The Sikhs [antikvár]

Preface Until Sikhs from the Punjab and East Africa began to arrive in Britain in appreciable numbers in the late 1950s and early 1960s the Sikh religion seems to have been regarded as a minor faith scarcely worthy of serious attention. Consequently no introduction meeting the needs of students in Britain or America has yet been written. They have been compelled to use Professor W. H. McLeod's excellent Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion for this purpose though it is in no sense a primer, being a specialised piece of research into a particular and important aspect of Sikh studies, namely the reliability of the sources which exist for studying the historical Nanak. In the course of achieving this object, especially in his chapter on the teachings of Guru Nanak, the author placed Guru Nanak in his religious context and provided a valuable corrective to the usual views of Sikhism which have been put forward by those few western scholars who have mentioned it in their writings (see p. 38). The purpose of our book is to provide a multi-dimensional introduction to the Sikh faith, covering practices as well as beliefs. For the most part the approach will be descriptive and explanatory but attention will also be given to various ways in which Sikhism has been regarded by scholars. It is always difficult to decide how the vocabulary of a faith should be translated -amrit pahul is not baptism and the kara is not a bangle or a