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15 This is not to say that the colonial state did not interfere in any way in religious matters, for even the most avowedly ‘liberal’ religious economies have always involved a degree of state regulation and interference, from the arrogant policing policies that first gave rise to the ‘shoe issue’ in Buddhist pagodas to the restriction of Muslim processions to certain neighbourhoods in the name of public order. This is seen, for example, in the documentation surrounding Rangoon's Muslim ta‘ziyah processions during Muharram: ‘Report of processions during the time of festivals of different nations residing in British Burma’, National Archives of Myanmar, Yangon, accession no. 667 (file 108, box 30).

16 Sein, Tin, ‘The Christian missionaries in Myanmar’, in Studies in Myanma history: Essays given to Than Tun on his 75th birthday, vol. 1, ed. Anon. (Yangon: Inwa Publishing House, 1999)Google Scholar.

17 On the subsequent contours of colonial printing led by such diverse figures as King Mindon (r.1853–78) and the colonial civil servant Taw Sein Ko (1864–1930), see Charney, Powerful learning, chap. 8, and Lewis, Su-Lin, ‘Print culture and the new maritime frontier in Rangoon and Penang’, Moussons 17 (2011): 127–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Suu Kyi, Burma and India, pp. 41–4. For the western Indian Ocean, see Green, Bombay Islam, chap. 1.

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28 Seekins, Donald M., ‘Sacred site or public space? The Shwedagon pagoda in colonial Rangoon’, in Buddhism, modernity and the state in Asia: Forms of engagement, ed. Whalen-Bridge, John and Kitiarsa, Pattana (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 139–60Google Scholar.

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31 Census data cited in Pearn, History of Rangoon, pp. 234, 254.

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39 Schober, Modern Buddhist conjunctures, p. 40.

40 Ibid., pp. 41, 65–66, and Suu Kyi, Burma and India, pp. 47–52.

41 On this productive interaction, see Kirichenko, Alexey, ‘From Thathanadaw to Theravada Buddhism: Constructions of religion and religious identity in nineteenth– and early twentieth-century Myanmar’, in Casting faiths: Imperialism and the transformation of religion in East and Southeast Asia, ed. DuBois, Thomas David (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 23–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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48 Mendelson, Sangha and state, pp. 174–214, and Prager, Susanne, ‘The coming of the “Future King”: Burmese minlaung expectations before and during the Second World War’, Journal of Burma Studies 8 (2003): 1–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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50 On Baha'i printing and propagation in Bombay, see Green, Bombay Islam, pp. 121–4.

51 Rose Ong and Foo Chek Woo, Myanmar: History of the Bahá'í faith (2008), http://bahai-library.com/history_bahai_faith_myanmar (accessed 30 July 2014).

52 Mawlwi ‘Abd al-Khaliq Khan Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma (Lucknow: Matba‘ Mina Lakhnaw, 1310/1893)Google Scholar.

53 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 1. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for identifying Minbu from the transliteration of Muhawid's ‘Mambu’. Muwahid also mentions having lived in the unidentified town of ‘Parum’.

54 Hunter, W.W., Cotton, J.S., Burn, R. and Meyer, W.S., eds., Imperial gazetteer of India, vol. 21, Pushkar to Salween (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908–31)Google Scholar, p. 33.

55 On Urdu printing in Lucknow, see Stark, Ulrike, An empire of books: The Naval Kishore Press and the diffusion of the printed word in colonial India, 1858–1895 (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007)Google Scholar. On the rail link, see Hunter et al., Imperial gazetteer, vol. 21, p. 33.

56 On the new socio-religious organisations founded by the region's Muslims in this period, see Liebeskind, Claudia, Piety on its knees: Three Sufi traditions in South Asia in modern times (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998)Google Scholar and Robinson, Francis, Separatism among Indian Muslims: The politics of the United Provinces’ Muslims, 1860–1923 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974)Google Scholar.

57 Hunter et al., Imperial Gazetteer, vol. 21, p. 28. The mission was still active when ‘Abd al-Khaliq was writing, closing only in 1901.

58 Powell, Avril A., Muslims and missionaries in pre-Mutiny India (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1993)Google Scholar and Tereen, SherAli, ‘The polemic of Shahjahanpur: Religion, miracles and history’, Islamic Studies 51, 1 (2012): 49–67Google Scholar.

59 On the history of the Urdu travelogue genre, see Wahid Qureshi, Urdu Adab main Safarnama (Lahore: Qawmi Press, n.d.). For Bengali and Hindi literary depictions of Burma, see Bhattacharya, India–Myanmar, chap. 4.

60 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 1.

61 Ibid., p. 25.

62 Sivanath, Munshi, Sayr-e Ajmer (Ajmer: Matba‘a Printing Co., 1892)Google Scholar.

63 Sayyid A‘zam ‘Ali ‘Azimabadi, Jada-e Haqq (1879), repr. in Khuda Bakhsh Library Journal 81–83 (1992); see pp. 264–9 for train and steamship details. Nadwi, Sayyid Sulayman, Sayr-e Afghanistan (Lahore: Sang-e Mil, 2008 [1934])Google Scholar; see pp. 8–19 for practical details of travel.

64 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 1.

65 Orwell, George, Burmese days (London: Penguin Books, 1986)Google Scholar, p. 121.

66 Yegar, Muslims of Burma, p. 130.

67 Anonymous, Safarnama-e Uganda wa Mumbasa (Lahore: Khadim al-Ta‘lim Istim Press, 1904)Google Scholar. For a study of the text, see Green, Nile, ‘Africa in Indian ink: Urdu articulations of Indian settlement in East Africa’, Journal of African History 53, 2 (2012): 131–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 On the scale of Indian employment in the Burmese transport sector, see Rafi, Problem of Indian settlers, pp. 3–14.

69 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 13. Note that the term used for ‘guide’ (hadi) denoted a specifically Islamic type of guide.

70 Curators of the Buddha: The study of Buddhism under colonialism, ed. Lopez, Donald S. Jr (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

71 Only a generation or so later, and linked to the Muslim fascination with Japan, did such works begin to appear. See Green, Nile, ‘Anti-colonial Japanophilia and the constraints of an Islamic Japanology: Information and affect in the Indian encounter with Japan’, Journal of South Asian History and Culture 4, 3 (2013): 291–313CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, pp. 1, 3–4, 6, 9, 13, 17–18, 28, 33–5. From the contexts of its use in the text, Pahasya clearly refers to part or all of the Tipitaka (Buddhist scriptures). The word itself may derive from local usage of the Sanskrit bhāṣya (‘words’, ‘speech’), often used in the compound form Buddhabhāṣya (‘words/teachings of the Buddha’), which via the Pali Buddha-bhāsā Burmese renders the common Burmese word for Buddhism boda-batha. Alternatively, ‘Abd al-Khaliq's term Pahasya may be his Urdu rendering of the Burmese word peza (‘palm-leaf manuscript’, ‘[physical] text’). I am grateful to Robert Buswell and Patrick Pranke for advice on this matter.

73 Myint-U, Making, p. 252.

74 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 33.

75 Ibid., p. 34.

76 Judson, Adoniram, Judson's English and Burmese dictionary (Rangoon: W.H. Sloan for the American Baptist Mission Press, 1877)Google Scholar. It is also possible that ‘Abd al-Khaliq was referring to Sloan, W.H., A practical method with the Burmese language (Rangoon: American Baptist Mission Press, 1887)Google Scholar. In either case, the argument regarding the use of Christian missionary material remains the same.

77 Cf. the cases of Indian Muslim missionaries operating in Iran and South Africa in Green, Bombay Islam, chaps. 4 and 7.

78 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 2.

79 Pahya, the term ‘Abd al-Khaliq used here, is a common Burmese epithet of the Buddha meaning ‘Lord’ (often romanised as ‘paya’ or ‘hpaya’). The epithet is also given to monks, pagodas and kings. I am deeply grateful to Patrick Pranke for identifying the Burmese terms and text names in this section of the essay.

80 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 2. Here ‘Abd al-Khaliq was referring to: Gaguthan (Pali: Kakusandha); Gonagon (Pali: Koṇāgamana); Kathapa (Pali: Kassapa); Shin Godama (Pali: Gotama), the historical Buddha; and Ayi Medaya (Pali: Ariya Metteyya) the fifth and final Buddha of the present cosmic aeon.

81 A'yi Madi was a reference to Ayi Medaya or Maitreya (Pali: Metteyya).

82 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 4. The Burmese term Sulamani (Pali: Culamaṇi) means ‘crest jewel’. It is not commonly associated with a particular Buddha, but is the name of an important pagoda at Pagan. This seems to be echoed in ‘Abd al-Khaliq's uncertainty as to whether Sulamani was a king or a pahya. My thanks again to Patrick Pranke for his generous advice.

83 Ibid. The Burmese referents for the names ‘Abd al-Khaliq gave as Dajalla and Ma Daniga are unclear. The name of the Burmese text cited here might be romanised as Niyatadāna Kyam, literally Niyatadāna (Pali: ‘perpetual donation’) + Kyam (Burmese: ‘book’ [pronounced jan/jhan]).

84 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 5.

85 Ibid., p. 4.

86 Ibid., pp. 5, 6–7, 9.

87 Ibid., pp. 7, 9.

88 Ibid., p. 9.

89 Ibid., p. 9.

90 Ibid., pp. 9–12, 18–20, 26–27.

91 Ibid., p. 30.

92 Ibid., pp. 26, 29.

93 Ibid., p. 29.

94 Nijhawan, ‘At the margins’. On colonial stereotypes of Burman women, see also Myint-U, Making, pp. 34, 244.

95 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 26.

96 Ibid., p. 26.

97 Ibid., pp. 20–23.

98 Although Phayre's History of Burmah first appeared, in two parts, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1868, it did not appear in book form until 1883. On his research and manuscripts, see Patricia Herbert, ‘The making of a collection: Burmese manuscripts in the British Library’, British Library Journal 15, 1 (1989): 64.

99 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, pp. 21–2.

100 Ibid., pp. 23–4.

101 Ibid., p. 24.

102 Ibid., pp. 22–3. On the parallel concerns in Burmese historiography, see Candier, Aurore, ‘Conjuncture and reform in the Late Konbaung period: How prophecies, omens and rumors motivated political action from 1866 to 1869’, Journal of Burma Studies 15, 3 (2011): 231–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Aung-Thwin, Michael, ‘Prophecies, omens and dialogue: Tools of the trade in Burmese historiography’, in Historical essays in Honour of Kenneth R. Rossman, ed. Newmyer, Kent (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

103 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 25.

104 Ibid., pp. 6, 9, 28, 33–9.

105 Ibid., pp. 34–5.

106 Ibid., p. 35.

107 Ibid., pp. 36–9. It is worth noting here the simultaneity of ‘Abd al-Khaliq's research on reckoning systems with that of colonial ethnographers. See Temple, Richard Carnac, ‘Notes on the Burmese system of arithmetic’, Indian Antiquary 20 (1891): 53–69Google Scholar.

108 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 28.

109 Ibid.

110 Ibrahim, Muhammad, al-Hukm al-Salat: Chivalkar (Bombay, 1307/1890)Google Scholar.

111 These texts are respectively: Hko, Maung [Mirza ‘Abbas], Nuri Taw Kyan (Moulmein, 1889)Google Scholar; Ali, Hazrat, Sakhawetnama, trans. Nana, Ismail Hajjo ‘Arif, Naki, Ibrahim ‘Ali and Yusuf, Muhammad (Rangoon, 1898)Google Scholar; Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, Shajarat al-Iman (Rangoon, 1896)Google Scholar and Faza'il al-Shuhur (Rangoon, 1896)Google Scholar; and Ibrahim, Muhammad, Annavada-niggaha-vija-htoy Kyan (Rangoon, 1892)Google Scholar. I have inspected these books at the British Library having initially traced them via Barnett, L.D., A Catalogue of the Burmese books in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1913)Google Scholar.

112 Siraj, Bibi Khadija Tha-hkin ma Vatthu, trans. by Maung Hia Tin (Mandalay, 1911); Tin, Maung Hia, Hujjat al-Islam (Mandalay, 1911Google Scholar).

113 Berlie, Burmanization, p. 80.

114 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 1.

115 Ibid., pp. 23–4.

116 Charney, Powerful learning, chap. 11; Schober, Modern Buddhist conjunctures, pp. 24–38; and Woodward, ‘When one wheel stops’. On the transformation of the Shwegyin monastic groups in the modern period, see Carbine, Jason A., Sons of the Buddha: Continuities and ruptures in a Burmese monastic tradition (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

117 Woodward, ‘When one wheel stops’, pp. 62–3. Thus Thant Myint-U notes ‘the disappearance of the various state agencies which provided secular support for the authority of the Thathanabaing and his Thudhamma Council’. Myint-U, Making, p. 10.

118 Woodward, ‘When one wheel stops’, pp. 65–6.

119 Ibid., p. 64.

120 The statistics and their sources are cited in Myint-U, Making, p. 208.

121 Woodward, ‘When one wheel stops’, p. 68.

122 Ibid., p. 221.

123 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 13.

124 Maung Maung Lay, ‘The emergence of the Panthay community at Mandalay’, in Studies in Myanma history, vol. 1; Yegar, Moshe, ‘The Panthay (Chinese Muslims) of Burma and Yunnan’, Journal of Southeast Asian History 7, 1 (1966): 73–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Unfortunately, I have been unable to trace a copy of the widely-cited Ba, U, Mandalay centenary: History of Burmese Muslims (Mandalay, 1959)Google Scholar. However, even though the Muslim presence in Burma at large dated back centuries, the first two mosques in Mandalay itself were only built in the late 1860s. See Lay, ‘Emergence’, p. 98.

125 Sein, ‘Christian missionaries’, p. 148.

126 Yi, Khin Htwe, ‘The Methodist Mission in Upper Myanmar proper (1886–1914)’, in Studies in Myanma history, vol. 1, pp. 157–8Google Scholar.

127 Egreteau, ‘Burmese Indians’, p. 43 and Ong and Woo, Myanmar: History of the Bahá'í faith.

128 In 1784 initially Bodawpaya installed four Thathanabaings before replacing them with a single Thathanabaing four years later. Thanks to Patrick Pranke and my anonymous reader for advice on this matter, though any misrepresentations remain my own. For the primary colonial account of the office of Thathanabaing, see Scott, J. George, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, 5 vols. (Rangoon: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1900)Google Scholar, pt. 1, vol. 2, pp. 3–5. For more favourable depictions, see Charles Henry Allan Bennett, ‘The Thathanabaing’, Buddhism: A Quarterly Illustrated Review (Rangoon: International Buddhist Society) 1, 4 (1904): 177–208Google Scholar and Twomey, D.H.R., ‘The Thathanabaing: Head of the Buddhist monks of Burma’, Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review & Oriental and Colonial Record 17, 34 (1904): 326–35Google Scholar. In preference to the more accurate but obscure translation ‘Keeper of the Sasana’, I have adopted the term's translation as ‘Primate’ given in Myint-U, Making, p. 73.

129 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 12.

130 Schober, Juliane, ‘Colonial knowledge and Buddhist education in Burma’, in Buddhism, power and political order, ed. Harris, Ian (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 60–61Google Scholar.

131 The circumstances and details are given in Scott, Gazetteer, pt. 1, vol. 2, pp. 8–15.

132 Muwahid, Sayr-e Barhma, p. 13.

133 Ibid., p. 12.

134 Ibid., p. 13. In a footnote, the author or publisher added that these conversions were due to Christian missionaries giving the Burmans money, legal redress or employment.

135 Ibid.

136 Ibid., pp. 13–17.

137 Ibid., p. 15.

138 Ibid., pp. 14–15.

139 Ibid., p. 14.

140 Ibid., p. 16.

141 Ibid., p. 17.

142 Ibid.

143 Ibid.

144 Tereen, ‘The polemic’, p. 63.

145 Schober, Modern Buddhist conjunctures, p. 64.

146 On Ledi Sayadaw's activities, see Braun, Erik, The birth of insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism and the Burmese monk Ledi Sayadaw (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

147 Sayadaw, Ledi, Thathanawithodani (Sāsanavisodhanī), vol. 1 (Yangon: Hanthawaddi Pitakat Pon-hneik Taik, 1954 [1919]), pp. 118–90Google Scholar; the section on Islam is on pp. 126–7. Thanks to Patrick Pranke for bringing this text and its contents to my attention.

148 Colbeck, James Alfred, Letters from Mandalay: A series of letters for the most part written from the Royal City of Mandalay during the troublous years of 1878–79 (Knavesborough: Alfred W. Lowe, 1892)Google Scholar and Yoe, Shway [Sir James George Scott], The Burman (London: Macmillan & Co., 1882)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

149 Thus, see Revd Armstrong, W.F., ‘Missions to the Muslims of Burma’, Baptist Missionary Magazine 89 (1909), pp. 60–62Google Scholar.

150 The text and circumstances are described in Chakravarti, Indian minority, pp. 157–9, and restated in Berlie, Burmanization, pp. 14–15. The use of the term yogi in the title for Buddhists may be a reference to the lay meditation practitioners led by the highly popular and influential Ledi Sayadaw. Thanks to Patrick Pranke for this suggestion.

151 On the monk as a contemporary socio-political actor, see Tosa, Keiko, ‘The chicken and the scorpion: Rumor, counternarratives and the political uses of Buddhism’, in Burma at the turn of the twenty-first century, ed. Skidmore, Monique (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2005), pp. 154–72Google Scholar, and Zin, Min, ‘Burmese Buddhism and its impact on social change’, in Burma's modern tragedy, ed. Metraux, Daniel A. and Oo, Khin (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2004)Google Scholar.

152 Razvi, Mujtaba, ‘The problem of the Burmese Muslims’, Pakistan Horizon 31, 4 (1978)Google Scholar, p. 88, citing the Indian Asian Recorder news digest.