Islam • 129had brought down the Safavid Empire in Iran made an un-
successful bid to establish a new Muslim empire in India. In-
dian Muslims began to feel uneasy about their position, and
their problems foreshadowed many of the difficulties and de-
bates that would continue to exercise Muslims during the
modern period. They now felt that they were a beleaguered
minority in an area which was not, like the Anatolian heart-
lands of the Ottoman Empire, a peripheral region, but one of
the core cultures of the civilized world. Not only were they
contending with Hindus and Sikhs, but the British were also
establishing a strong trading presence which was becoming
increasingly political, in the subcontinent. For the first time,
Muslims faced the prospect of being governed by infidels,
and, given the importance of the ummah in Islamic piety, this
was profoundly disturbing. It was not simply a matter of pol-
itics, but touched the deepest recesses of their beings. A new
insecurity would continue to characterize Muslim life in
India. Was Islam to become simply another Hindu caste?
Would Muslims lose their cultural and religious identity, and
be swamped by foreign traditions that were different from
those of the Middle East, in which Islam had come to birth?
Had they lost touch with their roots?
The Sufi thinker Shah Valli-Ullah (1 703-62) believed that
the answer lay in Sirhindi's position, and his views would con-
tinue to influence the Muslims of India well into the twenti-
eth century. He expressed the new embattled vision, and as
Muslims felt their power slipping away in other parts of the
world and experienced similar fears about the survival of
Islam, other philosophers and reformers would reach similar
conclusions. First, Muslims must unite, bury their sectarian
differences with one another and present a united front
against their enemies. The Shariah must be adapted to meet
the special conditions of the subcontinent, and become a
means of resisting Hinduization. It was essential that Mus-