The Letters of Khwaja ‘Ubayd Allah Ah rar and his Associates

An English-language edition of the correspondence of Khwaja Uba Allah Ahrar, the 15th-century Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi shaykh, and his associates. It provides insights into the sociopolitical and economic history of pre-modern 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 murasalat, a 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 Naqshbandiya, Khwaja Uba Allah Ahrar, the social, historical, economic and political significance of the letters, and the manuscript and its authors. The volume includes the Persian transcription and a facsimile of the manuscript letters reproduced at the end of the work.