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

NOTES
5 The profusion of relics in Indian Islam is to a great extent explained by
the developed pre-Islamic cult of relics, particularly Buddhist ones,
with which Islam had to compete. The cult of stūpa as that of a tomb
or monument, or veneration of relics like Buddha’s tooth had their
analogies in the cult of tombs and relics among Muslims. Goldziher
observes that Buddhist relics could directly turn into Shi‘a relics
(Goldziher 1967–71, 2: 93).
6 The post of Shaikh ul-Islām in the Delhi Sultanate was not permanent,
as was, let us say, the post of șadr as-șudūr, supervising awqāf property
and charity. The title Shaikh ul-Islām was honorary, but carried with it
a handsome salary and landed estates. Many Sufis used this title in
respect of outstanding members of their fraternity. Thus, in Chishtiyya
hagiography Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and Baba Farid are called
Shaikh ul-Islām.
7 Early Sufi authors disassociate themselves from karāmāt, although
they agree that saints show the capability to work a miracle as a gift of
God. Al-Qushayri, author of the treatise Ar-Risālat al-Qushairiyya,
wrote that even if prophets needed miracles, confirming the legitimacy
of their mission, saints on the contrary had to conceal everything which
they involuntarily performed (al-Hujwiri 1926: 311).
8 Schimmel makes use of another, more traditional and pleasantsounding,
story of the origin of ritual crocodiles from the flower, which
the incensed saint threw in the pond and cursed (Schimmel 1980: 129)
9 Shams Tabrizi is a typical example of an amalgamation of different
Muslim saints. Buried in Multan, Pir Shams Tabrizi was most probably
an Isma‘ili missionary, but the tradition popular in Punjab mixed up his
name with the name of the famous Shamsuddin Muhammad Tabrizi,
friend and murshid of Jalaluddin Rumi. This wandering mystic, whose
name Rumi used in his Dīwān-i Shams Tabrīzī was killed in 1247 and
presumably buried in Konya. But the Indian tradition affirms that he
managed to save himself from the hands of the assassins and flee to
India.
10 The term samā‘ (‘hearing’, ‘the thing heard’) ‘specifically refers to sacred
and religious music. Samā‘ is found in Indo-Persian texts in the Sufi
context, either when the licitness of music is discussed or in writings on
the rules of conduct (ādāb) for listening to music, or in more descriptive
accounts of Sufi musical assemblies, in hagiographical (tadhkira) and
‘discourse based’ (malfūz. āt) literature’ (Delvoye 1994: 93–4).
11 In the Baluchi and Pashto languages the word ziyārat means the saint’s
tomb proper. The name of the city Ziyarat in Baluchistan is derived
from the venerated tomb of saint Baba Kharwari.
12 In Trimingham’s words, ‘there is an essential distinction between
the way in which the genuine Sufi approached a saint’s tomb and the
practice of the people. The mystic carries out a ziyāra for the purpose
of murāqaba (spiritual communion) with the saint, finding in the
material symbol an aid to meditation. But the popular belief is that
the saint’s soul lingers about his tomb and places (maqāms) specially
associated with him whilst he was on earth or at which he had
manifested himself. At such places his intercession can be sought’
(Trimingham 1971: 26).
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