ḤADĪTH, MIGRATION, AND PATRONAGE IN THE BAHMANI DECCAN: AN INDO-EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Abstract

This study examines the development of ḥadīth scholarship in the southern Indian subcontinent, with particular attention to the Bahmani Deccan between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. It argues that Deccani ḥadīth learning developed within broader transregional intellectual networks rather than as an isolated regional tradition, maintaining strong scholarly ties with the major centers of Islamic learning in Egypt. The study explores patterns of scholarly mobility, teacher–student affiliations, and the transmission of authority through established ḥadīth lineages linking Egypt and India. The discussion focuses on the scholarly traditions associated with Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī, al-Sakhāwī, and Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī. While no verifiable connection exists between Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī’s students and the Bahmani Deccan, significant intellectual links are evident through the traditions of al-Sakhāwī and Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī—scholars such as Ibn Fahd, Maḥmūd Gāwān, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Maḥmūd al-Ṭūsī, Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd Allāh Awliyāʾ al-Kirmānī, and Mīr Murtaḍā Sharīf al-Shīrāzī played important roles in transmitting Egyptian ḥadīth scholarship to the Deccan. The study also highlights the role of Bahmani rulers and patrons, including Aḥmad Shāh al-Walī, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Aḥmad Shāh, and Maḥmūd Gāwān, whose institutional support integrated the Deccan into wider Indo-Egyptian networks of Islamic learning.