Acknowledgments A Note on Transliteration, Abbreviations, and Other Conventions   INTRODUCTION Contestation in the religious sphere Contrasting trajectories   1 LIFE The intellectual milieu of Deoband A madrasa career A spiritual crisis? At the Sufi lodge The Khanaqah’s scholars Overlapping communities   2 MUSLIM NATIONHOOD Indian politics in the early twentieth century Thanawi and the Khilafat Movement Muslim separatism in India The prophet and the king   3 COLONIAL LAW Apostasy in British India The Consummate Stratagem The fight against custom Conflicting authorities   4 SUFISM IN A TIME OF CHANGE The Sufi and the jurist The rhetoric of reconciliation Ambiguity and flexibility Training the wayfarer A shared language   5 THE AMBIGUITIES OF A LEGACY Sufism Law Politics Thanawi and the Deobandi scholarly tradition   Bibliography Index