Maktubat
Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"
Meaning
Maktubat means "written". It is a genre of sufi literature. Sufis are Muslim mystics who seek God through love and devotion. Maktubat are collections of letters that sufi masters wrote to their disciples and friends. The letters explain religious truth as the master saw it. They also give advice on the problems of everyday life and spiritual practice. So they tell us about both the teacher's ideas and the people he wrote to.
Example
The Maktubat-i Imam Rabbani contains the letters of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, a sufi of the Naqshbandi order who died in 1624. Historians often contrast his strict ideas with Akbar's liberal, open-minded religious views.
Don't confuse with
- Malfuzat ("uttered"): a shaikh's spoken conversations, written down by a disciple. One example is the Fawa'id al-Fu'ad of Nizamuddin Auliya. Maktubat are letters the master wrote himself.
- Tazkira: biographies, or life stories, of saints written by others. They are not the saints' own letters.