Interest in Shi'ism Islam has increased greatly in recent years, although Shi'ism in the Indian subcontinent has remained largely underexplored. Focusing on the influential Shi'a minority of Lucknow and the United Provinces, a region that was largely under Shi'a rule until 1856, this book traces the history of Indian Shi'ism through the colonial period toward Independence in 1947. Drawing on a range of new sources, including religious writing, polemical literature, and clerical biography, it assesses seminal developments including the growth of Shi'a religious activism, madrasa education,...

The intriguing story of three famous pirates in history, Scarlet Jack, Red Martin and Blackbeard as they terrorized a ship, took the captain and a young family prisoner. How their lives intertwined throughout this story of swashbuckling buccaneers with romance, savagery and the heroics of a slave makes this story originally told in the 1800's one of the best historical fiction accounts ever written.