Jamal Mian: The Life of Maulana Jamaludd'm Abdul Wahab of Firangi Mahall, 1919-2012.

• Author: Minault, Gail

Jamal Mian: The Life of Maulana Jamaludd'm Abdul Wahab of Firangi Mahall, 1919-2012. By FRANCIS ROBINSON. Karachi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2017. Pp. xxv + 429. $29.95, [pounds sterling]22.99.

Francis Robinson describes Jamal Mian, the scion of a long line of ulema and Sufis of Firangi Mahall in Lucknow, not only as a man who exemplified the piety and learning of his lineage, but also as a remarkable human being with a gift for friendship, great generosity, humility, and cultural breadth. Robinson developed an interest in the ulema of Firangi Mahall during his research on Muslim politics in North India. One of the main figures in that history was Maulana Abdul Bari (1878-1926), who helped organize the ulema of his time in support of Muslim activism in Indian nationalist politics. Jamal Mian was Abdul Bari's son. An early tragedy in his life was his father's death when he was only seven years old. Jamal Mian was educated according to darsi-nizaml, the influential curriculum of religious learning first developed at Firangi Mahall in the eighteenth century by his ancestors. In addition, his spiritual life was formed by the annual round of ceremonial observances at the shrines of Qadiri and ChishtT Sufi pirs that dotted the countryside of North India.

This portrait of Jamal Mian provides the background to his extraordinary political and religious life. He joined the Muslim League and impressed its leader, M. A. Jinnah, with his eloquent oratory when still a youth. He became a member of the Muslim League high command during the 1940s and was elected a member of the Provincial Legislature of the United Provinces (U.P.) in 1946, the year before Indian independence and partition. Jamal Mian supported the movement for Pakistan, although like many of his contemporaries in U.P., he had no plan to migrate to the new Muslim nation. A second tragedy in his life was that, along with some of the Indian Muslim political and cultural elite, he ultimately had to opt for Pakistan in order to survive economically. During the decade 1947-1957, he frequently traveled between the two nations, dealing with the increasing bureaucratic obstacles to such ambiguity. His Indian passport was ultimately revoked, and he thus became Pakistani, forced to leave behind his ancestral home, the cultural and literary life of Lucknow, and the network of Sufi shrines that comprised the geography of his spiritual life.

Jamal Mian moved to Dacca, East Pakistan, where he conducted his...