THE TRADITIONALIST REVIVAL 121

and the Ahl al-Qur'an with an affirmation of the generally

accepted principle that a thorough knowledge of classical Arabic
is absolutely essential before any exegesis is attempted. He
accuses Sayyid Al).mad Khan of misunderstanding and therefore
misrepresenting the eschatology and the angelology of the
Qur'an, of attributing meanings to the Qur'anic verses which
would have been quite incomprehensible to the Arabs of the
Prophet's day and age, according to whose measure of under-
standing its language and idiom were devised. Qur'anic exegesis
has to be literal to be accurate. It cannot be so if it tends towards
allegorical or symbolical explanation. 47
The IJ,adi§,argues Amritsari, is recognized as an indisputable
source of law in the Qur'an itself, as an explanation of the divine
word, and in its own right. The relationship of a IJ,adi§to the
Qur'an could be of three kinds. It could be in harmony with and
explanatory to a Qur'anic text, in which case it was totally
binding. Or it might lay down an injunction not found in the
Qur'an, in which case it was complementary. Or else· it might
contradict a Qur'anic injunction, in which case the interpreta-
tions of various classical jurists and compilers of !Jadi§ must be
studied, and instead of rejecting such a IJ,adi§totally, it should
be interpreted in such manner that its 'apparent contradiction'
with the Qur'anic law is either removed or resolved by interpre-
tation. In short, Amritsari reserves for his group the right of
extravagant speculative juggling with IJ,adi§, denying to the
modernists the right of similar speculation in Qur'anic exegesis.
He, however, concedes that the possibilities of exegetical inter-
pretation, though they are necessarily confined by linguistic and
traditionalist disciplines are, theoretically at least, infinitely ex-
tensive. In the case of 'vague verses' (ayat mutashiibihat) of the
Qur'an, every age and law can try to find explanations of them,
as the classical exegetes generally disagree on their precise
meaning. This was the largest concession in principle the neo-
traditionalists ever made to the modernists. 48
The Ahl-i I:Iadi§ movement survives to the present day,
47 Ayat-i mutashabihat (r904), pp. 4-9. 48 Ibid. pp. 10-.26.
122 THE TRADITIONALIST REVIVAL
though it has not produced much in the way of remarkable
thinking. One of its leaders in Pakistan has been Da'ud Ghaz-
nawi, who was member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly in
the 195os.49

u Ibrahim Mir Siyalkoµ, Ta'rikh-i Ahl-i b,adi§(1953), pp. 447-8.

 CHAPTER SIX

CALIPHATE AND PAN -ISLAMISM

THE FIRST PHASE (r870-r9ro)

THE involvement of all cross-currents of Indo-Muslim religious

and political thought, conservative, moderate, and modernist, in
the pan-Islamic movement and with the image of the Ottoman
caliphate, between 1870 and 1924 was a response to the psycho-
logical pull of extra-Indian Islam. Its psychological significance
lay partly in relation to a feeling of insecurity in the midst of
Hindu majority and in a feeling of humiliation in relation to the
successful advance of the western empires at the expense of dar
al-Islam. It revealed itself in a special interest in historical Islam's
successful encounter with Europe: Moorish Spain and the Otto-
man empire. There was an undercurrent of historical heritage in
this attitude towards the Ottomans. But it was not until the
treaty of Kuchi.ik Kaynarja, 1 signed in 1774, after the enforced
separation of the Crimea from the Ottoman empire, that the
Ottoman sultan's claim to be the caliph of all the Muslims was
advanced by the Turks and accepted by the Russians. 'The High
Contracting Parties thus tacitly agreed to accept as applicable the
Western distinction between "temporal" and "spiritual" power.' 2
Although Shah Wali-Allah, who believed strongly in the neces-
sity of universal caliphate, considered it in accordance with the
classical theory as the exclusive privilege of the Quraysh, Indo-
Muslim orthodoxy began to take an interest in the Ottoman
claim to the caliphate during the 1840s. His grandson, Shah
Mu}:l.ammadIsl;ia.q,migrated to the Hijaz in 1841 and undertook
to support Ottoman political policies. With him begins the phase
1 Turkish text in Ahmed Cevdet, Waqa'i' Devlet-i '.lf.li'ye (Istanbul, 1855),
i. 56; see also GB. Foreign Office, Treaties .•. between Turkey and Foreign
Powers (1855).
11RUA, Survey r925, i. 36.

123