SuFI MARTYRS OF LovE

PRAISE FOR SuFI MARTYRS OF LovE:

''A brilliant look into a major Sufi tradition that will be essential reading for anyone interested in Sufism, or mystical associations within religious cultures generally. Ernst and Lawrence challenge the 'myth of decline' as it has been adopted by historians and chroniclers both within and out­side of the Chishti tradition, and allow us to see that the notion of a lost golden age is a trope within the tradition itself, always moving to a new generation that sees itself as the generation of decline. They also chal­lenge successfully the tradition (or habit) of disjunction between West­ern and South Asian perspectives by placing their own work within both traditions of scholarship.

Sufi Martyrs of Love is particularly supple in its examination of inter­twined topics like meditative practice, the complex role and nature of ge­nealogies, the relation of tradition to tombs and shrines; the relation of the Chishti order to configurations of power-pre-colonial, colonial, and post colonial; and the pull between the tradition's homeland and its many and fascinating outposts or new centers. This is an outstanding book; it should be at the top of the reading list not only for Sufism but for comparative mysticism and the history of religions as well:'

-Michael Sells, Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest Professor of Comparative Religions at Haverford College

SuFI MARTYRS OF LovE

CHISHTI SuFISM IN

SouTH AsiA AND BEYOND

CARL w. ERNST

BRUCE B. LAWRENCE

* SUFI MARTYRS OF LoVE

Copyright© Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, 2002. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

First published in 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAWM 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world.

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ISBN 978-1-4039-6027-6 ISBN 978-1-137-09581-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-09581-7

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AY ATISH-I FIRAQ-AT DIL-HA KABAB KARDA

SAYLAB-I ISHTIYAQ-AT JAN-HA KHARAB KARDA

AH, THE FIRE OF ABSENCE FROM YOU HAS BURNT MANY A HEART

AND THE FLOOD OF YEARNING FOR YOU HAS DESTROYED MANY A SOUL!

DEDICATED TO K. A. NIZAMI

WITH RESPECT, GRATITUDE, AND AFFECTION

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CONTENTS

Figures Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. What is a Sufi Order?

2. The Core Chishti Practices

3. The Art of Ancestry

4. The Chishti Masters

5. Major Chishti Shrines

6. Colonial Chishtis

7. Modern Day Chishtis

ix xiii

1

11

27

47

64

85

105

129

Appendix: The Earliest Chishti Masters: Anniversaries and Select Biographies 147 A Chishti Calendar of Saints' Death Anniversaries Major Chishti Masters Regional Chishti Masters

Notes 189 Bibliography on the Chishtiyya: European Language Sources 209 Select Bibliography on the Chishtiyya: Persian and Urdu Sources 223 Index of Names and Glossary of Terms 237

FIGURES

Frontispiece: Map of major cities and Sufi centers of South Asia. Vl

0.1. The holy cities of Chishti Sufism: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Ajmer, and Baghdad. 3

1.1. Spiritual genealogy or "tree" document illustrating Chishti lineage. 20

3.1. Mu'in ad-Din Chishti. Modern portrait from Rajasthan, from the collection of Robert Dreyfus. 60

5.1. Tomb of 'Ali Sabir in Kalyar Sharif. (Photograph by Robert Rozehnal) 87

5.2. Tomb of Salim Chishti in Fatchpur Sikri (Photograph by Carl Ernst) 99

7.1. Diagram of the Seven Layers of the Heart, from Ziya' al-qulub by Hajji Imdad Allah (Prepared by Scott Kugle) 132

7.2. Qawwali singers at the 2001 'urs festival of Capt. Wahid Bakhsh (Allahabad, Pakistan) (Photograph by Robert Rozehnal) 135

7.3. Popular poster of the tomb of Nizam ad-Din Awliya' 139

7.4. Tomb of Hazrat Inayat Khan (Nizam ad-Din Dargah, Delhi) (Photograph by Robert Rozehnal) 141

lNITIATIC GENEALOGY

OF THE EARLY CHISHTIS

1. Muhammad the Prophet (d. 632)

2. 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661)

3. Hasan al-Basri (d. 728)

4. 'Abd al-Wahid ibn Zayd (d. 793)

5. Fuzayl ibn 'Iyaz (d. 802)

6. Ibrahim ibn Adham (d. 779)

7. Huzayfa al-Mar 'ashi (d. 822)

8. Hubayra al-Basri

9. 'Alu Dinawari

10. Abu Ishaq Chishti (d. 940)

11. Abu Ahmad Chish ti (d. 966)

12. Muhammad Chishti (d. 1020)

13. Yusuf Chishti (d. 1067)

14. Mawdud Chishti (d. 1126)

15. Sharif Zandani

16. 'Usman Harwani (d. 1211)

17. Mu'in ad-Din Chishti (d. 1236)

18. Qutb ad-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki (d. 1235)

19. Farid ad-Din Ganji I Shakkar (d. 1265)

20. Nizam ad-Din Awliya'

AcKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are many people who have helped us over the years in pursuing this project, and we would like to record here our sincere gratitude to them. It was Ian Net­

ton who first suggested the idea of a book on the Chishti order to one of us (BL). Be­cause of our long-standing friendship and shared professional interest in the Chishtiyya, not to mention our close proximity (Duke University is only 12 miles from UNC-Chapel Hill), he immediately invited the other (CE) to make it a joint col­laboration. We then decided to offer a joint course in the fall of 1995, as we have reg­ularly done over the years, this time focusing on the Chishti Sufi order. Our hope was that holding a specialized seminar on this topic would allow us to generate new ap­proaches and examine sources in a fresh way. Our expectation was more than met­a combination of graduate students and advanced undergraduates joined in an intense 14-week experience that proved memorable to all of us. We would like to single out in particular the graduate students of the seminar (Zia Inayat Khan, Murris Faruqui, Omid Safi, Seemi Ghazi, Scott Kugle, Frederick Colby) for their outstanding research projects, some of which we have quoted in the pages that follow.

The process of writing this book was a true collaboration, mostly carried out in one or the other of our homes, with the host handling the computer while we both con­tributed to the writing, editing, and revision. While we have drawn upon our earlier publications, they have been significantly adapted and modified for this book, and at this point there is not a single page that does not bear the marks of both authors. In writing this book, we have received tremendous support and encouragement from our spouses (miriam cooke and Judith Ernst); nothing we say can adequately convey what this means. Another figure close to home who deserves mention is Lucy, the faithful dog of the Ernst household; during many a session, she lay at our feet like the dog of the Seven Sleepers, a deeply sympathetic silent collaborator.

The process of writing this book was prolonged unduly by unavoidable adminis­trative entanglements that affected both authors, so we particularly appreciate the ef­forts of those who helped us to bring this to completion. In finally getting to closure, we were assisted by two graduate research assistants, Robert Rozehnal (Duke) and Steven Ramey (UNC), who carefully scrutinized the manuscript for both style and substance. Maura High read, reviewed, and expertly commented on the entire man­uscript; her stylistic insights helped make the final version accessible to the nonspe­cialist. We are also extremely grateful to Professor Shantanu Phukan, of the UNC Curriculum in Asian Studies, for his superb translation of the Urdu poem by Iqbal that serves as a coda to the book. Professor Marcia Hermansen of Loyola University (Chicago) graciously permitted us to summarize (in Chapter 6) some of her unpub­lished research materials on colonial Chishti masters.

XIV SUFI MARTYRS OF LOVE

Many others assisted along the way. Members of the Triangle South Asia Consor­tium-particularly Katherine Ewing, John Richards, David Gilmartin, Tony Stewart, and Joanne Waghorne-provided astute and helpful comments on earlier drafts of the book that were presented at our monthly colloquium, and in a series of confer­ences held under the auspices of the Rockefeller Humanities Institute on South Asian Islam and the Greater Muslim World. The Carolina-Duke-Emory Institute for the Study of Islam also provided a forum for our presentations; thanks especially to Richard Martin, Gordon Newby, and Vincent Cornell. We also are grateful to our ed­itor at Palgrave Press, Gayatri Patnaik, who has been enthusiastic and supportive in shepherding this book into print.

But our debts go back considerably further, since both of us have been engaged with the study of the Chishtiyya for the past 25 years. Professor Annemarie Schim­mel of Harvard University provided an outstanding model of scholarship in Islamic studies and Sufism and encouraged our research at all levels. Many other scholars have generously shared their researches with us, including Christopher Shackle (SOAS), Simon Digby, Riyazul Islan (Karachi), Richard Eaton (University of Ari­zona), Regula Qureshi (University of Alberta), and Barbara Metcalf (UC Davis); thanks to all of them. There have also been numerous representatives of the Chishti order who have extended extraordinary hospitality and cooperation to us, without whose active encouragement this project would not have been possible. We think particularly of Syed Shah Khusro Husseini (Gulbarga), the late Fariduddin Saleem (Khuldabad), the late Capt. Wahid Bakhsh Sial (Allahabad, Pakistan), Dr. Mansoor Hashmi (Lahore), Dr.AftabAhmed (Lahore), Dr. Mashkoor Syed (Ajmer), and many others. Their graciousness and dignity are direct extensions of the high ideals of the early Chishti masters.

Most of all, we owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to the doyen of the study of Indian Sufism, the late Professor K. A. Nizami. It was due to his encouragement and hospitality that one of us (BL) spent two years at the Aligarh Muslim Univer­sity in 1975-77 as a postdoctoral fellow, and that the other (CE) did doctoral re­search at Aligarh in 1978-79, in this way becoming initiated into the world of Indo-Muslim culture. Professor Nizami's intellectual leadership, his vast erudition, and his immense sympathy provided a truly inspiring model of scholarship. It is to him that we jointly dedicate this volume, and our only regret is that he did not live to see its appearance.

Durham and Chapel Hill, N.C., March 2002