Qur'ānic imaginations in the making

New religious movements in Mughal-era Islam

Bibliographic Data

ID4299822
AuthorsWilliam E B Sherman (0000-0002-5764-9471, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume15
Issue1
Publication date2021-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligion Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-8171 • E-ISSN: 1749-8171
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/rec3.12384
OpenAlexW3109686913
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited26

In the study of premodern Islam, is it possible to draw fruitfully upon the theories and methods that characterize the study of new religious movements? This article examines three approaches to the Qur'ān in the sixteenth-century Mughal Empire: the Qur'ānic imitation of Bāyazīd Anṣārī, the lipogramatic exegesis of Fayżī, and the moral commentary of Badā'ūnī. These works reveal the innovation, contingency, and "newness" of Islamic Qur'ānic traditions in the Mughal domain. Though they disagreed vehemently, Bāyazīd, Fayżī, and Badā'ūnī all approached the Qur'ān as a revelation that is emergent and ongoing rather than fixed in the historical past. This article argues that the study of premodern Mughal religion - and the history of Islam more generally - benefits from heuristically understanding Islamic texts as part of ever-emergent "new religious movements" rather than as examples of a single transhistorical religion

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Contingency · Empire · Epistemology · Exegesis · Imitation · Islam · Literature · Revelation · Theology · Education and Islamic Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious studies · Social Psychology

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