A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Timur and the Timurids 139
Allah’],” is an essential element in Sufi religious practice and thus in the
practice of virtually every tariqa.Most orders do this by means of vocal
litanies (zikr-i jahri) performed in unison by groups of dervishes, but Baha
al-Din Naqshband came to prefer the above-mentioned silent zikr, zikri
khafi, a practice an individual can engage in mentally, with no participation
or interference from the external world – and thus do it under
practically any circumstances.
These radical and hitherto atypical principles or methods were to
have far-reaching consequences for the evolution of sufism in Central
Asia.Baha al-Din Naqshband himself seems to have led a life of
modesty if not seclusion in his home village, except for two pilgrimages
to Mecca and a visit to Herat.He could hardly have foreseen what effects
his charismatic personality and bold innovations (pace Khwaja Abd al-
Khaliq Gijduvani’s admonition to avoid bida, [impious] innovation)
would have.The latter could be rationalized into a system that allowed
subsequent generations of Naqshbandi dervishes to claim a hefty share
in the economic and political life of their society, to form virtual dynasties
of wealthy landowners, businessmen, political advisers or even, on
occasion, rulers.In an inverted or paradoxical sense, it may also have
served them well during the Soviet interlude, when external display of
sufism was in their case not needed for a continuation of their tariqa.
Baha al-Din, in fact, may not have been fully aware that he was founding
a Naqshbandi order.This was not atypical of the founders of other
orders or even of religions, nor was the fact that during the first years
after his death the community of his disciples and the path he had
preached was all but smothered in Bukhara by the mainstream religious
establishment of the ulama, clerics of the secular type.Baha al-Din
Naqshband’s aforementioned khalifa Khwaja Muhammad Parsa (d.
1419) found a more congenial atmosphere in Herat, where Shahrukh
looked with favor on him, and eventually supported his victorious return
to Bukhara.Nevertheless, fifteenth-century Herat overshadowed
Bukhara as a center of Naqshbandi power, chiefly because of the
support received from the Timurid elite of that city.The order also
scored tremendous success in Samarkand, again thanks to the bonds it
forged with the Timurid rulers of Transoxania.Only in the sixteenth
century did the order’s birthplace begin to surpass the other centers, no
doubt because the founder’s shrine reasserted its prestige, but perhaps
even more because the most important Shaybanid rulers resided in
Bukhara; while spiritually spellbound by the shaykhs, they also found it
politically opportune to support them there.