Given its distance from Delhi, Bengal was always seen as a frontier region of Muslim India. However, not only was it the richest state in Hindustan, but at one time the number of Muslims in Bengal was higher than any other part of the Muslim world. Being so far from the traditional centres of Islamic learning and history, how and why did such a large Muslim population emerge there?

This one-day intensive course will provide an overview of the following subjects: Bengal before Islam; The Early Sultanate;Bengal under the Mughals until the Battle of Plessey; Conversion to Islam and Establishment of Islam in Bengal; Economy, Society and Culture; and more.

Professor Richard Eaton

Ustadh Muhammad Mojlum Khan

Bios:

Professor Richard Eaton is one of the world’s leading historianson Islam in the Indian subcontinent. He has authored and publishedmany articles and books, including “India’s Islamic Traditions,711-1750″ and “Islamic History as Global History”. However, hismost celebrated book, “The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier,1204-1760″ is the one for which he has won many awards around theworld. He regularly contributes to major US media documentariesproviding ‘intellectual content’ and sits on several professionalcommittees and organisational boards. Currently he teaches andresearches at University of Arizona in the Department of History.

Muhammad Mojlum Khan is an award-winning writer, literary critic andresearch scholar, he has published more than 100 essays and articlesworldwide. He is the author of several books and research papers includingthe widely acclaimed The Muslim 100: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievementsof the Most Influential Muslims in History (2008, reprinted 2009, 2010)and The Muslim Heritage of Bengal. Hailed as having ìfilled a gap inmodern Islamic authorshipî, The Publishers Weekly also considered TheMuslim 100 to be of ìimmeasurable valueÖwith innovative insightsî andrecommended the book to all the public libraries in the United States.He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, a Memberof English PEN, and a Founding Director of the Bengal Muslim ResearchInstitute UK (BMRI).