PART I: CONTEXT
Social Origins of Muslims in Bengal
The social composition, the geographical distribution, and the demographic patterns of the Muslims in Bengal were seminal factors in the development of Islam in that region. By the end of the nineteenth century the Muslim population in Bengal was recorded around 26 million, which constituted about one-third of the total population of Bengal and about 40 percent of the total Muslim population of India. Distributed regionally the number was more meaningful. In east and southeast Bengal two-thirds, and in north Bengal three-fifths, of the inhabitants were recorded as Muslims.
The Emergence of the Bengali Muslim Cultural Mediators and the Syncretistic Tradition
The indigenous and low-class origin of the Muslim masses in Bengal, and the social and cultural considerations underlying the local conversions, as discussed in the preceding chapter, were vital factors in determining the character and patterns of Islamization in the region. These factors remained in the background of the situation revealed by the earliest Muslim Bengali literary sources…
PART II: TEXT
A. The Syncretistic Great Tradition
History—Myth
The literary area to engage the attention of the mediators most was that of the historical and mythical tradition. A survey of the entire range of the Muslim Bengali literature under study reveals the predominance and the great popularity of these historical-mythical writings…
Cosmogony—Cosmology
The cosmogonical ideas presented in the mediators’ writings were also strongly permeated by indigenous influences. The non-Muslim local ideas of this category formed part of the manga literature and were drawn from various religious-sectarian sources popular in and outside Bengal…
Esoterism—Mysticism
Esoterical and mystical matters formed a major area of the mediators’ literary preoccupations. As in the realm of history, myth, and cosmogony, the mystical concerns of the Bengali Muslim writers offered a total impression of accord and identification with their