Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s2.3

v4.c55.s2.3

Shāh Nizām-ud-din (popularly known as Shāhji, and also by his family title *Hazratji* or “His Holiness”), was descended on his father’s side from the celebrated Bāghdād saint Sayyid Muhiuddin Abdul Qādir Jilāni al-Hasani al-Husaini (d. 561 A.H.) from whom he was 18th in direct line. His mother was a daughter of another Islamic saint Khwājah Bāqi-billah of Delhi. His family migrated from Bāghdād to Burhānpur in the middle of the 17th century, and two generations later removed to Delhi. At the Mughal capital they used to give spiritual instruction to the people who were drawn by the report of their learning, piety and miraculous powers. Their disciples were wont to salute them as *Khudā-numā*, or the Revealer of God to man. In time their modest hermitage one mile outside the Agra Gate of Shah Jahān’s capital, grew into a baronial mansion with extensive gardens and out-houses (described by T. Twining in his *Travels*, 225-228.)