The Letters of Khwāja ʻUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and His Associates

Book excerpt: This English edition of the correspondence of Khw ja Ubayd All h Ah r r, the fifteenth-century Central Asian Naqshband Sufi shaykh, and his associates provides surprising new insights into the sociopolitical and economic history of premodern Central Asia and the influential roles of Sufi leaders of the time. It contains the extraordinary collection of autograph letters from the Majm a-yi mur sal t, a unique manuscript housed at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with petitions to the Timurid court at Herat. The letters cover such topics as internecine conflict, peacemaking, taxation, property and endowments, trade, migration, Islamic piety and law, material support of shaykhs and students, and relief from oppression. Three introductory chapters discuss the Central Asian Naqshband ya, Khw ja Ubayd All h Ah r r, the social, historical, economic and political significance of the letters, and the manuscript and its authors. With the Persian transcription and a complete facsimile of the manuscript letters reproduced at the end of the work.