The Mughals, the Sufi Shaikhs and the Formation of the Akbari ...

FORMATION OF THE AKBARI DISPENSATION 173
He disapproved of several features of prevailing Sufi culture that
lent strength to some important features of the Akbari dispensation.
He also hinted that it was purification of things Indian and their
redefinition that the mission of his coming to Hindustan was. Nowhere,
however, did he actually comment upon their legality or illegality, let
alone pronouncing a verdict on the very faith of the emperor. On
this question, his approach seems to be different from the one we
generally associate with his noted disciple, Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi.
Can we assume that this was because he died prematurely, leaving
his mission incomplete while still mobilizing his strength We are
discouraged from following this line of speculation by the fact that
Sirhindi, howsoever powerful he may have been, was not the sole
spokesman of the Naqshbandi order after his death. But this is a
major question which still demands careful examination, and which
should be dealt with elsewhere.
Conclusion
This essay has traced the relationship between the Mughal dynasty
in India and various groups of Sufi shaikhs over the course of the
sixteenth century. Rather than focusing exclusively, or even largely, on
the Naqshbandi–Mujaddidi tradition of the early-seventeenth century,
we have attempted to look to the competition between various orders
of Sufis for influence over the Mughals. In this, the central role is played
by the competitive axis between the Chishtis and the Naqshbandis,
the former having exercised considerable influence over the Afghans
while the latter were, in a manner of speaking, the ‘ancestral’ saints of
the Central Asian Timurids. We have seen how the mainstream of the
Ahrari Naqshbandi tradition from Transoxiana failed eventually for
a number of reasons to consolidate its hold in India during the reign
of Humayun, leading to the brief ascendancy of the Shattari order.
Eventually, after a phase of Chishti reassertion that characterizes the
early years of Akbar’s rule (and his relations with both Ajmer, and
the more proximate figure of Shaikh Salim Chishti), the Naqshbandis
were able to rally themselves. This is in no small measure because of
the key role played by Khwaja Baqi-Billah, the master of the celebrated
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, in reinventing both an aspect of their theology
and their concrete functioning as an order.
A fuller consideration of Mughal–Sufi relations would naturally
take us to a proper examination of events and processes of the
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