Ulama

Also called: Ulema, Alim · Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"

Meaning

The ulama (singular alim, "one who knows"; also spelt ulema) were learned Muslim scholars of religion and law. They taught, explained the shari'a (Islamic law) and were expected to guide Muslim rulers to govern by it.

They matter because they stood for the theory of Islamic rule in India. Comparing what they demanded with what rulers actually did shows how flexible rule was in practice.

Explanation

Background: why rulers needed the ulama

• From 711 CE, when the Arab general Muhammad Qasim of the Umayyad Caliphate conquered Sind, Muslim rulers began to govern parts of India [2].
• Later came the Delhi Sultanate (c. 13th century), the Deccan Sultanates, the Mughals (16th century) and then regional states (18th century).
• In theory, every one of these rulers was to be guided by the ulama.
• The ulama's main demand was simple: rule according to the shari'a.

What the ulama interpreted: the sources of shari'a

• Shari'a grew out of two main sources:
• the Qur'an, the revealed book;

• the hadis, reports of what the Prophet said and did.

• New problems kept coming up, so scholars added two more tools:

• qiyas: reasoning by analogy. If a new case looks like an old, settled case, the same rule applies.

• ijma: consensus, meaning the agreement of the learned scholars.

• The ulama were the people trained to use all four. This gave them their authority.

How it worked: the ulama, zimmis and jizya

• Islamic law had a category called zimmi ("protected", from the Arabic zimma). It covered people who followed a revealed scripture, mainly Jews and Christians.
• The law books call this legal category dhimmi [5].
• Zimmis paid jizya, a tax that non-Muslim subjects paid to Muslim rulers [6]. In return the state protected their life, property and worship.
• In India, rulers extended zimmi status to Hindus. This was a practical choice. The original law books did not include Hindus.
• Jizya could become a political fight:
• one Delhi Sultan gave the ulama large concessions;
• he refused to exempt Brahmins from jizya;
• he argued that the shari'a gave him no room to do so [7].

Results: the ulama's ideal versus actual practice

• Rulers did not always obey the ulama.
• Akbar took a keen interest in Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity.
• He pushed the ulama to the side in politics and law.

• He backed his own mixed religious movement, Din-i Ilahi [3][4].

• Rulers often supported other faiths:

• they gave land endowments (grants of land) and tax exemptions to Hindu, Jaina, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish institutions;
• Akbar's farman of 1598 (a farman is a royal order) told officials at Khambat to let the Jesuits build a church there;

• Aurangzeb's letter of 1661–62 gave a cloak and Rs 25 to a Jogi (a Hindu ascetic) said to be under the protection of Sri Shiv Jio.

• The overall result: Mughal rulers came to see themselves as emperors of all their people, not only of Muslims. The ulama's ideal of rule by shari'a remained the official theory, but practice often went its own way.

• In the colonial period (Class 10 NCERT):
• the ulama worried that colonial rule and missionary work would weaken Muslim personal law;
• they used the new printing press to answer this;
• they published cheap Persian and Urdu translations of holy texts and printed religious newspapers;
• the Deoband Seminary (founded 1867) published thousands of fatwas (legal opinions) telling ordinary Muslims how to live in daily life.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: c. 8th to 18th centuries for the guiding role described here, from the conquest of Sind (711 CE) to the decline of the Mughals. Their role in print belongs to the 19th century.
• Rulers and regions: the Delhi Sultanate (north India), the Deccan Sultanates and the Mughals, especially Akbar and Aurangzeb.
• Key people: Muhammad Qasim (Sind, 711 CE) [2]; Akbar, who sidelined the ulama [3][4]; a Delhi Sultan who gave in to the ulama over jizya on Brahmins [7].
• Evidence:
• Akbar's farman of 1598 to the officials of Khambat (Cambay), a port in Gujarat at the head of the Gulf of Khambhat [8]. Three Jesuit missions reached Akbar's court, all before 1600 [3].
• Aurangzeb's letter of 1661–62 granting gifts to a Jogi.
• Records of land grants and tax exemptions to non-Muslim institutions.
• Printed fatwas of the Deoband Seminary for the colonial period.

Don't confuse with

• Sufis / pirs: Sufis were mystics who sought closeness to God through love and devotion, often under a spiritual master (pir). The ulama were scholars of law and theology who stressed the shari'a.
• Shari'a: the shari'a is the law itself, built from the Qur'an, hadis, qiyas and ijma. The ulama are the people who interpret it.
• Zimmi: a zimmi was a protected non-Muslim subject who paid jizya. The ulama were Muslim scholars who defined such legal categories.
• Din-i Ilahi: this was Akbar's own mixed religious movement, which he backed while sidelining the ulama [4]. It was not a teaching of the ulama.

Prelims Hooks

• Ulama is the plural of alim, meaning "one who knows". They urged rulers to govern by the shari'a.
• Shari'a rests on the Qur'an and hadis, later supplemented by qiyas (analogy) and ijma (consensus of scholars). A common trap is to call qiyas "consensus".
• Zimmi comes from zimma ("protection"). Zimmis paid jizya, and in India the status was extended to Hindus [6].
• Akbar sidelined the ulama in law and politics and backed Din-i Ilahi [3][4].
• A Delhi Sultan who made concessions to the ulama refused to exempt Brahmins from jizya [7].
• Akbar's farman of 1598 allowed the Jesuits to build a church at Khambat. Aurangzeb's letter of 1661–62 gave a cloak and Rs 25 to a Jogi.

Mains Points

• Law on paper versus rule in practice. The ulama's demand for rule by shari'a was the stated ideal.
• In practice, rulers gave land grants and tax exemptions to Hindu, Jaina, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish institutions.
• Akbar's 1598 church farman and Aurangzeb's 1661–62 grant to a Jogi show that this gap existed even under rulers usually seen as opposites.

• The ulama could still win particular fights, as when a Sultan refused to exempt Brahmins from jizya [7].

• Islamic law adapted to Indian conditions. The zimmi category was made for Jews and Christians. When it was stretched to cover Hindus, Muslim rulers could govern a large non-Muslim majority within the law. Use this to argue that state power in medieval India rested on practical compromise, not on rigid theocracy (rule by religious law alone).

• Religious authority and political authority were often in tension. Akbar sidelined the ulama and backed Din-i Ilahi [3][4], which shows the emperor claiming final authority over religious scholars. In the colonial period, the ulama turned to print and fatwas, as with Deoband (1867). This shows their search for a new role once state backing was gone, which is useful for answers on continuity and change in religious leadership.

Related concepts

• Sharia
• Hadis
• Zimmi
• Five pillars of Islam
• Khojahs
• Ginan
• Mihrab
• Regional mosque architecture
• Turushka
• Yavana

Read more

• Islamic traditions: rulers, popular practice, and names for communities