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

EPILOGUE
An equally important role in the cult of saints is played by etiological
legends, explaining the origin of some phenomenon of nature
or social life, of toponyms and anthroponyms. Strictly speaking, even
the cultic legends accomplish an explanatory function; however,
the sphere of etiological legends is much narrower and boils down
to the explanation of something existing in reality. Such are, in
particular, the numerous legends about the origins of water springs,
the appearance of which was ascribed to saints’ miracles (for example
the spring in Hasan Abdal or the sulphuric springs in Lakhi). Similar
legends explain the nicknames of, for example, Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar:
Kākī; Shaikh Farid: Ganj-i shakar; Pir Badr: Badarrao; Salar Mas‘ud:
Bāle Pīr; Shah Madar: Zinda. Typical etiological legends are
the miracles of the Makhdum Nuh who had supposedly shifted the
mosque in Thatta from its original location, of Mangho Pir, who
brought crocodiles to Sind, and of Shams Tabrezi, who changed the
climate of Multan. Sources of the names of localities, hills, rivers and
towns of the subcontinent also have their roots in etymological
legends bound up with the cult of saints.
The cult of saints, which originated in the medieval period and has
happily survived till our times, is a special phenomenon in the
spiritual heritage of the South Asian countries. Its peculiarity is
determined, first, by its striking vitality and capacity to withstand
historical changes, social cataclysms and new geopolitical realities.
Second, the cult of saints is one of the few extant testimonies of
the original ‘composite culture’ of the subcontinent; it continues to
unite people belonging to different ethnic and religious communities,
bringing together devotees and pilgrims, disregarding the barriers,
including those of the state. Third, the cult of saints is a universal and
all-pervading phenomenon, encompassing the diverse spheres of life
of the subcontinent and is not confined to the field of religion. In it,
as in a drop of water, are reflected the mentality, group psychology
and self-consciousness of the South Asian Muslim which in aggregate
forms the ‘national character’.
Correspondingly, even the hagiographic literature indirectly, but
nevertheless integrally and graphically, reflects the picture of the
medieval life of the subcontinent. The present book is based on
the most widely-known works of medieval Muslim hagiography:
Amir Hasan Sijzi’s The Morals for the Heart (Fawā’id al-fu’ād), Amir
Khurd’s The Lives of the Saints (Siyar al-awliyā), Hamid Qalandar’s
The Best of the Assemblies (Khair al-majālis), Dara Shikoh’s The Notebook
of the Saints (Safīnat al-awliyā), Jamali Kanboh’s The
Biographies of the Gnostics (Siyar al-‘ārifīn), and others written in
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