Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
10.12.2017
"Traditions attributing the mass conversion of the people of a region to a specific saint may raise some doubt; one may even be tempted to interpret them as· a posteriori rationalization or explanation for the presence of so many. Muslims in a given area: throughout history, in biblical stories as well as in some accounts of World War II, popular mind shows a consistent tendency to ascribe· to individual personalities (heroes or villains) events or phenomena which actually resulted from complex factors through a long process. If it can ever be proved that such as the case of these traditions in Bengal, it would still be significant that the conversions were ascribed to the Sufies and not to other factors: it suggests that traditions may have merely amplified facts that actually happened in the life of the saints."
Source: Milot, Jean-René, The Spread of Islam in Bengal in the pre-Mughul Period, (1204-1538 A.D.) - Context and Trends. A thesis submitted to the faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal, January, 1970; downloaded from, and accessed on-line last on 02.12.2017 at, http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca, Pages 74.
Our comment:
It remains a statistical truth that the large number of population of the Bengal were found to be Muslims. The author, like many other, opined that the number of migrants were small. This live only a mass conversion to answer for the presence of the large number of Muslims in Bengal. If these conversions were not conducted by the Sufies as he is apparently inclined to believe, then who converted these people? We need to remember here that a person cannot become a Muslim without a formal act of conversion where a religious authoritative figure directs him formally to recite the Kalema of faith and thus become a Muslim.
If it were not the Sufies, than it has to be some other Muslim authority, such as the Imam in the nearby Mosque or an Ulama who has conducted the conversion. If that is the case, why there remains no mention of it in either popular literature or in official records?
If the people, arguendo, themselves changed their names and started to pretend that they were Muslims in order to gain favours of the Royal courts why such tendencies are not recorded anywhere? Besides, as it is suggested by this author and others that the conversions took place in the remote villages of Bengal, far away from the urban centres, how can it be assumed that these rural people living far away from the centres of power expected to gain royal favours by becoming Muslims? It is also important to remember that Bengal remains a rare example of Muslim expansion in the early period of Islam where the non-Muslims were not charged a Jizyah tax before the Mughals did that in the 16th century C.E, (see,interalia,Eaton, Richard Maxwell, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760, University of California Press, 1993, limited preview at Google Books)
Millot, perhaps indirectly suggesting informal conversions without a conductor, stated previously that "(I)n modern context, the term "conversion" suggests adherence to a well defined ensemble of religious tenets and practices, implying the rejection of previous tenets and practices which do not figure in the newly adopted religion. But it seems that in the context of mediaeval Bengal, "conversion" did not imply the same clear-cut and totalitarian character: Islam, as propounded by the Sufis, especially in the rural areas, showed lees rigid and more permeable contours than lslâm as represented by the jurists and the ulama; moreover, the awareness of basic distinctions and oppositions between Islâm and 'Hinduism must have been less vivid at that time than it is to-day, after years of clashes between revivalist movements.", page 71, ibid.
But he stopped short of arriving at a direct conclusion on the above matter.
[Transliteration symbols not always copied in quotations.]
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন