Amanda Lanzillo

@amandazillo

Historian of labor, technology & Islam in South Asia | Asst. Prof UChicago SALC | she/her | 📕Pious Labor now out from UC Press:

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Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· 2d

It’s part of a beautiful, but print-only special issue of Contextual Alternate on “Lithography: global technology in local contexts,” edited by Ulrike Stark and Graham Shaw. Purchase here, or DM me for access! www.contextualternate.com#annual-05

Cover page of contextual alternate journal, vol 5, 2025, dark blue.

5
CONTENTS
5.01
Printing Pashto: lithographic design between urban
India and the Indo-Afghan frontier
AMANDA LANZILLO
24
5.02
The appearance of print in colonial India: typography, lithography, and the Gulistan of Sadi
HASAN HAMEED
60
5.03
Lithographed works in the Ochoa collection in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris
JÉRÔME PETIT
96
5.04
Lithography, penmanship, or typography? The East India Company's review of the comparative economics at Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras
GRAHAM SHAW
132
5.05
Illustrated religious books in Qajar Iran: visualizing religious society through lithography
ALI BOOZARI
176
5.06
Picturing readers and writers: an iconography of book culture in Indian lithographic illustration, 1830s-1900
ULRIKE STARK
The publisher and the authors would like to thank all anonymous reviewers for generously giving us their time, and for their helpful
204
comments and constructive feedback.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· 2d

My latest article explores the transregional production and cultivation of Pashto lithograph print culture. It explores how book merchants, scribes, and printers connected major urban centres of Indian print such as Bombay and Delhi to Pashto readers across Kabul, Peshawar, Quetta, and beyond.

5.01
27
IN THE NINETEENTH AND early twentieth centuries, most readers of Pashto and sellers of Pashto books lived and worked in Afghanistan or in the regions of India bordering Afghanistan, primarily the North West Frontier Province and Baluch-istan. Yet many of the people who produced books for these markets were based hundreds of miles away, in large Indian cities including major centres of multilingual print such as Bombay, Delhi, and Lahore. The development and evolution of a Pashto-language lithographic print culture between the 186os and 1920s resulted from multi-nodal networks of trans-South Asian exchange, cultivated by book merchants, presses, and readers of Pashto themselves.
The story of Pashto lithographic print reveals how a disparate network of readers, publishers, book workers, and merchants across South Asia together cultivated a transregional print culture through intellectual and material exchange. In Delhi, Lahore, and Bombay, publishers with limited familiarity with Pashto nonetheless responded to the needs, interests, and demands of geographically distant Pashto readers. To produce books for their distant readership, publishers relied on Pashto-literate scribes, some of whom migrated to Delhi, Lahore, and Bombay specifically to work in Pashto lithographic print. All of these groups- the readers, the publishers, and the scribes-were in turn dependent on the intervention of book merchants in Peshawar, Kabul, and other cities and towns with significant Pashto-reading publics. Book merchants cultivated Pashto-reading publics, and convinced the presses of their viability. They identified and promoted texts that had been popular in manuscript form or those that were popular in other regional languages and might appeal to readers of Pashto.
This exchange was never unidirectional; it not only brought books printed in Lahore, Delhi, or Bombay to readers in Peshawar, Kabul, Qandahar, Quetta, or the towns and villages surrounding them, but it also moved Pa…

Figure 8
The title page of the Divän-i Abdul Hamid (The collected works of Abdul Hamid) published by the Haydari Press, Bombay (1876), reflecting the distinctive norms of Bombay printing and title page organization. Image courtesy of Cambridge University Library.
Figure 9
The first page of the Asrar al-'afrin (Secrets of the knowers) published by the Haydari Press, Bombay 1882), showing a less dense textual style than was common in earlier lithographs. Image courtesy of Cambridge University Library.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Jun 2

Kicking off my summer triathlon training with a 20 mile ride in my hometown’s state park on my mother’s bicycle 🚲.

A black bicycle in front of some green shrubbery and a blue bay. There is a small boat on the bay, and some buildings in the far background.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· May 2

May Day in Chicago ✊

Protesters carrying signs saying “power to the workers, not the billionaires” and “abolish ice” in the foreground, marching towards the sears tower in Chicago.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Apr 1

Will be speaking on Pious Labor at Harvard Islamic Studies later this month! Would love to see Boston-area friends there. islamicstudies.harvard.edu/event/semina...

APRIL 16 (THU) | 4-5:30pm ET
A Book Talk on Pious Labor:
Islam, Artisanship and Technology in Colonial India
Amanda Lanzillo
Assistant Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
CO-SPONSORS: Department of South Asian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Mahindra Humanities Center Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar
BARKER 133 | RSVP at islamicstudies.harvard.edu/seminar
PIOUS LABOR

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Mar 12

For the new South Asia book forum section, I reviewed and put into conversation three excellent recent books: Rishad Choudhury‘s Hajj Across Empires, @ajab.bsky.social 's The Making of Persianate Modernity & Daniel Majchrowicz’s The World in Words. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Mar 5

Brilliant exhibit on Mexican traqueros who helped build the railways of Chicago & the Midwest, currently on at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Particularly stunned by the stories of people who were deported via the very tracks they built 😡.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Feb 15

I am apparently too old for travel now, currently absolutely dying from jet lag on my sofa in Chicago. Still, here’s a few cool pics from the Chaukhandi tombs on the edge of Karachi!

Intricately carved light brown stone tombs under a dome

Intricately carved light brown stone tombs, both in foreground and background. Bright blue sky.

A white woman in a green kurta with dark hair stands in front of a complex of intricately carved brown stone tombs.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Feb 13

Online collections are great and vital in an age of visa/travel restrictions and limited humanities funding. But relying on them means excluding so much history, so many pasts & so many worlds contained in spaces like these (from Islamia College, Peshawar this week).

Stacks of dusty bound books and papers in a corner)

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Feb 12

Islamia College, Peshawar, and its mosque 😍

A large brown building with multiple domes. Students in white Kurtas and black jackets walk on the road in front of it.

A white mosque with three domes, surrounded by greenery and plants. A single man walks in front of it.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Feb 10

Qissa Khwani bazaar, Peshawar. Some days academia is hard, but most days I still can’t believe I get to go cool places and learn cool things as my job.

A white woman in a black kurta and purple scarf stand in the middle of a lane next to an old building with detailed carving. Men and women walk in the foreground and background.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Feb 6

Absolutely stunned by Sadequain’s final (unfinished) mural, on the ceiling of the Frere Hall library in Karachi. My poor photography skills can’t do the scale or detail justice.

A massive unfinished ceiling mural with a blue background, gold calligraphy, and intricate design depicting the universe.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Feb 4

Sindh state archives

Sindh archives, written in English and Sindhi, with blue tiling around, and a Pakistan flag in the foreground.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Jan 28

And then on 4 February at Aga Khan University I’ll speak on and workshop part of my new book project, Out of Empire, a social history of the India-Afghanistan hijrat of 1920. Both talks are open to the public but registration required.

A poster reading:

THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences presents
Public Conversations
fieldnotes
INAUGURAL TALK
Out of Empire: Social Historical Approaches to India-Afghanistan Hijrat of 1920
This talk examines the hijrat of 1920, when tens of thousands left British India for Afghanistan. Challenging portrayals of the migration as a doomed, elite-driven Pan-Islamist movement, it draws on migrant memoirs to center the perspectives of the muhajirin themselves. Focusing on migrants journeys, the talk shows how experiences of hijrat varied by gender, class, age, and ethno-linguistic background, and how social backgrounds shaped efforts to build new communities beyond British rule.
A talk by Amanda Lanzillo, Assistant Professor in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago
17
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 4:00PM
D-Lab, 10th Floor, UC Building, Aga Khan University
SWIPE TO LEARN MORE

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Jan 28

Will be in Karachi next week and will give a couple of talks on both previous and on-going work! First up will be a book talk on my first book, Pious Labor, at IBA on 3 February.

A poster reading:

PUBLIC LECTURE
Pious Labor:
Islam, Artisanship, and Technology in Colonial India
SPEAKER
Amanda Lanzillo
Assistant Professor, University of Chicago
Amanda Lanzillo examines Islam, labor, and technology in colonial South Asia. She traces migrations between British India and
Afghanistan to reveal how religious ethics, mobility, and craft reshaped social worlds beyond empire.

REGISTER
Tuesday.
February 03, 2026
05:30 PM
07:00 PM
For More Details:
021 38104700 Ext: 2671, 3003
+92 21 111 422 422
www.iba.edu.pk
G&T Auditorium, Main Campus, IBA

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Dec 31

Anyways: Happy New Year. Abolish ICE. Free Palestine.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Dec 31

5.) Taught advanced readings in Urdu for the first time 6.) Explored our neighborhood, Pilsen, and learned to defend our neighbors 6.) Co-edited a special section of South Asia on artisan histories & contributed an article on scissor and lock making 7.) Ended the year with Eritrean breakfast in DC!

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Dec 31

2025 was a dumpster fire but I… 1.) Moved internationally w/doggo to Chicago 2.) Saw the Indian edition of my first book published with Three Essay Collective 3.) Finished a draft of book 2 and signed a contract with UNC Press. 4.) Started teaching brilliant students who read books at UofC…

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Dec 14

Got my dog boots (because Chicago 🥶) and she promptly forgot how to walk.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Dec 7

Kind of obsessed with this effort to maintain the cross-border movement of Urdu texts and knowledge in the wake of Partition. From Aug. 1950 issue of the periodical "Rozgaar" (Delhi), info for Pakistanis on how to pay for texts now that D/P & money order services are closed b/w the two countries.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Dec 1

The article I’m writing is about the rise of a commercial lithographic print culture in Pashto, but I also got to check out the oldest Pashto movable type printed book, a copy of the Bible produced by the the Serampore Missionaries in Bengal in 1818. UChicago holds one of the few extant copies.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Nov 25

“Only the boomers are protesting” is so offensive to all the kids who have been straight up attacked by literal storm troopers in their streets this year.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Nov 24

Using this week to get back to some work on Pashto lithographic print culture! Here's an 1887 manual (with mixed Persian and Pashto contents) on "Mīzak-i jangī" (Military Music) printed by the state press in Kabul 👀. (Full text here available from the LOC: www.loc.gov/item/00313390/)

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Nov 17

Excited to see my latest article out, exploring cultures of production in highly localized trades in north India. Part of a forthcoming special section of “South Asia” on artisan lives and forms of production that I co-edited with Arun Kumar and Adhitya Dhanapal. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/VYR6S...

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Nov 11

The dog in the first snow of the year.

A médium-sized tan and white dog with big ears in a yellow harness looks at the camera. She stands on a field covered with snow. In the background is a building and clouds.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Oct 25

Highly recommend bringing your dog to your academic conference.

A white and tan medium sized dog licking her nose stands in front of a white woman in a blue jacket, holding the dog’s leash. They both stand in front of a statue of the mascot of the university of Wisconsin, on a concrete pier overlooking a blue lake.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Oct 17

Delighted that Pious Labor (@ucpress.bsky.social and Three Essays Collective) has been awarded the South Asian Muslim Studies Association biennial book prize! faculty.thecollege.asu.edu/samsa/announ...

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Sep 28

My first Chicago half marathon to mark the start of the new academic year! 1 hr 55 min 42 sec time; not bad for being pretty undertrained (an international move will do that 🤷‍♀️).

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Sep 14

Pious Labor (@ucpress.bsky.social ) reviewed in the AHR by @farinamir.bsky.social . I've been fortunate that the book has been read by several thoughtful and generous reviewers, and I'm especially thrilled to see this one. academic.oup.com/ahr/article-... 🗃️

Lanzillo is keen to see labor history as a site for Islamic history. Pious Labor does so admirably through both method and content. As Lanzillo rightly underscores, the history of Islam in colonial India has largely been written through “an insistence on the primacy of canonical thinkers and texts” (17). Pious Labor elegantly portrays how artisans anchored their labor in Islamic pasts. Woodworkers traced their skills to the prophet Nuh (Noah); tailors to Idris (Enoch); blacksmiths to Dawud (David). Artisans often connected their trade and/or skill to Sufi pirs (guides/saints), as was the case with scribes and metalsmiths. By showing us an “artisanal Islam” in a range of contexts, the book effectively makes working- and lower-class histories integral to an understanding of Islam in South Asia.

Pious Labor is refreshingly original in bringing histories of economy, labor, technology, and Islam into dialogue with one another, and it makes contributions to each of these fields of history. Additionally, by highlighting how Muslim artisans emphasized the Islamic origins of their trades and the pious nature of their labor and rendered new technologies as sources for their accumulation of social and cultural capital, Lanzillo makes a valuable contribution to the history of late colonial India.

Amanda Lanzillo@amandazillo· Sep 12

My next book, Out of Empire, is now under contract with @uncpress.bsky.social! The book provides a social historical perspective on the hijrat of 1920, during which tens of thousands of Indians left their homeland in search of freer lives in an independent, Muslim-ruled territory: Afghanistan.