The objective of this study is to introduce the work of Gīlānī to academic audience outside the Indian sub-continent. The religious and intellectual landscape of nineteenth- and the twentieth-century Indian subcontinent has given birth to possibly some of the most extraordinary minds of her history. One such figure, among the Muslims of the subcontinent, was the brilliant historian Sayyid Manāzir Aḥsan Gīlānī (d 1956), whose name has recently started reappearing in academic circles—both South Asian and Western—after almost having faded into academic oblivion.
Gīlānī’s brilliance lay in the wide variety of areas that he wrote on with exceptional ease and confidence, but his strength remained “intellectual history” as most of his works testify. He represented that very rare breed of traditionally trained seminary scholars who made it a point to probe the history of ideas and more so history of other religions. Perhaps none fascinated him more than Hinduism. A sense of his concern for Hindu-Muslim can be gained by noting the titles of five (among many) of his publications related to Indian religions: Kishan kay sāth Āryōṇ kī ʿadāwat par aik naẓar (A View of the Aryan’s Hostility towards Krishna); Masʾala-i Tanāsukh par aik Tārīkhī naẓar (a historical view of the issue of transmigration of souls); Qurʾān kay Ṣābiʾīn kiya Budh maẓhab kay mānnay wālay thay? (Were the Ṣābiʾīn of the Qurʾān followers of Buddhism?); Hazār Sāl Pehlay (A Thousand Years Ago)—a collection of the impressions of travelers through India, China and other Muslim countries during the fourth and fifth centuries AH (eleventh and twelfth centuries CE); and, Islām awr Hindū maẓhab kī bāḍ mushtarkah tāʿlīmāt (Some Shared Teachings of Hinduism and Islam).
Gīlānī’s ideas and works need to be introduced in other languages, particularly English and then perhaps in Arabic for the benefit of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Through this project, the researchers made an endeavour to translate the selected works of Gīlānī into English and introduce his thought.