Fw: H-ASIA: Tipu Sultan and his view of Islam (response)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Dunch" <Ryan.Dunch@UALBERTA.CA>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 10:53 PM
Subject: H-ASIA: Tipu Sultan and his view of Islam (response)

> H-ASIA
> June 8, 2011
>
> Tipu Sultan and his view of Islam (response)
> ************************************************************************
> From: "Ikhlef, Hakim" <Hakim.Ikhlef@EUI.eu>
>
> Hi,
>
> This is to reply to the query on Tipu Sultan.
>
> As you may know, the figure of Tipu Sultan is highly controversial.
> However, the most recent scholarship has challenged the views of Tipu
> which were mainly constructed by British 'propaganda' portraying Tipu as
> a fanatic Muslim who hated both Christians and Hindus. However, I will
> not dwell on this issue more extensively, since I am very sure that
> there are colleagues who are much more at ease with this topic than I
> am, since I have begun to research on Tipu only recently.
>
> With regard to the colleague's question, I would like, however, to make
> a few comments which are not only concerning Tipu, but the issue of
> Jihad and Tolerance in Islam in general. To get straight to the point, I
> think that it is necessary to raise two issues.
>
> On the one hand, the notions of Jihad and of 'compulsion' in religion
> must be contextualised. In fact, one will find verses in the Qur'an
> which commands Muslims to go at war against the enemies of God, but
> others which says that there must be 'no compulsion in religion'. But
> most experts of Islamic theology would agree, I think, to say that each
> verse was revealed in a specific context, and that those about Jihad
> depended much on the relations between the Muslims in Medina/Yathrib and
> Mecca. It depended, indeed, on whether the Muslims and the Meccans were
> at war or at peace. On the other hand, the notion of jihad also requires
> a philological analysis: how did the meaning of this word evolve through
> time and over the different Muslim political entities which rose of
> after the death of Muhammad.
>
> Therefore, what Tipu may have understood by Jihad may have been slightly
> different from the initial meaning of this word in the 1st century of
> Hegira, and depended on the late eighteenth century context. More
> precisely, I am not sure whether Tipu's wars against the English were
> ineluctably justified on the basis of religion, especially since - as
> far as I know - there was a good proportion of Hindus in his army
> (likewise the Maratha armies had a good proportion of Muslim soldiers);
> this may need further investigations nonetheless.
>
> What I wish to emphasise anyway, is that the issue of jihad and
> tolerance is very complex in general, and in the case of Tipu in
> particular. Finally, it is worth reminding that Tipu sought the alliance
> of another 'Christian power' against the English, which was France.
> Moreover, Tipu also sought to forge and alliance with the Maratha
> against the British, but he failed to do so.
>
> I hope these few considerations will be helpful.
>
> Best regards
>
> Hakim Ikhlef, Ph. D. Candidate
> European University Institute, HEC dept.
> Firenze
> Italia
>
>
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