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Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: Turco- Mongol Imperial Identity on the Subcontinent

Balabanlilar, Lisa Ann
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179937403

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
Contemporary studies of the Mughal dynasty in India have long been dominated by nationalist, sectarian and ideological agendas which typically present the empire of the Mughals as an exclusively Indian phenomenom, politically and culturally isolated on the subcontinent. Cross disciplinary scholarship on the Middle East and Islamic Central Asia assigns to the Mughals a position on the periphery. Omitting reference to a Central Asian legacy, scholars instead link the Mughals to the preceeding nearly one thousand years of Muslim colonization in India. This study radically re-evaluates the scholarly and intellectual isolation with which the Mughals have traditionally been treated and argues that the Mughals must be recognized as the primary inheritors of the Central Asian Turco-Persian legacy of their ancestor Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane). Driven from their homeland in Central Asia, the Timurid reugee community, newly settled in South Asia, meticulously maintained and asserted the universally recognized charisma of their imperial lineage and inherited cultural personality. The imperial success of the Mughalsd lay in their ability to identify and reproduce in the Indian context potent symbols of Islamic and Timurid legitimacy which allowed them to affirm their imperial role and develop a meaningful dynastic identity on the subcontinent. Specific institutions and traditions of the Turco- Mongol Timurids:succession patterns, interpretations of Islamic law, the facilitation of migrating Sufi orders, the role of women and Persianate literary culture, can be identified and traced from the centers of Timurid culture in Transoxiana to India, where they were manipulated and adopted by Timur's descendants. The shaping and defining of the imperial identity of the Mughals in India, through the conscious manipulation of the Central Asian legacy of Timur can be seen as a case study of the movement and migration of symbols of legitimacy and the reproduction of identity by a refugee community in permanent exile.
Stephen Dale (Advisor)
History, General
Turco- Mongol; Timur; Mughal Empire; imperial identity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Balabanlilar, L. A. (2007). Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: Turco- Mongol Imperial Identity on the Subcontinent [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179937403

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Balabanlilar, Lisa. Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: Turco- Mongol Imperial Identity on the Subcontinent. 2007. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179937403.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Balabanlilar, Lisa. "Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: Turco- Mongol Imperial Identity on the Subcontinent." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1179937403

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1179937403
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.