Social and Intellectual Interaction between the Zoroastrians, Jains and Hindus under the Islamic Rule in Gujarat.

This project intends to re-examine and add new discoveries to the history of Zoroastrian Parsis, Jains and Hindus under the Islamic rule in Gujarat (1407- 1756 AD). Scholars from these three communities worked as intellectuals and scribes at the courts of the Islamic rulers in Gujarat and wrote manuscripts on different subjects. Their religious, economic, and social rivalry occasionally comes through in their writings. This work will mainly focus on the Persian texts. The project will start by collecting and digitizing the relevant manuscripts then entered in a database where they will be categorized, translated and commented on, based on cross-referencing the works produced by the rival communities. This project is unique; first because of its use of the manuscripts in the Hamilton collections, not explored previously and second by including the rivāyāt manuscripts, not written at the court but authored by the same Parsi scribes. The juxtaposition and cross-referencing of the mentioned material with the texts produced by different communities in this period, will add another level of uniqueness to this project. The results from this project will ultimately provide a new perspective, filling the gaps in the previous works done on the history of Jains, Hindus and Parsis and their diverse society during Islamic rule in Gujarat.