This volume of essays, spanning some twenty-five years of research and writing, focuses on the issues of historiography and Indo-Islamic civilization. The former deals with how historians structure and answer the questions they choose to ask of the past, the latter covers case studies of particular historical communities in India.

This volume, part of the 'Themes in Indian History' series, contains 17 essays on various aspects of Islamic traditions in South Asia, spanning the course of 800 years, plus an Introduction by the editor, a well-known expert in this field. The essays cover a wide range of topics and provides a comprehensive summary of the rich diversity and cultural syncretism which are the hallmarks of the Islamic traditions in India. It will become a standard text on the subject of Indian Islam.