Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration and Other Conventions
A Map of Medieval Bengal and Arakan

1. The Prophet of Light and Love: Nūr Muhammad in Bengal's Mirror
A Historical Overview of Caṭṭagrāma
Islamic Bangla Literature and Islamization
Literary Portraits of the Author
Inscribing Islam in the Bengali Religious Landscape
Nūr Muhammad as the Ontological Principle of Light and Love
The Islamic Cosmogony of Om̐
Later Developments in Islamic Bengali Cosmogonical Discourse
Cosmogony, Translation, and Conversion

2. Text, Author, and Authority: The Nabīvaṃśa and the Making of Islamic Community
Genre and Performance
The Structure of the Nabīvaṃśa's Salvation History
The Critical Edition of the Nabīvaṃśa vis-à-vis the Manuscript Tradition
Author and Authority in the Making of Islamic Community

3. Translation and the Historiographic Process: The Work of a Text in the Making of Bengali Islam
The Terms of Translation
Translation as Qurʾānic Exegesis
The Representation and Transculturation of Musalmāni and Hinduāni Traditions
Translation as Entextualizing Conversion
A Hermeneutic Model of Muslim Missionary Translation
Frontier Literature

4. A New Prophetology for Bengal: Purāṇa- Korān Salvation History
An Indo- Islamic Salvation History for Bengal
The Original Couple, Māric- Mārijāt or Śiva- Pārvatī
The Purāṇic Predecessors of Ādam
The Account of Ādam, the First Man
Righteous Śiś and Islam's Triumph over Hinduāni Adharma
Evil Iblis as Primal Guru of the Hinduāni Clans
Translation as Renewal, Subversion, and Manipulation

5. Hari the Fallen Prophet: An Avatāra's Descent into Disgrace
In the Shadow of Gauṛīya Vaiṣṇavism
Recasting the Acts of Kr̥ṣṇa
The Polemics of the Tale of Kr̥ṣṇa
An Islamic Reappraisal of Vaiṣṇava Theology
Messianic Intersections of the Avatāra and Nabī
Missionary Translation as Creative Iconoclasm

6. Ascension and Ascendancy: Constructing the Prophet for Bengal
The Nabīvaṃśa's Ascension Narrative in the Perso- Turkic Miʿrāj Tradition
The Prophet as God's Beloved
The Prophet as Perfect Phakir
The Prophet as Intercessor
The Historiographer and Legitimation

Conclusion: Historiography, Translation, and Conversion

Appendix: Distribution of Manuscripts of the NV in Various Bangladeshi Archives
Works Cited
Index