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

THE OLD MAN OF AJMER
silsila, Iraqi mystic Abu Ishaq ash-Shami (who died in 1097), settled
down in the small town of Chisht at a distance of 100 kilometres
from Herat (now in Afghanistan) and that is where he founded a
khānqāh. The fraternity itself later took its name from this toponym.
Ash-Shami traced his spiritual genealogy to the Prophet and Caliph
‘Ali through Hasan al-Basri and Ibrahim bin Adham who were
eminent mystics of the first centuries of Islam. Its affiliation to the
Mesopotamian school of Junaid determined the moderate Sunni
nature of the preaching and activity of the first Chishtis.
However, by the end of the twelfth century Chisht had already
ceased to be a peaceful or favourable place for Sufis. Together with
the entire neighbouring region, it had turned into an arena for the
fierce struggle of the Ghorids, rulers of the principality of Ghor
(between Ghazna and Herat), for superiority over the other Turkish
clans. Apparently, that is why the eighth khalīfa in the chain of
succession of the Chishtis 1 and the true founder of the fraternity,
Mu‘inuddin Sijzi (1142–1236), preferred to move from the capital of
Ghorids in Firozkuh, aspirant to the fame of new Ghazna, all the
way to Rajasthan, to the southern frontiers of Mu‘izzuddin Ghori’s 2
empire.
Historical information about the early period of Khwaja
Mu‘inuddin Sijzi’s life has not survived to this day. Later hagiographic
sources, for example, ‘The Virtues of Saints’ (Siyar al-awliyā) of Amir
Khurd or ‘The Notes about the Pious’ (Akhbār al-akhyār) of ‘Abdul
Haqq Muhaddith Dihlawi, compiled several centuries after the death
of the founder of the Chishtiyya fraternity, are based on the malfūz.āt
ascribed to him, but pass over in silence as to the authenticity of their
isnād. From Mu‘inuddin’s pre-Indian past only this much is known:
that he was born in Sistan (or Sijistan, hence his nisba ‘Sijzi’) and
became an orphan when he was fifteen years old.
He lived a life of idyllic simplicity on a scanty income from a garden
and a watermill, inherited from his father, until a wandering majdhūb,
Ibrahim Qunduzi, walked into his garden. Tradition goes on to
narrate a typical silsila situation of spiritual awakening for the
Chishtiyya: having chewed some sesame seeds the majdhūb put them
into the youth’s mouth, as a result of which he immediately felt the
irresistible call of the Path. The next day Mu‘inuddin sold the garden
and watermill, distributed all the money among local dervishes and
left Sistan for ever.
Having spent several years in Samarqand and Bukhara, where he
studied religious subjects, Mu‘inuddin reached Harwan, a suburb of
Nishapur, where he became a murīd of Chishti shaikh ‘Uthman
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