From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Darul Uloom, (dārul ulūm devband in Hindi and Urdu) is an Islamic madrassa (seminary) famous for being the inception place of the Deobandi Islamic movement. It is located at Deoband, a town in Uttar Pradesh, India.

It was founded in 1866 by several prominent ulema, headed by Al Imam Mohammad Qasim Nanotwi. The other prominent scholars were Maulana Rashid Ahmed Gangohi, Haji Syed Abid Hussain, etc.

Contents 1 Background 2 Description 3 See also 4 External links

In 1857, the British East India Company put down a rebellion by disparate north Indian forces, conducted in the name of the otherwise powerless Bahadur Shah Zafar. Emperor Zafar became the last Mughal Emperor, as he was deposed the following year and exiled to Burma, with many of his sons -- princes of the decayed dynasty -- put to death. This marked a seminal moment for Indo-Islamic consciousness, specifically for the established Muslim elites of north India, who tended to view 1857 as the end of their political predominance and the beginning of what could be a dark period of Muslim history.

In this situation, 'Hujjatul Islam Al-Imam Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotwi established the Darul Uloom Seminary in the town of Deoband, north of Delhi, from which many Muslim elites had fled. The pedagogical philosophy of Deoband was focused on teaching revealed Islamic sciences, known as manqulat, to the Indian Muslim population. Following in the Hanafi tradition, Nanautavi established a seminary which instituted modern methods of learning -- classrooms, fixed schools, exam periods, prizes, a publishing press -- but which consciously divorced itself from political participation and shunned English-language education. Instead, Deoband instructed its students primarily in Urdu, and then in Arabic and Persian, helping to cement the growing association of the Urdu language with the (north) Indian Muslim community.

Deoband's curriculum is based on the 17th-century Indo-Islamic syllabus known as Dars-e-Nizami. Its over 15,000 graduates have gone on to found many other maddrassas across modern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and farther afield. The school of the Islamic religion promulgated here is often described as Deobandi, and has had great influence on the Taliban of Afghanistan. Deobandi thought has often been likened to Salafism, but the Deobandi movement is distinct from Salafism, for example in its association with Sufi orders and its adherence to the Hanafi school of thought.

The Dars-e-Nizami curriculum followed by Darul Uloom Deoband teaches Islamic law (shariah), Islamic jurispridence (Fiqh), traditional Islamic spirituality, known as tasawwuf, which is the practice of Sufism, as well as several other fields of Islamic study. The current syllabus consists of four stages. The first three stages can be completed in a total of eight years. The final stage is a post-graduate stage where students specialise in a number of advanced topics, such as the sciences of Hadeeth, Fiqh etc.

Its students have gone on to found many other maddrassas across modern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and farther afield: as its official website proclaims, 'the whole of Asia is redolent with the aroma of this prophetic garden.' Its only rival in influence has been the Al-Azhar University, Cairo. The school of the Islamic religion promulgated here is often described as Deobandi.

Many Islamic schools throughout the Indian subcontinent, and more recently, Afghanistan, the UK and South Africa, are affiliated or theologically linked to Darul Uloom Deoband, such as Nadwatul Ulama (Lucknow), Madrassa Inaamiya (South Africa) and Darul Uloom Karachi (Pakistan) as well as hundreds of others, notable and small, throughout the world.

• Deobandi
• Barelvi

• Official website of Darul Uloom Deoband
• Deobandi Islam
• "Traditionalist" Islamic Activism: Deoband, Tablighis, and Talibs

Coordinates: 29°41′32″N, 77°40′39″E