The emergence of Bengali Islamic scholarship and its influence on modern identity

A major contribution to the development of modern Bengali literature in the nineteenth century is works of the Islamic sciences. My study concentrates on the role of these works in the formation of Bengali-Muslim identity, focusing specifically on the Islamic science of interpretation ( tafsīr) of the Qua\u27rān. This project examines the transformation from the earliest Bengali literature dealing with Islamic topics ( puthi) to tafsīr written in the late nineteenth century. This study will examine the tendencies in Bengali literature conducive to the rise of Bengali tafsīr in the late nineteenth century. The first tafsīr was written by Sen (1881), a member of the Brahma Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. Before the appearance of Bengali tafsīrs, most tafsīrs in the Indian Subcontinent were written in languages deemed “Islamic.” The relatively late development of Bengali tafsīrs followed Muslim reformers\u27 growing sentiment that there was a lack of orthodox religious praxis. These reformers\u27 efforts to improve Islamic practice of the rural population led Muslim authors to write religious instructional tracts in modern Bengali. In response to this reform climate, the success of Bhai Girish Chandra Sen\u27s pioneering tafsīr work, and Christian missionary critiques of Islam, Muslim scholars, such as Naīmuddīn (1887) began to write tafsīr. This study will document the process by which Bengali, originally viewed as unsuitable for religious discourse, became an acceptable language for Islamic scholarship through the crucial function Bengali plays in communicating religious reform and its pivotal role in formation of Bengali-Muslim identity. I will then establish the location of the two texts by Sen and Naīmuddīn within the tafsīr genre based on the texts\u27 relative conformity to the norms of the tafsīr tradition. This literary corpus facilitated a newly accepted forum for religious discourse and a means to convey the message of orthodox praxis to the Muslim population unfamiliar with Arabic, Persian and Urdu. In a broader context, this project sheds light on the role of Islamic religious writings in Bengali Islamic identity and the ways in which a world religion interacts with local traditions and culture