The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c9.s5.t2.9

c9.s5.t2.9

Many of the Sufi Mashaikh lived in poverty. Shaikh Hamiduddin (d. 1276 C.E.) lived in a small mud house in the city of Nagaur in Rajasthan. He eked out his meagre subsistence by cultivating a single *bigha* of land.¹⁰¹ His wife spent her time in cooking and spinning like a peasant woman. He was a strict vegetarian. He refused to accept government gift of land and money from the muqta of Nagaur and Sultan of Delhi.¹⁰² Shaikh Muinuddin and Shaikh Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar never owned houses of their own. Shaikh Farid Ganj-i-Shakar built a small *kachcha* house only when his family had considerably increased For many years during his early life Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya had to wander from one quarter of the city to another in search of a house Generally starvation conditions prevailed in the houses of the Chishti saints very often these saints did not possess sufficient clothes to cover their bodies.¹⁰³