Frontier of faith: a history of religious mobilisation in the Pakhtun tribal areas c. 1890-1950

Frontier of faith: a history of religious mobilisation in the Pakhtun tribal areas c. 1890-1950

Abstract / Description

Frontier of Faith examines the history of Islam-especially that of local mullas, or Muslim clerics-in the North-West Frontier (now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa). A largely autonomous zone straddling the boundary of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Tribal Areas was established as a strategic buffer zone for British India, and the resulting autonomy allowed local mullas to assume roles of tremendous power. After Partition in 1947, the Tribal Areas maintained its status as an autonomous region, and for the next fifty years the mullas supported armed mobilizations in exchange for protection of their vested interests in regional freedom. Consequently, the Frontier has become the hinterland of successive, contradictory jihads in support of Pashtun ethnicism, anti-colonial nationalism, Pakistani territorialism, religious revivalism, Afghan anti-Soviet resistance, and anti-Americanism. Considering this territory is said to be the current hideout of Osama bin Laden, there couldn't be a better time for a sourcebook detailing the intricacies of the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands today and the function of the mullas and their allies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Ethnography, cartography and the construction of the North-West Frontier Tribal Areas

2. Islamic Revivalism and Sufism among the Tribal Pakhtuns

3. Religious Authority and the Pakhtun Clans

4. Patrons of the Saints

5. Consolidating Autonomy 1923-1930

6. Confronting the Nation,1930-1950

Epilogue-Islamists and the Utility of Autonomous Space: from the Afghan Jihad to Al-Qaeda

Publication Date

2011

Was this content written or created while at IBA?

Yes

Author Affiliation

  • Sana Haroon was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, at Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi (Jan 2011-July 2011)

Frontier of faith: a history of religious mobilisation in the Pakhtun tribal areas c. 1890-1950
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