SSEASN - Seminar in South and Southeast Asian Studies

Islamic South Asia

Drawing on a broad cross-section of theoretical and methodological perspectives this course will interrogate some of the key historiographical debates that have shaped our understanding of the Muslim experience in S. Asia between 700 and 1700 AD. You will be expected to not only think about the ways in which knowledge gets constituted and its impacts (both within academia and beyond) but also the question of historical method itself.

Readings will include: Sunil Kumar, The Emergence of the Delhi Sultanate (2007); Blain Auer, Symbols of Authority in Medieval Islam: History, Religion and Muslim Legitimacy in the Delhi Sultanate (2012);Cynthia Talbot, The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Chauhan and the Indian Past, 1200-2000;Samera Shaikh, Forging a Region: Sultans, Traders and Pilgrims in Gujarat, 1200-1500 (2010); Richard Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan (2005); Stephen Dale, Garden of the Eight Paradises (2004); Rajeev Kinra, Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary (2015); Robert Hallisey, The Rajput Rebellion against Aurangzeb (1977); and Santhi Kaveri-Bauer, Monumental Matters: The Power, Subjectivity, and Space of India’s Mughal Architecture (2011)