ASHRAF 'ALI THANAWI'S BIHISHTI ZEWAR: MUSLIM FEMALE PIETY UNDER THE DEOBANDI MOVEMENT IN BRITISH INDIA

Abstract

This thesis is a comparative historical study, using literary sources, of the Urdu literature directed towards women of the ashraf class in late colonial India. The study explores the both religious and secular literature in Urdu produced during the dusk of imperialism in India. It concludes that female piety was similarly imagined by both the 'ulama and the secular writers during that era.