The Deoband curriculum follows the hanaFi
legal school and provides advanced training in
religious law. The original Deoband center has
spawned more than 8,000 schools and institutes
for all levels of instruction. Deoband is one of
several major centers of Islamic learning in India,
including the Nadwat ul-Ulama and aligarh Mus-
lim University. The curriculum at Deoband incor-
porates three prevalent schools of Islamic learning
in India: those of Delhi, Lucknow, and Khayrabad.
The Delhi school had focused on tafsir (qUran
commentary) and hadith, Lucknow emphasized
fiqh (jurisprudence), and Khayrabad gave pre-
cedence to theology and philosophy. Deoband’s
ideological approach combined these and gave
it its signature twist by focusing on Shah Wali
Allah and his idiosyncratic hadith scholarship.
Wali Allah regarded hadith as often unreliable.
Indeed, in his view all revelations other than the
Quran could at best be regarded as hadith qudsi,
or “holy speech.” Wali Allah regarded Malik ibn
Anas’s Muwatta (eighth century) as the pinnacle of
hadith collections, as it was the earliest and clos-
est in time to the Prophet. He was a proponent of
ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) and a critic
of taqlid (blind adherence to legal scholars), view-
ing imitation of any model other than Muhammad
as suspect.
The influence of Deoband has been far reach-
ing, and its curriculum is standard throughout
Muslim South Asia. The early years of study in
the basic curriculum focus on Arabic language,
the biography of mUhammad, recitation of the
Quran, and jurisprudence. The eighth, and final
year focuses solely on hadith. Master’s degrees
are offered in law, Quranic interpretation (tafsir),
theology, and adab literature. Legal opinions, or
fatwas, are obtainable upon solicitation from the
center at Deoband. Deobandi schools known as
madrasas are also centers for d a awa (proselytiza-
tion). Deoband publishes books by its ulama past
and present and issues a newspaper, al-Dai (the
call). Dar al-Ulum Deoband has counted among
its vice chancellors and principals many luminar-
ies of South Asian ulama such as Shaykh al-Hind
Maulana Mahmood Hassan (1851–1920), Maulana
Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri (1875–1933),
and Maulana Syed Hussain Ahmed Madani (1879–
1957). Although there is no political party directly
linked to Deoband, the school has had a profound
impact on Muslim politics, having trained many of
the key members of political groups such as Jami-
y yat al-Ulama-i hind, Jamiyatul Ulama-i Pakistan,
and Jamiyyat al-Ulama-i islam.
Through the use of its curriculum and the pro-
liferation of its graduates, Deoband is often linked
to the spread of extremist ideologies most vividly
exemplified by the taliban. To some degree, this
influence is real. In other cases, it is merely nomi-
nal, as the authority inherent in the name of Deo-
band is invoked to legitimate all kinds of Islamic
conservatism. Although Deoband remains one of
the most important institutes of Islamic learn-
ing, in India it may be soon be eclipsed by the
increasing influence of Nadwat ul-Ulama, where
enrollments have outstripped Deoband’s since the
mid-1990s.
See also edUcation.
Anna BigelowFurther reading: Barbara Daly Metcalf, Islamic Revival
in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900 (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1987); Muhammad Qasim
Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002).dervish (Persian: darvish, also spelled
darwish, darwesh)
A dervish is an individual who has chosen the Sufi
path. The origin of this Persian word is unclear,
but it is generally taken to refer to someone who
is poor or a beggar. In sUFism, the term, like the
Arabic term faqir (poor), refers to someone who
is humble and who has renounced the world in
order to follow the Sufi path. While this often
involves actual poverty and a renunciation ofK 192 dervish