The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c19.25

c19.25

Not quite apart from the Sunnis and yet forming a distinctly important group was the mystic fraternity of the *sufis*. The 13th century was remarkable for the great number of Muslim mystics who, men of great learning, lived away from the society of townsmen. Although not recluses in the real sense of the term and often householders, they were yet genuinely indifferent to material comforts. While not formally rejecting orthodoxy, but, on the contrary, mindful of its observances, they held to an ethical religion and strove after mystic communion with the Godhead. Except for certain religious exercises designed to bring about a particular mystic experience, like the *Sima*, (music intended to rouse the mind to a condition of ecstacy), they were indistinguishable in normal life from the orthodox, and many of them carried on ordinary vocations. The fraternity, grouped round the *murshid* (guide) was thus open to the orthodox Muslims also, initiation requiring nothing more than practising the graded exercises in the seclusion of one’s home. Miracles were usually believed of them and even the uninitiated masses felt drawn to their unassuming piety. Even the formalist *ulema* reverently attended their *khanqah* and felt honoured when admitted to the circle of the select desciples. They scorned the advances of the official class and many lived in proud poverty. Of the many such mystic orders that arose in India and are active even now, the period under review saw the foundation and exclusive prevalence, each in its own area, of two of the most important, namely the *Chishtia* and the *Suhrawardia*, founded respectively by Muinuddin at Ajmer and Bahauddin Zakariya at Multan. While the latter remained confined to the Indus valley, the *Chishtia* order spread to the whole of Hindusthan and the Punjab and counted among its potential adherents almost every notable Muslim of the age. Muinuddin died at Ajmer in 1235 and his tomb has since become a renowned place of pilgrimage, even for the laity. So are the tombs of his chief desciples like Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki (died in 1235) at Delhi, Fariduddin Shakargunje (died in 1256), at Pakpattan, Nizamuddin Budauni (died 1325) at Delhi, every one of whom left a large number of equally honoured desciples. In Sind, the influence of Bahauddin's successors. Sadruddin, Jalaluddin and Ruknuddin, was equally great, the last named person's tomb being one of the finest extant specimens of Muslim architecture in Multan. Devotion to the *sufi* and his mystic cult thus formed an important feature of Muslim religious life under the Memelukes. Barani's account lists a large number of such *sufis* and *walis*, who, as a measure of their importance, have special chapters devoted to them by Ferishta and the historians of the Mughal period.