The Bahmani Sufis: Their Spiritual, Intellectual and Sociopolitical Role in Medieval Deccan, AD 1300 to 1538

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Bahmani Sufis (1300-1538 A.D) explores the spiritual, intellectual and socio-political role of the Chishti, Junaydi and Qadiri Sufis of the Deccan during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It charts new ground. It is the first study to:

Trace the migration of Muslims into Deccan from south India as well as the seaports of Thana, Surat and Bhatkal before 1327 A.D.

Challenge the long-held assumption that the Chishtis were the earliest to have migrated to Daulatabad and helped the Tughluq administration solidify Islam. In fact, Junaydi Sufis were working with them-a conclusion based on the extracts of Atwar al-Abrar, an extinct source of fourteenth century found in the two rare seventeen century scrolls discovered by the author.

• Disprove that Sayyid Mohammed Hussaini Gisudiraz (721-825/1321-1421) was the first Sufi of the Deccan to have converted esoteric knowledge ('ilm-i batin) into exoteric knowledge ('ilm-i zahir). This book lists as many as one hundred and thirty-two titles by Ayn al-Din Mohammed alias Ganj al-ilm (706-795/1306-1392) well before the arrival of Gisudiraz at Gulbarga.

• Outline the mystical roadmap that Gisudiraz drew for a Wayfarer (salik)-master-disciple (pir-murid) relationship, love (ishq), remembrance (zikr), contemplation (muraqiba) and musical audience (sama), based on his rasail.

• Details the relationship between the Sufis and the Sultans in two distinct phases of Gulbarga and Bidar.

Trace the transition in the ethnic structure of the Bahmani society during the times of Firoz Shah Bahmani of Gulbarga and later at Bidar.

• Explore how the Bahmani Sufis slipped from a position of dominance at Gulbarga to subservience at Bidar.

• Present several original papers, shajarat, faramin, wasiyatnamas, ahadnamas, etc.-of the families of Shaykh Mohammed Rukn al-Din Junaydi, Gisudiraz, Abul Fayz Minallah Hussaini and the descendants of Shah Niamatullah Wali Kirmani. These documents, some dating back 600 years, open a whole new treasure trove for scholars of Sufism in the Deccan.

Prof. Mohammed Suleman Siddiqi is former Vice Chancellor of Osmania University (2005-08); founding registrar of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad (1998-2004); Head of the Department of Islamic Studies at Osmania (1989-1997). He is the author of The Junaydi Sufis of the Deccan (2014), which incorporated an extinct 14th century work that he discovered; and the Urdu translation of this book, Deccan ke Junaydi Sufiya i-kiram (1921). He has also authored a book entitled Religion and Politics in Medieval Deccan. His forthcoming books are Gisudiraz; On the Mystic Path for the Wayfarer (Salik), and Farmans and Sanads of the Deccan in four volumes. He has published more than fifty papers in national and international journals, in Urdu and English. Prof. Siddiqi is presently working on Islam, its history and institutions.

In 1941, the historian of international repute, H.K. Sherwani wrote, 'If we wish to determine the salient features of our cultural heritage and evaluate the contribution the Deccan has made to the cumulative culture of India, it is necessary that the material at our disposal be thoroughly sifted and collated in a scientific manner."

The present study, The Bahmani Şüfis, was primarily undertaken because their contribution to the region is an unploughed field. Except for some passing references in Sherwani's book, The Bahmanis of the Deccan, nothing authentic has been written on the subject in English. What is available in Persian and Urdu on them is mostly hagiographical and unreliable. To get a nuanced picture of their role, there was an urgent need to explore the original sources before they were lost.

I began by making an extensive survey of government and private libraries, as well as the family and private collections of the Şüfi families of the Deccan at Daulatabad, Khuladabad, Aurangabad, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur and Golconda. I discovered three genealogical trees in Arabic and Persian, entitled Shajarah-i irādat wa ijazat peshwayān-i khud, Shajarah-i ansab aba-i kirām-i khud and Shajarah-i mubarak (Alas), with extensive notes. Allamah 'Alā al-Din Junaydi, the former sajjadāhnashīn of the shrine of Shaykh Rukn al-Din Junaydi, fetched me the first two rare scrolls from Bijapur. I have since edited, translated, and published those under the title The Junaydi Sufis of the Deccan: Discovery of a Seventeenth Century Scroll. The scrolls contain extracts from Atwār al-abrar, an extinct source written by 'Ayn al-Din Muhammad alias Ganj al-'ilm (treasury of knowledge), who was an eye-witness to the change of capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and also the author of one hundred and thirty-two works. Information from Aftwar al-abrar in these two scrolls reveals the presence of Junaydi Şüfis in north India and the Deccan as well. I was also able to discover three rare documents from the family collection of Shaykh Rukn al-Din Junaydi, a will (waşiyatnamah), dated Au 776/AD 1374 which is probably the oldest Persian document in the history of the Deccan; a document of the similar date granting two chavar of land to Shaykh Shibli, the grandson of Shaykh Rukn al-Din; and a document dated RY 33 of Aurangzeb, reconfirming the grant of the jagir of Kodchi to the family of Shaykh Rukn al-Din. Unfortunately the third scroll, Shajarah-i mubarak (Alas), with notes in Arabic, that I had seen at the residence of 'Allamah 'Ala al-Din Junaydi could not be obtained. In Chapter 5, I have made extensive use of the extracts of Atwar al-abrar mentioned in the first scroll, Shajarah-i iradat wa ijazat-i peshwayān-i khud. Recently, I have also discovered a number of later documents of this family, certified by the in'am commission of Karnataka (see Appendix C).

My other discoveries included family trees (shajarāt) in the family collections of Sayyid Muhammad Husayni Gisūdiraz of Gulbarga and Abul Fayz Minallah Husayni of Bidar; also referred to by Annemarie Schimmel in her foreword to Carl W. Ernst's work, entitled Eternal Garden; other rare documents included the Bahmani farāmin; family documents, like the Ahadnāmah and the Iqrārnāmah in the family collection of Sayyid Muhammad al-Husayni Gisüdiraz; and also some Şüfi treatises in the private libraries in Gulbarga, Bidar and Bijapur.

After serving as Vice-Chancellor of Hyderabad's Osmania A University, and before thatas Chairman of the Department of Islamic Studies at the same institution, Professor Mohammad Suleman Siddiqi has returned to the topic that inspired his earliest research-the social and cultural roles of Sufis of the medieval Deccan, in particular those active during the Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1538). Even while carrying out his administrative duties at Osmania University, Professor Siddiqi continued to hunt down new sources pertaining to the subject of his research. These include rare Persian documents and manuscripts that lie scattered across the Deccan plateau in both public institutions and private collections.

Scholars who have studied the history of medieval India are well aware that, like coins, long buried in the earth, newly discovered written materials keep turning up in the countryside. Descendants of venerable landed aristocrats might sell off family libraries that for generations had remained closed to outsiders. Caretakers of Sufi shrines of one generation might prove more generous in sharing their family documents or manuscripts than their predecessors had been. Public or private institutions like museums or libraries are always making new acquisitions. In this way, the enterprise of historical research never ends; it just keeps building on itself. It has been Professor Siddiqi's special concern to track down, preserve, and-whenever possible publish documents such as those in the Habib Allah Husaini Collection, or those belonging to the families of such notable figures such as Shaykh Rukh al-Din Junaydi, Saiyid Muhammad Husaini Gisudaraz, or Abu-l Faiz Min Allah Husaini. In 2014, in recognition of his labours in this connection, Professor Siddiqi was awarded the Maulana Azad Award by the Government of Telangana.

The present volume builds on and elaborates themes that were introduced in Professor Siddiqi's The Bahmani Sufis, which was published in 1989 by the Idarah-i Adabiyat-iDelli. That book was a revised version of his 1975 dissertation from Osmania University, written under the supervision of Professors Hans Kruse and Anwar Ali Khan. As is fitting for a scholar who focuses on the genealogies (shajaras) of famous Sufis of the Bahmani sultanate, Professor Siddiqi has his own intellectual shajara, which extends beyond his former advisors to include such renowned scholars as Haroon Khan Sherwani, Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, and, indirectly, Sir Hamilton Gibb. Together, such luminaries comprise something of a silsila, or chain of authority, analogous to the very Sufi silsilas that, stretching over space and time, are the subject of the present book, indeed, of most of Professor Siddiqi's scholarly research.

Specifically, the present volume documents important transitions in the attitudes of prominent shaikhs towards Bahmani state power, such as that illustrated by the family of the Deccan's most famous Sufi shaykh, Saiyid Muhammad Husaini Gisudaraz Bandanavaz (d. 1422). Although the shaykh himself shunned worldly rewards, his descendants not only enriched themselves with government lands donated to them, but joined government service themselves. One of his descendants even oversaw the construction of Hyderabad's famous Husain Sagar tank. The book traces similar transitions in the succession of spiritual authority. Whereas the early Chishti Sufis of north India were never succeeded by their own sons, that policy changed in the Deccan. Wishing to keep land holdings (jagir or in'am) concentrated in their own families, it became necessary to keep spiritual succession within families-a transition that occurred shortly after the death of Gisudaraz. Before long, the Bahmani government had to resolve intra-family disputes over matters of succession.

By the time the Sufi movement reached India, the work of Koranic interpretation, the compilation of the hadith literature, the establishment of the Sunni school of Islamic law and the compilation of Sufi literature covering all aspects of Sufism had reached its zenith. This was followed by centuries of blind following (taqlid). Just as the early theological and juristic studies became the guiding factor for later generations, the Sufi thought of the early shaykhs became the guiding factor for the later Sufis. Standard texts like Khasf al-mahjüb, Tamhidāt-i ayn al-quzāt, Futūh al-ghayb, Adab al-muridin, 'Awarif al-ma'arif, Fuşüş al-hikam, Futūhāt-i Makkiyah and other works were referred to and taught in the Indian khāngāhs.

The Chishti and Suhrawardishaykhs succeeded in establishing a network of khanqahs throughout north India between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and later in other parts of India. Their khulafa and disciples worked for the propagation of Chishti and Suhrawardi doctrines in north India. With their vast network, they succeeded in attracting all sections of society into their fold. The early north-Indian Sufi shaykhs did not produce any mystic literature. We only come across two authentic oral discourses (malfuzat) of Shaykh Nizam al-Din Awliya and Shaykh Naşir al-Din Chiragh Dehlawi, entitled Fawa'id al-fu'äd and Khayr al-majālis, compiled by Amir Hasan 'Ala Sijzi and Hamid Qalandar, respectively.