Chapter 3 considers the pilgrimages and polemics of religious scholars: the ʿulama. Highlighting their intellectual exchanges with counterparts in the Hijaz, it contends that Mughal decline encouraged the interventions of scholars of Islam in debates over moral-political suasion, even though they had hitherto stood at the wings of state affairs. In particular, the chapter illustrates how the rise of Sunni “revivalism” or tajdīd – which saw the ʿulama attempt to reverse perceived social-political degradations by arguing for a “return” to the original precepts and principles of Islam – was intensely indebted to intellectual interactions on hajj. Beginning with a social history of knowledge formation among the ʿulama, the chapter first reconstructs the thoughts, travels, and far-flung networks of a towering Indian theologian, Shah Waliullah of Delhi (1703–1762). Situating his ascendance in clerical circles within India against the backdrop of scholarly connections with the Hijaz, the chapter then diminishes the focus. Through microhistorical methods, it reconstructs the career of a little-known judge or qāzī entangled in these same webs of reform and renewal. It thereby shows how the qāzi’s revivalism, developed as a pilgrim-student in Arabia, informed his later career as a judicial authority at a fledgling post-Mughal state seeking legitimacy through Islam.

Focusing on the Mughal successor crown of Arcot and the pilgrimage regimes it shored up from the Karnatak (Carnatic) region, Chapter 6 demonstrates how kingdoms that fell under colonial rule also came to embody new forms of Muslim statehood in India. As a state that cultivated close ties to Arabia even as it was disgorged of its sovereignty by the Company in 1801, the chapter illustrates how the embattled crown of Arcot sought new sources of legitimacy through pilgrimage networks and ceremonials. And yet, as a colonized “treaty kingdom” whose powers and prerogatives were tightly restricted to “religious laws” and “religious institutions” under colonial dominance, the chapter contends that Arcot also began to exclusively emphasize its authority over religious domains to typify a very new kind of Muslim state in India. This in turn led to an implicit if unwitting rejection of the more accommodative political cultures of the Mughals, mainly as it effected a break from earlier ideologies of universal rule. Apart from local courtly chronicles and colonial sources, an Indo-Persian narrative account of the Arcot Nawab Aʿzam Jah’s (r. 1819–1825) royal pilgrimage to a regional “little” Mecca in southern India figures at the heart of this chapter.

Service-based leadership: This chapter explores the concept of political and religious leadership as articulated in Fatima’s sermon, emphasizing leadership for service rather than power. She warned against the ramifications of a power-driven leadership on Muslims’ well-being and resources. Fatima’s metaphor for servant leadership focuses on fostering care, safety, and justice and makes space for contributions of gendered and political minorities.

Fatima in Islamic Sacred Sources: This chapter explores the significance of Fatima in both popular Muslim and Shiʿi contexts. Drawing from Qur’anic verses, historical accounts, and spiritual literature, it unveils her role as a symbol of resilience against female infanticide, her dedication to social-economic justice, her active participation in interreligious events, and her mystical standing within the Islamic tradition.

This book explores the intersection of theology and women’s studies, centering around the influential figure of Fatima within Shiʿi theology. By examining Fatima’s sacred role and her impact on empowering women and political minorities, the manuscript offers a textual analysis of her sermon. It unveils the early roots of female empowerment and agency in Islam, effectively challenging prevailing Western beliefs. Contrary to common assumptions, it demonstrates that God-centric Muslim women possess the capacity, willingness, and authority to actively engage in promoting social justice and advocating for transformative change. Through this transformative praxis, the book aims to empower the female condition within Muslim cultures and societies. By embracing a nuanced perspective, it redefines the dynamic role of women, emphasizing the critical connection between faith, gender, and inclusivity. This exploration promises to reshape academic discourse around Islamic feminist theology and inspirational premodern Muslim women as initiators of social change within cultural contexts.

Chapter 5 explores the use of political correspondence (mursalāt), in the form of petitions and firmans, during the early Qajar period. Like marriage, political correspondence had a long history in Iran, but a manuscript collection of correspondence between Qajar rulers and Kangarlu tribal khans in the Caucasus helps us see how and why the use of correspondence changed during the early nineteenth century. The manuscript collection from the Majlis Library contains correspondence dating to the eighteenth century and up to 1828, with the numbers of petitions and firmans increasing dramatically during the Russo-Persian Wars (1804–13 and 1826–28). The collection suggests that correspondence was critical to Qajar efforts to protect the ‘Guarded Domains of Iran,’ that Qajar rulers in Tehran and Tabriz were well-informed of events on the war’s front, and that local circumstances and conditions in the Caucasus influenced political decisions.