• ISBN13: 9789384092719
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: History
• Publisher: Ratna Sagar
• Publisher Imprint: PrimusBook
• Publication Date: June 15, 2014
• Pages: 343
• Original Price: INR 1250.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: N/A

This book traces how royal dynastic cults and shrine-centred Sufism came together in the imperial cultures of Timurid Central Asia, Safavid Iran, and Mughal India. By juxtaposing imperial chronicles, paintings, and architecture with theories of sainthood, apocalyptic treatises, and manuals on astrology and magic, this book uncovers a pattern of Islamic politics shaped by Sufi and millennial motifs. It shows how alchemical symbols and astrological rituals enveloped the body of the monarch, casting him as both spiritual guide and material lord. Uncovering a startling yet widespread phenomenon, it shows how the charismatic pull of sainthood(wilayat)—rather than the draw of religious law (sharia) or holy war (jihad)—inspired a new style of sovereignty in Islam.

A. Azfar Moin Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Islamic Studies and History University of Texas, Austin