Chishti’s relations with the Sultanate State

By: - Gaurav Sharma

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With the advent of Khawaja Muin ud Din Chishti of Ajmer during the 13th
century, the Sufism became popular in India, he was native of Sistan in Persia.
He gained large number of followers in India, he died in Ajmer in 1236 A.D,
where his tomb was erected by his disciples. Although he was one of the most
celebrated Sufi saints but there is no reliable source about his early life, we have
many sources about his life after he settled in Ajmer.
He left behind a long line of spiritual successors, almost equally celebrated,
Shaikh Farid ud Din Shakarganj and Khawaja Qutub-ud-Din Bakhtiyar Khraki
became very prominent among his spiritual successors. Shaikh Nizam-ud-Din-
Awliya of Delhi who equally distinguished, also belong to this Silsilah. These Sufi
saints had considerable influence on the masses as well as the nobles and
established the Sufi movement in India, there are many stories about the
miracles and teaching of these saints which throw very useful light over the
practices of these Sufi saints.
Once sultan offered the post of Shaikhu’l-Islam to Khawaja Qutub ud Din
Bakhtiyar Kharki but he refused to take the position in court and lived the true
ascetic life, as the Chishti believed in cutting themselves from court politics and
government service for single minded pursuit of his ideal and they believed
taking the court service is amounts to the signing one’s own spiritual death
warrant.
The kind of love these Chishti saints get from the public is mentioned in many
stories, one of them is when Khawaja Muin ud Din promised that the Khawaja
Qutub ud Din would accompany him to Ajmer but Iltutmish and the people of
Delhi were so upset at the Khawaja’s departure that he was followed and the
dust on the road where he had passed was collected as a relic. Khawaja Muin ud
Din was so moved that he urged him to return. (A history of Sufism in India vol-
1, Rizvi). This story shows us the amount of respect the Chishti saints
commanded among the public and sultan of Delhi because as Rizvi has
mentioned Iltutmish himself came out to stop Khawaja from going which is very
much unlikely act from the Sultan but for Khawaja he came out on street and
requested him not to leave which show the kind of status he had in Delhi.
Baba farid who lived very simple life and always lived in poverty and always kept
himself completely aloof from the court politics and court service, according to
the K.A.Nizami, Baba farid had strictly forbidden the use of burnt brick for the
building in which he lived, the doors of his house opened till midnight for visitor,
among his few possessions, Baba had a small rug which he used by night as a
blanket and during day it was used as a sitting rug and use his stick as pillow, it
shows the kind of simple life Sufi saint lived with and Chishti saints always
abstained from meeting the kings and noble and taking their offering. Page | 2
Ulugh Khan (Later known as Balban) himself visited the Baba farid and offered
the Farman of four villages and cash payment. Baba returned the Farman and
accepted the money and distributed among the dervishes. (A history of Sufism
in India vol-1, Rizvi), it shows that the Baba farid truly believed in living simple
life and refrained from taking any support from the royal court as the Sufis
believed offering will make them subservient to the royal and they want their
soul to be independent and free for the mystic practice.
Most of the time they don’t accept anything from royal, even if they accept
anything, they immediately distribute it among the dervish.
As Siyar-u’l-Auliya mention, it was the practice at the jama’at khanah of Shaikh
Nizam-ud-din Auliya that on every Friday everything in store was given away to
the poor and the house was cleared and swept.
As Rizvi mention in his book even before his death, Shaikh Nizam ud Din
summoned his servant Iqbal and ordered to confirm that there was not a morsel
of food in house. They assured him that only few handfuls of grain remained and
they had been kept in langar. The Shaikh was enraged at Iqbal preserving
worthless assets and ordered it to be immediately given to the poor (A history
of Sufism in India vol-1, Rizvi). Even at the death bed Shaikh do not want
anything at his possession, even the handful of grains were distributed among
the poor, it shows the kind of commitment these Sufi saints have towards the
leaving the life as dervish.
While the early historian believed that the Chishti kept themselves completely
aloof from the court politics and never accepted the position in the royal court
and never accepted any form of grants and support from them and even if they
accept any money from the sultan, they immediately distribute it among the
poor peoples but with the emergence of revisionist historian and with their
study a new interpretation was made out of the same facts which showed how
the Chishti Sufi saints not completely aloof from the royal courts.

Nizam ud Din Auliya, the most powerful sheikh at the time of the Delhi sultanate,
was given honorific title of Sultan al-mashaikh by his follower which means the
sultan of sheikh which is mention by Amir Khusraw in Siyal al-auliya.
We can see that with tittle like “sultan of sheikhs” the influence nizam ud din
Auliya can hold over the sultanate because we know the conversion in medieval
India is very much done in the influence of the Sufi movement, which indirectly
helped the Sufis to establish their authority over the people living in the state of
the Delhi sultanate and this kind of influence worked as the pressure groups on
the Delhi sultanate administration and also as authority who gave legitimacy to
the rule of the sultan. Page | 3
Even though the Chishti rejected the notion of court appointment but the Amir
Khosrow taking the court position under the sultanate ruler and when, when he
was the favorite disciple of the Nizam ud din auliya and taking that position
without the permission of the Nizam ud din auliya is seem very unlikely, which
show that there is inconsistency in what they do and what they write, but to
counter this argument Nizami points out a story from Siyar-ul-Auliya, that once
in an audition party, preside over by the great shaikh, Amir Khuarau rose up in
an ecstasy of joy while hearing sama, the sheikh objected to this and said “you
are connected with the world, you are not permitted to rise up and he was not
given the khilaft namah. But still after his death he was buried next to the grave
of Nizam ud Din Auliya which show some inconsistence in Nizami argument.

According to Siyar al-Auliya, the muqta of Ajmer urged Khawaja Muin ud Din to
obtain a royal farman for the land in the village. On the insistence of his son,
Khawaja Muin ud Din went to Delhi to obtain a farman and stayed with Khawaja
Qutub ud Din Bakhtiyar Kharki, who went on behalf of Sheikh to Iltutmish to
obtain the farman, but Rizvi in his book called this story is apocryphal, but if it is
true than it shows that they not strictly follow the practice of staying away from
royal court and made some exception in the personal cases.
According to Siyar al-Auliya, Sultan Mubarak Shah the successor of Ala ud Din
Khilji was hostile towards the Nizam ud Din Auliya because sultan asked him to
assemble on the court like other imams and sheikhs who visited Sultan and offer
him their greeting on the first day of the month but Nizam ud Din not went and
send his servant Iqbal, which hurts the pride of the Sultan and more over raised
question over the authority of Sultan and young sultan issued order if Nizam ud
Din not come on the first of the month he would have him brought forcibly but
just before the night of the beginning of the new month he was killed by
Khusraw Khan and there is one more similar incident in which Ghiyas ud Din
Tughalq ordered the shaikh Nizam ud Din Auliya to leave the Delhi before he
returned from his Bengal expedition and there is famous saying of Nizam ud Din
Auliya regarding this incident in which he says “Hanuz Dilli Door Ast” which
means Delhi is still far away (Tabaqat-I Akbari by Nizam Ud Din Ahmad) but
Ghiyas ud Din Tughalq never returns to Delhi and he was killed in collapse of
pavilion which was raised in honour of his Bengal victory just outside the Delhi
we can see from the above two incident that the animosity between the Sufi
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and the ruler of the sultanate was led to the down fall of the sultan or may be
very much used by the other section of court to conspire and eliminate the
sultan like Mubarak khan and Ghiyash ud din Tughlaq because by the account of
Ibn Battuta in Rihala he mentioned that this is conspiracy of Muhammad Bin
Tughluq because the pavilion was erected by him and contemporaries consider
that its collapse was not accidental.
The down fall story not only popular for the king but also popular for the other
Silsila, where the other Silsila practitioner doesn’t listen to the Chishti Saints
advice and meet with the same faith as the Sultan who hold animosity toward
the Sufi Shaikh, one of the story is mentioned by the Athar Abbas Rizvi in his
book A History of Sufism in India where once the Qalandars visited the Baba
farid, they claimed that during their long travel they had not come across one
true dervish. The Sheikh requested them to sit down with him so they could
become acquainted with a real dervish, but they refused. Before they left, he
begged them not to go through the desert but to take another route, ignoring
his advice, they proceeded to travel along the dessert route. Shortly afterward,
news was brought that the four had died from heat exhaustion and the fifth who
finally reached a well, drank so much water that he also died. These kinds of
story not only raised the stature of Sufi saints but simultaneously make peoples
faith much stronger in the Silsila, there is one more such example, Qubacha of
multan, requested Khawaja Qutb ud Din Kharki for help against the enemy,
giving him an arrow, the Khawaja suggested he shoot it blindly into the enemy’s
camp, Qubacha obeyed and the following day the Mongols retreated, although
in reality, the Mongol left the Indus region for political reason, but this further
increased Qubacha’s devotion toward the Khawaja (Rizvi, A history of Sufism in
India)
There are numerous incidents mention in the hagiography of these Sufi saints
where the blessing of these Sufi saints worked as the blessing and helped the
ordinary being to raised to the position of the sultan.
Iltutmish has become the centre of many of these stories. One of the story is, As
a boy slave at Bukhara, Iltutmish was sent by his master to purchase grapes. In
the street he lost the money and started to cry. A faqir took his hand bought
some grapes and told him “when you attain rule and dominion, take care that
you show respect to faqirs and holy folk” (Minhaj-I Siraj Juzjani, Tabaqat-i Nairn).
Ulgh Khan once visited the Baba Farid and offered sum tanka (silver coin) and
grants of four village, Baba Farid accepted the silver but not the four village.
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Balban then asked “what shaikh had in mind.” Baba Farid replied with suitably
oracular pronouncement. He recited two couplets of Persian verse, which might
be interpreted as an injucture to the inquirer to rule well should he attain to
power in spite of evident imperfections of character. (The Sufi Shaykh and the
sultan by Simon Digby) and according to the Siyar al-awliya this answer appears
to have pleased the future usurper. This account, shows the growing influence
of the Chishti over the Delhi sultanate.
Similar, stories regarding the Ala ud din Khilji is also famous where the words
and the blessing of the Sufi saints led to him acquiring the throne of the Delhi
Sultanate, one of the story goes Khawaja Gurg was in town of Kara, where Ala
ud Din was governor, Gurg greeted the future Sultan as he rode up to the shop-
platform where he was seated, remarking that god had made him the rider of
fortune (dawlat, also the power of the state).
We also have stories regarding the Tughlaq dynasty, where Ghiyas ud Din
Tughlaq visited the shaikh Ala al-din (at Ajodhan). The sheikh has unsewn cloth
in front of him and he tore four and half yard and gave to Ghiyas ud Din Tughlaq
and he gave twenty-seven to Muhammad Bin Tughlaq and forty yards to Firoz
Shah Tughlaq to tie around their heads as a result they each ruled for the
corresponding number of years (The Sufi Shaykh and the sultan by Simon Digby).
Similarly, one famous incident regarding the Hasan Gangu was mentioned by
the Amir Khusraw, when Hasan Gangu received the blessing of Nizam ud Din
Auliya in Delhi, Auliya has given the general invitation to a feast at the the
khanqah, in which future sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq also come, as he left
Nizam ud Din Auliya pronounced.
“A Sultan has gone and a Sultan is coming”

Then Auliya asked his servant to bring the man in who is standing at the gate
and that man was the Hasan Gangu, who later become the founder of the
Bahmani Empire.
Biography and the books written by the disciples of these Saints, need to read
very carefully because these books mostly have try to show grand stature of
these Sufis with some kind of divine power and their blessings can make one
sultan like Iltutmish, Ala ud Din Khilji and Hasan Gangu but also the animosity
toward them can led to the fall of the sultan like Mubarak khan and Ghiyas ud Page | 6
Din Tughlaq, there are so many stories regarding blessing of the Sufi saints were
mention in these books some of which seems like urban legend. Even Rizvi has
called the story of Khawaja Qutub ud Din Bakhtiyar visiting the royal court in
behalf of Khawaja Muin ud Din is apocryphal.
These stories not only increase the divine status of these saints and their Silsila
but also gave the Sultan legitimacy to rule his subjects because he has the
blessing of the divine soul, so it is win-win situation for both, these books were
mostly written to make the reader believe in the divine power of these Sufi
saints and to increase the sphere of influence of their Silsila amongst the public.
Staying away from the influence of the court or staying completely aloof from
the court is near to impossible for the Sufi saints and due to their influence over
the public it is also impossible for the sultan to ignore them, so believing that
the Chishti stayed completely aloof from the court is unlikely but they tried to
maintained this distance in their hagiographic writings and teaching but reality
is different.