Hindistanda Mâtürîdîlik

Authors

Abstract

Maturidism in India Māturīdism has generally been examined within the Islamic intellectual tradition through the lens of its Transoxanian (Māwarāʾ al-Nahr) center. This study approaches, from a holistic perspective, the historical background and intellectual foundations of Māturīdī representations that took shape in the Hind region between the 5th/11th and 10th/16th centuries. In this respect, the dissertation aims to analyze how Māturīdism found expression beyond its classical centers in different political and scholarly environments, thereby addressing a gap in the existing literature. The first chapter investigates how Māturīdism entered the Hind region through political, Sufi and legal (fiqh) channels, particularly by means of prominent figures and the madrasa institution; the second chapter seeks to establish the affiliation of local scholars with the Māturīdī tradition on the basis of their doctrinal positions. Taking into account the role of political entities such as the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, and the Delhi Sultanates, as well as the influence of the Ḥanafī madrasa tradition and the Chishtī–Suhrawardī Sufi networks, the study evaluates the formation of Māturīdism in India. Within this framework, the doctrinal approaches found in the works of leading scholars of the period -such as Mekrānī, Gīsūdarāz, and Dawlatābādī- are analyzed along the axis of the relationship between kalām and taṣawwuf, and the intellectual and scholarly reflections of Māturīdī thought in the Hind region are identified. The research is based on biographical sources, creed (ʿaqīda) treatises, and Sufi texts, and employs a qualitative analytical method attentive to historical context. In this study, which focuses on the historical and intellectual context, a multi-layered qualitative research method was followed, combining document screening, text analysis and biographical history approaches based on primary written and printed sources. The findings demonstrate that Māturīdism was adopted as a doctrinal school in the Hind region, yet developed within a multi-layered scholarly and theoretical framework shaped by Sufi inclinations and political structures. By mapping this trajectory, the study not only contributes to our unvii derstanding of the geographical diffusion of Māturīdism, but also lays a foundation for further research into the traces of this tradition within Islamic thought in the Hind region. Keywords: India; Maturidism; Hanafism; Chishti Order; Delhi Sultanates