Nizamuddin Auliya

Also called: Shaikh Nizamuddin · Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"

Meaning

Nizamuddin Auliya (also called Shaikh Nizamuddin, died 1325) was a saint of the Chishti sufi order (a group of Muslim mystics who looked for a direct, loving bond with God). His khanqah (hospice where a sufi master lived with his followers) at Ghiyaspur, on the Yamuna outside Delhi, was open to people of every class. He was a disciple of Baba Farid and the master of the poet Amir Khusrau. His disciples called him sultan-ul-mashaikh, and he kept away from royal courts.

He matters because his khanqah is the clearest example of how the Chishtis took in Indian customs. His life also shows the uneasy relationship between sufi saints and the Delhi Sultans.

Explanation

Background: the Chishti line he belonged to

• Several sufi groups came to India in the late 12th century. The Chishtis became the biggest, mainly because they fitted into the local setting.
• The order is named after Chisht, the village where its founder Abu Ishaq of Syria settled. Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti brought it to India in the 12th century [2].
• Nizamuddin was fourth in the main line of Chishti teachers:
• Muinuddin Sijzi (d. 1235, Ajmer)
• Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki (d. 1235, Delhi)
• Baba Farid (Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakar, d. 1265, Ajodhan)
• Nizamuddin Auliya (d. 1325, Delhi)

• Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dehli (d. 1356, Delhi)

• He followed the Chishti core ideas:

• wahdat al-wujud ("unity of being": only God truly exists, so all things are one with Him)
• giving up material goods and staying pacifist (against violence)
• zikr (repeating God's names), said both aloud (dhikr jahri) and silently (dhikr khafi) [2]

Life in the khanqah at Ghiyaspur

• Where: Ghiyaspur, on the Yamuna, outside crowded Delhi, in the 14th century.
• Layout:
• small rooms for followers
• a big hall, the jama'at khana, where people lived and prayed together

• the Shaikh lived in a room on the roof, where he met visitors

• Langar (an open kitchen) fed everyone. It was paid for by futuh (charity given without anyone asking for it).

• Visitors came from every class: soldiers, slaves, singers, Hindu jogis (yogis) and qalandars (wandering sufis who broke social rules). The poets Amir Hasan Sijzi and Amir Khusrau and the historian Ziyauddin Barani also came.
• Local customs he took in:
• visitors bowed before the Shaikh
• visitors were offered water
• new followers had their heads shaved

• followers did yogic exercises

• Language: the Delhi Chishtis spoke to visitors in Hindavi (the everyday speech of the region), not only in Persian.

Music and Amir Khusrau

• Sama' ("audition", meaning listening to mystical music) was central to Chishti worship. Music linked sufis with bhakti devotees, who also worshipped through song.
• Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), his most famous disciple, brought in the qaul. This is the hymn that opens and closes a qawwali (sufi devotional song). It is still sung first at Nizamuddin's shrine.
• Khusrau is widely seen as the creator of qawwali. The closing song, the rang, recalls his bond with his master Nizamuddin Auliya [3].
• Khusrau was called "Tuti-e-Hind" (the Parrot of India) for his sweet verse [4][5].

Relations with the state, and his legacy

• Distance from rulers: the Chishti rule allowed no connection with the secular state [2]. Nizamuddin is famous for staying away from royal courts.
• Gifts: he accepted only unsolicited gifts (gifts nobody asked for), and he spent them at once on food, clothes and ritual. Nothing was saved, and this raised his moral standing.
• 1313: he refused land.
• A ruler offered him gardens and land, and he said no.
• He quoted Baba Farid: take money for the dervishes, but refuse land deeds.

• Amir Hasan Sijzi recorded this.

• A rival kind of authority:

• Both the Sultan and the Shaikh expected prostration (lying face-down) and kissing of the feet.

• His disciples called him sultan-ul-mashaikh ("sultan among Shaikhs"), deliberately borrowing royal language.

• Result: after his death, his successors were sent across the subcontinent, so the Chishti order spread far beyond Delhi.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: late 13th to early 14th century, under the Delhi Sultanate. He died in 1325, early in the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq (r. 1324–51).
• Place: his khanqah stood at Ghiyaspur, on the Yamuna, outside Delhi. His dargah (tomb-shrine visited by pilgrims) is in Delhi, and qawwali is still sung there, starting with Khusrau's qaul.
• Key people:
• Baba Farid, his teacher
• Amir Khusrau and Amir Hasan Sijzi, poets and disciples
• Ziyauddin Barani, historian and visitor

• Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dehli, the next teacher in the line

• How we know:

• Amir Hasan Sijzi wrote down the Shaikh's sayings and acts. This includes the 1313 refusal of land. According to NCERT, the collection is the malfuzat (record of a sufi's conversations) called Fawa'id al-Fu'ad.
• Visitors such as Barani and Khusrau left their own writings.
• The living qawwali tradition at his shrine (the qaul and the rang) also keeps his memory [3].

Don't confuse with

• Muinuddin Sijzi (Gharib Nawaz): founder of the Chishti line in India, d. 1235, with his dargah at Ajmer. Nizamuddin died in 1325, and his dargah is in Delhi.
• Amir Hasan Sijzi: a poet-disciple who recorded Nizamuddin's words. He was not a Chishti master, and he is not the same person as Muinuddin Sijzi, even though they share the name "Sijzi".
• Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dehli (d. 1356): Nizamuddin's successor. Dargah Quli Khan's Muraqqa-i Dehli describes Hindus and Muslims at his shrine, even at Diwali. That shrine is not Nizamuddin's.
• Suhrawardis: they worked with the Delhi Sultans and sometimes held court offices. Nizamuddin, a Chishti, kept away from the court and refused land grants.

Prelims Hooks

• Order of Chishti masters: Muinuddin Sijzi → Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki → Baba Farid → Nizamuddin Auliya → Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dehli.
• Nizamuddin's khanqah was at Ghiyaspur, on the Yamuna, outside Delhi. Its common hall was the jama'at khana.
• Title sultan-ul-mashaikh = Nizamuddin Auliya, not Muinuddin (Gharib Nawaz) and not Baba Farid (Ganj-i Shakar).
• 1313: Nizamuddin refused a gift of gardens and land, quoting Baba Farid. Amir Hasan Sijzi recorded it.
• Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), "Tuti-e-Hind" [4][5], introduced the qaul. The qawwali's closing rang honours Nizamuddin Auliya [3].
• Trap: Nizamuddin and Amir Khusrau both died in 1325.

Mains Points

• Adaptation explains Chishti success. At Ghiyaspur, bowing to the Shaikh, offering water, shaving heads, yogic exercises, Hindavi speech and sama' show Islam taking local forms. This is why the Chishti order reached ordinary people. The court-linked Suhrawardis and Naqshbandis did not spread as widely.
• Poverty as power. Nizamuddin accepted only unsolicited futuh and spent it the same day. He refused land deeds in 1313, and the Chishti rule allowed no ties with the state [2].
• So his weakness in wealth became strength in moral authority.

• The title sultan-ul-mashaikh and the competing claims to prostration show that sufi and Sultan were rivals for the same honour.

• A cultural bridge that lasts. Through Amir Khusrau, Nizamuddin's khanqah gave rise to the qawwali tradition [3], which is still alive at his Delhi shrine. This supports the view that Islam spread in India mainly through shared devotional music and local languages, not through force. The sending of his successors across the subcontinent carried this model far beyond Delhi.

Related concepts

• Chishti silsila
• Muinuddin Chishti
• Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki
• Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dehli
• Baba Farid
• Shaikh Salim Chishti
• Gesu Daraz
• Langar
• Sama
• Zikr

Read more

• The Chishtis: khanqah life, devotionalism, language, and the state