The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 79 - Ahmad Sirhindi, The 17th Century Reviver of Islam in India

Ahmad al-Faruqi al-Sirhindi (b. May 26, 1564, Sirhind, Punjab, Mughal Empire - d. December 10, 1624, Sirhind, Punjab, Mughal Empire) was an Indian Islamic scholar, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing the newly made religion of Din-i Ilahi and other problematic opinions of the Mughal emperor Akbar. 

While early South Asian scholarship credited Sirhindi for contributing to conservative trends in Indian Islam, Sirhindi also made significant contributions to Sufi epistemology and practices.

Most of the Naqshbandi suborders today, such as the Mujaddidi, Fultali, Saifi, Tahiri, Qasimiya and Haqqani sub-orders, trace their spiritual lineage through Sirhindi.

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Sirhindi, who through his paternal line traced his descent from the caliph 'Umar I (the second caliph of Islam), received a traditional Islamic education at home and later at Sialkot (now in Pakistan). He reached maturity when Akbar, the renowned Mughal emperor, attempted to unify his empire by forming a new syncretistic faith (Din-e-Ilahi), which sought to combine the various mystical forms of belief and religious practices of the many communities making up his Indian empire.

In 1593, Sirhindi joined the mystical Naqshbandiyah, the most important of the Indian Sufi orders.  He spent his life preaching against the inclination of Akbar and his successor, Jahangir (r. 1605–27), toward pantheism and Shiʿa Islam (one of that Islam's two major branches). Of his several written works, the most famous is Maktubat (“Letters”), a compilation of his letters written in Persian to his friends in India and the region north of the Amu Darya (river). Through these letters Sirhindi’s major contribution to Islamic thought can be traced. In refuting the Naqshbandiyah order’s extreme monistic position of wahdat al-wujud (the concept of divine existential unity of God and the world, and hence man), he instead advanced the notion of waḥdat ash-shuhūd (the concept of unity of vision). According to this doctrine, any experience of unity between God and the world God has created is purely subjective and occurs only in the mind of the believer; it has no objective counterpart in the real world. The former position, Sirhindi opined, led to pantheism, which was contrary to the tenets of Sunni Islam.

The Maktubat is three volumes of Sirhindi's collected letters.  Most of the letters were written in Persian, although some entire letters and many phrases are written in Arabic.  The 534 letters were collected and edited during his lifetime by three of his disciples under his supervision.  About a third of the letters are in the form of answers to questions Sirhindi was asked.  About half of the letters run less than twenty lines, although a few of them are as long as twenty pages.  The tradition of writing one's major ideas in the form of a personal letter but with a wider audience in mind is typical of this period of Sufism, both within and beyond South Asian Islam, and numerous such collections exist.  The challenge to the scholar is that the letters must be carefully sifted through, as the doctrines presented in them are not organized thematically or presented systematically. 

Among the major points discussed in the Maktubat are the unity of appearance, practical mysticism, and the respective ranks of the prophet and the saint.  Within each of these topics one may point to a humanistic factor, in the sense of affirming the purpose and significance of human activities in reforming both the inner self and the outer world, which works throughout Sirhindi's thought.  

Sirhindi’s concept of waḥdat ash-shuhud helped revitalize the Naqshbandiyah order, which retained its influence among Muslims in India and Central Asia for several centuries thereafter. A measure of his importance in the development of Islamic orthodoxy in India is the title that was bestowed posthumously on him, Mujaddid-i Alf-i Thānī (“Renovator of the Second Millennium”), a reference to the fact that he lived at the beginning of the second millennium of the Muslim calendar.  His teachings were not always popular in official circles. In 1619, by the orders of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, who was offended by Sirhindi's aggressive opposition to Shiʿite views, Sirhindi was temporarily imprisoned in the fortress at Gwalior. His burial place at Sirhind is still a site of pilgrimage.

Ahmad Sirhindi was born on May 26, 1564 in the village of Sirhind, Punjab. He received most of his early education from his father, 'Abd al-Ahad, his brother, Muhammad Sadiq and from Muhammad Tahir al-Lahuri. He also memorized the Qur'an. 

Sirhindi studied in Sialkot, which had become an intellectual center under the Kashmir-born scholar Kamaluddin Kashmiri.     In Sialkot, Sirhindi studied logic, philosophy and theology and read advanced texts of tafsir and hadith under another scholar from Kashmir, Yaqub Sarfi Kashmiri (1521-1595), who was a sheikh of the tariqa Hamadaniyya -- the Sufi order named for Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani.  Qazi Bahlol Badakhshani taught Sirhindi jurisprudence, the Prophet Muhammad's biography and history.  

Sirhindi also made rapid progress in the Suhrawardi, the Qadiri, and the Chisti traditions, and was given permission to initiate and train followers at the age of 17. He eventually joined the Naqshbandi order through the Sufi missionary Khwaja Baqi Billah, and became a leading master of the order. His deputies traversed the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eventually won favor with the Mughal court.

Ahmad Sirhindi's teaching emphasized the inter-dependence of both the Sufi path and sharia, stating that "what is outside the path shown by the prophet is forbidden." Sirhindi's concept of sharia is an inclusive term encompassing outward acts of worship, faith, and the Sufi path. Sirhindi emphasizes Sufi initiation and practices as a necessary part of sharia, and criticizes jurists who follow only the outward aspects of the sharia. Sirhindi also wrote a treatise under the title Radd-e-Rawafiz to justify the execution of Shi'a nobles by Abdullah Khan Uzbek in Mashhad. In Radd-e-Rawafiz, Sirhindi argues:

Since the Shi'a permit cursing Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and one of the chaste wives (of the Prophet), which in itself constitutes infidelity, it is incumbent upon the Muslim ruler, nay upon all people, in compliance with the command of the Omniscient King (Allah), to kill them and to oppress them in order to elevate the true religion. It is permissible to destroy their buildings and to seize their property and belongings.

Sirhindi also expressed his disdain towards Shi'as in his letters. According to Sirhindi, the worst distorters of faith "are those who bear malice against the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. God has called them kafirs (unbelievers) in the Qur'an." In a letter to his disciple Sheikh Farid, the Mir Bakhshi of the Mughal empire, Sirhindi said that showing respect to the distorters of faith -- to the ahl-e Bid'ah --  amounted to destruction of Islam.

In his Makutbat letter 193, Sirhindi is said to have stated "The execution of the accursed Kafir of Goindwal (Guru Arjan Dev Ji) at this time is a very good achievement indeed and has become the cause of a great defeat of the hateful Hindus." Jahangir writes in his Tuzuk that he had the Guru put to death and had his property confiscated. 

Sirhindi, as a hard-line supporter of Islamic orthodoxy and a highly influential religious revivalist, h

ad opposed Akbar’s policy of religious tolerance. He had particular concerns about the spread of Sikhism in Punjab. So he cheered on the murder of the Guru, giving the Guru's death as a religious matter instead of a political one. 

Sirhindi advanced the notion of wahdat ash-shuhud (oneness of appearance).  According to this doctrine, the experience of unity between God and creation is purely subjective and occurs only in the mind of the Sufi who has reached the state of fana' fi Allah (to forget about everything except Almighty Allah).  Sirhindi considered wahdat ash-shuhud to be superior to wahdat al-wujud (oneness of being),which Sirhindi understood to be a preliminary step on the way to the Absolute Truth.

The concept of the unity of experience essentially concerns the relationship between the Creator and the Creation.  One of the more intensely debated issues in Sufism in the time of Sirhindi was the tension between monism and dualism in mystical thought and, more generally, in the Islamic worldview.  Since these Sufi philosophical doctrines were often expressed in very abstract symbols and expressions, it is difficult to explicitly characterize figures such as the Sufi philosopher Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240 CC) as having been exclusively monistic.  Based primarily on the thought of Ibn 'Arabi's successors and on the popularization of his ideas through vehicles such as mystical poetry, many Sufis came to consider that the doctrine of the "unity of existence" (wahdat al-wujud), which they attributed to Ibn 'Arabi, was uncompromisingly monistic.

In response to this metaphysically monistic and ethically relativistic outlook Sirhindi propounded a complex cosmological system that detailed the relationship between God and the world in such a way as to provide a more positive existential status to the creation and human activities.

Sirhindi's theory came to be known as the "unity of appearance" (wahdat al-shuhud).  In formulating his theory, Sirhindi criticized some aspects of Ibn 'Arabi's teachings, but remained highly influenced by others and often cites him approvingly.  Among the features of Sirhindi's philosophical system is the idea that in the creative process the divine names are emanated from the mind of God into the world, where they must encounter their opposites in order to be fully discerned and experienced.  The world, therefore, is not the same as the Divine Being, but rather was a shadowy or adumbrated reality of its own.  By positing this reality as apart from that of God, Sirhindi is able to assert a real existential status to evil, as opposed to the relativism entailed by absolute monism.  

For Sirhindi, living according to the tenets and practice of orthodox Islam is a prerequisite for traveling the Sufi path of individual purification and realization.  The main purpose of this path is certainty of faith rather than hidden knowledge.  However, those who grasp the essence of the inner dimension of the Islamic law (shari'a), are at a higher level than those who simply enact the outer formal requirements. 

Sirhindi continued to stress the element of sobriety characteristic of Naqshbandi Sufis.  In this context, he disapproved of mystical practices incorporating dancing, music, or trance states.  Sirhindi advocated the practice of silent dhikr, the calm and focused recitation of the names and attributes of God and other pious phrases.  According to Sirhindi, the spiritual aspirant, under the close supervision and guidance of a Sufi master, pursues an itinerary of spiritual progress that reverses the process of the descent of the divine reality into physical manifestation. 

Each person possesses a subtle body composed of ten spiritual centers known as the lata'if, including the "heart" and the "spirit".  These spiritual centers are arranged at two levels, which correspond to the two cosmic levels: (1) The eternal, spiritual realm of God's command ('amr), which precedes empirical manifestation, and (2) the temporal world of physical creation (khalq).

Through specific practices of contemplation and recitations combined with the interventions of the Sufi master, the aspirant activates the energy focused in these centers in order to initiate and pursue spiritual awakening and spiritual ascent.

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Ahmad, Aziz (1964). Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment. Oxford University Press.

Ahmad, Khwaja Jamil (1984). One Hundred Greater Muslims.  Ferozsons.

Ansari, Muhammad Abdul-Haq (1986).  Sufism and Shari'ah: A Study of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's Effort to Reform Sufism.  Leicester, England: The Islamic Foundation.

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Friedmann, Yohanan (1971).  Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi.  Montreal: McGill University.

Glasse, Cyril (2001). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Altamira Press.

Jafri, S. Z. H. (2012). Recording the Progress of Indian History: Symposia Papers of the Indian History Congress, 1992-2010.  Primus Books.

Jenkins, Everett, Jr. (2000). The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, Volume 2, 1500-1799; Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc.

Khan, Muhammad Mojlum (2008).  The Muslim 100: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of the Most Influential Muslims in History, Leicestershire, United Kingdom: Kube Publishing Ltd.

Leaman, Oliver (2013).  Islamic Philosophy, John Wiley and Sons.

McGreal, Ian P. (ed.) (1995). Great Thinkers of the Eastern World, New York City, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Rahman, Fazlur (1968). Selected Letters of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi.  Karachi, Pakistan: Iqbal Academy.

Singha, Tarana (1981).  Sikh Gurus and the Indian Spiritual Thought.  University of California. 

terHaar, J. G. J. (1992).  Follower and Heir of the Prophet: Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1534-1624) as Mystic.  Leiden, the Netherlands: Het Oosters Instituut.

Weismann, Itzchak (2007). The Naqshbandiyya: Orthodoxy and Activism in a Worldwide Sufi Tradition. Routledge.   

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Sirhindi

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shaykh-Ahmad-Sirhindi

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The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 80 - Ibn Bajja, The 12th Century Andalusian Who Became the First Eminent Philosopher of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain)

Ibn Bajja, or Ibn Bajjah  (Latin: Avempace), in full Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥya ibn al-Sayigh al-Tujibi al-Andalusi al-Saraqusti, (b. c. 1095, Zaragoza, Taifa of Zaragoza, Al-Andalus [present day Aragon, Zaragoza (province), Spain] — d. 1138, Fes, Almoravid Empire [present day Fes, Morocco]), was earliest known representative in Spain (Andalus) of the Arabic Aristotelian–Neoplatonic philosophical tradition initiated by al-Farabi and was a forerunner of the polymath scholar Ibn Tufayl and of the philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes).  Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥya ibn aṣ-Ṣa’igh at-Tujibi ibn Bajja  (Latin: Avempace) was an Arab Andalusian polymath, whose writings include works regarding astronomy, physics, and music, as well as philosophy, medicine, botany, and poetry.  

Ibn Bajja was born in Zaragoza, in what is today Aragon, Spain, around 1085 and died in Fes, Morocco, in 1138. Rulers of Zaragoza shifted constantly throughout Ibn Bajja's young life.  However, in 1114, a new Almoravid governor of Zaragoza was appointed: Abu Bakr 'Ali ibn Ibrahim as-Sahrawi, also known as Ibn Tifilwit.  A close relationship developed between Ibn Bajja and Ibn Tifilwit. Ibn Bajja enjoyed music and wine with the governor and also composed panegyrics and muwashshahat to publicly praise Ibn Tifilwit, who rewarded Ibn Bajja by nominating him as his vizier.  In a diplomatic mission to meet the overthrown Imad ad-Dawla Ibn Hud, Ibn Bajja was placed in jail for some months for reasons unknown. Ibn Tifilwit was killed during a quest against the Christians in 1116, ending his short reign and inspiring Ibn Bajja to compose mournful elegies in Ibn Tifilwit's  honor.  Ibn Bajja also had a talent for singing and composition in music. In the beginning of his career, he wrote the manuscript Risalah fi l-alḥan (Tract on Melodies) and incorporated his commentary on al-Farabi’s treatise based on music. He determined the correlations between different melodies and temperament. 

After the fall of Zaragoza in 1118 at the hands of King Alfonso The Battler, Ibn Bajja looked for shelter under Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, another brother of the Almoravid Sultan in Xatiba. Ibn Bajja worked, for some twenty years, as the vizier of Yusuf Ibn Tashfin. Throughout these decades, it is clear that Ibn Bajja was not as agreeable with those close to the ruler, Ibn Tashfin, as he was during the previous reign of Ibn Tifilwit. Writings by Ahmad al-Maqqari gives us insight into the hostility and disagreements between Ibn Bajja and the father of a famous physician respected by Ibn Tashfin, Abd al-Malik.  A poetry anthology, Qala’id al-iqya (Necklace of Rubies), was also created by a courtier of Ibn Tashfin, Abu Nasr al-Fath ibn Muhammad ibn Khaqan, which condescendingly placed Ibn Bajja in last place. 

Under Ibn Tashfin, Ibn Bajja was imprisoned twice. The details of the imprisonment are not well understood but do indicate that Ibn Bajja occasionally fell out of favor with the Sultan.  Despite being disrespected, Ibn Bajja remained with the Almoravid empire for the rest of his life, until his death in 1138. 

Ibn Bajja was an important Islamic philosopher, among his many other trades.  In his time, Ibn Bajja was seen as a controversial figure, receiving criticism from his peers like Ibn Tufayl.  However,  he was also respected by his peers and even his critics.  While Ibn Tufayl was noted for criticizing Ibn Bajja's work, he also described him as having one of the sharpest minds.

During Ibn Bajja's time, Islamic philosophy, and the post-hellenic world, was mainly divided into two opposing branches of thought.  The Eastern branch, which was led by Ibn Sina, and the Western branch, which was led by Ibn Bajja.  His main philosophical works include the unfinished politico-ethical treatise Tadbir al-mutawahhid  (Governance [Management] of the Solitary), the Kitab al-nafs (Book on the Soul), and the Risala fi l-Ghaya al-insaniyya (Treatise on the Objective of Human Beings).  

The two key pillars of Ibn Bajja's philosophy are solitude and conjunction.  Solitude represents the isolation the philosopher commonly seeks in order to protect himself from the corruption of society.  Conjunction refers to the philosopher's quest for the lowest celestial intelligence.  Conjunction is required for the human soul's development.  

Ibn Bajja’s chief philosophical tenets seem to have included belief in the possibility that the human soul could become united with the Divine. This union was conceived as the final stage in an intellectual  ascent beginning with the impressions of sense objects that consist of form and matter and rising through a hierarchy of spiritual forms (i.e., forms containing less and less matter) to the Active Intellect, which is an emanation of the deity. 

Ibn Bajja’s most important philosophical work is Tadbir al-mutawaḥḥid (“The Regime of the Solitary” or "The Conduct of the Solitary), an ethical treatise which argues that philosophers can optimize their spiritual health only in a righteous environment, which in many cases may be found only in solitude and seclusion. The work remained incomplete upon his death.

In Tadbir al-mutawahhid, Ibn Bajja examines the mode of life best suited to the solitary or the true philosopher who is destined to live in a "corrupt" city-state that has fallen short of al-Farabi's ideal of the "virtuous" city.  In this connection, Ibn Bajja did not question Aristotle's (or al-Farabi's) maxim that humankind is a political animal by nature.  Instead, Ibn Bajja observed that humankind may nevertheless be forced in certain circumstances to shun this ideal and to seek fulfillment in a life of solitude.  For Ibn Bajja, the solitary life is intellectual and is achieved ultimately through conjunction or contact with the active intellect.  Although Ibn Bajja vacillates between the mystical ideal of the Sufis and the Aristotelian ideal of the contemplative life, his basic sympathies remain Aristotelian and Neoplatonic.  In Ibn Bajja's "Farewell Address", Ibn Bajja stated categorically that "reason is God's dearest creation to Him .. and to the extent man is close to reason, he is close to God.  This is possible only through rational knowledge, which brings man close to God, just as ignorance cuts him off from Him."

Ibn Bajja's other philosophical works included commentaries on the works of  Aristotle and al-Farabi. He also wrote a number of songs and poems and a treatise on botany. Ibn Bajja is known to have studied astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. 

Ibn Bajja is the author of the Kitab an-Nabat ("The Book of Plants"), a popular work on botany, which defined the sex of plants. His philosophical theories influenced the work of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Albertus Magnus.  Most of his writings and books were not completed (or well-organized) due to his early death. He had a vast knowledge of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy.  His main contribution to Islamic philosophy was his idea on soul phenomenology, which was never completed.

Ibn Bajja was, in his time, not only a prominent figure of philosophy but also of music and poetry. His diwan -- his collection of poetry -- was rediscovered in 1951. Though many of his works have not survived, his theories in astronomy and physics were preserved by Ibn Maymun (Moses Maimonides) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) respectively, and influenced later astronomers and physicists in the Islamic civilization and Renaissance Europe, including Galileo Galilei.  

Ibn Bajja wrote one of the first (argued by some to be the first) commentaries on Aristotle in the western world. While his work on projectile motion was never translated from Arabic to Latin, his views became well known around the western world and to western philosophers, astronomers, and scientists of many disciplines. His works impacted contemporary medieval thought, and later influenced Galileo and his work. 

In his commentary on Aristotle's Meteorology, Ibn Bajja presented his own theory on the Milky Way galaxy.  Aristotle believed the Milky Way to be caused by the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together and that the ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the world which is continuous with the heavenly motions. On the other hand, Aristotle's Arabic commentator Ibn al-Bitriq considered the Milky Way to be a phenomenon exclusively of the heavenly spheres, not of the upper part of the atmosphere and that the light of those stars makes a visible patch because they are so close.  Ibn Bajja's view differed from both, as he considered the Milky Way to be a phenomenon both of the spheres above the moon and of the sublunar region. 

Ibn Bajja proposed that for every force there is always a reaction force. While he did not specify that these forces be equal, it is considered an early version of the third law of motion which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In recognition of Ibn Bajja's early contributions to astronomy and physics, in 2009, a crater 62 miles from the South Pole of the Moon was designated "The Ibn Bajja" crater by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

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Adamec, Ludwig W. (2009), Historical Dictionary of Islam; Scarecrow Press. 

Esposito, John L. (1998). The Oxford History of Islam;  Oxford University Press.

Jenkins, Everett, Jr. (1999). The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, Volume 1, 570-1500; Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc.

Lapidus, Ira M. (2014).  A History of Islamic Societies; New York City, New York, Cambridge University Press. 

McGinnis, Jon (2007).  Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources. Hackett Publishing Company. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avempace

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Bajja_(crater)

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Avempace

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The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 81 - Aurangzeb, The 17th Century Indian "Conqueror of the World"

Muhi al-Din Muhammad (b. November 3, 1618, Dahod, Gujarat, India – d. March 3, 1707, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, India), commonly known as Aurangzeb (Persian: "Ornament of the Throne") and by his regnal title "Alamgir" (Persian: "Conqueror of the World"), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling from July 1658 until his death in 1707. Under his emperorship, the Mughals reached their greatest extent with their territory spanning nearly the entirety of South Asia. Widely considered to be the last effective Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb compiled the Fatawa 'Alamgiri and was amongst the few monarchs to have fully established sharia and Islamic economics throughout South Asia.

Belonging to the aristocratic Timurid dynasty, Aurangzeb's early life was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under his father Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) and gained recognition as an accomplished military commander. Aurangzeb served as the viceroy of the Deccan in 1636–1637 and the governor of Gujarat in 1645–1647.  He jointly administrated the provinces of Multan and Sindh in 1648–1652 and continued expeditions into the neighboring Safavid territories. In September 1657, Shah Jahan nominated his eldest son Dara Shikoh as his successor, a move repudiated by Aurangzeb, who proclaimed himself emperor in February 1658. In April 1658, Aurangzeb defeated the allied army of Shikoh and the Kingdom of Marwar at the Battle of Dharmat.  Aurangzeb's decisive victory at the Battle of Samugarh in May 1658 cemented his sovereignty and his suzerainty was acknowledged throughout the Empire. After Shah Jahan recovered from illness in July 1658, Aurangzeb declared him incompetent to rule and imprisoned his father in the Agra Fort. 

Under Aurangzeb's rule, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent with their territory spanning nearly the entire South Asia. His reign was characterized by a period of rapid military expansion, with several dynasties and states being overthrown by the Mughals. His conquests acquired him the regnal title Alamgir ('Conqueror'). The Mughals also surpassed Qing China as the world's largest economy and biggest manufacturing power. The Mughal military gradually improved and became one of the strongest armies in the world. A staunch Muslim, Aurangzeb is credited with the construction of numerous mosques and patronizing works of Arabic calligraph.  He successfully imposed the Fatawa al-Alamgir as the principal regulating body of the empire and prohibited religiously forbidden activities in Islam. Although Aurangzeb suppressed several local revolts, he maintained cordial relations with foreign governments.

Aurangzeb is generally considered by historians to be one of the greatest emperors of the Mughals. While there is considerable admiration for Aurangzeb in the contemporary sources, he has been criticized for his political executions and demolition of Hindu temples. Furthermore, his Islamization of the region, introduction of the jizya tax and abandonment of un-Islamic practices caused resentment among non-Muslims. Aurangzeb is commemorated by Muslims as a just ruler and as the Mujaddid (centennial reviver) of the 11th-12th Islamic century.

Aurangzeb, also spelled Aurangzib (Arabic: Awrangzīb), kingly title ʿAlamgir, original name Muḥi al-Din Muḥammad, emperor of India from 1658 to 1707, the last of the great Mughal emperors. Under Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent, although his pro-Islamic policies would ultimately lead to the Empire's dissolution. 

Aurangzeb was the third son of the emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal (for whom the Taj Mahal was built). He grew up as a serious-minded and devout youth, wedded to the Muslim orthodoxy of the day and free from the royal Mughal traits of sensuality and drunkenness. He showed signs of military and administrative ability early.  These qualities, combined with a taste for power, brought him into rivalry with his eldest brother, the brilliant and volatile Dara Shikoh, who was designated by their father as his successor to the throne. From 1636, Aurangzeb held a number of important appointments, in all of which he distinguished himself. He commanded troops against the Uzbeks and the Persians with distinction (1646–47) and, as viceroy of the Deccan provinces for two terms (1636–44, 1654–58), reduced the two Muslim Deccan kingdoms to near-subjection.

When Shah Jahan fell seriously ill in 1657, the tension between the Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb made a war of succession seem inevitable. By the time of Shah Jahan’s unexpected recovery, matters had gone too far for either son to retreat. In the struggle for power (1657–59), Aurangzeb showed tactical and strategic military skill, great powers of dissimulation, and ruthless determination. Decisively defeating Dara at Samurgarh in May 1658, he confined his father in his own palace at Agra.  In consolidating his power, Aurangzeb caused one brother’s death and had two other brothers, a son, and a nephew executed.

Aurangzeb’s reign falls into two almost equal parts. In the first, which lasted until about 1680, he was a capable Muslim monarch of a mixed Hindu-Muslim empire and as such was generally disliked for his ruthlessness but feared and respected for his vigor and skill. During this period he was much occupied with safeguarding the northwest from Persians and Central Asian Turks and less so with the Maratha chief Shivaji, who twice plundered the great port of Surat (1664, 1670). Aurangzeb applied his great-grandfather Akbar's recipe for conquest: defeat one’s enemies, reconcile them, and place them in imperial service. Thus, Shivaji was defeated, called to Agra for reconciliation (1666), and given an imperial rank. The plan broke down, however; Shivaji fled to the Deccan and died, in 1680, as the ruler of an independent Maratha kingdom.

After about 1680, Aurangzeb’s reign underwent a change of both attitude and policy. The pious ruler of an Islamic state replaced the seasoned statesman of a mixed ethnic and religious kingdom.  Hindus became subordinates, not colleagues, and the Marathas, like the southern Muslim kingdoms, were marked for annexation rather than containment. The first overt sign of change was the re-imposition of the jizya, or poll tax, on non-Muslims in 1679 (a tax that had been abolished by Akbar). This, in turn, was followed by a Rajput revolt in 1680–81, supported by Aurangzeb’s third son, Akbar.  Hindus still served the empire, but no longer with enthusiasm. The Deccan kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda were conquered in 1686–87, but the insecurity that followed precipitated a long-incipient economic crisis, which in turn was deepened by warfare with the Marathas. Shivaji’s son Sambhaji was captured and executed in 1689 and the Maratha kingdom was broken up. The Marathas, however, then adopted guerrilla tactics, spreading all over southern India amid a sympathetic population. The rest of Aurangzeb’s life was spent in laborious and fruitless sieges of forts in the Maratha hill country.

Aurangzeb’s struggles in the south prevented him from maintaining his former firm hold on the north. The administration weakened, and the process was hastened by pressure on the land by Mughal grantees who were paid by assignments on the land revenue. Agrarian discontent often took the form of religious movements, as in the case of the Satnamis and the Sikhs in the Punjab. 

In 1675, Aurangzeb arrested and executed the Sikh Guru (spiritual leader) Tegh Bahadur, who had refused to embrace Islam.  The succeeding Guru, Gobind Singh, was in open rebellion for the rest of Aurangzeb’s reign.  Other agrarian revolts, such as those of the Jats, were largely secular. 

In general, Aurangzeb ruled as a militant orthodox Sunni Muslim.  He put through increasingly puritanical ordinances that were vigorously enforced by muḥtasibs, or censors of morals. The Muslim confession of faith, for instance, was removed from all coins lest it be defiled by unbelievers, and courtiers were forbidden to salute in the Hindu fashion. In addition, Hindu idols, temples, and shrines were often destroyed.

Aurangzeb maintained the empire for nearly half a century and in fact extended it in the south as far as Tanjore (now Thanjavur) and Trichinopoly (now Tiruchchirappalli). Behind this imposing facade, however, were serious weaknesses. The Maratha campaign continually drained the imperial resources. The militancy of the Sikhs and the Jats boded ill for the empire in the north. The new Islamic policy alienated Hindu sentiment and undermined Rajput support. The financial pressure on the land strained the whole administrative framework. When Aurangzeb died after a reign of nearly 49 years, he left an empire not yet moribund but troubled with a number of menacing problems. The failure of the Mughals to cope with these problems after the reign of Aurangzeb's son, Bahadur Shah I, led to the collapse of the Mughal Empire in the mid-18th century.

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Adamec, Ludwig W. (2009), Historical Dictionary of Islam; Scarecrow Press. 

Avari, Burjor (2013). Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent.  Routledge.

Durant, Will (1993) [First published 1935]. The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage. Simon & Schuster. 

Eraly, Abraham (2007).  The Mughal World.  London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.  

Esposito, John L. (1998). The Oxford History of Islam;  Oxford University Press.

Irvine, William (1971). The Later Mughals.  Atlantic Publishers & Distributors.

Jenkins, Everett, Jr. (2000). The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, Volume 2, 1500-1799; Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc.

Khan, Muhammad Mojlum (2008).  The Muslim 100: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of the Most Influential Muslims in History, Leicestershire, United Kingdom: Kube Publishing Ltd.

Kruijtzer, Gijs (2009). Xenophobia in Seventeenth-century India.  Leiden University Press. 

Lapidus, Ira M. (2014).  A History of Islamic Societies; New York City, New York, Cambridge University Press. 

Richards, John F. (1996) [first published 1993]. The Mughal Empire.  The New Cambridge History of India. Vol. 5. Cambridge University Press. 

Sarkar, Jadunath (1972). History of Aurangzib.  Calcutta: M.C. Sarkar & Sons.  Bombay (Mumbai): Orient Longman.

Tillotson, Giles (2008). Taj Mahal. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 

Truschke, Audrey (2017). Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King.  Stanford University Press. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurangzeb

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aurangzeb

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The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 82 - Ibn Tufayl, The 12th Century Author of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus), the Precursor for Robinson Crusoe

Ibn Tufayl (or Ibn Ṭufail) (full Arabic name: ʾAbu Bakr Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al-Malik bin Muḥammad bin Ṭufayl al-Qaysiyy al-ʾAndalusiyy; Latinized form: Abubacer Aben Tofail; Anglicized form: Abubekar or Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail), (b. 1105, Guadix, Andalusia, Almoravid Dynasty [today's Spain] – d. 1185, Marrakesh, Almohad Caliphate [today's Morocco]) was an Arab Andalusian Muslim polymath.  He was a writer, philosopher, theologian, physician, astronomer, and vizier.  

As a philosopher and novelist, Ibn Tufayl is most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan.  As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy.

Born in Guadix, near Granada, Ibn Tufayl was educated by Ibn Bajja (Avempace). His family descended from the Arab Qays tribe. Ibn Tufayl was a secretary for several leaders, including the rulers of Ceuta and Tangier, in 1154. He also served as a secretary for the ruler of Granada, and later as vizier and physician for Abu Yaqub Yusur, the Almohad caliph, to whom he recommended Ibn Rushd (Averroes) as his own future successor in 1169.   Ibn Rushd later reported this event and describes how Ibn Tufayl then inspired him to write his famous Aristotelian commentaries:

Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl summoned me one day and told me that he had heard the Commandeer of the Faithful complaining about the disjointedness of Aristotle's mode of expression — or that of the translators — and the resultant obscurity of his intentions. He said that if someone took on these books who could summarize them and clarify their aims after first thoroughly understanding them himself, people would have an easier time comprehending them. “If you have the energy,” Ibn Tufayl told me, “you do it. I'm confident you can because I know what a good mind and devoted character you have, and how dedicated you are to the art. You understand that only my great age, the cares of my office — and my commitment to another task that I think even more vital — keep me from doing it myself.”

Ibn Rushd became Ibn Tufayl's successor after Ibn Tufayl retired in 1182.  Ibn Tufayl died several years later in Morocco in 1185. The astronomer Nur Ed-Din Al-Bitruji was also a disciple of Ibn Tufayl. Al-Bitruji was influenced by Ibn Tufayl to follow the Aristotelian system of astronomy, as he had originally followed the Ptolemaic system of astronomy.

Ibn Tufayl's work in astronomy was historically significant as he played a major role in overturning the Ptolemaic ideas on astronomy.  This event in history is called the ''Andalusian Revolt”, where he influenced many, including Al-Bitruji, to desert the Ptolemaic ideas.

Ibn Tufayl is the author of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Ḥayy bin Yaqẓan or Hayy ibn Yaqzan --"Alive, Son of Awake"), also known as Philosophus Autodidactus in Latin, a philosophical romance and allegorical novel inspired by Avicennism and Sufism, and which tells the story of an autodidactic (a self-educated) feral child (Hayy), raised by a gazelle and living alone on a desert island, who, without contact with other human beings, discovers ultimate truth through a systematic process of reasoned inquiry. Hayy ultimately comes into contact with civilization and religion when he meets a castaway named Absal (Asal in some translations). Hayy determines that certain trappings of religion, namely imagery and dependence on material goods, are necessary for the multitude in order that they might have decent lives. However, imagery and material goods are distractions from the truth and ought to be abandoned by those whose reason recognizes that they are. 

The names of the characters in the novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, Ḥayy, Salaman, and Absal were borrowed from Ibn Sina's tales.  The title of the novel is also the same as Ibn Sina's novel. Ibn Tufayl did this on purpose to use the characters and the title as a deliberate reference to Ibn Sina, as Ibn Tufayl wanted to touch upon Ibn Sina's philosophy.

Ibn Tufayl's Philosophus Autodidactus was written as a response to al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers.  In the 13th century, Ibn al-Nafis later wrote the Al-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah fil Siera al-Nabawiyyah (known as Theologus Autodidactus in the West) as a response to Ibn Tufayl's Philosophus Autodidactus.

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan had a significant influence on both Arabic literature and European literature.  The novel went on to become an influential best-seller throughout Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The work also had a "profound influence" on both classical Islamic philosophy and modern Western philosophy.  It became one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution and the European Enlightenment, and the thoughts expressed in the novel can be found in different variations and to different degrees in the books of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant.   

A Latin translation of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, entitled Philosophus Autodidactus, first appeared in 1671, prepared by Edward Pococke the Younger. The first English translation (by Simon Ockley) was published in 1708. These translations later may have inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, which also featured a desert island narrative.  The novel also inspired the concept of "tabula rasa" developed in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) by John Locke, who was a student of Pococke.  His Essay went on to become one of the principal sources of empiricism in modern Western philosophy, and influenced many enlightenment philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley.  Ibn Tufayl's ideas on materialism as set forth in the novel also have some similarities to Karl Marx's historical materialism. Ibn Tufayl's work also foreshadowed Molyneux's Problem, proposed by William Molyneux to Locke, who included it in the second book of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Other European writers influenced by Philosophus Autodidactus included Gottfried Leibniz, Melchisedech Thevenot, John Wallis, Christiaan Huygens, George Keith, Robert Barclay, the Quakers, Samuel Hartlib, and Voltaire.  

Ibn Ṭufayl, in full Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭufayl al-Qaysi, also called Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭufayl al-Qaysī, (Latin: Abubacer), was influenced by the works of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Bajja (Avempace), the latter of whom was instrumental in introducing the Islamic philosophical tradition to Spain,  and was a contemporary of Ibn Rushd (Averroes). He served as the court physician and general adviser to the Almohad ruler Abu Yaʿqub Yusuf from 1163 to 1184.

Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqhdan depicts the life and growth of a fictitious figure, born on a desert island in the Indian Ocean.  This figure is able to rise by degrees to the highest level of intellectual insight or discovery. Through observation and reflection, Hayy is able, without any contact with other human beings, to discover the truth about God, the physical world, and the ultimate conjunction with the active intellect.  Unlike his predecessor, Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufayl argued that the contemplative or intellectual ideal of the Neoplatonists is not enough, because in that ideal the soul is not able to overcome the consciousness of its separate identity in relation to the Necessary Being.  In Sufi fashion, Ibn Tufayl argued instead that to achieve the condition of perfect union with its source, the soul must rise to the level of ecstasy that the Sufis have called extinction in unity.  This represents the total annihilation of selfhood and the recognition that in reality nothing exists other than the True One.  Everything else, spiritual or corporeal, considered in itself is nothing, as the Sufi masters had always contended.

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Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓan) ("Alive, son of Awake") is an Arabic philosophical novel and an allegorical tale written by Ibn Tufayl in the early 12th century in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain).  Names by which the book is also known include the Latin: Philosophus Autodidactus ('The Self-Taught Philosopher'); and English: The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan. Ḥayy ibn Yaqdhan was named after an earlier Arabic philosophical romance of the same name, written by Ibn Sina during his imprisonment in the early 11th century, even though both tales had different stories.  The novel greatly inspired Islamic philosophy as well as major Enlightenment major Enlightenmennt thinkers. Ḥayy ibn Yaqdhan is the third most translated text from Arabic, after the Qur'an and the One Thousand and One Nights.  

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, along with three poems, is all that remains of the writings of Ibn Tufayl (c. 1105 – 1185), who lived under the Almohads and served Sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf.  The book was influential among medieval Jewish scholars at the Toledo School of Translators run by Raymond de Sauvetat, and its impact can be seen in The Guide for the Perplexed of Maimonides.  It was "discovered" in the West after Edward Pococke of Oxford, while visiting a market in Damascus, found a manuscript of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan made in Alexandria in 1303 containing commentary in Hebrew.  Edward Pococke's son, Edward Pococke, Jr.,  published a Latin translation in 1671, subtitled "The Self-Taught Philosopher." George Keith, the Quaker, translated it into English in 1674, Baruch Spinoza called for a Dutch translation, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz championed the book in German circles, and a copy of the book went to the Sorbonne.  Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 – 1731), author of Robinson Crusoe, was heavily influenced by the work as well as by the memoir of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk.  

In the Muslim world, the book is an honored Sufi text.

The story revolves around Ḥayy ibn Yaqdhan, a little boy who grew up on an island in the Indies under the equator, isolated from the people, in the bosom of an antelope that raised him, feeding him with her milk. Ḥayy has just learned to walk and imitates the sounds of antelopes, birds, and other animals in his surroundings. He learns their languages, and he learns to follow the actions of animals by imitating their instinct. 

Hayy makes his own shoes and clothes from the skins of animals, and studies the stars. He reaches a higher level of knowledge, -- a level of knowledge only achieved by the finest of intellects.  His continuous explorations and observation of creatures and the environment lead him to gain great knowledge in natural science, philosophy, and religion. He concludes that, at the basis of the creation of the universe, a great creator must exist. Ḥayy ibn Yaqdhan lived a humble modest life as a Sufi and forbade himself from eating meat.

Upon reaching the age of 30 years old, Hayy meets his first human, who has landed on his isolated island. At the age of 49, Hayy is ready to teach other people about the knowledge he gained throughout his life.

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan is an allegorical novel in which Ibn Tufayl expresses philosophical and mystical teachings in a symbolic language in order to provide better understanding of such concepts. This novel is thus the most important work of Ibn Tufayl, containing the main ideas that form his system.

Ibn Tufayl was familiar with the differences in the ideas of al-Ghazali and those of the Neoplatonizing Aristotelianists, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina.  In Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, Ibn Tufayl sought to present a conciliating synthesis of the Islamic speculative tradition with al-Ghazali’s Sufi-influenced recasting of Islamic mysticism and pietism. Ibn Tufayl borrows from Ibn Sina, using the title of one of his allegories and drawing inspiration from his "Floating Man" thought experiment, but transforming the subject's sensory deprivation to social isolation.

With this novel, Tufayl focuses on finding solutions to the three main problems discussed during his period:

1. Humans, on their own, are able to reach the level of al-Insan al-Kamil -- "the person who has reached perfection" or, literally "the complete person" -- by merely observing and thinking of the nature, without any education.
2. The information that is obtained through observation, experiment, and reasoning, does not contradict with revelation. In other words, religion and philosophy (or science) are compatible, rather than contradictory.
3. Reaching the absolute information is individual and is something that any human being is able to achieve.

Beyond leaving an enormous impact on Andalusi literature, Arabic literature, and classical Islamic philosophy, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan influenced later European literature during the Age of Enlightenment, turning into a best-seller during the 17th-18th centuries. The novel particularly influenced the philosophies and scientific thought of vanguards of modern Western philosophy and the Scientific Revolution such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Christiaan Huygens, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant. Beyond foreshadowing Molyneux's Problem, the novel specifically inspired John Locke's concept of tabula rasa as propounded in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), subsequently inspiring the philosophies of later modern empiricists, such as David Hume and George Berkeley.  The novel's notion of materialism also has similarities to Karl Marx's historical materialism.  The first English translation by Simon Ockley inspired the desert island narrative of Daniel Defoe's classic Robinson Crusoe. 

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Adamec, Ludwig W. (2009), Historical Dictionary of Islam; Scarecrow Press. 

Attar, Samar (2010). The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl's Influence on Modern Western Thought. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Baroud, Mahmud (2012). The Shipwrecked Sailor in Arabic and Western Literature: Ibn Tufayl and His Influence on European. London.

Esposito, John L. (1998). The Oxford History of Islam;  Oxford University Press.

Jenkins, Everett, Jr. (1999). The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, Volume 1, 570-1500; Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc.

Khan, Muhammad Mojlum (2008).  The Muslim 100: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of the Most Influential Muslims in History, Leicestershire, United Kingdom: Kube Publishing Ltd.

Lapidus, Ira M. (2014).  A History of Islamic Societies; New York City, New York, Cambridge University Press. 

McGinnis, Jon.  Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources. Hackett Publishing Company. 

Meri, Josef W. (2005); Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia; New York, Routledge.

Nasr, Seyyed and Leaman, Oliver (1996). History of Islamic philosophy. Routledge. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayy_ibn_Yaqdhan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Tufail

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Tufayl

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