Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Deborah L. Black, “Al-Farabi.” In 

History of Islamic Philosophy, edited by Seyyed Hossein 

Nasr and Oliver Leaman, 178–197 (London: Routledge, 

Farabi, Abu Nasr al-

  

225  J

---

1996); Majid Fakhry, Al-Farabi: Founder of Islamic Neo-

platonism (Oxford: Oneworld, 2002); Oliver Leaman, 

An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy. 2d ed. 

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Ian 

Richard Netton, Al-Farabi and His School (London: 

Routledge, 1992).

Faraizi movement

 

(Persian spelling; 

Arabic, Faraidi movement)

The Faraizis were a religious renewal and anti-

British protest movement that arose in the Bengal 

region of i

ndia

 in the early 19th century. Their 

name is based on the Arabic for “religious duties” 

(faraid), which emphasizes their advocacy of a 

return to the core requirements of Islamic prac-

tice. The movement’s founder was Hajji Shariat 

Allah (ca. 1781–1840), who performed the 

haJJ

from eastern Bengal in his late teens and resided 

in  m

ecca

 for about 20 years. It is likely that he 

was influenced by W

ahhabism

 and other revivalist 

Islamic ideas while in residence there, for it was 

after his return to Bengal from Arabia in the early 

1800s that he launched the movement. From the 

1760s, Bengal had been under the control of the 

English East India Company, whose economic 

and agricultural policies were having devastating 

effects on the indigenous textile industry and the 

livelihood of the region’s farmers. The local popu-

lation, which was mostly Muslim, had grown res-

tive under the British administration’s exploitative 

land and taxation policies that favored the British 

and Hindu landholders and speculators. Bengali 

Muslims were therefore receptive to the formation 

of a resistance movement.

Shariat Allah told Bengali Muslims to return to 

what he considered to be the true Islamic practices 

and to give up Shii and Sufi saint worship and 

certain marriage and funerary customs. Further-

more, he taught that Muslims should not perform 

communal prayers as long as they did not have a 

legitimate Muslim ruler governing them. At the 

same time, he supported landless Bengali peas-

ants in their protests against wealthy landlords 

by urging them to reject forced labor and to not 

pay their taxes. With its reformist and egalitarian 

message, the Faraizi movement he launched was 

then able to establish a base of popular support 

in rural eastern Bengal, particularly under the 

leadership of Shariat Allah’s son, Dudu Miyan 

(1819–63). The latter even declared India to be a 

dar al-harb (house of war) as long as it was ruled 

by non-Muslims such as the British and came into 

open clashes with British authorities. Landlords 

and the British rallied to oppose the movement 

and accused Shariat Allah and his son of trying 

to create their own kingdom. The Faraizis were 

held in check by their opponents, and they lost 

support among many Muslims because of their 

rejection of popular religious practices and their 

condemnation of Muslims who did not agree 

with Faraizi doctrines. With the imprisonment of 

Dudu Miyan at the time of the great 1857 uprising 

against British rule, the Faraizi movement ceased 

to be politically active. Nevertheless, it continued 

to exist as a religious revival movement until the 

early 20th century.

See also b

angladesh

; 

colonialism

; 

dar

 

al

-i

slam

and

 

dar

 

al

-

harb

; 

reneWal

 

and

 

reForm

 

movements

.