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

THE PEACEMAKER OF DELHI
melodies, astonishing the audience with the accuracy of his quotations
and correctness of taste – chronologically the last episodes of Fawā’id
al-fu’ād, where he discusses the meaning of ghazal, date back to 1322,
when he was already eighty years old. The Shaikh died on 3 April
1325, and Barani writes as if after his death the inhabitants of Delhi,
having lost their main intercessor, anticipated the imminent onset of
doomsday. To a certain extent they turned out to be right, because
hard times began both for Delhiites and the Chishtiyya fraternity.
The dramatic reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq (1325–51) was
accompanied by endless insurrections and revolts by provinces of the
Delhi Sultanate, which were inclined to separatism. Under these
conditions the Sultan, apprehending opposition of the Sufis in general
and of the Chishtis in particular, put obstacles in the way of their
missionary and philanthropic activity and resorted to unjustified
repression, expropriating the property of khānqāhs and awqāf. For
that matter, Tuhgluq did not spare even the leading ‘ulamā, whom
he, not without reason, suspected of disloyalty.
Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dihli, whose lot it was to be at the head of
the fraternity at such a difficult time, tells about the decline being
endured by the Delhi khānqāh:
These days the number of darwishes has decreased. In the
days of the Shaykh [Niz˝ām ad-dīn Awliyā] darwishes used to
come by twenties and thirties, and the Shaykh used to keep
them as guests for three days ... When there was an ‘urs, the
Shaykh [Niz˝ām ad-dīn] would invite all lashkardars [men of
the army] and darwishes would arrive from all sides ...
Nowadays there are neither such soldiers, nor such slaves,
nor such armies. All have deteriorated. Men have to wait [in
vain] for the darwishes to come. 16
(Trimingham 1971: 23)
When still in favour, prince Khizr Khan started building a mosque
next to the khānqāh, one of the halls of which represented a qubba,
where the Shaikh was intended to be laid to eternal rest. However,
lying on his death-bed, Nizamuddin for some reason changed his
mind and expressed his wish to be buried in the open. Which is where
his mausoleum now stands. It has a ribbed cupola resting on pillars,
surrounded by a high fretted balustrade and crowned with a heavy
spire (two gilded balls, strung on a spike), which resembles the top
of a Hindu pinnacle, or ´shikhara. Initially the mazār was erected by
the same Muhammad bin Tughluq to whom, whatever one may say
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