‘No book offers a richer, more illuminating guide to the origins and complex theological relationship of the Barelvi and the Deobandi orientations than Defending Muḥammad in Modernity. SherAli Tareen’s deeply researched, theoretically informed, yet remarkably accessible study will help make Islam in modern South Asia part of wider and much-needed conversations among scholars of religion.’

-Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Princeton University, author of Islam in Pakistan: A History

‘Sher Ali Tareen’s detailed exploration of the form and logic of the polemical engagements that marked the development of competing Deobandi and Barelvi visions in the nineteenth century is exceptional and provides a critical backdrop for understanding the divisions that continue to shape the dynamics of South Asian Muslim thinking today.’
-David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University, author of Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan

‘A masterful study of the polemics over Muḥammad’s status that have been occurring for more than a century in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh… it shows us that this polemical tradition is founded in a genuine argument, whose philosophical and juridical implications are meaningful even for those outside its purview.’
-Faisal Devji, University of Oxford, author of Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea

‘This book is beautifully written in a language accessible to students and colleagues who have not previously engaged with this topic. If you can only read three books on Islam in South Asia, Defending Muḥammad in Modernity needs to be one of them.’
-Margrit Pernau, Max Planck Institute for Human Development

‘The thoroughness to detail and depth in his commentary and analysis and in the very wide reading that he has undertaken and conveyed to a reader is most welcome and useful and highly recommended. This is a superb book.’
-Syed Akbar Zaidi, Institute of Business Administration Karachi, author of Making a Muslim: Reading Publics and Contesting Identities in Nineteenth-Century North India

Publisher: Folio Books
Publishing date: July 2023
ISBN: 978-969-7834-46-4
Binding: Paperback
Rights: Pakistan
Availability: In stock