Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE

Chishtiyya
(2,646 words)

The Chishtiyya is a wide array of religious communities associated with lineages of Ṣūfī shaykhs
thought to have originated in Chisht, Afghanistan. Historically, the Chishtī shaykhs, their
descendants, and followers rst established centres in North India beginning in the
seventh/thirteenth century; over time their communities spread across the subcontinent.
Beginning in the twentieth century, Chishtiyya communities spread globally through the
migration and settlement of South Asian Muslims.

The Chishtiyya community of Ṣūfī shaykhs in South Asia is believed to have been established by
Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī (d. c. 630/1233). There are no known refer-ences to him dating from his
lifetime. The earliest sources that mention Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī date from the eighth/fourteenth
century and indicate that he was part of a group of shaykhs who migrated from Central to South
Asia during the period of Mongol conquests. It is reported in the Surūr al-ṣudūr (“The joy of
beginnings”)—a malfuẓāt text (of Ṣūfī conversations) of Ḥamīd al-Dīn Nagawrī (d. 674/1275–6)
and his grandson Farīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd (d. 735/1334–5) and compiled by a later descendant—
that he arrived in Delhi during the reign of Shams al-Dīn Iltutmish (r. 607–33/1211–36) (Surūr al-
ṣudūr, 15–6). Under the sultan’s patronage, he was a forded a position in Ajmer (in Rajasthan),
an important centre of the growing power of Delhi sultans in South Asia (Siddiqui, 5–6).

The eighth/fourteenth century is the most signi cant period in the evolution and development
of religious communities surrounding the Chishtī shaykhs in South Asia. It was in this period
that Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ (d. 725/1325), a prominent Sunnī ʿālim (theological scholar) and
adherent of the Ḥanafī school of Islamic law, emerged as an in uential Ṣūfī shaykh in Delhi. He
was religiously, socially, and politically in uential during his lifetime, through his associations
with Delhi courtiers such as the poet and court adviser Amīr Khursaw (d. 725/1325) and the
historian, emissary, and adviser Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Baranī (d. c. 758/1357). He was also closely
associated with Amīr Ḥasan Sijzī (d. 736/1335–6), known also as Dihlavī, a court poet for ʿAlāʾ al-
Dīn Khaljī (r. 695–715/1295–1315). Amīr Ḥasan Sijzī recorded the sayings of Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ
in the Fawāʾid al-fuʾād (“Bene ts of the heart”). This remains one of the earliest known malfuẓāt
(lit., recorded sayings of religious instruction) texts of a Chishtī shaykh.
(lit., recorded sayings of religious instruction) texts of a Chishtī shaykh.
One of the most important biographical works of the Chishtī shaykhs in South Asia is the Siyar
al-awliyāʾ (“The biography of the friends of God”) written by Muḥammad Mubārak al-ʿAlavī al-
Kirmānī, also known as Amīr Khurd (the usual spelling; properly, Amīr Khvurd) ( . 752–89/1351–
87). Centred on the gure of Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ, Amīr Khurd gives a comprehensive history of
the shaykhs of the community and discusses the activities and teachings of nine successors
(khulafāʾ) of Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ. One of his successors was Naṣīr al-Dīn Maḥmūd (d. 757/1356),
a prominent Sunnī shaykh, known popularly as Chirāgh-i Dihlī (“Lamp of Delhi”) (Qalandar, 12).
His teachings were recorded by Ḥamīd Qalandar (d. 768/1366) in the Khayr al-majālis, another
work of malfūẓāt. It was also in this period that Niẓām al-Dīn al-Yamanī ( . mid-ninth/ fteenth
century) compiled the Latāʾif-i ashrafī (“The subtleties of Ashraf,” a malfuẓāt of Ghawth al-ʿĀlam
Makhdūm Sayyid Ashraf Jahāngīr Simnānī, d. 788/1386, a great Indian Ṣūfī saint of both the
Chishtī and Qadirī orders). Al-Yamanī details the genealogical lineages of Chishtī shaykhs,
tracing them back to the prophet Muḥammad (Ernst and Lawrence, 58).

The Deccan, as well as Delhi, played a signi cant role in the eighth/fourteenth-century
developments of the Chishtī reli-gious community. Situated in Dawlatābād, the new capital city
of the sultan Muḥam-mad b. Tughluq (r. 725–52/1325–51) constructed in about 727/1327, a group
of scholars, all brothers from the Kāshānī family, gathered round the noted shaykh Burḥān al-Dīn
Gharīb (d. 738/1337) (Ernst, Eternal garden, 138–41). Burḥān al-Dīn Gharīb was part of a wave of
migration of religious scholars from Delhi to the Deccan in the rst half of the eighth/fourteenth
century, and the brothers of the Kāshānī family dedicated several writings to his life and
teachings. Three of these works fall generally within the malfuẓāt tradition. There is the Aḥsan
al-aqwāl (“The most beautiful of sayings”) by Ḥammād al-Dīn Kāshānī (d. 761/1360), the Nafāʾis
al-anfās wa-laṭāʾif al-alfāẓ (“The most precious utterances and elegant words”) by Rukn al-Dīn
Kāshānī (d. after 738/1337–8), who took his inspiration from Amīr Ḥasan Sijzī, and the Gharāʾib
al-karāmāt wa-ʿajāʾib al-mukāshafāt (“Extraordinary marvels and astounding unveilings”) by
Majd al-Dīn Kāshānī (d. after 747/1346–7). Amīr Khurd identi es Burḥān al-Dīn Gharīb as a
successor to Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ (al-Kirmānī, 287).

Another important shaykh, also part of the migration to the Deccan, was Sayyid Muḥammad al-
Ḥusaynī (d. 825/1422), known by the epithets Gīsū Darāz (“Long Hair”) and Bandah Navāz
(“Comfort of the Servant”). He was a Ṣūfī in the circle of Naṣīr al-Dīn Maḥmūd in Delhi, who left
several writings representative of the theological interests of the Chishtī shaykhs during this
period. He composed a work on the basic doctrines of the Islamic faith (ʿaqāʾid) and a Qurʾānic
commentary (tafsīr); he translated into Persian the Ādāb al-murīdīn (“Rules for Ṣūfī
practitioners”) of Abū l-Najīb al-Suhrawardī (d. 563/1168) and ʿAwārif al-maʿārif (“The bene ts of
intimate knowledge”) of Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar Suhravardī (d. 632/1234) and produced a
commentary on the Tamhīdāt (“Introductory remarks”) of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt al-Hamadhānī (d.
525/1131).
ʿAbd al-Quddūs Gangohī (d. 944/1537) was an important shaykh of the ninth/ fteenth and
tenth/sixteenth centuries. He lived during the transition of political authority from the Lodī
sultans (r. 855–932/1451–1526) to the Mughal emperors (r. 932–1274/1526–1858) during the reign
of Bābur (932–7/1526–30), and he had relations with Ibrāhīm Lodī (r. 923–32/1517–26), Bābur,
and Humāyūn (r. 937–47/1530–40 and 962–3/1555–6) (Digby, 10–12). ʿAbd al-Quddūs Gangohī
was a proli c author known especially for his commentary on the ʿAwārif al-maʿārif of Shihāb al-
Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar Suhrawardī, a collection of letters (maktūbāt), a series of treatises (risālāt)
on Ṣūfī dogma and practice, and the Rushd-nāma, a work that details his views on religious
rituals involving music (samāʿ ), meditation and prayer in the inverted position (ṣalāt-i maʿkūs).
Stories about his life and teachings were recorded by his son Rukn al-Dīn Muḥammad (d.
982/1574), in the Laṭāʾif-i Quddūsī (“Subtleties of Quddūsī”), which says that ʿAbd al-Quddūs
Gangohī used meditation techniques developed in yoga and transmitted them to his followers
(Ernst, 28). This was an important feature emblematic of the intensi ed cultural and religious
exchange characteristic of the Mughal court.

Religious authority and teachings in Chishtī communities were transmitted by successors

(khalīfas) designated by the shaykhs of the community. The authority of the khalīfas was
recognised in a succession document, the khilāfat-nāma. For example, Amīr Khurd notes that
two important shaykhs, Quṭb al-Dīn Munavvar (d. 757/1356) and Naṣīr al-Dīn Maḥmūd, received
the khilāfat-nāma from Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ (al-Kirmānī, 258). This authority was also
transferred through personal objects belonging to a shaykh: a sta f (ʿaṣā), a prayer carpet
(muṣalla, sajjāda), a robe (khirqa, jāma), a begging bowl (kāsa), turban (dastār), a ring
(angushtarī), a rosary (tasbīḥ), and a personal copy of the Qurʾān (Digby, 70). For instance, it is
reported in the Fawāʾid al-fuʾād that religious authority was transmitted from Quṭb al-Dīn Kākī
(d. 633/1235), after his death, to Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd (d. 664/1265), known popularly as Ganj-i
Shakar (“Treasury of Sugar”), through his inheritance of the following objects: a robe ( jāma), a
sta f (ʿaṣā), a prayer carpet (muṣalla), and wooden sandals (naʿlayn-i chūbayn) (Sijzī, 315). ʿAbd
al-Raḥmān Chishtī (d. 1094/1683) carried out important work to present a coherent historical
picture of the genealogies of the Chishtiyya community documented in the Mirʾat al-asrār
(“Mirror of secrets”).

The transfer of religious authority developed into a system of patrilineal inheritance. Under the
Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 963–1014/1556–1605), the management of the a fairs of the tomb at
Ajmer was claimed both by Shaykh Ḥusayn, claiming genealogical descent from Muʿīn al-Dīn
Sijzī and possessing the trusteeship of the tomb (tuliyāt), and by the caretakers of the tomb
(khuddām)(Akbar-nāma, 2:511). The division of the authority and responsibility for the tomb led
to a dispute that was mediated for years by Akbar and then by his son, the emperor Jahāngīr (r.
1014–37/1605–27) (Currie, 152–5). Akbar ordered investigations, institutionalised genealogical
succession of a principal shaykh to lead the community, known as the sajjāda-nashīn/nishīn (lit.,
the one who sits on the prayer mat), also known as the pīr (lit., old) and his o fspring, the pīr-
zāda At the same time Akbar created the post of mutawallī to manage the expenses of the
zāda. At the same time, Akbar created the post of mutawallī to manage the expenses of the
caretaking of the tomb complex, which continued at the level of a government post until the
Dargah Khwaja Sahib Act of 1955 (Currie, 173). A similar structure of spiritual inheritance
developed at the tomb of Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ in Delhi (Qureshi, 94–5).

At the burial place of Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd in Pākpattan, Panjāb, a system of patrilineal
inheritance was established. The succession of authority passed most notably through his
grandson ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn (d. c. 737/1330). The historian Shams al-Dīn Sirāj ʿAfīf ( . late
eighth/fourteenth century) records that ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn met with the sultans Ghiyāth al-Dīn Balban
(r. 664–86/1266–87), Fīrūz Shāh (r. 689–95/1290–96), and Muḥammad b. Tughluq, bestowing
blessings on their rule (ʿAfīf, 27–8). Later, after the death of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, Muḥammad b. Tughluq
funded the construction of a monumental tomb in Pākpattan, one of the nest examples of
Tughluq funerary architecture (Khan, 313). In this manner, there was a reciprocal process of
conferring legitimacy upon Chishiyya shaykhs and the sultans during the eighth/fourteenth
century. For example, Naṣīr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Chirāgh-i Dihlī blessed the ascension of Fīrūz Shāh
and accompanied him on military campaigns to Thatta (in present-day southeastern Pakistan)
in 762/1361 (ʿAfīf, 29, 82). The close association of Chishtī shaykhs with members of Muḥammad
b. Tughluq’s court played an important role in establishing Islamic social and political polities in
North and South India. The involvement of Chishtī shaykhs with court a fairs at Delhi also led to
tensions, as some sultans perceived a threat in the power and in uence of the shaykhs (Auer, 93–
6).

The burial places of Chishtī shaykhs became important pilgrimage centres for the practice of
religious worship. The tombs of Muʿin al-Dīn Chishtī and Nizām al-Dīn Awliyā had been visited
by Muslim rulers at least by the time of Muḥammad b. Tughluq. ʿIṣāmī reports in the Futūḥ al-
salāṭīn (“Victories of the sultans”) that he visited Ajmer in about 732/1332 (ʿIṣāmī, 466).
Pilgrimage and patronage of the tomb at Ajmer was carried out by the subsequent Mughal
emperors Jahāngīr, Shāh Jahān (r. 1037–68/1628–57), and Awrangzīb (r. 1068–1118/1658–1707).
Patronage generally consisted of the restoration of existing structures of the tomb and the
construction of mosques, a khānqāh (convent), and gates surrounding the tomb. Shāh Jahān had
a gate constructed at the shrine in Ajmer in 1064/1654 (Tirmizi, 51). Aid was also given to a cadre
of caretakers (khuddām) who lived o f court-provided “living-support” grants (madad-i maʿāsh).
There were also donations ( futūḥ) given directly to shaykhs and administrators of the tombs to
provide for their maintenance and the charitable activities of the members of the Chishtiyya
community distributing food and assistance to the poor through their public kitchens (langar
khāna).

Akbar interwove his family a fairs deeply with the Ṣūfī shaykh Salīm Chishtī (d. 980/1572),
attributing the birth of his son Jahāngīr to the blessings of the shaykh. He sent his wife to bear
their son in the house of Salīm Chishtī in a village named Sīkrī and named his son Salīm in
honour of the shaykh ( Jahāngīr, 4). Akbar further consecrated the site of his son’s birth and the
home of Salīm Chishtī by constructing his capital Fatḥpūr at Sīkrī. Connections between Akbar’s
home of Salīm Chishtī by constructing his capital Fatḥpūr at Sīkrī. Connections between Akbar s
family and Salīm Chishtī were perpetuated through the latter’s son Shaykh Kabīr (d. 1021/1612),
who rose to important rank among Jahāngīr’s o cers and was honoured with the titles of
Shajāʿat Khān (the courageous lord) and Rustam-i Zamān (the Rustam of the age) ( Jahāngīr, 34).
The central place accorded Chishtī shaykhs in Akbar’s court contributed to ideological debates
instigated by the Naqshbandī shaykhs Bāqī bi-llāh (d. 1011/1603) and Aḥmad Sirhindī (d.
1033/1624) (Alam, 166–73).

In the twentieth century, Chishtī communities developed globally through South Asian diaspora
communities and by conversion to Islam. ʿInāyat Khān (d. 1927) was a major gure in
transmitting Chishtī Ṣūfī teachings to Europe and North America. While living in Hyderabad he
was initiated into the Chishtī tradition by the shaykh Abū Hāshim Madanī (d. 1907). He
emigrated to America, where he founded the International Su Movement, an organisation
active, for instance, in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and the United States (Hermansen,
162–3). It is an iteration of a globalised and Westernised form of Chishtī traditions combined
with elements of Qādirī, Suhrawardī, and Naqshbandī tradition. Contemporary Chishtī religious
leaders promote alternative medicine and healing. Hakim Moinuddin Chishti, for instance,
revives the tradition of Unani medicine, the ancient Greek medical tradition translated into
Arabic and expanded upon during the ʿAbbāsid period, in his The book of Su healing. He writes
in English and transmits the teachings of Chishtī shaykhs.

Blain Auer

Bibliography
Sources

Abū l-Faḍl, Akbar-nāma, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, 3 vols., Calcutta 1873–87

Shams Sirāj ʿAfīf, Taʾrīkh-i Fīrūz Shāhī, ed. Vilāyat Ḥusayn, Calcutta 1888

ʿAbd al-Malik ʿIṣāmī, Futūḥ al-salāṭīn, ed. A. S. Usha, Madras 1948

Jahāngīr, The Jahangirnama. Memoirs of Jahangir, emperor of India, trans. and ed. Wheeler M.
Thackston, Washington DC 1999

Muḥammad b. Mubārak al-Kirmānī (Amīr Khurd), Siyar al-awliyāʾ, ed. Muḥammad Irshād
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Ḥamīd Qalandar, Khayr al-majālis. Malfūẓāt-i ḥaẓrat-i Shaykh Naṣīr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Chirāgh-i
Dihlī, ed. Khalīq Aḥmad Niẓāmī, Aligarh 1959

A ī Ḥ Sij ī F āʾid l f ʾād d M ḥ d L īf M lik L h 66

Amīr Ḥasan Sijzī, Fawāʾid al-fuʾād, ed. Muḥammad Laṭīf Malik, Lahore 1966
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Nizām Yamanī, Laṭāʾif-i ashrafī fī bayān ṭavāʾif-i Ṣūfī, Delhi 1880.

Studies

For an extensive bibliography of studies and sources on the Chishtiyya, see Carl W. Ernst and
Bruce B. Lawrence, Su martyrs of love. The Chishti order in South Asia and beyond (New York
2002), 209–35.

Muza far Alam, The Mughals, the Su shaikhs and the formation of the Akbari dispensation,
Modern Asian Studies 43/1 (2009), 135–74

Blain H. Auer, Symbols of authority in medieval Islam. History, religion and Muslim legitimacy in
the Delhi Sultanate, London 2012

Peter Mark Currie, The shrine and cult of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī of Ajmer, Delhi 1989

Simon Digby, ʿAbd al-Quddūs Gangohi (1456–1537 A.D.). The personality and attitudes of a
medieval Indian Su , in Medieval India. A miscellany (Bombay 1975), 3:1–66

Carl W. Ernst, Eternal garden. Mysticism, history, and politics at a South Asian Su center, Albany
1992

Carl W. Ernst, Situating Su sm and yoga, JRAS 15/1 (2005), 15–43

Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, Su martyrs of love. The Chishti order in South Asia and
beyond, New York 2002

Marcia Hermansen, Hybrid identity formations in Muslim America. The case of American Su
movements, MW 90/1–2 (2000), 158–97

Ahmad Nabi Khan, The mausoleum of Šaiḫ ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn at Pākpattan (Punjāb). A signi cant
example of the Tuġluq style of architecture, EW 24/3–4 (1974), 311–26

Abu Abdullah Ghulam Moinuddin, The book of Su healing, rev. ed., Rochester VT 1991

Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, Su music of India and Pakistan. Sound, context, and meaning in
qawwali, Cambridge 1986, 1995²

Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui, The early Chishti dargahs, in Christian W. Troll (ed.), Muslim shrines in
India. Their character, history and signi cance (New Delhi 1989, rev. ed. 2003), 1–23
Sayyid Akbarali Ibrahimali Tirmizi, Mughal documents relating to the dargah of Khwaja
Muʿinuddin Chishti, in Christian W. Troll (ed.), Muslim shrines in India. Their character, history
and signi cance (New Delhi 1989, rev. ed. 2003), 48–59.

Cite this page

Auer, Blain, “Chishtiyya”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson.
Consulted online on 05 September 2020 <http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_25502>
First published online: 2016
First print edition: 9789004305748, 2016, 2016-1