Muslim Saints of South Asia: The eleventh to ... - blog blog blog

THE PEACEMAKER OF DELHI
I have heard the Shaykh say many times that the novice must
consult a book on the Sufi masters and their guidelines for
spiritual progress. Since no collection has been made of
the inspiring teachings of the master’s predecessors, I have
compiled those of your blessed words which I have heard
and till now I have not shown them (to anyone) awaiting
your command, that I might do what you want in this
regard.
(Amir Hasan 1992: 113)
The Shaikh looked through Hasan’s notes and approved his style.
After that he kept an eye on the poet’s work, repeating for him
whatever he did not manage to write down, and even filling up the
blanks in his manuscript.
The famous book Fawā’id al-Fu’ād which took shape as a result
contains the account of 188 meetings with the Shaikh in the course
of 1308 to 1322. By completing his work Amir Hasan Sijzi created
a new genre of Sufi literature – malfūz.āt. Perhaps this is the only
genre of Indo-Persian literature, the invention of which can not be
ascribed to Amir Khusrow. 14 Of course, saints’ discourses were
written down even earlier, 15 however they usually go side by side
with biographical information (elements of ţabaqāt), eulogies of the
saints (elements of manāqib) and appraisals of contemporaries and
descendants (a striking example of such a composite hagiographic
genre is Amir Khurd’s Siyar al-awliyā’). Fawā’id al-fu’ād almost
exclusively consists of Nizamuddin Awliya’s monologues, and the
compiler’s commentaries have been reduced to a minimum. Apart
from that, Amir Hasan’s book was completed during the saint’s
lifetime, and its text was apparently authenticated by him personally,
which is why none of the later hagiographers has cast doubt on the
authenticity of this work.
The material of Fawā’id al-fu’ād embodies in flesh the dry episodic
bones of historical chronicles – this is particularly striking when one
reads Amir Hasan’s book simultaneously with Barani’s Tārīkh-i
Fīrozshāhī. Beliefs and superstitions, the tenor of daily life and ethos
of the people of that distant epoch, come to life in unassuming stories
‘from life’ and in anecdotes. At the same time the text of malfūz.āt also
raises certain questions. It is natural that most of the stories and
recollections of the Shaikh have to do with his murshid Baba Farid.
However, the man most frequently alluded to next is not one of the
other great shaikhs of the Chishtiyya, but Baha‘uddin Zakariya
Multani, founder of the competing fraternity, with whom Baba Farid’s
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