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QAU Historian’s Groundbreaking Book on Medieval Indian History Published

Dr. Fouzia Farooq Ahmed, Lecturer at the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has authored a new book about the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) based on her doctoral dissertation from the Quaid-i-Azam University, Department of History.

The Delhi Sultanate has long remained the epicenter of controversies that have direct bearing on Hindu-Muslim relations and politics in contemporary South Asia. For many South Asians, this era is a lightning rod for debates on communalism and religious identity.

In her new book: Muslim Rule in Medieval India: Power and Religion in the Delhi Sultanate (London: I. B. Tauris, 2016) Dr. Ahmed postulates a schematic design of the Delhi Sultanate, by focusing on the phenomena of political instability and the relationship between rulers, bureaucracy and the ruled. The book critically examines the practical dynamics of medieval Muslim political culture and its reception in the local environs. This work suggests that sultans lacked meaningful political authority among the masses and that symbols of legitimacy were post hoc socio-cultural embellishments that did not warrant peaceful compliance by the ruled.

Dr. Fouzia Farooq Ahmed was also Mellon Carnegie Junior Research Fellow at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (2014-2016) for its flagship project the Historical Atlas of the Islamic World. This major international research project is concerned with the intellectual roots of Muslim civilization and social movements in the Islamic world. It will provide a comprehensive multivolume Historical Atlas of the Islamic World. The Leverhulme Trust (UK) the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (USA) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York (USA) have supported this project. The Atlas will be published by Oxford University Press (New York). Dr. Ahmed worked with OCIS for Atlas’s South Asia volume.