Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE

Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn

(997 words)

Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan Sijzī (536–633/1142–1236) is regarded as the founder of the
Chishtiyya Ṣūfī community in South Asia. He probably migrated to India in the
seventh/thirteenth century and settled in the town of Ajmer, in Rajasthan. He is frequently
referred to in devotional literature by the epithet gharīb navāz (lit., comfort to the poor).

Little is known of the life of Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī. His nisba indicates that he came from Sīstān, an
area of eastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. It is possible that he was living in that region
in about 622/1225, when it was under the authority of Tāj al-Dīn Ināltigīn (Bosworth, 407–10;
Kumar, 148). In the early seventh/thirteenth century, Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī likely travelled as a
refugee to the newly established city centres built by the Delhi sultans because of intensi ed
Mongol military action in Central Asia. One of the earliest historical sources on his life is the
Surūr al-ṣudūr (“The joy of beginnings”), a collection of malfūẓāt (sayings) of Ḥamīd al-Dīn
Nāgawrī (d. c. 674/1276) produced by one of the latter’s grandsons during the reign of the Delhi
sultan Fīrūz Shāh (r. 752–90/1351–88).

According to the Surūr al-ṣudūr, Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī arrived in Delhi during the reign of Shams al-
Dīn Iltutmish (607–33/1210–36). He was accompanied by Najīb al-Dīn Nakhshabī, who was later
awarded the title of shaykh al-Islām of Delhi, and forty other shaykhs. Shams al-Dīn Iltutmish
sponsored their stay in Delhi. Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī is said to have moved from Delhi to Ajmer
(Siddiqui, 5). The Surūr al-ṣudūr indicates that he was in uenced in his intellectual outlook by
the Ḥanbalī Ṣūfī shaykh ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī (d. 481/1088), who is noted for his Ṭabāqāt al-ṣū yya, a
biographical work on Ṣūfīs, and the Munājāt, a text of devotional poetry (Nizami, 185).

In the eighth/fourteenth century, a little more than a century after his death, authors writing
about Ṣūfī communities of Delhi constructed hagiographical stories surrounding the gure of
Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī. Muḥammad Mubārak al-ʿAlavī al-Kirmānī—known also as Amīr Khvurd ( .
752–89/1351–87), author of the Siyar al-awliyāʾ (“The biography of the friends of God”), an
important hagiography of Ṣūfī shaykhs—reports that Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī was capable of spiritual
marvels (karāmāt), such as miraculous travel, clairvoyance, and visions of angels (Kirmānī, 54–
 ( ) y g (

8). These traditions were elaborated upon by Ḥāmid b. Faḍlallāh Jamālī (d. 942/1536), a courtier
during the reign of the Mughal Naṣīr al-Dīn Humāyūn (r. 937–47/1530–40 and 962–3/1555–6), in
the Siyar al-ʿārifīn (“The biography of those possessing knowledge of God”), compiled between
938/1531 and 941/1535. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Muḥaddith Dihlavī (d. 1052/1642) added to the legendary
accounts of Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī in the Akhbār al-akhyār (“Stories of the righteous”), another
important work documenting the lives of Ṣūfī shaykhs in South Asia. This type of devotional
literature continued into the modern period, with works such as Wahiduddin Begg’s The holy
biography of Hazrat Khwājā Muinuddin Hasan Chishti of Ajmer (Ajmer 1960) and Muneera
Haeri’s The Chishtis. A living light (Oxford 2000). In addition to the numerous hagiographical
works written about him, various apocryphal sayings and works are attributed to Muʿīn al-Dīn
Sijzī, such as the malfūẓāt collection of ʿUthmān Hārūnī entitled Anīs al-arwāḥ (“The garden of
souls”), supposedly compiled by Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī, and the Dalīl al-ʿārifīn (“Proofs of those
possessing knowledge of God”), a collection of sayings purportedly by Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī (Habib,
17–22).

In the century following his death, a devotional community grew up around his tomb in Ajmer.
It became so important that the tomb was visited, in 732/1332, by Muḥammad b. Tughluq (r. 725–
52/ 1325–51) (ʿIṣāmī, 466). Mughal rulers made it a focus of pilgrimage and patronage, and it thus
became an important religious site. Akbar (r. 963–1014/1556–1605) singled out Ajmer for
pilgrimage and visited the tomb on fourteen di ferent occasions (Abū l-Faḍl). Some of the visits
commemorated Akbar’s victories in battle, linking the success of the Mughal dynasty to the
spiritual desires of the deceased shaykh (Currie, 100). Other visits were made to commemorate
the death anniversary (ʿurs) of the shaykh. According to Rizq Allāh Mushtāqī (d. 989/1581),
writing in his Vāqiʿāt, the mausoleum constructed over the tomb was rst built in the
ninth/ fteenth century, with the patronage of Sulṭān Ghiyāth al-Dīn Khiljī (r. 874–906/1470–
1501), ruler of the provincial sultanate of Malwa (Siddiqui, 8). Several families, who have
inherited the responsibility over generations, share the duty of shrine caretakers (khuddām),
managing the administration of the tomb (Currie, 141–7). They arrange for the weekly maḥ ls
(meetings), the annual ʿurs, and the distribution of food through the public kitchen (langar
khāna) (Moini, 61–3).

Blain Auer

Bibliography
Sources

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

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

Muḥammad b. Mubārak Kirmānī, Siyar al-awliyāʾ, Lahore 1978.

Studies

Cli ford Edmund Bosworth, The history of the Sa farids of Sistan and the Maliks of Nimruz
(247/861 to 949/1542–3), Costa Mesa 1994

Peter Mark Currie, Ajmer, EI3

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

Mohammad Habib, Chishti mystic records of the Sultanate period, Medieval India Quarterly 1/2
(1950), 1–42

Sunil Kumar, The emergence of the Delhi sultanate 1192–1286, New Delhi 2007

Syed Liyaqat Hussain Moini, Rituals and customary practices at the dargah of Ajmer, in Christian
W. Troll (ed.), Muslim shrines in India (New Delhi 1989, new ed. New Delhi 2003), 60–75

Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, On history and historians of medieval India, New Delhi 1983

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. New Delhi 2003), 1–23.

Cite this page

Auer, Blain, “Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett
Rowson. Consulted online on 14 June 2020 <http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_25501>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 9789004282117, 2015, 2015-2