women: A Collection of All Life’s Questions, and the Jannati Zewar, is in fact more similar than different.

However, in comparing the two Barelwi books with one another, I see a significant difference of approach between them. I have characterized the Jannati Zewar as more “modern” in outlook than the Sunni Bihishti Zewar, for reasons that the paper makes clear.

The Urdu Translation

webmaster — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:34:06 +0000

I’ve made progress on the Urdu translation of “Devotional Islam and Politics in British India.”

Someone in Karachi has agreed to take it on. It’s being handled on my behalf by a Pakistani scholar, someone I’ll be meeting for the first time at the Metcalf conference. We’ve been in correspondence for some time…

Accessing Publications

webmaster — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:29:45 +0000

From time to time, people inquire where they can get these books and articles.

The first book, “Devotional Islam” is out of print; in particular, the paperback second edition is very difficult to get. After Yoda Press brings out the third edition, it should be available, probably by year-end 2009.

The book, “Ahmad Riza Khan: In the Path of the Prophet” is part of a series of short books on Muslim leaders and thinkers worldwide, called “Makers of the Muslim World.” The series editor is Patricia Crone. This is available on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk in hardcover.

Most of the articles are in books that are available from Amazon.com or from oup.com/us