Author Meets Critics Roundtable on SherAli Tareen’s Shah Waliyullah Dihlavi: Aspirations and Tensions of Islamic Cosmopolitanism.

I am proposing an author meets critics roundtable panel on Professor SherAli Tareen’s new book Shah Waliyullah Dihlavi: Aspirations and Tensions of Islamic Cosmopolitanism (Oneworld Publications, 2026). Aspirations and Tensions, published in the prestigious Makers of the Muslim World Series, presents a comprehensive and detailed yet accessible analysis of the life and key Arabic and Persian texts of arguably the most influential and prolific early modern South Asian Muslim scholar Shah Waliyullah Dihlavi (d. 1762). In addition to examining the complexities and ambiguities of Waliyullah’s thought in a range of disciplines including Islamic law, politics, Qur’an translation and commentary, and Sufism, the book also considers his contested legacy in modern South Asia and in Arab contexts beyond South Asia. Discussants, from varied intellectual positionalities and career stages, will engage the key arguments and interventions of this book, and highlight its significance to the academic study of Religion.