A Book of Conquest The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia

NOTES TO PAGES 5 9-6 5 20!

23. Tabaqiit-i Niisiii, p. 9.


24. Ibid., p. 8.


25. Ibid., p. IO.


26. Ibid., p. 278.


27. Ibid., p. 15.


28. However, two recent works by Nilanjan Sarkar and Blain Auer have opened
    critical space for thinking about Delhi sultanate histories in affective and
    literary ways. See Nilanjan Sarkar, "Forbidden Privileges and History-Writing
    in Medieval India," The Medieval History f ournal 16:21 (2013), pp. 21-62; and
    Blain H. Auer, Symbols of Authority in Medieval Islam: History, Religion
    and Muslim Legitimacy in the Delhi Sultanate (London: I. B. Tauris, 2012).


29. Fathnama-i Sind, edited by Nabi Baksh Khan Baloch (Lahore: Izhar Sons,
    1983), p. 7.


30. Ibid., p. 14.
    3r. Ibid.


31. Ibid., p. 17.


32. The classic overview of early Arabic narratives remains Tari£ Khalidi, Ar-
    abic Historical Thought in the Classical Period (Cambridge: ·cambridge
    University Press, 1994). More specifically on the futfil:;i, see Jens Scheiner,
    "Writing the History of Futul:;i: The Futul:;i Works by Al-Azdi, ibn A'tham,,
    and al-Waqidi," in The Linaments of Islam: Studies in Honor of Fred
    McGraw Donner (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 151-177.


33. Fred M. Donner, Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic
    Historical Writing (Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 1998) 1 p. 181.


34. See Fred Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
    University Press, 1981).


35. As in Miguel Cervantes's twin openings in Don Quixote, which claims to
    be a translation from an Arab text by an unreliable narrator or translator,
    the elaborate genealogies of translation make the text unstable, allowing
    Cervantes to claim alternative authoritative voices. Within Persian histori-
    ography, another common trope is for the author to claim that the text did
    not originate with him but was placed at his pen via divine intercession-a
    dream, or more commonly an encounter with the prophet Khizr. Firdawsi,
    Nizami, and Juzjani all invoke this trope. See P. Franke, Begegnung mit
    Khidr: Quellenstudien zum Imaginiiren im Traditionellen Islam (Stuttgart:
    Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000).


36. Baladhuri locates the campaigns to Hind and Sind in the early phases of Is-
    lamic conquests, during the caliphate of 'Umar (634-644 CE). He reports on
    naval expeditions that were launched toward Thana (in Maharashtra) in 636
    CE, to Broach (in Gujarat), and to Daybul (in Sind). However, these early cam-
    paigns are introduced with a caution: "When they return to 'Umar, he pro-
    claims: Ch brother of Thaq'aif, you sent ants to aloeswood. If they had been
    lost, I swear I would have exacted the same number of men from your people
    (qafim)."
    Aloeswood is the aromatic resin-filled wood of the Aquillaria agallocha
    tree, which is native to India and Southeast Asia. It plays an important role
    in various social and public rituals in Gulf Arab society to this day. The