ISLAM IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT.pdf

ISLAM IN THE
INDIAN SUBCONTINENT
ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL

HANDBUCH DER ORIENTALISTIK
ZWEITE ABTEILUNG
INDIEN
HERAUSC.EAUEN VON J GONDA
VIERTER BAND
RELIGIONEN
DRITTER ABSCHNITT
ISLAM IN THE
INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements................................................................................. vn
Introduktion.......................................................................................... I
1.Advent and Consolidation of Islam in thc Subkontinent................. 3
II.Thc Time ol Independent States—The Growth of Shia Islam .. 36
Delhi.......................................................................................... 36
Malwa........................................................................................ 39
Jaunpur...................................................................................... 40
Kashmir...................................................................................... 43
Bengal........................................................................................ 47
Thc Decvan................................................................................. 51
Bijapur................................................................................... 56
Golkonda............................................................................... 60
The Carnatic............................................................................... 62
Gujarat...................................................................................... 65
Ismacili Communities............................................................ 70
III. The Age oi the Great Moghuls................................................... 75
IV. Muslim Life and Cusloms—Saints and their Tombs—Myslical
Folk Poetry................................................................................. 106
V. India after Aurang/eb: Muslim l.ife and Thought between 1707
and 1857.................................................................................... 150
VI. 1857-1906: The Age of Reform Movements.................... 189
VII. From thc Partition of Bengal to the Partition of the Subkonti
nent—Thc Age of Iqbal.............................................................. 216
Epilogue .................................................................................................. 245
Sclcct Bibliography................................................................................. 2-38
Index of tcchnical terms......................................................................... 261
Index ofbooks......................................................................................... 277
Index of proper names....................................... 283

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
While preparing the bibliography for this handbook I discovered thai I bad
personal triendly relations with almost every Contemporary writer. so that not
onlv their books and articles but meetings and corrcspondence wilh thein bad
shaped my outlook and my undersianding of ihc Situation of the Muslims in
India and Pakistan. Many of thein have died during the last ycars—I
remembered with gratitude the brothers Dr. Zakir Husain, Dr. Yusuf Husain
Khan, and Dr. Mahmud Husain: furthcr Dr. Abid Husain of Jamia Millia.
Mutntaz Hasan. S. M. Ikrant. and Khalifa ‘Abdul Hakim are also no longcr
among their friends. nor is Professor Aziz Ahmad.
There are many others, whose names are not mentioned in the following
pages and «ho yct have hclped nie to widerstand various facets of Islamic lifc
in the Subcontinent- collcagucs in the universities of India and Bangladesh,
and illiterate faqtrs in Sind, progressive wrilcrs and tradition-bound
housewives between Peshawar and Chittagong, kcepers of saints' tombs in the
United Provinces and inquisitive journalists. adtnirers of Iqbal in Lahore as in
Aligarh—they all form pari of my undersianding of the Indo-Pakistani Islam,
an undersianding which rnay be al times very personal.
I havealso to thank friends and collcagucs in the Western world who shared
their insights with mc: the small but devoted group of scholars intcrcstcd in
Indian Islam which is found between Leiden and Jerusalem. Duke University
and Montreal. Chicago and Praguc (to menlion only a fcw centres) has always
been a source of inspiration. Among my friends in Harvard I menlion par-
ticularly Wilfred Cantwell Smith, whose 'Modern Islam in India' is still the
most thoughl provoking study of modern Muslim movcinents, and Stuart
Cary Welch, who taught me to appreciatc Indo-Muslim art. My junior col
lcagucs Whccler M. Thackston and Brian Silver kindly read the manuscript
and madc somc valuable suggestions. My sincere thanks arc duc to all of
them.
Cambridge. Mass.
Spring 1980 Annemarie Schimmel

1NTRODUCT1ON
In the year 1289. the poet Aniir Khusrau, 'God's Türk' and 'Parrot of In-
dia’, composed in Delhi his historical poem Qirän as-sa'duin. in which he
sings the praise of lndia. the honte of true Islamic life:
Happv be Hindustan »ith ib spkndor of religion.
W hcre the tharTa enjoys pcrfcxl honour and dignily
In learmng now Delhi nvals Bukhara;
Islam has been madc manifest by the rulers
From Ghazna io every shore of ehe ocean
You sec Islam in iis glory everywhere.
Muslims, here, belong to the Hanafi creed.
But sincerdy respect all the four »hools.
They have no enmitv wirb the Shafiites and no fondness for the Zaiditcs;
With heart and soul are they desoted to the path of the communily and
the sunna.
I( is a wondcrful land, produang Muslims and favouring religion,
Where even the ftsh comes out of the stream as a Sunnitc!'
Six hundred years later, in 1879, another poet in the city of Delhi had to com-
plain of the destitute Situation of the Muslims in lndia: Hali’s Musaddas ac-
cuscs the inhabitants of the Subcontinent of having deserted Islam and forgot-
ten the glorious days of old:
For now our every decd ignoble Shows
Our actions arc the meanesi of the Io»,
The fair name of our falhcrs is echpsed.
Our very sleps dlsgrace the place we dwcll,
Dishonoured is the honour of the pasl.
Arabia’s greatneu is beyond recall..
The historian who tries to give a survey of the history and Situation of Islam in
Indo-Pakistan is faced with Constant contradictions. On the one hand he ad-
ntires the cultural activities of devoted mystical leaders. of Orders and frater-
nities which formed the nuclei of spiritual life in the Middle Ages and won
over many Hindus to the Islamic faith. On the other hand he dcplores the Con
stant succession of wars, feuds, and displav of the darkest sides of political
history; a history of kings who all too often ordered their followers 'to relieve
an enemy’s (or relative’s) body from the weigltt of his head’, yet who adorned
lndia with some of the most grandiose sacred buildings in the world of Islam.
Populär religion. often tinged by or almost blended with customs from Hindu
neighbours. Stands side by side with lofty reforniist movements of theologians
1 S. M. tkram. Arma^hOn-i POk. Karachi 1954, p. 113,

2 INTRODUCT10N
who loughl for the purity of Islamic monotheism, a concept which was inter-
preted, in lurn, by some mystical thinkers as a parallel to the advaiia of
Hindu thoughl. Complicated mystical Systems were echoed in the bighflown
Persian poetry of the urban writers, and the longing of the soul for Union with
the Divine Bcloved, or with the Prophet Muhammad, was expresscd in simple
populär forms in the regional languages all ovcr the eountry to win the hearts
of the rural population. Later, the fight against the non-Muslims who govern-
ed the eountry, as is visible in the history of the 19th Century, goes parallel
with the development of a modern western-oriented liberalism.
The tension inherent in the many-sided and colourful Indian Islam seems to
be expresscd best in the two sons of Shahjahan and Mumtaz Mahal, whose
mausoleum, the Taj Mahal, embodies everyone’s dream of an ideal India:
Dara Shikoh the mystic and Aurangzcb the practical, orthodox minded ruler
reflect those trends, which were to result finally in the partition of the Subcon
tinent in 1947.
Literature on the subject is equally equivocal. The Situation has been
depicted by ideologists of the Pakistan movement (I. H. Qureshi), by ad-
vocates of Ihe Muslims of India who spoke against partition (M. Mujceb), by
critical missionaries (M. Titus), and by Hindu historians. Most of the leading
figures in the long history of Indian Islam have been praised or blamed in turn
and have been appropriated by the representatives of different historical,
religious or political currents.
To describe such a complicated web of facts in a restricted number of pages
seems next to impossible; and this author, like her predecessors, has also to
emphasize certain aspects more than others which deserve morc dctailed treat-
ment. Emphasis has been laid on a number of religious Personalities who seem
to personify the different trends of Indian Islam rather than on a
'sociological' analysis. Compietcness could not bc achieved; if the major
trends of the various Islamic movements in the Subcontinent and the 'Islamic
feeling' are described approximately correctly, it will be sufficient.

CHAPTER ONE
ADVENT AND CONSOI.IDAT1ON Ol ISLAM IN THE
SUBCONTINENT
Ihe reactions of the first Muslim c.xpedition that ventured into the border-
zone of the Subcontinent base becn succinctly describcd by Baladhuri: when
the Arab foray returned and was asked by the Caliph ‘Uthman about the
country they had seen, they replied:
Water scarce; früh inferior; robbers impudent; ihe army if small, likely io be lost, if
numerous. likely lo perrsh front hunger and Ihirst
and the Caliph. amazed, asked whelher his soldiers were reciting poetry or
giving Information...'
Makran. where ‘Uthman's soldiers had reached, was ccrtainly not the most
invifing pari of the future Muslim empire in India; and some smallcr invasions
notwithstandtng. it took another seveniy years until a major attempt was
made to enter the Subcontinent. For to come lo India sccmed imperative—did
the Prophet not sav:
Godsavediwogroupsof mycompamonsfromhclll'irc: agroup which will altack India, and
a group whkh will be (at the end of liincs) with ‘Isa ibn Maryam'?'
Indian local traditton spcaks of much earlier contacts: the South Indian slory
of king Shakarwatt teils that this ruler—like Raja Bhoja of Ujjain—had been
converied to Islam when the miraclc of the Splitting of the Moon (Sura 54/1)
occurred.' Indeed, the first Arab Muslim settlers on the southern and westcrn
coasts of India considerably preceded the advent of the imperial armies in
more norlhern areas: some Arab families migrated to India during the time of
al-Hajjaj. olhers some 150 years later. A Tamil copper plate, given to Arab
settlers in 875 by the king of Madura, granted them asylum.' Thcir dcsccn-
dants were destined to play an important role in South India.
' BaUdhurl, KttäbJulOh al-buldan, cd. S. Munajjid. p. 530.
' Nasa’l. Sunan, IV 43, quoi in Y. Friedmann, 'A Contribulionlothe early hisloryof Islam in
India’. Studios in memory of Gaston Hier. ed. M. Roscn-Ayalon, Jerusalem 1977.
' V Friedmann, "Qiysal Shakarwall Farmad’. /.wxref Onentai Studie? V 1975. goes inlo the
hlcrary iradinon or these and related Stories w hielt apparently reflccl Ihe lendency of Ihe South
Indians to date thcir hislory back as (ar as possiblc. As he quolcs <p. 2451 Ilie ualement ol I
Buchanan. 4 Journeyfront Madras througtl the counlnes ofMysore. Canarr andMalabar. I on-
don IS07. II 421: "Beine ol ArabK ealraclion. they look upon themsebes as ol more honorable
birtli llian Ihe Tartar Musulmans of Norlh India who of coursc arc of a contrary opinion"
• M. Y. Kokan. Arablc and Persian in Carnaln. Madras 1974. p. 53.

4 ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION OE ISLAM
Anoiher legend ihat aliempts at conneciing India and Ilie cradle of Islam is
that of Abu’r-Rida Raian, a Hindu convert who claimed shortly aller 1200
Ihar he had heard of ihe Prophet at the age of sixtecn. had gone to Medina,
foughl together with him, and was granted longevity by his blessings so that
he now. after 600 years, was able to transmit authentic haiilth. He died in 1243
and is buricd in Bhatinda. Districi Paliala, where he is still veneraled as a
saint; and the traditions relatcd by him (ralaniyyät) have bcen collected by
serious scholars such as Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalani.' These legcndary figures arc
part of the tendency to relate Indian Islam to the very beginnings of lslamic
Itistory. Veneration of the tombs of sollte of Muhammad's companions in the
South belongs to the same trend to prove the antiquity of the Muslim presence
in the Subcontinent. But historically speaking, the advent of Islam in the Sub
continent begins with the conquest of Sind in 711-12. The 17-year-old
Muhammad ibn al-Qasint had been senl to Ihe Indus delta to avenge somc
Muslim women who had fallen into the hands of pirates. and with his army he
soon conquered the area along the river up to Multan. The indigenous, largely
Buddhist population was dissaiisfied with the Brahman rulcr Dahir, whose
family had only recenlly assumed power; and il seems that the Buddhists did
not impede but rather facilitated Muhammad’s campaign. Ihe ChachnUma.
based on both Mada’ini's lost chronicle and Indian sources, gives a detailed
account of the conquest. which. as the wise men of the countrv claimed. had
bcen foretold by the Stars.
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim did not attempt mass conversion; he left the pco-
ple to their ancient faith. except in the case of those who wanted to become
Muslims, as Biruni rightly states? It would indeed have been difficult for the
small minority, which was operating at such a disiance from Damascus, the
ccntrc of government, to impose new rcligio-social patterns upon a counlry of
a very different culture. Thcrefore the voung Commander did not try to
change the social structurc of Sind and acted very prudently when progressing
farther north. Baladhuri quotes the Statement which he tnade at Alor, close to
the strategically important straits of the Indus (near present-day Rohri):
The tcmples sltall he unlo us like the churches of iheChristians, the synagogu« of the Jews.
arid the fire temples of the Magians.
' Brockeimann. GAL Suppt. II 626; J. Horoviu, Baba Raun, thesaint ol Bhatinda'.? Arn.
Jab Hal. Six. II 1910
Al-Blrunl. Allvrum's liului. Engi, iranslanon by Ed. Sachau, I ondon 1888. 2nd cd 1910
p. 11.
Baladhuri, Fuiah abbuldon. p. 5M.—Imcrestingly, one finds atlempts to connect ihe
Brahmans, barahunu, »uh the prophet Ibrahim; rhe defenders ol this sie» offen cslablish a con-
neelton betueen Indian lire rituals and Ihe pyro which besame 'cool and pleasant' (Sura 21.691

ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION OF ISLAM 5
Tliis mcans Ihai he regarded Buddhistsand Hindus as cqual to ihe ahlal-küäb.
He Ihereforc Icvied the jizya on thern, bul did not impose it on (he Brahmans,
a custom that was followcd by most of the later Indo-Muslim rulers. In
Multan, the 'city of gold’. Muhammad did not destroy the fantous Temple of
Ihe Sun but founded. as in othcr places, a mosquc. His successors followcd
this practice after Muhammad bad returned to ihe Iraq. whcre he was
treacherou-sly murdered.
One of these mosqucs, which has bcen cxcavated laicly in Bhambhore.
which was thought to be the ancicnt Daibul. the place whcre the Muslims
landed first, follows the Middle Eastern type of the court mosque; it has an
engraved inscription written in a simple Kufic with a tendency to decoratively
Splitting thc lettcr-ends. The main city in Sind was Mansura. Built probably in
thc740’s or 75O's, it has bcen dcscribed by Ibn Khurdadhbih as 'one mile long
and one mile broad', likc an island, surrounded by a branch of the Mihran
(Indus). The peoplc were. as he thinks, Quraish who lookcd like Iraqis, while
the rulers had adoptcd thc Indian style in their costumc. Ibn Hauqal and Idrisi
too speak of thc great and populous city of Mansura. a centrc of commerce
with fertile environs, well-stocked markets and cheap mcat and fruits. The ci-
ly was built. as can be seen from Ihe ruins to which Mansura is now reduced,
of brick; tilc and plaster were also used. Anothcr city. Mahfuza, was built
somewhat later opposite Mansura. Mas'udi praiscd both Mansura and
Multan, stating that Arabic and Sindhi were spokcn thcrc. An exact descrip-
tion of the early Arab cities in the lower Indus arca is difficult because the
river changed its course several timcs dunng thc ccnturies so that the ancient
accounts and mcasurcs arc of littlc usc. But cvcn if the material centres of ear
ly Sind cannot be located exactly. its cultural heritage is still extant. India has
long been famous in the Near Eastern world for its scientific achievements,
and Sind scrvcd as a kind of rclay through which knowledge of Indian
mathentathics and astronomy was conveycd to the central Islamic lands.
Since the newly conquered country needed religious instruction. a number
of scholars devoted themselves to collecting and tcaching hadlth-, the long lists
of scholars with the nisba Mansuri. Daibuli. Sindhi. etc. in biographical die-
tionaries Show that the percentage of traditionists either living in or hailing
from Sind was quite remarkable.' Buzurg ibn Shahriyar. one of the first
travellers to visit that area, teils in his 'Aja'ihal-hindltiM Maliruk ibn Rayik.
for Ibrahim For an inierpretaimn oi ihe »irhitf Ihrohim. mcntioncil in Sura S7< 19. m the
Indian, espedally Vcdic tradilhm. >ce. M. Hamidullah. IrGwii, iradudion integraleel noies.
Paris 1959. p. 596
' M. Ishaq. India's coniribuiton to the Smdv oj hadith, Dacca 1955. For a intical vicw scc Y.
Friedmann. ‘The bcginiungs ul Islamic learning in Sind'. BSOAS XXXVII 1974.

6 ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION OF ISI.AM
the king ol Ra, had asked Ilie ruler of Mansura in 270/883-4 lo send someone
to instrucl liirn in Islamic subjects, and a learned man went to (the uniden-
tilied city) Ra and. after versifying some aspects of Islamic law, bcgan to
translate the Koran for the Raja, bcginning with Sura Yasin?
To what extern decpcr. mystically tingcd rcligion was alive al that time in
Sind is unknown. The origin of Abu lAli as-Sindi. who instructcd Bayezid
Bistami in tnyslical doctrines, is a matter of doubt. and he may have been
related rather to a village by the name of Sind close to Bistam than to the In
dus valley. One should remember however that the great mystic al-Hallaj,
who was to becomc the 'martyr of divine love’ (executed in Baghdad in 922)
visitcd Sind in about 905 on his missionary journey. His enemies ascribed this
journey to his wish to Icarn such magic as the rope trick in India, long famous
as the home of dark-colourcd magicians... Hallaj's visit apparenlly did not
yield much fruit at that time; bul his name—or rather his patronymic ’Man-
sur'—is known today to everyone. even in the remotest Corners of the coun-
try, since Sindhi as well as Panjabi mystical folk poetry has chosen him as the
exemplar of those who love God so intensely that their ovcrflowing ecstasy
compels them to unveil the secret of all-embracing Union; as a rcsult they have
to suffer martyrdom at the hand of the orthodox mullas.
One of the reasons for Hallaj’s pcrsccution in Baghdad however was not so
much his divine love. but rather the highly poiitical l'act that during his
journey through Sind he might have been in touch with the Carmatians who.
coming frotn Bahrain, had just settled in Multan and the northern pari of
Sind. Allhough Sind proper was placed under the rule of Ya'qub the Saffarid
in 902, the Carmatians. or Isma'ilis, extended their ruler farther south to
Mansura. whcrc Mahmud of Ghazna found an Isma'ili prince. lt has even
been suggested that the independent dynasty of the Sumro in Sind, who ruled
till the mid I4th Century, may have been Carmatians. since they maintained
unusual customs. But the question is still open. From Multan, coins were
issued in the name of the Fatimid caliph toward the end of the tenth Century,
thus acknowledging him as the legal Sovereign. Strangely enough, the early
Isma'ilis in Multan destroyed the Temple of the Sun which Muhammad ibn al-
Qasim had spared—quite contrary lo their later policy of crcating a bridge
between the two great communitics of the Subcontincnt. They also closed
down the niosque built by Muhammad ibn al-Qasim 'from hatred against
anything that had been donc under the Uinayyad caliphs', as Biruni (id. p.
117) states.
Mahmud of Ghazna. Champion of Sunni Islam, rcachcd Multan in 1005,
and his court poet ‘Unsuri sings:
• Buzur» ibn Shahryar. Kitib ‘ajb'ib al-Himl. trad. famfaiK C. M. Devic. Paris ISST., p, 2.

ADVENT AND CONSOIIDATION OF ISIAM 7
On bis road lo Multan he look Iwo hundred tons.
each of which was a hundred limes stronger than Khaibar!”
During his first attack Mahmud was content with extracting tribute front the
ruier, but after six years he returned to Multan, slaughtering and mulilating
many 'heretics'. In spite of this pcrsecution, the Carmatians remained active
for alrnost Iwo more centuries until they wem Underground, to re-emerge later
as successful missionaries.
With Mahmud, the 'helper of the Abbasid caliph' the Islamization of larger
parts of northweslern India begins. Front the ycar 1000 onward he invaded the
Subcontinent seventeen times before dying in 1030, and his most famous
achievement was the destruction of the templc of Somnath in Kathiawar,
which was plundered during the sixteenth cxpcdition in 1026. By this act.
Mahmud has become a hero in the eyes of the Muslims, but in the Hindu
tradition he came to represent the arclt enemy.
The spoils which Mahmud brought front India have disappeared; however a
work that owcs its origin to his Indian campaigns still survives: it is Biruni's
Kitib al-hind. Birunt. born in 973 in Khwarizm. had joined the court of Ghaz-
na in 1017 after working in Gurgan; staying for some time in India. he used
his knowledge of Greek philosophy. mathematics and sciences and his in
quisitive mind to study the life and thought of the Hindus. The result is the
first objective study ever made of a foreign culturc. But dcspite his deep
undersianding of the philosophical implications of the various Hindu schools
of thought and his general objectivity. even Biruni could not help mentioning
the ‘innate perversity of the Hindu character"1 which showed itself in doing
many things opposite to Muslims; and he praises God that these customs have
beeil abolished among those who have become Muslims. The major difficulty
in appreciating the Hindus was the caste System:
We Muslims, ofcourse. stand cnlirely on the olher side of ihc question. considering all men
as equal, ncept in picly: and this is the greatesl obstacle which prcvems any approacll or
undersianding between Hindus and Muslims.11
In his complaim that the Hindu considcrs the Muslim to be mleccha, 'impure'
he scems to ptedict the communal tcnsions of the 20th Century, whose
rcprcsentatives largely made use of the relevant Statements of this medieval
scholar.
" Dtwan-i tMMi 'Unfurl-yi Balkhl. ed. Muhammad Dabtr Siyaql, Tchran I342sh/I963,
p. 121. v«se 1342.
" al-Blrom/Sactiau. tn<ha p. 91.
" al-BlrOnl/Sachau. huhu p. 271.

8 ADVENT AND CONSOI.1DA11ON OF ISLAM
In the expanding Ghaznawid empire, the capital Lahore (1031) devclopcd
into a veritable centre of Islamic learning after the last Hindu rebellion was
quelled in 1042. The nante of Shaikh Muhammad Isnta'il al-Bukhari al-
Lahori (d. 1056). who reached Lahore before the Ghaznawid conqucst. Stands
for the first Muslim scholar to preach Islam and to propagate the study of
hadith in the northwestern pari of lndia—a field that was cultivated
throughout the centuries. In fiqh, the Ghaznawids followed the Shafiitc
school; the Ghorids who succeeded thcm wcrc Hanafites. and this madhhab
rcmained predominant in lndia, except for the 'Arab' South.
Düring the I Ith Century important mystical thinkcrs, tnainly in Iran, com
posed basic works on Sufi lltought and ethics; one of thcm, 'Ali ibn ‘Lthntan
al-Jullabi al-Hujwiri from the Ghazna area, reached Lahore after long
wanderings and finally seltlcd there and died around 1071. His Kashf al-
mahjüb is one of the most important sources for the history of early Sufi
theory and practices and. at the same time, one of the first theoretical works
on Sufism written in the Persian language. Hujwiri who followed the early
ascetics in his preference for celibacy soon assumed fame as a sainl. and under
the name of Data Ganj Bakhsh he is regarded as the first patron saint of
Lahore. One bclieved that he had the 'supremc authority over the saintsof In-
dia. and that no new saint entered the country without first obtaining permis-
sion from his spirit."’ His tomb, often renewed, and lately decorated with
silver doors (a gift from the Shah of Iran) is still a frequently visited place of
worship for the Pakistanis. It is even said that Muhammad Iqbal conceived of
the idea of a separate Muslim homeland in the Subcontinent while meditating
at Data Sahib's tomb;'' some of Iqbal’s verses are engraved in the white mar-
ble panels of the shrine.
It seems that more or less isolated Muslim Settlements existed in various
placcs in the Gangetic plains, such as Benares. Eastern Oudh. and even
Bihar—at least local tradition Claims that Muslim shrincs date from pre-
Ghorid time, ahhough it would be difficult to find epigraphic evidence. One
of these early shrines is that of Bibi Pakdamanan in Lahore, attributed to
seven chaste ladies who reached lndia in the seventh Century.
Lahore, where Persian-writing Muslim poets such as Abu’l-Faraj Runi and
Mas'ud ibn Sa'd lived during the 1 Ith and 12th centuries, was overrun by the
next wave of conquerors, the Ghorids, who again descended from
Afghanistan, in 1181. It is difficult to believe Hasan Nizami’s Statement in his
chronide Taj al-ma'Olhir that at that time in Lahore, ‘out of every hundred
1 John A Subhan, Sufism. 2nd cd. Lucknow 1960. p. 129.
• Masoodul Hasan. Dalu Ganj Bukhsh, Lahore 1972. ImrodiKtion.

persons ninety were scholars, and nine oul of ten Interpreters of the
Koran...'.” Mu’izzuddin Ghori went as far soulh as Multan and Ucch. which
he wrested in 1175 from the Carmatians, who had rulcd there with a brief In
terruption during Mahmtid's days, for nearly thrcc centuries. and who were
finally responsible for his assassination.
The Ghorids and their military slaves were to open the way farther south-
east. Mu’izzuddin conquered Delhi and Ajmer (1192) and had extended
Muslim suprcmacy to Qannauj and Gwalior, when he was killcd in 1206 on
the bank of the Indus, And as early as 1202 Bakhliar Muhammad Khalji over-
ran Bihar and established himself in Bengal. K. A. Nizami has poinied out
that the resistance against the Muslim invaders came
fron» ihe privikged clawes and ilk Rajput aristocracy. Had ihe Indian masscs resisied the
eslabluhmenl ofTurkish rule in India. the Ghorids would not have been able lo lelain even
an inch of Indian tcrriiory.'*
*
’ K. A. Nizami. SomeAspects ofReligion und Pohucs in India dunng ihe I3(h Century. Bom
bay 1961. p. 265; for the Tty alma'äthir see Siorey. Persian Literaturr. Nr 664
• Nizami, Religion and Pohucs. p. 80.
Nizami. Religion and Pohucs. p. 317 f
• Peter Hardy, Htsfortuns of Medteva! India. London 1960. p. 113 f.
The l'act that the majorily of the Indian population was excluded from
military training, as well as the immobility of the Indian armies, facilitated
success for the swift and well-traincd Turkish troops. The masses, who largely
lived in rural areas, feit but little the change of government, for the sharTa did
not interfere with life in the villages. nor did it bring about any change in Ihe
caste System. The land administration remained by and large the same. and
the Hindu mcrchants and moneylenders were as unaffected by the new rulers
as were the Jews in the Arab countries after the advent of Islam. In dealing
with the Situation of the eountry the ulcma's attitude was predominantly
determined by what they found in the books offiqh which had been written in
a completely different environment, i.e., the Arab world. 'No Indo-Muslim
Scholar of the IJth Century sought to sludv the Problems of the Indian
Musultnans and their relation with the Hindus in the light of ihe conditions
operating this eountry’;' —so much so that a historian like Fakhri Mudabbir
'might talk about Jews and Christians, Sabians and Zoroastrians. but makes
absolutcly no mention of the vast majorily of the Hindu population.' As Peter
Hardy remarks sarcastically: for the Muslim historian 'the Hindus...are never
interesting in themsclves. but only as converts, as capitation tax payers. or as
corpses.'” Hindu authors tend to regard some discriminatory measurcs
against the Hindus—even the imposition of theyrytr—as outrageous, while in

10 ADVENT AND CONSOUDATION OF ISLAM
realily thcy were treated exactly as Christians and Jews were in the Middle
East."
The major changcs look place in the eitles which the Muslims founded or
enlargcd. and it was liere Ihat the Hindu workers and artisans were exposed to
caste-free Islam and were in part attracted by the ideal of ‘social onencss’; for
the lslamic shart'a gase them more possibilities for dcvelopmeni Ihan the Hin
du tradilion. Tlius, ihe ciiies bclwecn Lahore, Lakhnauti and Sonargaon in
East Bengal became. so to spcak, little ‘Islands of Islamization. wherc
labourers and anisans, or in general the low caste and non-caste people might
benefit front the new Situation.’" Hence wc hcar of convcrsions on a larger
scale, of the wcavers. for instance. Islamization may be regarded in the begin-
ning largely as a matter of social Change in the urban ccntres, and only later
did the rural areas bcgin to feel the impact of the new Order. For. as M. Mu-
jccb rightly slates. ‘Muslim civilization was urban... Urbanisation, therefore,
may be regarded as a Muslim contribulion to Indian life."'
The first of the so-callcd ‘Slave Kings', Qulbuddin Aibek, founded his in
dependent kingdom in 1206 in Lahore. Then he proceeded to Delhi. Spoils
from twcnty-seven tcmples were uscd to build the Quwwal ul-lslam mosque in
Delhi-Lalkot. whose minaret. the Qutub Minar. still Stands as an immortal
witness to the grcatncss of early lslamic prcscncc in India. One Century later.
Amir Khusrau describcs in poetical mctaphors the destrucnon of Hindu
tcmples for the sake of their transformation into mosques:
Wherever a lemplc had girr up ils loins for the »orship of an idol. the longuc ol the piek-
axes with an elegant discoursc dug out ihe foundaiion of unhelief front ils hean. so Ural Ihe
lemplc al oncc prostralcd itself in gralefolness.,?i
Aibek also cnlarged the Adhai din ka jhonpra, ihe great and elegant sevcn-
vaultcd mosque in Ajmer which Mu'izzuddin Ghori had built and which.
along with the buildings in the Qulub area, is one of the few monuments in
Muslim India where a highly relined plaited Kufic is used for long inscrip-
tions.
Qulbuddin Aibek, first educated as a slave by a qadl in Nishapur. had ac-
quircd some rcligious knowlcdge and was a good reciter of the Koran. His
formcr slave and son-tn-law. Iltutmish, who succeeded him in 1210. was very
concerned about the proper pcrformance of the prescribed ritual. He even had
" Cf. Peler Hardy's rcmark in El, 2nd cd. II p 566 that the problcm ofJizya—<i terrn that is
uscd in early sourccs rather loosely—•provoked more cmoiion ihan scientific study*.
'• Nirami. Religion and Pointes, p 85.
M. Mujeeb. lslamic Inßuence on Indian Society. Meerut 1972. p. X. For a rccent Matistu
vcrification of this fact see , B Mukerjec. ‘The Muslim Population of Uttar Pradesh, India. A
Spatial Interpretation’, /CXLVII 1973.
Amir Khusrau. Khazä’tn alfutüh. iransl. Waheed Mirza. Lahore 1975. p. 14

ADVENT AND CONSOLIDA HON OE ISLAM II
special arrangements made for the performances of pravers etc. during his
campaigns. It i. seid (hat as a youlh he had gained aecess io the Sufi masters
Shihabuddln Suhrawardi and Auhaduddin Kirmani. one of wliom had
predicted that he would bccome a king. Even though we have to take this
story, lold by a Sufi teachcr, with a grain of sah. it indicates lltutmish's in-
terest in mystical movcmcnls, »hielt grew stronger in India during his reign.
He accorded a warm welcome to the Chishtt saint Qutbuddin Bakhliar Kaki
and to the Suhrawardi missionary Shah Jalaluddtn Tabrizi who was on his
way to Bengal.
One of lltutmish's campaigns was direcled against Ucch and Multan, placcs
which were still in the hands of the Ghorid gosernor Qubacha. Both cilies,
along with Bhakkar. were centres of learning; in Bhakkar. the Chachnäma,
that invaluable chronicle of the Muslim conqucst of Sind, was 'taken from the
curtain of Arabic and translated into Persian' alter its manuscripl had been
discovered. Compared with the slighlly later historical works wriltcn by the
historians of the Delhi Sultanate, it sccms to rcflcct a more lenient policy
towards the Hindus than was practiscd in the new capital.” The court of
Qubacha became a refuge for scholars who left Iran during the Mongol Inva
sion. The litcrateur ‘Aufi composcd sonic of his works there. but he. Iike the
preacher and historian Minhaj as-Siraj were taken to Delhi after lltutmish had
conquered the area. That happened. however, only after the young fugitive
Khwarizmshah had left the Indus Valley, for lltutmish was wise enough not to
interfere with Gcnghis Khan, who reached the Indus in 1221 in pursuit of the
Khwarizmshah who matnly dealt with Qubacha. h is said that Baha’uddin
Zakariya of Multan, the Suhrawardi saint, inviled lltutmish to his province
because he had. for some reason. a grudge against Qubacha. The unlucky
governor, fleeing from the Delhi troops. drowned himself in the Indus.
As Ucch had been famous for its Fcroziyya madrasa. lltutmish too took
mcasures to found mudrasas in Delhi and Badaun, called Mu'izziyya after the
title of his later master, Mu'izzuddin Ghori. In 1229 Ite obtained a deed of in-
vestilure from the Abbasid caliph.
Delhi—proudly stylcd haZrat-i Delhi—, the new scat of government, soon
attracted scholars from the central Islamic world. Persian was made the
language of administration on a higher level and served as a unil'ying force, as
Amir Khusrau States by the end of the Century. Celcbrilies from Arabia,
China and other places camc to Delhi 'as moths gathcr around a candle’
f'lsami). Numerous were the ulcma; but people would dividc lliem into the
" V. Friedmann. The Origins und Sigmficanec o/ Ihe Chuehnäma (Paper. Jerusalem Con
ference on Islam in India, 1977».

12 ADVENT AND CONSOI.IDATION OE ISLAM
‘ulama-yi akhirat or 'ulamt-yi rabbänl. those who were intcrested mainly in
rcligious life and did nol intcrfcrc with the ‘world’, and inlo ’ulamb-yi dunyä
or ‘ulami-yisa. who closely co-operated with the government and wem along
with the wishes of the rulers or the grandecs. Thus, none of these protested
when Ututmish appoimed his capablc daughter Raziya as his successor after
hiseldcst son's death (1231); thepnnee's tomb. known as Sultan Ghari, isonc
of the oldest Muslim monuments in southern Delhi.—It was only 400 years
later that Ihe Delhi traditionist, 'Abdulhaqq, regarded Raziya’s appointment
as a legal inistake and incompatible with the sharTa.
But, as S. M. lkram remarks, the ulema. whatever thcir spiritual sig-
nificance, 'did lend a liaiid. and perhaps nol unsuccessfully, in helping Ihe
advanccmcnt of Muslim Society in Hindustan instead of harnessing all the
rcligious passion to impede the progress’.’’ They well knew that the Muslims
in India were only ‘like sah in a big kettle”' and had no way of practicing all
the requirements of the law. What mattered was the consolidation of Muslim
rule. To be sure. Raziya Sultana, who replaced her debauched brolher after
his brief reign and who is describcd in the Tabaqai-i NäfirT as a sagacious
sovereign, ruled not more than four years (1236-1240); giving up the cumber-
some arrangements for kceping purdah, she appeared in public. riding her
elephant. It is said that her partiality lo an Abyssinian amir. Yaqut. estranged
the Turkish nobility from her. For when chosing a ruler during the first Cen
tury of the Delhi Sultanate the nobles laid emphasis upon his being a Turk,
rather than primarily a pious Muslim. Indeed. Turkish military slaves along
with the non-servile Tajiks played the most important role during the early
Sultanate period. It is thereforc not surprising that in many Indian languages
the work turk became synonymous with muslim, and that the juxtaposilion of
Turk and Hindu, so well known to readers of Persian poetry. had a very real
meaning during the early Muslim rule in India.“
In Raziya’s short reign one event is wortlt mentioning: in 1237 a group of
’Carmatians' from various parts of the country asscmbled under one Nur
Turk and altackcd the Great Mosque in Delhi. Bloodshed followed. and the
•heretics’ were finally defeated. The identity of Nur Turk is still a matter of
dispute—it seems difficult to accepl that he was the sanie man whom the Delhi
saints highly praised for his piety.
Years of rcstlessness followed. After Sultan Mas'ud had bcen disposed due
to his incompctcnce and lyranny in 1246, lltutmish's grandson Nasiruddin
" S M lkram. Muslim Hule in India und Pakistan. Labere. 2nd ed. Lahore 1966. p. 134.
” Nizami, Religion and PotiiKS. p. 315.
’• Sre A. Schimmel. Turk and Hindu', in S. Vryonis (cd.). Islanl und Cullural Change in the
Middle ,4g«. Wiesbaden 1975.

Mahmud, aged sixtcen, occupied ihe throne for twenly years. The most
rcligious-minded rulcr of the 13th Century, a 'king of angelic temperamcnf, as
Amir Khusrau calls him. skilfully avoided the dangcrs of politics and cn-
trusted his father’s fornter slave, his own father in-law, Ualban. with the
government and occupied hintself primarily with his rcligious dutics. dcvoting
much time to wriling copies of the Koran. These were sold, and he livcd main-
ly from this income, never using the money from the public trcasury for his
personal expcnses. He also bestowed large sums upon the ulema. This is at
least the general judgment about him. His picty, however, did not improve the
political Situation—intrigues of the nobles alternated which attacks of the
Mongols in the Punjab. 1-’inally. in 1259. Hulagu promiscd Nasiruddin’s en-
voys that he would stop the invasions of his hordes in the Subcontinent.
The Sultan died in 1266, apparcntlv not without Balban's connivance. A
man in his late fifties, Balban now officially seized the rcins of government.
Allhough rather reckless in his early years, he tried to act as a pious Muslim
aflcr asccnding the throne, offcred his prayers. fastcd. and sometimes per-
formed supererogatory worship. His great respect for saints and scholars even
led him to aitend thcir funerals. He, too. added a niadrasa. thc Nasiriyya, to
the Muslim institutions in Delhi, and appointed Minhaj as-Siraj (d. ca. 1270)
as its first principal. — Balban. inspite of his 'Turkishncss' adoptcd the Persian
court-style; he traced his gcnealogy back to Ihe mythical Afrasiyab—a ‘Türk’,
to be surc—. and his grandsons bore names of thc Persian heroes of the
Shährtärna.
One Century later the highly conscrvativc historian Ziauddin Barani gives a
lively though utterly biased account of Balban's reign, in which he incor-
porates his visions of an ideal Islamic state. Barani Claims that Balban's two
models for just administration were thc two ‘Umars—‘Umar ibn al-Khattab,
thc second caliph (634-644). noted for his unswerving justice, and ‘Umar ibn
‘Abdul'aziz (717-720), the only 'pious' ruler in the Umayyad dynasty. He
quotes Balban's alleged testament in which the ruler teils his son Bughra Khan
(hat a king must live in such a way that all his acts, words and movemems are
appreciated and recognized by the Muslims; he has to follow the rulers of old
and seek God's pleasure by virtuous deeds and by doing the approved things;
his words. acts, Orders, personal qualilies and virtues should enable people to
live according to thc rules of Ihe shan'a. The classical attilude of Muslim or-
thodoxy in India is incorporated in Barani's Statement in which he stresscs the
importance of dlnpanähl. 'protccting of religion’, as the central duly of a
Muslim king:
Even if thc ruler were to perform every day a thousand ruL'a of prayer, keep fast all his lifc.
do nolhmg prohibited. and spend all ihe ireasury for the sake of God. and yei nur praclke

14 ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION Of ISLAM
(bnimnahl. nol cvcrl his sllcnglhanil cncigy in ihe exlirpanon. lowcrin«, curhm« and dcbas-
in«of Ihe cnanicv uf Gisd and llis Piophel. nur seil 10 Ironour Ihe Orders of the Divine la»,
and nol slwr» in his realrns Ihe splendour of ordering the good and prohibiiing Ihe forbid-
den . Ilten his place would be nowhere but in Hell?’
Looking al the political scene in those days one realizcs the wide gap between
religious ideals and political rcalities!
However, religious life in the capital, and (probably) to a lesser extcnt
also in the sntaller eines, was apparently flounshing. Prcachers and itnarns
generally led a prosperous life because they were paid by the governmenl and
highly respected. Besides preaching on Fridays preachers were supposed to
hold ladhklr nteetings during the month of Ramadan and in Muhar
ram—usually three days a weck—in Order to infuse religious zeal into the
hearts of the believers; they were also called upon in times of emergency; thus
Qadi Minhaj as-Siraj—famous for his sermons—gathered people for a
mdAATr-meeting on the eve of a Mongol attack.
The 13th Century was the time when the rules for religious Offices were fix-
ed. Thus. Iltutmish created the office of shaikh ul-lslam, which he offered to
Bakhtiar Kaki, who, as a Chishli mystic, declined it since the Chishtiyya avoid
contacls with the government. The Position for the area of Hindustan was
then entrusted to Sayyid Nuruddin Mubarak Ghaznawi (d. 1234), a disciple of
Shihabuddin 'Umar Suhrawardi, who took an energetic stance against both
non-Muslints and philosophy, an attitude often found in mystics of the
■sober' schools. In Sind, the Office was in Baha’uddin Zakariya Multani’s
hands. The shaikh ul-Islam’s duty was to look after ’thc ccclesiastic affairs of
theempire. All those saints and/myfrs who enjoved state patronage were look-
ed after by him.- In every town. a qä(h was appointed to perfornt all ad
ministrative business. Among the qadis. the mystically niinded Minhaj as-
Siraj, the author of the important chroniclc Tabaqat i NOsirl (composed
658/1256) played a prominent role in Delhi It was thanks to him that the
sama', the musical meeting of the Sufis, particularly of the Chishtis, was
legalized in Delhi despite objections by othcr jurists.
Scholarly activities were mainly gcared towards preserving the Islamic
heritage in a foreign environment. Therefore. the scholars of the 13th Cen
tury—and many in later times tool—produced little original work but rather
composed commentaries. abbreviations of and compilations front timc-
honoured classical works of Islamic thcology. This attitude explains the
Strong inleresi in Prophetie iraditions during this period. particularly among
the mvstical leaders in both major Orders: to follow the cxample of the Pro-
•" Baranl. nnkh-i Femahahl. cd. Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Calcutta 1860-62, p. 44,

ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION OE ISLAM 15
phet was the safest way to act correctly in the face of an irritating plethora of
Indian influenccs,
One of the most influenüal scholars of the Middle Ages was connected for
some time with the Delhi court: this was Raziuddin as-Saghani who hailed
from Lahore; he later settled in Baghdad and was tlien in 1220 sent as an en-
voy to lltulmish by the caliph an-Nasir, the last truly active member of the
Abbasid house. After twenty ycars Saghani returned to Baghdad. His
Mashariq al-anwar. a rearrangcment and popularization of Bukhari’s and
Muslim’s collections of traditions, the Sahlhain, became the Standard work of
hadlth, on which Indian scholars produccd numerous commentaries. The
Mashariq with its 2253 traditions invariably belonged to the syllabus of
medieval Indian madrasas. complemenied front the mid-l4ih Century onward
by al-Baghawi’s (d. 1122) Masablh as-sunna. A few decadcs later. Tabrizi's
Mishkat al-masablh was introduced and tornied the basis of instruction in
hadllh in learned institutions of lndia (even in modern tintes in the Firangi
Mahal in Lucknow and the Dar ul-'ülum in Deoband). It was often com-
mented upon in various provincial madrasas, and even referred to as mishkat-
i sharlf 'The Noble Lamp,'”
While the Sufis largely prontoted the study of iiadlth, the normal madrasa-
Student who mighl hope to become a qadi paid more attention to fiqh. on
which Marghinani's (d. 1197) Hidäyat al-mubladi- rcmained the Standard
work until the British took over. It was complcmented by Pazdawi’s Usülal-
fiqh and the important handbook of Hanafi law. Quduri's (d. 1037)
Mukhtafar.
In the classes of exegesis, students had to usc Zamakhshari’s (d. 1144)
Kashshaf, although some mystical Icaders. likc Baha’uddin Zakariya, refused
this Mu'tazilite commentary. Later, Baidawi's (d. 1285) zlnwflr at-tanzll was
generally acccpted.—To learn Arabic grammar, the medieval Student had to
study Mutarrizi’s (d. 1213) Misbdh and Ibn Malik’s (d. 1273) Küfiyu’
, on a
higher level he was supposed to read Hariri's Maqomät, that most brilliant
masterpiece of Arabic belles-lettres which was even imitated in 18th Century
lndia. All these works have been comnienied upon time and again. Apparent-
ly less populär were works on kalam, such as Abu Shakur as-Salitni’s (late
llth Century) Tam/rft/and later Samarqandi's (d. 1291) ay-Jyaha'ifai-iiahiyya;
greater was the interest. somewhat later, in Iji’s (d. 1354) MawBqif.
Thus the foundations of Muslim learning wert firmly laid during the 13th
Century—so firmly that barely a development or a deviation of thoughl was
'• The laten edition in six votumes with exlutusiive eommemary publishcd in ßenares 1973-78;
English translalion by 3, Robson. Lahore 1975,

16 ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION OF ISIAM
ever atlempled. Looking at the vast amount of commcntaries and glosses that
grew around thesc basic sources of scholarship in India one beiter understands
the modernists' attcmpts (o rid the Muslints from this centuries-old bürden by
new, sometimes daring interpretations of the veritable centrc of Islam, i.e.,
the Koran, whose dynamic message had been almost forgotten.
Balban’s Stern but succcssful rcign in which he wisely preferred consolida-
tion to expansion. was troublcd toward (he end by (he death of his favourite
son Muhammad, the governor of Multan, a patron of the poets Amir Khusrau
and Hasan Sijzi and admirer of the Suhrawardi masters. Hc was killcd during
an attack of the Mongols who in spite of Hulagu's promise continucd to
harass the Northwesl by irregulär invasions (1282). Balban was succeeded in
1286 by his grandson Kaiqubad; Ihe estrangement between Kaiqubad and his
father Bughra Khan tnarks the beginning of a turbulent period in the history
of the Delhi kingdom. Amir Khusrau has poetically described the short-lived
reconciliation of Bughra Khan, then living in Biliar and Oudh, with his son
(Qiran as-sa’dain). Kaiqubad was a young man given to all kinds of pleasures
and (or) vices, and could not care less for religious prescriptions; he even
found some ‘ulamO-yi dunyü who invented excuses for his Violation of
Ramadan and his indilference to prayer. His reign was short; in 1290 he was
assassinated, and the Khaljis, an Afghan clan, rose to power,
Jalaluddin Feroz Khalji’s short but generally benevolent rulc was staincd by
the way he disposed of Sidi Muwallih. a saint, ‘adorncd with so many ex-
cellencies and perfections'.” Sidi Muwallih—although belonging to the
muwallih group of be-shar' dervishes—was a fricnd of Farid Ganj-i Shakar;
hc had widc public Support and kepl up a large khanqah in which many
of the dispossessed amirs of Balban’s reign used to gather. The fact that the
recluse apparently had a mysterious source of income which allowcd him to
offer unusually generous hospitalily led the king to suspect that he might be
involved in a conspiracy. This was never definitely proven; the ulenta, asked
by the Sultan to put him to an ordeal. issued a fatwä dcclaring such an act ir-
religious. The Sultan finally had him cruelly killcd by a group of qalandars
who belonged to a different religious faclion and ’avenged him of this man'.
" The vocalization Muwof/f/r—against die generally accepted Maulo—eslablished by Simon
Digby. Qalandars and relalrd Oroups (Paper al Ilie Jerusalem Conference on Islam in India
1977). p. 11 ff: he »as apparenrly a member of Ihe muwallih dervishes, noled for their fire walk,
ing-henee Ihr idea of hasing him pass an ordeal. A. S. Usha, in Ins edinon of ‘Isamt's FulOh as-
saUlln. Madras 1948, gives the same vocalization —Bada'uni, in his accounl of Ins persecution
(Muniakhab ai-luwarlkh. tränst. I 233 fr.) makes him reelle a Persian ruba'l which has been
ascribed lo almosl every major mystrcal loser from Jalaluddin Rom! lo Sarmad Shahid, i.e. Dar
matbakh-i 'ahq 'In (hc kilchen of löse they slay naught but the good...'.

The dust storm that followed this cxeculion. as well as ihe terrible famine in
the nexl months, were interpreted as a sign of the sainfs innoccnee, and his
case remained proverbial in Indo-Muslim history.
Jalaluddin Feroz successfully repulseil the Mongols from Lahore (1292) and
for the first time had an army enter the Deccan (1294) under the command of
his nephew 'Ala’uddin. This encrgetic but ruthless man soon killed his uncle
and exerted a stern rule over his kingdom for the next twenty years. His
muhtasib, Zia’uddin Sanna'i, helped him in oppressing all vices (although the
Sultan failed in his attempt to imroduee striet Prohibition, after he himself
had unwittingly ordered the exeeution of a friend in a state of drunkenness).”
The injunctions of the shari'a were enjoined on the dhimmis so Ihat Hindus
were no longer allowed lo wear coslly dresses or to ride horscs. That may be
one reason why the learned Maulana Shainsuddin Turk-i Multani. who had
come from Egypt in Ihe hope of disseminating the study of hadilh, admitted
that even though 'Ala’uddin was by no means regulär in his prayers he was
still praiseworthy because:
1 hcard Ihai Ihe wives and childien of ihe Hindu» heg al Ihe doorsofihe Muslims. Praise be
lo you, O Padishah of Islam, for ihe proleeuon of ihe religion of Muhammad which you
perform!"
For although the ruler’s first and foremost interest was the consolidation of
his powcr and not theological studies, and his statecraft relied more on his
own praclical insight than on the sharVa, yet he was quite active in pcrsccuting
‘the worst enemies of our Prophet’ and acted according to the dictum: "Ac-
cept Islam or be killed!" Part of his struggle was dircctcd against the Ismafilis,
callcd by Barani and Amir Khusrau ibühatiyän. 'the peoplc of incest’.” Short-
ly before 1311 ‘Ala’uddin carricd out an investigation of which his court poct
?mir Khusrau writes:
He ordered all the tbühatis io be present and appointed fruitful investigators over them who
sent for each of them and made inquiry...
It was easy to find out ‘that they were indeed guilty of incest’. and:
'• Amir Khusrau, Khazü'm al-futüh, transl. p 10: "Since it is a characieristic of that pure Per
sonality to supply with water the spring of the sha/fa. he has brought head »ine, »hich is the
mother ofevils and the daughtcr of grapes as well as the sistcr of sugarcane, frotn the assemblv of
Korruption to the sedusion of rcctitude. so that wine has bcen leavened with sali and has sworn
that henteforth it would remain only in the pitchcr of vinegar and would prove true toits salt . "
' Baram, lürtkhd Ftrözshühl p. 297.
" According to De Goeje (in Hastings, Encycloptdia o/ Rehgtons and tthics. s.v. Car-
mathians, II 222-225). the accusaiton of immorality is duc to the fact that the Carniatian woinen
did not wear a »eil.—Even today in orthodox dreies in Pakistan. Ismaili women are regarded with
suspicion since they do not veil and attend the congregational mcctings in the Jamaatkhana

18 ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION OF ISLAM
Hc as a punishmcni had ihcm sawcd «Minder...and ihcaaw with all its hard hcartcdncss and
frivolous laughlet shed teats of blood on iheir head% and ihcy who had bccome one by
stcalthy Union became two instcad of one by the Stroke of the saw,”
’Ala’uddin was fond of founding and repairing buildings, and laid the
Foundation of a minaret that was intcndcd to surpass the Qutub Minar in
glory but was never fitnshed; he also cnlargcd the Quwwat ul-lslam mosquc:
Hc first ordcrcd that the corirlyard ol Ihr mocquc bc cnlargcd as lat as possible so Ihar rhc
Ihrong of rhc Muslims which by Ihc grace of God cannol bc arxomodalcd in the wholc
world rnay find a liess world withln Ihc world...“
The ramparis of Delhi were likcwisc repaired and partly rebuilt,
and sinec il is neccssary that blood bc glven to a new buildmg so wveral thousand goat-
beaidcd Mongole were slaughtcrcd on st..
as Amir Khusrau tnumphantly writes."
'Ala’uddin’s military operations brought him to Gujarat, Malwa, and agatn
to the Deccan, where Malik Kafur, a cunuch aequired in Cantbay. led the
royal arnty; the Hindu rulers of South India became tributarics of Delhi.
'Ala’uddin’s spy System was as impressive as his revenue policy and his price
control; in the well-knit Organisation of the state the ulema were looked after
and controlled by the fadr as-sudür. The sadr as-sudur grew into the most
powerful officer of the kingdom so that at Akbar's time he ranked as the
fourth officer of the whole empire. He was the highest lass officer and, alrnost
as importantly, he was in Charge of all lands devoted to the maintenance of
mosques, khdnqahs, and scholars, i.e., he constituted something like the cen
tral waqf administrator. and possessed alrnost unlimited authority to confer
such landgrants upon individuals in the religious hicrarchy. Stnce he was the
highest authority in sharT-a law hc could also persecute, and even execute,
alleged heretics. ‘Ala’uddin’s successful politics are ascribed by some aulhors
to the blessings of Nizantuddin Auliya, the saint of Delhi, and indeed,
Nizamuddin’s friend and disciplc Hasan Dihlawi has devoted morc than one
panegyric to the ruler ’thanks to whom the building of religion and the world
is firm and stablc’:
The rwig of his kingdom is fresh for ihal reason
Thal he was broughi up by ihc Divine Snslamer...“
Nizamuddin’s other favourite, Amir Khusrau, also praised the ruler, and in
" Amir Khusrau, Khaza'i» al-fuiaft. transl. p. II.
“ Id., p. 13.
" Id., p. 15.
'• S. M Ikram. Armanhany Pak. p 137, Amir Khusrau's Arabic qasida in honor of ‘Ala’ud-
din is a mavlerpme of puns: ‘«i« ul-haya bal ’ainuhi. ’aln ul-haya. yam aa-nkü balkajjuhu 'm«
ut-yam.

ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION Of ISLAM 19
thc khanqah of Nizamuddin’s successor, C'hiragh-i Delhi, he was well spoken
of lor his economic regulations, parlicularly the low price of grain
In 1316 ‘Ala’uddin was succeeded by his son Mubarak after the usual
period of disturbances. I he Sultan assumed the title of khalifai Allah, a new
dcvice in the Delhi Sultanate. Thc pious title did not present Ium Irom leading
a most debauched life in which his favourile Khusrau Khan, a convcrt Irom
low-caste Hindu background. played the leading role. It was Khusrau who
murdered his loser in 1320 and introduced a new cra. Barani Claims that under
him ‘the mosques were deliled and destroyed and copies ol thc scripturcs of
Islam were used as scats and siools’. Thc truth of Iltis allegalion cannol be
prosed, but pcople ssere more than happy sshen alter soinc live momhs this
tyrant was rcplaced by Ghiyathuddin lughluq, the founder of a new Turkish
dynasty, who was hailed by many as 'the saviour of Islam in India.' Hc svas an
orthodox man; his relations with thc great saint of Delhi, Nizamuddin Auliya,
seem to have becn somewhat tense due to differing views about thc per-
missibility of mystical mustc and sarna'. And Bada’uni inlorms us about thc
origin of an oft-quoted saying:
It iscurrenlly repotlcd among IlK pc-irpleof India (hat Sultan Ghiyathuddin Tughluq. on ac-
eount of the ill will he boie to Ihe Printe ol Sltaikhs. sent a messagc to Ihe shaikh while on
ihe way to Lakhnauli to Ihis efftxt, "aller myamval al Delhi, cithcr thc shaikh will bethetc
or I". The shaikh rcplied, "Delhi is still lar away". Dihli hanüz daran.1'
Indeed, the aged monarch died on his way back in 1325, crushed under the
roof of a wooden pavilion. which was perhaps trcacherously constructed by
his son and successor Muhammad.
Thc quartcr Century that followcd svas characterizcd by the extreme con-
tradictions in the Sultan’s character, which ranged from boundless gcncrosity
to even more excessive cruelty. The North African travcller. Ibn Baltuta, who
reached India in 1333 and served as chief qüiH of Delhi under Muhammad
Tughluq. tesiifies IO Ihese aspects of his character by the remark that “his
galcway is never free from a beggar whom he had relieved and a corpsc which
hc has slain"." Hc used foreigners and reeently-converted Hindus in the state
Service, and the old nobilily slowly lost Status. Intcrcstcd nfiqh and rational
sciences, he yct asked the Bihari Sufi Sharafuddin Maneri for a guidc book on
mysticism and sent for thc great scholastic theologian 'Adududdin Iji in
Sltiraz. Although Iji did not respond to Ihe invilatton, his .Vftrwityi/besame
one of the Standard works in Indian madrasas.
Muhammad Tughluq was punctual in the fulfilment of his ritual duties and
forced everyone to join the congregational prayers; ‘in thecourseofonesingle
’’ B.id.ruiii, .Muntakhab ol-rawdrlkh. I iransl. 301, text 225.
" Ibn Ballula. S. Mahdi Husain. The ReMa of Ibn Baltuta. Baroda 1976. p. 83.

20 ADVENT AND KONSOLIDATION OF ISLAM
day he killcd nine persons for ncglecting that'. At the same time he disregard-
ed the divine law in his polilical actions. Yel. as Barani statcs. he •wanted to
combine proplicthood with kingship’, i.e., he claimed 'that rcligion and state
are Iwins" and have to work together. And as much as he revercd outstanding
saints likc Ruknuddin of Multan, and visilcd ihe tombs of Mu'inuddin
Chishti and Salar Mas'ud, the increasing influencc of those Sufis who ad-
vocatcd a more isolaled life.—as the Chishtis did in general,—dislurbed him.
In 1327 he dccidcd to send his officials, and somewhat later most of the in-
telligentsia of Delhi to Deogir/Daulatabad, the 'geographical Centre’ of his
kingdom. Many of them pcrished on the road while othcrs did not survive in
the climatc of the northern Dcccan. After a few years, return to Delhi was per-
mitted. A considerablc numbcr of Muslims, however. staycd in the
Daulatabad region; they not only hclpcd achicvc effective administrative Con
trol of the southern region but also became instrumental in the dissemination
of religious ideas and, in the long run, in the developntent of a genuine
southern Muslim culture.
Düring Muhammad Tughluq's long reign (1325-1351), rcvolls broke out in
the border provinccs; and. although he could handle the rcbcls in most placcs.
the long years of famine ruined vast arcas. One evenl, howevei, filled him
with pride: the investiture from the caliph, now in Cairo, in 1343. Only then
he feit his rulc properly legalizcd. Ncvcrtheless, the country split up: in
Madura an independent kingdom was founded in 1335, the Deccan and
Bengal followed. Muhammad died on the bank of the Indus during his
persecution of a Gujarati rebel, and 'the Sultan was freed from his peoplc,
and the peoplc from the Sultan'.”
His cousin Fcroz Shah succeeded him in 1351, at a time when the polilical
and economic Situation was very critical, due partly to the famine of previous
years and partly to Muhammad Tughluq's attempt to extend the borders of
his kingdom even into Tibet. But the new rulcr, then 45 lunar years old, suc-
cecdcd in giving the counlry a long period of relative peace; no famincs are
recordcd, and the prices were low.
Some of the most important chronicles of medieval India were written
under Fcroz Shah. such as Barani's Torlkh-i F'erozshähl and the Fatawa-yi
jahOndOrl. works which reveal the author's aversion to both the non-elite and
even more to the Hindu unbclievers. who still played an important role in the
kingdom and even ercctcd new temples!
In ihe capital and in ihe eines ol ihe Musulmans ihe cusloms ol inlidelity are openly
praetised. tdols are publicly »orshipped, and the traditions of inlidelity are adhered to with
'• Bada’uni. Mumakhob at-laMUlkh. I. tränst. 317. text 238.

srcaler insislence llian before. Openly and wltlioui fair. ihr mlnlcls conlinue their
rejoicing during their fesiivals wilh ihr lieal ol drums and und with singing and
danring. By paying meiely a lew Motor and ihejure, they are able to conlinue the tradi
lion» of intidelily by givmg Inm in the books of their falteWill and cnforcing the Orders
of these books."
Under these circumstances, according to Barani, ihcre is no real difference
between a Muslim king and a Hindu raja!
But Barani's hatred was not dirccted against the Hindus alone. Conlrary to
the true Islamic ideals he was an advocate ofdass distinction in Islam. To be a
Muslim was not enough; onc had to be a Turk of pure blood, and the 'neo-
Muslims' did not really count. Indeed. under ncithcr lltutmish nor Balban had
non-Türks full access to high positions. Lowborn people—and that mcant
many of the recent converts—should nol even be taught reading or writing lest
they occupy important Offices:
Don’t give a pen into a low-bom person’s hand. for then the sky will have the possibilily
to conven the blaek slone of the Ka'ba into a stone for ritual abslersion.'"'
However, one must not take all of Barani's chronides at face value; his aim
was to write a kind of Fürsienspiegel, and one cannot but admire his portrait
of the ideal Muslim ruler: the Sultan as vicegerent of God is supposed to
displav the virtuos of lutf, mcrcy, and qahr, wrath. As these two aspects of the
perfect God are ncccssary to maintain the current of life, they are thus re-
quired in the ideal ruler. (In Muhammad Tughluq, however, the lension be
tween lutfand qahr became too strong, as the auihor states). Barani's descrip-
tion of the ruler reminds the reader of the Sufi tradition; Jalaluddin Rumi had
used the parable of the king's splendour and his robes of honour on the one
hand and his using of gallows and prison on the olher hand to point to God's
opposite qualities of /uf/and qahr, ofJamil, beauty. and Jalil, majesiy." For
in spite of his intense intolerance, Barani learned much from the Sufis, and he
is buried in a modest tomb Close to his venerated master Nizamuddin Auliya's
niausolcum in Delhi, a place which Feroz Shali had beamifully adorned.
Feroz Shah, in whose ascension the saint Chiragh-i Delhi or olher Sufis may
have had a hand led two campaigns against Bengal and one against Sind, but
on the wholc he tried to avoid wars. Strongly orthodox, he never transacted
any business without referring to the Koran for augury. He was Ihe last Sultan
of Delhi to obtain a documcnt of investiture from the then powerless Abbasid
calipli in Cairo in 1355, and he adorned his kingdom w ith numerous sacred
*• Barani. FOMJiloiiandärl, quol, in K. A. Nirami, Kehtlon and Polilics, Introduclion by
M. Habib, p. XXI
• Barani. Tarllsh-i FerO&hoM. p 387.
A. J. Arbcrry. Discounts of Kumt, London 1961. p. 184. 188,

and profane buildings so thal Egyptian sources speak of a thousand madrasas
and seveniy hospitals in Ihe Indian capiial.
* ’ Among Ihe madrasas. Ihe Feroz-
shahiyya in llauz Khass was mosi famed, a place closc to which ihe ruler was
buried.
• thui Qakliuhandi. Sutti Cairo 1914 ft.. Vnl. V, 68 I Najmuddm Firuzabadi. the
author Of Ihe tfrlnw» (printed Bulaq. 4 voll.. 1319h. 1901 > .pent also Mime Urne in India al Feroz
Shah'. couri.
■■ FuiaMhl FfrOzshohl. in II, S. Hliot and Dowwn. History of India III 280.
" Id. S.a. Comprehrnutv Htslory p. 6IOf.
Feroz Shah’s ideal was Ihe Sunni state; and in 1374. aller a visit at Salar
Mas'ud's tomb in Bahraich. his orthodox atiitude waxedslronger. Heordered
Muslim woinen to stay at home and persecutcd Shiitcs and other lierelics, as
he himself writes:
I hesect ol Shiav. also called rawofli. had endeavmued lo make many prosclytcs.. I seized
lliem all and I wnvmcd iliem ol Iheir menand Perversion. On Ihe mosi zealou. I infliclcU
capiial punnhmenl tuyOwO. and Ihn resl I .i.iled »llh Mniure(M'zlz) and Ihreals of publk
punishmeni I har books I burnl in public and by ihe Brace ol Ood Ihe infiuensc of Ihrs KCl
was emirely suppressed."
Hc likcwisc caused the ulema to slay a man who claimcd lo be the mahdl. ‘and
for this good action I hopc to reccivc fulurc reward'. And the conversion of
his Hindu subjccts bccamc his special goal:
I cncouragcd ni> infidel subjccts to cmbracc the rcligion of the Prophet, and I proclaimcd
that everyonc who rcpcatcd the crecd and bccamc a Muslim should be exempt from the
j'Zya.......Great number» of Hindus presented thcmselvcs and were admitted lo ihe honur of
Islam.
*
'
The fact thal he imposed the/iiyo for the first time upon Brahmans led to a
serious protest Irom their side. On the other hand hc rcstored Ihe land grants
of the learned and the pious and tried to prohibit the torture which had been
frequently used by his prcdecessors. In his administration he was supported by
his vizier Khan-i jahan. a former Hindu from felang who had embraced Islam
under Nizamuddin Auliya's influcnce. The rules of his administration are laid
down in the Fiqh-i Ferozshähl and the Fatawa-yi lalarkhäniyya compiled in
1375 by his seniormost officer. Tatar Khan.
Feroz Shah died an octogenanan in 1388. and his succcssors were mere pup-
pcls in Ihe hands of intriguing ministers; they accclcrated the chaos so thal
Timur’s invasion of Northern Indian (Dcccmbcr 1398) easily put an end to the
first and decisive period of Norlh Indian Muslim history. Now. the "provin-
cializalion of Muslim culture in India’ (thus Aziz Ahmad) began, faeilitated
by the fact that l eroz Shah had madc some fiefs hereditary so that the
Icading families could consolidate their positions. The last Tughluq Sultan.
Mahmud II. died in 1413 aftcr twenty years of only nominal rulc.

It has bccome sufficiently clcar thai many political developmems during
this formative period of Indian Islam can be understood properly only by stu-
dying carefully the rolc of the mystical leaders who contribuled more cffi-
ciently to the spread of Islam than rulers and official ulcma. and whose
records (as M. Habib and K. A. Nizami have shown) conlain valuable Infor
mation on the nianners and customs of the people. Although the I3th Century
is characterized on the political plane by the Mongol onslaughi all over Asia
which entailed, in 1258. the end of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. it was
also the time that produced the most important figures in Sufi history. The
Spanish-born Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240 in Damascus) built up his grand
theosophical System of wahdai al-wujad, ’Unity ol Being
*
. and his works werc
to have enormous influcnce throughout the Muslim world. not the least in the
Subcontinent. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, the greatest mystical poct in the
Persian tongue (d 1273 in Konya), wrotc his love-intoxicated Diwan and his
didactic Mathnawi, whose verses formed a source of unending spiritual
dclight and inspiration for the failhful wherever Persian was understood.
Other mystical poets, like Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235) in Egypt and Yunus Emre (d.
after 1300) in Anatolia, sang in praise of Divine Love and love of the Prophet,
and a great number of mystical fraternitics or Orders, which werc to play a
decisive role in the dissetnination of Islamic ideas. came into existence.
To be sure, thcre had been some Muslim myslics in the Subcontinent before
1200. such as Hujwiri in Lahore; but it was only after the consolidation of the
Sufi Orders in the mainlands of Islam that a large-scale missionary activity sei
in. The first and forcmost Sufi missionary to reach the Subcontinent was
Khwaja llasan Mu'inuddin Chishti. Born around 1141 in Sistan. he had been
a disciple of some leading masters of his time, particularly Najmuddin Kubra
and Najibuddin Suhrawardi, whose Ädab al-murldln, the 'Eliquette of the
Noviccs', was soon to becotne a handbook of Sufi education in lndia as
elsewhcre. just as his nephew Abu Hafs Shihabuddin 'Umar Suhrawardi's
’A warifal-mu'ärif is one ol the basic works of moderate Indian Sufism. After
long journeys, Khwaja Mu'inuddin was directed by a dream of the Prophet to
turn to lndia; he visilcd Hujwiri's tomb in Lahore and reached Delhi in 1193.
the year after Mu'izzuddin Ghori had conquered the city. He then settled in
Ajmer, the heart of Rajasthan. Linie is known of Mu'inuddin’s personal life;
he was married to two wivcs and had three sons and one daughter, the lauer
also credited with mystical inclinations. The master died in 1236, and his tomb
was constructed by Sultan Hushang of Malwa and enlarged under Akbar.
The Sufi tradition strcsses Khwaja Mu'inuddin’s all-embracing love and his
great affcction for the poor and the needy, and he is said to haveclaimed that

24 ADVENT AND CONSOUDAT1ON OF ISLAM
l hc highesl form ol devolion is lo redress Ihe misery ol Ihme in dlslress. lo lulfill Ilie needs
of ehe helpless. and lo leed ihe hungry."
His ideals are ihe same as Ihose formulated by Bayezid Bistami (d. 874): A
Sufi should possess 'a generosity like ihal of the occan. a mildness like Ihat of
ihe sun, and a modesly like Ihal of Ihe earth’. The Chishtis, Ihough ad-
vocating strict asccticism in the initial stages and using various fornts of loud
and silent dhikr, have atlracled many followers through their love for music
and poetry; in this field they conlributed largely to the dcvelopment of a refin-
ed Indo-Muslim culture. One partieular aspect of Mu'inuddin Chishti's
teaching was that he did not insist upon formal conversion of a non-Muslim
before the novicc had ’tasted' the truth. Such generosity made the Order very
attractive for Hindus and accountsalso for the fact Ihat Mu'inuddin’s tomb is
one of the favouritc placcs for pilgrimagc all over India. Yusuf Husain Khan
mentions that the saint became even the ’diviniti tutelaire’ of the Husaini
Brahmans,
*
' and the history of Islam contains copious information on the
visits of rulers to the shrine in Ajmer (see p. 130).
“ Bada’uni's dcwripnon or Shaikh *Azizullah Chishli illuslrales live ideals of Ihe Order: "To
Champion Ihe sause ol Ihe poor and helplers who camc lo him willl their complainls he woold
iravel longdislanccs on foor, even ihough he had al ihe limeeniered inlo a fony days relreal, and
Ihough he had lo visil Ihe house ol one who was wiihoul ihe pale of lhc tanh in oidei lo gain his
objecl” (Muklakhob III tränst. 15).
*• L'lndt myaique. Paris 1929. p. 33.
Khwaja Mu'inuddin’s disciples went to different parts of India. The ln-
dianizing trend is most conspicuous in Shaikh Hamiduddin Sufi, called Sulfbn
at-iarikln, ‘the Prince of those who renounce (everything)’ (d. 1276) who
settled in Nagaur where he lived in a small mud house and did some farming
He was a strict vegetarian, which may or may not be ascribed to Hindu in-
fluence (vegetarianism being found also among much earlier Sufis in the cen
tral and western lslamic world). Like vegetarianism. the practicc of breath-
regulation, habs-i dain, which became one of the most important fcatures of
Sufism especially in India, has been explained by the Muslims adopting Yoga
practices. However, one has to keep in tnind that the Sufis were on the whole
not too impressed by yoga performances, and rather blamed the Yogis’ exag-
gerated pre-occupation with the body along with the excessive attempis at self-
mortification as un-lslamic in spirit.
More important for the consolidation of the silsila (chain of Initiation) ihan
Hamiduddin Sufi was Bakhtiar Kaki from Ush in the Farghana. He had met
Mu'inuddin already in Baghdad, when both were seeking mystical instruction
and inspiration. but reached India later Ihan his friend by whom he was en-
trusted with the spiritual realm of Delhi, where lltutmish warmly received*
*•

hiin. In true Chishti mannet he dedincd worldly, even rcligious Offices, as the
Chishti poet says:
Ho» long »ill you go io ihr doors of amirs and sullan?
This is nolhmg eise bul »alking in ihe Uasks ol Satan!
Bakhtiar Kaki lived not far from theQutub Minar in Mehrauli. surroundcd by
many followers; thcrc he died during a swna'-meeiing, enraptured by this
verse of Ahmad-i Jam:
Those »ho arc slain by ihe dagger of surrendes (rusArn)
Receive every nsomenl a ne» life from ihe llnseen.
That was in November 1235, a few months betöre Mu'inuddin Chishii’s
dcath. During the Lodi period, Bakhtiar Kaki became 'the favourite Afghan
Saint'" and his ‘urs still attracts people who continue the musical tradition of
the Order. His continuing inlluence can be gauged from the fact that one of
the fivecondilions which Gandhi put for breaking his last fast in January 1948
was that as an act of atonement Hindus and Sikhs should repair the dargah at
Mehrauli. which had been damaged in the communal riots after partition."
The mam Chishti line continues indeed through Bakhtiar Kaki. While his first
khatlfa in Delhi did not follow the traditional line of non-cooperation with the
government. his major khattfa Fariduddin. callcd Ganj-i shakar, ‘Sugar
treasure'. left Delhi for political rcasons. Born ncar Multan and grown up
under the influcncc of a pious mother. Fariduddin early developed a taste for
the rcligious life. In Ucch he practised the chilla ma'kOsa, which means to
hang oneself by the feet in a dark room for forty days to meditate. Since this
ascetic feat had been practised already two centuries earlier in Khorassan it is
difficult to explain it as a Hindu custom. Farid's constant fasting. offen in Ihe
difficult form of faum-i da’üdl (i.e. fasting one day and eating one day) was
rewarded: pebbles turned into sugar for him—hence his surname. The young
Sufi spent twentv years in Hansi, »hence he was called to Delhi. After a while
he left disgusted with the political machinalions, to settle in Ajodhan on Ihe
Suilej. later called Pakpatlan, 'the Fcrry of the Pure'.
Fariduddin's asceiicism became proverbial in India, and great was his
poverty. Since he rejected agricultural work, not to mention government
grants, and relied completely on unsoliciled gifls (fuinh) the financial Situa
tion was at firnes very difficult in his khanqah. His large family did not botlier
him too much; his main concern was conlcmplation and counselling the
numerous visitors who flocked to his khanqah. The master died in 1265. Some
•' Jafar ShariT Herdols, /rAwl in India. Oxford 1921. repr. 1972 p. 14.1.
•• Abul Kalam Azad. Indu wM Fmdoni. Bombay 1959. p. 219.

26 ADVENT AND CONSOL1DATION OF ISLAM
Hindu Iribes of Ihe Punjab were converted thanks to him. and bis tomb was
visiled by Timur, the conqucror, as it was visited by Akbar. And even the
notorious Thugs claimed him as iheir protector!
The Chishli Sufis used to slcep, work. and live in one large room, usually
callcd jama'alkhana. but later also kMnqßh. Life centered around the plr.
and Bruce Lawrence has rightly callcd attention to the medieval pir's role as 'a
dynamic dement... Hc inakes alive thesanctity of the Koran and reverence for
Tradition; hc transmits Stories and reelles poetry that reflect a right outlook
and correct behaviour, or sometimes merely provide relief from the tedium of
spiritual discipline... Hc prays and teaches; he teaches and prays."
* The in-
mates of the jamVatkhana had to perform both personal Services to the pir
and the cooperativc management of Ihc affairs of the 'monastery'. Sltaikh
Farid even had one servant who used to send his wives to him according
to their turn so that justicc might be done to them.’’ The Sufis would go
out to gatlicr kindling. or to do othcr menial tasks; othcrwisc they studied
hagiographical works and basic mystical lexls. A novice who cntcrcd the
khänqäh had to sliavc his hair; bai'a. Ccovenant', 'iniliation') was taken by
grasping the pir’s hand. The clect who might later rise to the rank of khatlfa
(viccgcrcnt) were spccially trained, and had to offer what was called zaküt-i
haqtqal, i.e.. to give all they possessed. Senior members of the khanqah might
write la’wldh, amulcis, which were given to visitors. who in turn brought
gifts. in cash or kind, to the khänqäh. Even today the visitor who stays in a
khanqah as a guest will offer. at the end of his stay, a nadhr, •oblation', in
return for the hospitality and spiritual uplifting that he enjoyed during his
visil.
The rules for succession were strietly defined. The khiläfatnama states,
among othcr things:
Grant your khilafal to one who does not dcviale a iota from the sunne of die Prophet, who
devotes his time to prayerc andculs himsetf completcly off from all worldly Connections and
lemptalions.”
The regalia bestowed upon the khatlfa were the khirqa (the patchcd frock),
the praver rüg (sajjada, hence the title sajjOdanishtn for the hcad of a khan-
qah, who 'sits on the founder's rüg'), wooden sandals, a rosary, and a rod.
The khatifa was then sent out to an area that was given to him as a wiläyat,
" Bruce B. Lawrence, vla fium a dulanl Hule. London-Tehran 1978. p. 91. The Chishli«
had a umi'atklumi. one large room; the Suhrawardis the kUm/M. which prosided separate ac-
comodanon. Latet. Ihe lernt khdniiah was (etscrally used. The edwryo was a small place without
contact with die world: even «matter was the do’ira.
" Nirami. Rehgum and Pohues. p. 209.
" Niramt. I.e. p. 219,

and in turn appointed vicegercnts for the cities and villages whcre new centres
were opened. The territorial limits for each Sufi master's wilayat were precisc-
ly defincd, By this arrangement a network of spirilual centres could be
established all ovcr the country. Among thc Chishtis, who did not carc mueh
for family lifc or were even cclibate. the khattfa was clccted; in the Suhrawar-
diyya, succcssion in Ihe family became thc normal proeedure.
The jamO'atkhana was the cenlre of social lifc. Despite ils extemal poverty,
peoplc from all strata of Indian society came thcrc to find sympalhy, consola-
tion, or counsel; and scholars, government scrvants, business men and simple
dervishes all ranked alike. The open kitchen Hangar) was thc manifcstation of
one of the foremost qualities of an ideal Muslim, i.e„ of hospitality and
generosity, but also an important contrast to Hindu social lifc. where a com-
nton kitchen for the members of different castes would be unthinkable.
Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakar had seven khall/as. His favourite among them
was Jamaluddin Hanswi (d. 1261) who gratefully praised him:
Whosocvcr ha
* a Pir as guidc Tor him
h il easy to find umon with the Friend.
My pir is Farid i rmllat ü dfn.
Who is thc rose of Solomon's rosc-bush.”
For Jamal was a gifted poet who praised the simple lifc of the Sufis:
And this group »ho »car coarsc black wool (gi/lm)
Arc kings wilhout thc troublc of throne and crown.
His succincl. often tripartite, ‘inspired sayings' (mulhamäl) contain a delini-
lion that became proverbial in India and is used all ovcr thc country to point
to the ideal 'man of God’, namely:
lältb al-maulä mudhakkar
1‘hc Seckcr of thc Lord is masculinc,
Thc scckcr of thc othcr world is a catamitc,
Thc scckcr of this world is feminine.
While Jamaluddin Hanswi represents thc attractive. poetical aspect of theear
ly Chishtiyya, his confrcrc 'Ali Sabir. ‘thc Patient' (d. 1291), with whorn he
apparently had not always friendly rclations, was a Stern, demanding master;
his branch of thc Chishtiyya later devclopcd to great popularity.
Fariduddin's ntajor khatlfa was Nizamuddin Auliya from Bada’un, whose
Turkish grandfather had come to India from Bukhara. Nizamuddin was a
promising Student of rcligious lass when he met the master in 1257, at the age
" Ikram. Armayhan-i POk, p. 108.
’• Zubaid Ahmad, The Conlrtbuiion oj Indo Pakistan to Arabic Literatur?, 2nd cd. Lahore

of 21. Farid treated him radier harshly, for 'a pir is a drcsscr of brides’. He
studied with him parts of Suhrawardi's 'Awarifal-ma'ürif and Nizamuddin,
who had enjoyed in his early days the Maqimat of Hariri and memorizcd this
brilliant Arabic work. now expiated for this frivolous pursuil by committing
to mcmory Saghani's collcelion of huituh. the MasMriq al-anwar. He visited
Fariduddin only threc times before he was appointed his khatlfa in Delhi,
whcrc he lived for sixty ycars as the undisputcd spiritual lcader of the Com
munity. 'a pcer of Bayezid and Junaid'.—It would betoomuch to takeat face
value Barani's Statement that thanks to him most Muslims in the capital
became inclined to mysticism and prayer. and viccs like drinking dis-
appeared.” Thal contradicts the political rcality. However. Sufism. thanks
to Nizamuddin’s activity, became certainlv more of a mass movement than
before, and the list of works supplied by Barani as spiritual staple food of the
pcople of Delhi comprises all the classics of Islamic mysticism. Pcrhaps people
enjoyed reading them to forget the cruel cveryday life in the late 13th
Century...
The eloquent preacher Nizamuddin, tcndcrly called Mahbob-i ilahl, al-
tracted many friends from all slrala of society. Sultan ‘Ala’uddin's unlucky
son, Khizr Khan, was bound to him 'by bonds of affection and sanctity”*
; but
his favourite was Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), 'the Parrot of India', poel,
courtier. and musician. and aulhor of sophisticated lyrics as well as of the first
mathnawls that dealt with Contemporary events. Legend teils that he became a
poei alter the saint had put somc of his saliva into his mouth, and he praises
his master in more than one highflown poem:
Your dargah is Ihe qibla. and ihe angels
Are flying like pigeons around your roof..."
It is said that at the master’s death Amir Khusrau, called 'God's Türk' by
Nizamuddin. rccited a Hindi verse:
Gort soe se) pur. mukh par dalt kts
Chai Khusrau ghar rippt, rain bhat chaudts
tlie fair one sleeps on ihe heil with ihe tresses Over his/her face
O Khusrau, go honte now, for nighl hat fallen over the world.
And he followed his master soon. They buricd him dose to him. and in later
times people would attribute the disaslers that beteil Delhi in the 1 Sth Century
to the fact that the toinb of Muhammad Shah (d, 1748) was placed between
" Barani. Tarlkh-i FtrOzshahl. p. 343 ff,
Bada'uni, Muntakhab I, iransl. 267, bul he conlinued ihal ’ihe prince never visited (llte
sainll when he performed his Ihanksgivmg offerings for the resloration ol' his falher's heallli".
" Amir Khusrau, Dtutn-i kamil, eil. M. Darwish, Tehran 1343 sh/1964, p 599.

the tombs of Nizamuddin and Khusrau, so that the friends werc separated by
human folly.”
But more important for the aetual history of Islam in lndia than the court
poet Amir Khusrau is his dose friend Hasan Sijzi whose graceful poems
reflect a deepcr religious fecling. more 'buming and melting' (Shibli) than
most of Khusrau's highly artistic verse. Il is he who made the imagc of the
kajkuläh. 'who has his cap awry' populär in Indo-Persian poetry—a symbol
of the Belovcd that goes back to the allegcd Statement of the Prophet: "I saw
my Lord in the form of a young men with his cap awry”. This expression has
largely coloured the verses of myslically inclined poets in Iran and even more
in lndia. Hasan was also the first to note down Ilie sayings (wia//Ö?ar) of
Nizamuddin Auliya. in a Collection called Fawtt’id al-fu'äd. Froin that time
onward the genre of maljhzut became an important vehicle to spread mystical
Ihought; il olfers the historian many insighls inlo the religious and social con-
ditions of mcdieval lndia which are usually nol found in the official
chronicles.”
Nizamuddin's successor in Delhi was Nasiruddin. called Chiragh-i Delhi,
'the Lamp of Delhi', Coming from Oudh, he had studied hadllh, renounced
the world at the age of 35. underwent seven years of hard asceticism, and
finally joined Nizamuddin's circle. His malfazäi, Khair al-majulis, reveal in a
hundred discourses the picturc of a sober. strietly sA«ri'B-bound master; for
religious reasons he abolished the custom of prostration before the shaikh
which was common in the earlier Chishtiyya. Muhammad Tughluq made life
rather difficult for him so that he. like most spiritually-minded people in
Delhi, welcomed Feroz Shah’s aecession. This ruler built his mausoleum, now
almost ruined. after Chiragh-i Delhi had died in 1356. His disciple Mutahhar-i
Garh devoted a threnody to him in which he sings that
The world produced a (housand kinds ol »igh$, complamts, and woes
ai ehe demise of Mauer Nasiruddin Mahmud...
This same Mutahhar, usually regarded as a rather pedeslrian poet, has also
left a poem in which. inleraha. he describes the books which he studied, llius
offering a good picture of a scholarly person's Helds of interest:
...books of medicine. and of the hislorians Waqidi, of elhics and moral pohshmem that of
Nasiri (e.g.. the AkhlSq-l NOjirn,
" Ahmed AU. Twilighl in Delhi. 2nd cd. Oxford 1966. p. 146
•• For a mystical «ork by Hasan >ee Motasim A. Azad, 'Mukh-ul-Ma am ol llasan-i Sijzi
Dehlavi'. IC XLIV 1970. a treatise in »lach ihe enlhusiasüc myslK claimed. i.a.. that 'loversare
in some respecl superior to Hazrai Khizr'.

ol gnods ihe 'Awdrif lal-ma'ohfi. ol ecsiasy lhc fuau tal-hikami,
ol scrmons and advicc. lhc Book ol Sari...'
*
Among the later Chishtis of Delhi. Mas'ud Bakk (cxec. 1387) is worthy of
mcntion. 'Abdulhaqq Dihlawi writes about this ecstatic who gave up a Posi
tion al court lo becomc a mystic:
Among lhc Chishtis. no one has Spokcn ol lhc sccreis ol trulh in such an open and un-
guarded männer, and no one »as so given lo mystioil intosication as he was.
Indeed, his Mir'ai al-'arifln is among the first Indian works in which Ibn
‘Arabi's influence—mentioned in passing by Mutahhar—becomes visible, and
Mas'ud Bakk's lyrical poems sing of the cxpcricnce of all-embracing unity and
thus sei the model for innumcrable mystical Verses in India:
On the Buraq of unity in Nowhere (Id-tnakön)
Did we sit and run to every direciion...
*
'
Even later mystical folk poetry seems to be presaged in some of his lines.
When he describes the miraculous el'fect of the dhikr in the heart:
We have laised in lhc midst ol lhc soul's garden
The bud of ihe hean with lhc water ol ihe recollcclion ol' lhc Friend.“
one immediately ihinks of the first verse of Sultan Bahu’s (d. 1692) famous
Panjabi Golden Alphabet (see p. 142).
One inore member of the Chishtiyya played an important literary role dur-
ing Muhammad ibn Tughluq's days. That was Zia'uddin Nakhshabi, who led
a quiet life in thosc unquiet days, about which he complains:
No fragiaruc of faithfulncss remains among men,
Virtuc (truc manliness) has bc<ome rare among men.
...Mercury’s shccts have been rent,
And Venus' tambourme doeth no longcr sound. •'
Nakhshabi, who did not belong to the major silsila but is one of the few
spiritual descendants of Hamiduddin Nagauri, lived in Bada'un where he
Ikram. ArmagMn-i l'tl, p l’a (bolh pocmsl. Waqidi's Knob almugMa, Nasirvddin
Tusi s .-l
*
We«-i Xosirl, Shihabuddm 'Umar Suhrawardi’s l.üril 0/-,nup„r and Ibn Arabi's
Fu>r.j al-Mum were eagerlv siudicd in laih Century India. lhc 'book ol Sari' is probablv a work
by lhc Bagdadian Sufi San as-Saqali Id. ca. M7).
•' Ikram. I.c. p. 150.
" Id.
Ikram. I.c. 139 The oldcsl Indian illusualcd manuscnpl ol Ihe Tülmame: Tun Xama. Tain
oj J Parrot. Complete Color Facsimile Edition in Original Size of the Ms. in the Cleveland
Museum of An. with a separate volumc of commentary by l’ramod Chandra. Graz 1977. 1 s.
Simsar, (transl. and cd ). The Clr^land Museum ofAn VutiXame Tales of a parrot’
riraf IQ?A

ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION Of ISLAM 31
composed importani mystical and ethical works. including Ihe Ladhdhat un-
niso, a Persian Version of the Kokashastra; but his immortal contribulion to
literature is the Tailnäma, which he finished in 1330, bascd on a Sanskrit tale.
With this book, which was rctold, abbreviated, and later translated into many
Indian vernaculars as well as in Western languagcs. he blendcd for the first
time Indian tradition and Persian artistic form, and the illustrations of the
Tatmama. painted again in India. represent a second instancc of a successful
fusion of the two traditions.
Muhammad Tughluq's dispersion of Ihe intclligentsia and particularly ihe
Sufis to Daulatabad paralyzed the central activities of the Chishtis and was
resented by the mystlcs since it meant an interference with their respective
wilayats, their fixes areas of influence. However, it led to the developmcnt of
new branches of the Order in Southern India. One of Nizamuddin's disciples.
Mir Khurd, composed the first history of the Order as a kind of atonement for
having deserted—though unwillingly—his master-s shrine: his Siyar al auliyä
is indispensable despite its tendency to include legendary material. Another
Chishti. Burhanuddin Gharib, died in Daulatabad in 1340; an enthusiastic
lover of music to wltoin a special kind of samll1 was altributcd. he is
remembered in the name of the city of Burhanpur which was founded some
deeades after his death by one of his devotecs and was to develop into an im
portant centre of learning and myslicism. Burhanuddin certainly knew the
young boy whosc father had been expellcd lo Ihe South like him and who
returned later to his native Delhi to become a disciple of Chiragh-i Delhi, i.e.
Muhammad Gesudaraz, who was to become the leading Chishti Sufi of the
Deccan (see p. 52).
Almost at the same time as the Chishtiyya was consolidated in India, the se
cond great order in the Subcontinent also became active—the Suhrawardiyya,
whose first master was Baha’uddin Zakariya Multani. Born from a Quraish
family in 1182 near Multan, he went to the central Islamic lands to study
hadith, and when he finally met Abu Hafs Suhrawardi in Baghdad, this
teacher found him ready 'as dry wood to catch fire'. Rcturning to Multan,
Baha’uddin soon gained many followers, although his lifcstylc differed con-
siderably from the austere. God-lrusting, yet cmotionally charged atmosphere
of his Chishti neighbours. His khünqah was well run; hc had fixed Itours for
rcception. Instead of devoting himself to continuous austerilies he rather
preferred to kcep a well-fillcd granary in order to be ablc to spend lavishly. He
was probably the richest saint in mcdieval India, so that once one of his sons
was kidnapped and released only on the payment of a huge ransom. Some
Chishti leaders blamed him for his 'worldliness', but he answered ironically,
“ Your dervishdom has no beauty or attraction. Our dervishdom has immense

32 ADVENT AND CONSOLIDATION Of ISLAM
beauty. Wealth is like a black dot averting ihe evil eye”.“ Again contrary lo
Ihe Chishtis, Baha’uddin Zakatiya accepted government grants and
cooperated with Ihose rulers whom he found acccptable, following with Na-
jibuddin Suhrawardi the Koranic device: 'Obey God and His Prophet and
obey those with authority aniong you' (Sura 4/59). Thus, he cooperated with
lltutmish as his successors cooperated with Feroz Tughluq.
Baha’uddin was blesscd with the nafs-i glro, an unusual abilily to Control
the minds of his disciples and polish their Itearts. The story of Fakhruddin
‘lraqi (d. 1289), who lived for twenty-five years at his dargih. is the best ex-
ample of his magnetic Personality, and although the Suhrawardiyya is basical-
ly against säum'. Baha’uddin did not mind the enthusiastic love songs of
‘lraqi, culminating in the oft-repeated ghazal:
I he first wmc that they put m the goblet.
They had to borrow from the cupbeartr's intoxicatcd eye...
* ’
And one can still meet musicians who sing ‘Iraqi's ghazals before the majestic
Suhrawardi tombs in Multan.
While the early Chishtis were rather indifferent to family life, so that the
lack of warmth in the family made most sons of the early leaders swerve from
the myslical path. Baha’uddin Zakariya looked well after his family. One of
his seven sons succeeded him, but the most outstanding descendant of the
saint was his grandson Ruknuddin (d. 1335). who deeply impressed Ihe peoplc
of Sind, attracting even ulema into his circle. He openly stated that a good
shaikh needed three things: money to help the needy, learning to solve the Pro
blems of Ihe scholars, and spiritual abilily for guidance. Ruknuddin's tomb in
Multan, built on a hill overlooking the crowdcd city, is one of the most
magnificent examples of early Muslim architecture: an octagon of 9,30 meters
per side in typical Tughluq style with slightly slanling walls. The dorne, on a
tambour 45,40 meters in circumference is the second largest in India.
Other saints of the Suhrawardiyya were active in the South and the East.
The nante of Jalaluddin Tabrizi (d. 1244) is connected with the first Steps of
introducing the Order in Bengal, bul nothing is known about his successors. In
Sylhet, his tomb with a pond Glied with fishes is still venerated. Another
Suhrawardi preacher, Qazi Hamiduddin Nagauri (d. 1244) was a friend of the
leading Chishtis and. like them, fond of soma‘. Most eruditc, he had only
three disciples; yet. his books Lawä'ih ’ishqiyya and TawOli' ash-shumüs
(about the 99 names of God) were highly esleemed among the medieval Sufis.
Nizami, Religion und Polites. p 228.
See A. Schimmel. Mysteal Dimension; ofIslam. Univ, of Nonh Carolina Press. Chapel Hill
n 15’

ADVENT AND CONSO1.IDAT10N Of ISLAM 33
The main line of the Suhrawardiyya continued l'rom Multan, where thesaj-
jddanishln still plays an important role in the social and political selling, and
from Ucch. Among Baha’uddin's disciples was a sayyid from Bukhara,
Jalaluddin Surkh. His son in turn became Ruknuddin's disciple and settlcd in
Ucch. where his son Jalaluddin Husain was born in 1308. Travelling all over
the Islamic world in searclt of hadlih and religious knowledge. Jalaluddin was
soon called Jahüngasht.' the world-traveller'. It does not matter whether he
really performed the pilgrimage thirty-six times. (Interestingly, in one of his
numerous visits to Delhi, where he used to scc Feroz Shah, he received a khir
qa from Chiragh-i Dihlawi, thus cstablishing spiritual links with the
Chishtiyya). The samt was an indelaligablc worker. composing books mainly
on Prophetie traditions. and Iltis activity as well as his spiritual influence in
Multan and Sind earned him the honorific name of Makhdüm-ijahüiiiyan,
'he who is served by the inhabitants of the world'. His influence over Sind en-
abled him to bring about a reeonciliation between Feroz Shah and the Jam of
Sind during Feroz Shah's expedition to Thalia. On the whole, Makhdum-i
jahaniyan belongs to the most orthodox saints of Indo-Pakistan; he maintain-
ed that God is not to be invoked by Indian names. as was apparently the case
among more ecstatic mystics who ntight use Indian addresses in mystical songs
in the vernacular; the story of a pious Hindu who was sentenced to death at
Makhdum-i jahaniyan's deathbed for alleged apostasy from Islam has often
been retold. But in the course of time the scholarly Makhdum became
transformed into a very rcsourceful saint whose name. pronounced over water
with the some other formulas, was even believed to eure piles...“
Another devclopment of the Ucch Bukhari line is even more surprising: it
seems that the jalatt dervishes, who arc noted in Indian Sufi history as
notoriously bi shar1 (outside the religious law), can be traced back to Jalal
Surkh Bukhari. They and iheir consolidated form in Iran, the Khaksar, arc
Shiites, as are some recent descendants of the Ucch Bukharis?'
Another smaller Order which nevcrtheless was very influential in Bihar
during the Tughluq penod was the Firdausiyya branch of the Kubrawiyya.
The greatest representative of this order is Sharafuddin Yahya Maneri (d.
1380); like his fathcr-in-law. Abu Taw’ama of Sonargaon. he was a good
scholar of hadnh in which science he had quitc a few disciples. Sharafuddin
Makhdum ul-mulk composed several books for guidance, such as a commen-
tary on Najibuddin Suhrawardi’s Adah al-murtdln, but most famous are the
collections of his letters, among them the MaktaMt-i sadi. a hundred letters
Jafar Sharif/Herclols. Islam In India. p. 259.
•' Id., see also R. Gramlkll. Die ichnlischen Derwurhonlen, Teil I, Die Afjilialionen,
Wiesbaden 1965, p. 71.

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