Revival from Below: The Deoband Movement and Global Islam

by Brannon D. Ingram

The Deoband movement—a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that quickly spread from colonial India to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and even the United Kingdom and South Africa—has been poorly understood and sometimes feared. Despite being one of the most influential Muslim revivalist movements of the last two centuries, Deoband’s connections to the Taliban have dominated the attention it has received from scholars and policy-makers alike. Revival from Below offers an important corrective, reorienting our understanding of Deoband around its global reach, which has profoundly shaped the movement’s history. In particular, the author tracks the origins of Deoband’s controversial critique of Sufism, how this critique travelled through Deobandi networks to South Africa, as well as the movement’s efforts to keep traditionally educated Islamic scholars (`ulama) at the center of Muslim public life. The result is a nuanced account of this global religious network that argues we cannot fully understand Deoband without understanding the complex modalities through which it spread beyond South Asia.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Islam

322 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 20, 2018

Reviews

[Umar Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good read on the history and development of the Deobandi Movement which is one of the largest movements in Sunni Islam of the last two-hundred years. I've encountered many Deobandis over the years and spent time with the Tablighi Jamaat in my younger days, but never had any kind of real understanding of the movement.

The only critique of this book is I don't think he discusses the relationship and disagreements between Deobandis and Salafis enough while covering the relationship with South Asian Sufis in-depth. Coming from the US, where Barelvis have a pretty light footprint, and seeing Deobandis here become a little more outwardly Salafi I was curious as to how this came about.

[Nazmi Yaakub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buku penting yang menyorot sejarah perkembangan tradisi Deoband di India khususnya dalam hubungannya dengan politik sezaman dan wacana ‘keras’ dengan tradisi Barelvi yang biasa disalah tanggap antara pertembungan Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah dengan Wahabi dari satu sisi atau Sunni dengan gerakan bidaah dari sisi lain, dibaca ketika Taliban berjaya merampas Kabul dan Afghanistan jatuh ke tangan kumpulan itu.

Antara isu penting dalam membuat jangkaan sejauh mana kumpulan Taliban akan mengekalkan pendekatan keras mereka seperti sebelum ini atau sekadar mana mereka mengubahsuaikannya, ia perlu juga dilihat dalam konteks hubungan Taliban yang lahir daripada sistem madrasah Deoband serta wacana yang dibawa tokoh-tokoh penting Darul Ulum Deoband baik pada peringkat penubuhannya seperti Muhammad Qassim Nanautvi, Rasihd Ahmad Gangohi dan Haji Imdad Allah al-Makki khususnya berkaitan tauhid serta tasawuf atau ulama selepasnya khususnya Ashraf Ali Thanvi, selain isu kontroversi kedudukan Maulid dan urs untuk memperingati wali yang meninggal dunia yang menjadi titik pertembungan dengan Barelvi hingga membawa serangan berbentuk tab’id (membidaahkan) dan mensyirikkan antara kedua-dua golongan itu.

Bagaimanapun, buku ini tidak akan memberikan jawapan mutlak sejauh mana pendekatan bakal diambil Taliban itu tetapi ia menjelaskan apa-apa saja usaha untuk menilai isu semasa itu tidak boleh dibuat dengan asas yang salah, iaitu Taliban itu Deoband dan Deoband itu adalah Wahabi. Ini kerana bukan sahaja tradisi Deoband itu sendiri bukan satu bentuk yang kaku, bahkan ia sendiri tidak terpisah daripada kerangka tasawuf atau sufi serta terikat dengan mazhab Hanafi, sekali gus berbeza dengan aliran Wahabi meskipun berlaku beberapa persamaan secara zahir dari sudut beberapa pandangan.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was effective in both exploring the Deoband movement and proving the authors arguments. As far as I'm concerned it was both interesting and a good introduction (at least for me) to Deobandi Islam.