Deobandi Islam is a significant religious movement in South Asia and globally, and it exists both as a network of institutions—Islamic schools—and as a religious orientation. The two cannot be easily separated; Deoband began as a single school devoted to a particular understanding of correct Islamic practice and knowledge, which forms the Deobandi maslak (path), distinct from other Indian Muslim groups. Emerging out of the context of British colonial rule, it is premised on an approach toward Islamic authority and scholarship—with the two inseparably linked—stemming from the Mughal era, but adapted to the colonial, and now post-colonial, environment. In this regard, it reflects a certain conservatism that holds up past forms of the Islamic scholarly tradition as normative, and grounds its authority in its adherence to, and maintenance of, that tradition by learned ‘ulamā’. It is not, however, unchanging or static in its use of tradition, but the religious correctness of the Deobandi maslak is underpinned by its fidelity to the tradition (through taqlīd) and its preservation as a valid and operative religious framework under scholars’ control. Deoband's heritage thus lies in Mughal-era scholarship, and, as such, it is deeply indebted to, and molded by, the pre-colonial culture of South Asian Islam, in particular its Persianate foundations.

Persianate Culture in Early Islamic India

The Islamic history of India has long been shaped by its geographic position. As André Wink argues, India is situated on the edge of two of the great “frontiers of mobile wealth” in the world: the pastoral plains of Eurasia and the Indian Ocean. Both represented significant avenues for long-distance trade, and therefore as the source of much of India's prosperity. They were also the primary means for Islamic influence in the subcontinent. Historically, merchants and mendicant Sufis have been the main drivers for the spread of Islam, with India no exception. From the eighth to tenth centuries, the Muslim political presence in India was limited to isolated, short-lived kingdoms in the Sindh region (present-day Pakistan, neighboring south-eastern Iran), some Ismā’ilī and independent, but most Sunni and nominally aligned with the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad.