96 Constructing Islam on the Indus

CHAPTER

Three
The Suhrawardi Order in Uch

Jalal al-din Surkhposh

After difficult times had fallen on Alamut, and in the wake of Shams’s
successful missionary work in the relative freedom of Multan, the Indus region
became home to a large number of foreign Isma'ilis seeking refuge in India
from the Mongols. In fact, medieval India in this era probably saw the largest
influx of Muslim refugees from Central Asia, Iran and the Middle East, in
proportion to its population, ever in its history.1 In one instance, it is reported
that thousands of Iranian refugees had gathered around Jalal al-din Khwarazm
Shah’s army in 1221 waiting to cross the Indus;2 when they were cut down
by the Mongols in the ensuing battle. This single incident demonstrates the
numbers involved in the Mongol era immigration into India.
Jalal al-din Surkhposh was born in 1198 in Bukhara, and migrated to Multan
in 1237 with his two brothers, because of the Mongol onslaught on his native
Central Asia.3 This is much after the ground work for the Suhrawardi Order
and the Isma'ili da'wa had been completed by Shams and Zakiriyya. After his

1 In this author’s conversation with renowned historian Andre Wink on the subject, he on
the basis of his research suggested that nearly one third of the population of the middle
Indus region may have been, at that point, émigrés escaping the Mongol invasions, so
high was the level of immigration to India due to the Mongols.
2 Boyle 1991, p.320. This is the same Jalal al-din (Minkburni) who Qabacha was trying
to expel with Zakiriyya’s help; only f ive thousand of his men survived the Battle of the
Indus against Chengiz Khan, while all the refugees were slaughtered.
3 Sindhi 2000, p.410.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 97

arrival in Multan from Bukhara, Surkhposh was initiated into the Suhrawardi
Order by Zakiriyya, who made him his khalifa or deputy.4 He was then sent to
Bhakkar in upper Sind as Zakiriyya’s khalifa, where he settled and preached
for a while, marrying the daughter of an eminent local Sufi, Sayyid Badr al-
din. At some point in time, due to a sudden antagonism between him and his
brothers, he left Bhakkar and migrated to Uch under Zakiriyya’s guidance,
to preach and practise Suhrawardi doctrines there.5
Before Surkhposh’s arrival, both Bhakkar and Uch were ruled by their
Ghorid governor and later regent, Nasir al-din Qabacha, until his boat capsized
in the final battle with the Delhi Sultan Iltutmish, on 30 May 1228. After this,
Uch was absorbed into the Sultanate and was governed directly from Delhi,6
while Zakiriyya became the empire’s Shaykh al-Islam. Hence, Surkhposh’s
appointment as Zakiriyya’s khalifa, and his move to Bhakkar and later to Uch,
took place under the imperial governor’s mandate. It is important to emphasise
here the pre-existing Muslim context in Uch, and Zakiriyya’s connection to
it. When it comes to Pakistan’s Islamic heritage, tradition tends to look down
upon the local religion. It always ascribes a non-Muslim context to the sites
connected with the arrival of famous Sufis, whose arrival it is said, vanquished
falsehood and established the superiority of Muslim beliefs. In Uch, the story of
Surkhposh’s arrival revolves around the conversion of the local ruler to Islam.7

Surkhposh in Uch’s folkore: Myths and reality

As explained in the last chapter, many descriptions from the Sufi era in Uch
about Surkhposh are inaccurate. Popular folklore in Uch refers to the conversion
of the native Buddhist princess, Ucha Rani, to Islam by Surkhposh, from whom
Uch is also said to derive its name. However, according to historians, this place
has been called Uch since pre-Islamic times, literally meaning ‘high place’ in
Sanskrit.8 Although there may be some truth to conversions to Islam in the
larger Uch environs, their significance in terms of Surkhposh’s arrival seems to

4 See al-Huda 2003, p.117, map of Suhrawardi shaykhs.

5 See Sindhi 2000, p.411. Bhakkar is an island in the Indus situated next to the town
of Sukkar in upper Sind. The shrine of the only other Suhrawardi Sufi in the region
(af ter Sakhi Sarwar) who preceded Zakiriyya, Nuh Bhakkari, is located on this island.
In oral narratives, Zakiriyya is said to have met Nuh on his arrival back from Iraq.
6 Khan 1983, p.53: Juzjani, vol. 1, p.421.
7 For the ‘traditional’ Pakistani view on such conversions by Sufis, see Qureshi 1967,
vol. 2, p.13ff.
8 For Uch’s Sanskrit origins see Rehman 1997, p.108.

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 98 Constructing Islam on the Indus

be overstated. As seen previously, the local overloads, i.e. the Ghorid governors
of Uch, were already Muslim before the arrival of Surkhposh. There is a grave
on the mound next to the Surkhposh khanqah that allegedly belongs to Ucha
Rani. The story mentions two princesses from the royal family of Uch, Ucha
Rani and Sita Rani, who were well versed in magic. Between them they ruled
the two interconnected principalities of Uch and Sitpur.9 Both first became
Surkhposh’s devotees, and eventually his wives, after engaging him in spiritual
contests that they lost.
Contrary to the Surkhposh and Ucha Rani story, the history of the region
from the last two chapters suggests that large-scale conversions to Islam were
instead more likely to have taken place in the time of Shams and Zakiriyya.
In addition, the era also involved massive Muslim migration into the region,
of those fleeing the Mongols. Shams’s missionary activity in Uch involved the
conversion of local nobles, including certain women, who became his deputies
and ran the lodges that he had set up.10 According to another ginan attributed
to Shams, a ‘few’ women also became his guptis or secret followers.11 In light
of the evidence from Isma'ili ginans, Shams’s own movements, the geography
of the Sitpur triangle, and the monument dedicated to Sita Rani that recently
collapsed, her ruling over the city of Sitpur is a historical possibility, one that
can be argued for. However in contrast, the possibility of Ucha Rani similarly
ruling over the city of Uch, either in the time of Surkhposh, or earlier during
the Shams and Zakiriyya period, is highly unlikely. This is because in the
Ghorid era, Uch was the provincial capital under 'Ali Karmakh, who would
not let an Isma'ili live in peace in the city, let alone a Buddhist rule over it.
After Karmakh, Qabacha’s attitude would have been no different, especially in
regards to Buddhist queens ruling over his dominions, while after 1228, the city
of Uch was ruled directly from Delhi. It is possible that a historical personality
called Ucha Rani did exist. But instead of her name being etymologically
connected to the city of Uch, she was perhaps just a prominent figure in it,
who is remembered in folklore due to her connection to the Suhrawardi Order
or the Isma'ili da'wa.

9 As mentioned in the last chapter, Sitpur is located on the opposite bank of the Panjnad
from Uch (see plate 2.2, previous chapter). A flood-ravaged monument celebrating Sita
Rani as a saint was extant until recently in Sitpur; its last turret collapsed a few years ago.
10 Satvarani Vadi, p.132 ff.
11 The entire story, including the names of some of the women, is contained in the ginan
Man Samjhani, courtesy Zawahir Moir, who is translating it with Christopher Shackle.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 99

Samaiya and the Buddhist queen

The ginan Satvarani Vadi explored in the last chapter refers to the queen of a
city called Samaiya, who had become Shams’s devotee against the wishes of
her husband the king,12 and who may also have become his wife. The place
is referred to as a Buddhist enclave in the ginan. Samaiya may well have been
another name for a city around Uch, most probably Sitpur, which remained a
Buddhist centre until its complete Islamisation.13 In addition, the outskirts of
the city of Uch probably had a substantial Buddhist population living as vassals
under Ghorid rule, at the time of Shams’s arrival there in the late 1190s. By
comparison, during the time of Surkhposh in the late 1230s, the local Buddhist
population must have significantly decreased, mainly due to the very large
number of Muslim refugees fleeing the Mongols, who according to estimates
amounted to one third of the entire population of the middle Indus region
(at that point). But local folklore in Pakistan has the predictable tendency of
ascribing the hagiography of one saint to another. 14 As mentioned in Chapter
2, our facts suggest that the Ucha Rani and Surkhposh story is actually the
one mentioned about Shams and the Buddhist queen in Isma'ili ginans. It
probably became associated with Surkhposh later, just like (the symbolism
behind) Shams’s boat ta'ziya, when he came to prominence in Uch. To give the
reader an idea of the region’s size, the distance between Multan and Uch is a
hundred miles or so; with only one main road having connected the two cities
in olden times. This did not grant Shams a very large area for his missionary
activity involving the local Buddhist queen to take place in, except for the
surroundings of Uch – which verifies the ginan’s account of Shams and the
queen a being the precursors to Surkhposh’s association with the same tale.

Surkhposh’s Twelver background and a change in personality

On his arrival in Uch as Zakiriyya’s khalifa, Surkhposh must have come
across Shams’s da'wa and his followers in the city. The family members who
had accompanied Surkhposh to Multan, including his two brothers, migrated
back to Bukhara never to return, in a series of events which marked a change

12 Satvarani Vadi, p.132 ff. The ginan is attributed to Nur Muhammad Shah, one of
Shams’s descendants.
13 Samaiya has already been identified with Sitpur in the last chapter.
14 The milk bowl story involving Shams and Zakiriyya is often applied to Shahbaz
Qalandar in Sind, as is Shams’s boat miracle, see last chapter.

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 100 Constructing Islam on the Indus

in Surkhposh’s life.15 The nature of this change can be in part attributed to

his association with Zakiriyya and the Suhrawardi Order. What can be stated
with some certainty about Surkhposh, unlike the other personalities in the
Isma'ili-Suhrawardi nexus, is his Twelver Shi'a background. The shajrah-
e-nasb or genealogical family tree of Surkhposh’s descendants in Uch today
traces their Sayyid lineage to the tenth Twelver Shi'a Imam 'Ali al-Naqi, and
in addition, they are all Twelver by creed. Unlike the other Sayyid clans in
the country, like the Ja' faris and the Kazimis,16 who can be both Shi'a and
Sunni Muslims; the Naqwis or descendants of the tenth Imam 'Ali al-Naqi
in Pakistan are predominantly Twelver Shi'a, with only a few Sunni Naqwi
families to be found. However, the Bokhari Naqwis descended from Surkhposh
living in Uch and its surroundings are exclusively Shi'a.17 It is possible that
Surkhposh’s family was offended by his new Suhrawardi associations, as tariqa
Sufism is sometimes discouraged by the more orthodox of the Twelver Shi'a.
After settling in Uch, Surkhposh would often visit Multan to meet
Zakiriyya, staying with him for extended periods of time. Even after Zakiriyya’s
death, he regularly visited his sons and successors, Sadr al-din 'Arif and Shah
Rukn-e-'Alam.18 He is known to have travelled extensively in the region and
abroad, and was allegedly responsible for propagating Suhrawardi doctrines
and setting up many khanqahs, but in history he is a secretive and shadowy
figure, with hardly any details surviving about his personal life. No malfuzat
or other texts written by him have survived. Surkhposh died in 1291, leaving
behind three sons, Baha al-din (named after Zakiriyya), Sayyid Muhammad,
and his third son, Ahmad Kabir.19 His youngest son was his spiritual successor
to the mantle of the Suhrawardi Order in Uch.20

Confusion with his grandson’s personality

Apart from the above cited, nothing concrete has been uncovered about
Surkhposh’s life. Unlike Zakiriyya’s prescriptive textbook for his khanqah,
none of the works written by Surkhposh have survived either; hence not
much is ascertainable with certitude about his personal religious leanings as a
Suhrawardi. In contrast to his family tree, some anecdotes refer to him as being

15 Sindhi 2000, p.411.

16 Descendants of the sixth and seventh Twelver Imams, Ja'far and Kazim.
17 In Uch city they number about 5000 people.
18 See Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.277.
19 Ibid.
20 Sindhi 2000, p.412.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 101

a Sunni, as they usually do for most 'Alid Sufis in Pakistan, which is contestable.
A reason for this could be the confusion that exists between his personality
and that of his grandson, Jahaniyan Jahangasht of Uch, also known as Jalal
al-din II, who is the subject of Amina Steinfels’ book Knowledge before Action
(2012).21 Jahangasht lived in the strictly orthodox reign of Sultan Muhammad
Tughluq and practised an outward orthodoxy. He was the contemporary and
disciple of Rukn-e-'Alam, and lived nearly a hundred years after Surkhposh.
Considering Surkhposh’s lineal descent from the tenth Imam, close
attachment to Zakiriyya, along with the multi-faith, necessarily Satpanth
related iconography found on his khanqah in Uch, it would not be wrong to
regard him in a (heterodox) Shi'a light.22 In fact, three of the four medieval
Sufi friends (Chahar Yar) of the Indus region, celebrated in folklore, had strong
Shi'a linkages. 23 Of them, Shahbaz Qalandar was Shams’s cousin; Surkhposh
hailed from a Twelver background, while Zakiriyya’s own Isma'ili connections
and hidden Shi'a leanings have been discussed in Chapter 1. This would leave
Baba Farid as the odd one out. But that too is only seemingly so, as a major
tribe of the Punjab that Baba Farid converted to Islam, known as the Sial, are
today roughly forty percent Twelver Shi'a. The Shi'a Sial still pay homage to
Farid’s shrine, and claim that their creed was determined by Farid himself.
Shams was a league apart from the four, but the motifs of his Satpanth kept
reappearing within the heritage of the Suhrawardi Sufi Order, both during
his lifetime, and much afterwards.

Surkhposh’s connections to the Chetir ceremony

A book, Tarikh-e-Uch, which this author discovered during his research in Uch,
highlights a direct connection between Surkhposh and the Isma'ili da'wa. This
was a rare discovery as there is little documented evidence on Surkhposh’s life.
Due to its territorial isolation from the rest of the region, mainly because of it
being part of the princely state of Bahawalpur (1690-1955), Uch preserved its
independence from the Sikhs, and later British rule. As a result, certain oral
traditions and ceremonies survived here, which lasted until Partition. Tarikh-e-

21 See Introduction.
22 For the iconography on Surkhposh’s khanqah, see Chapters 4 and 6.
23 These were Shahbaz Qalandar, Surkhposh, Zakiriyya and Baba Farid of Pakpattan
(near Multan). New evidence shows that Shahbag and Sukhposh appear in the spiritual
lineages of the Ahl-i Haqq of Iran. This was during their travels, and a matter for
future research. Courtesy Prof. Michel Boivin, and Dr. Amjad Ali Shah Naqavi (Shi'ah
Institute).

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 102 Constructing Islam on the Indus

Uch, based on these traditions, was written in 1931 about the history and saints
of Uch. It mentions Surkhposh’s annual 'urs or death anniversary celebrations
as (always) having taken place in the month of Chetir.24 This mention of the
celebration of Surkhposh’s 'urs in Chetir in a document which purports to have
collected all its evidence from the lineal custodians of the khanqahs and shrines
of Uch is of historical importance. Today, Surkhposh’s yearly 'urs begins on
the 17th of the Islamic month of Rabi' al-Awwal, and continues for 3 days,
which suggests that its celebration in Chetir died out after the absorption of
the Bahawalpur state into Pakistan. Firstly, the celebration of the 'urs on both
Indian and Islamic dates means that the method of celebration was twofold,
just like the commemoration of Shi'a dates at Shams’s shrine. Secondly, the
obvious connection in our context of Chetir to Nawruz, to Chaharshamba-yi
Suri, and to the wilayat of 'Ali at Ghadir, should be noted.
In metaphysical terms, Surkhposh’s 'urs celebrations in Chetir constitute
an important connection to the Satpanth, even as the real circumstances of
Surkhposh’s death are not known. Surely the date of his death, which is well
recorded according to the Islamic calendar, should have been celebrated with
only that, and not also with the Hindu calendar. It cannot be that the only
two Sufis, i.e. Sakhi Sarwar and Surkhposh, to whom Chetir ceremonies are
ascribable happen to be Suhrawardis, without a strong link to Shams’s da'wa
having existed for them as well. Whether Surkhposh’s 'urs celebrations were
originally held on the first Wednesday of the month of Chetir, hence resonating
with Ghadir and Nawruz; or conversely took place with some other cross-
calendar symbolism, is a matter for future scholarship. But if one considers
Surkhposh’s 'urs celebrations in Chetir in light of the Nawruz symbolism
discovered on the Suhrawardi monuments of Uch, which were built by his
descendants, his 'urs ceremony is definitely related to the wilayat of 'Ali. It
is most probably connected to the Chetir festival and to Shams himself, the
idea of which in the case of Uch was emulated for Surkhposh’s 'urs.25 After

24 See Hafiz 1931, p.99.

25 Today during Chetir in Uch, there are instead of Surkhposh’s 'urs commemorations,
four melas or festivals on four consecutive Fridays, starting on the first Friday of the
month, for the Chahar Yar mentioned in the previous section. The first mela is for the
Bukharis, i.e. Surkhposh, the second for Zakiriyya, the third for Baba Farid, and the last
one for Shahbaz Qalandar. It is possible that these four melas were originally heralded
in by the Chetir 'urs celebration for Surkhposh, on the first Wednesday of the Indian
month. This is the author’s hypothesis and is yet to be verified. The information here is
courtesy of Tahir Maqbool Baluch, programme manager in Uch for the Conservation
and Rehabilitation Centre (CRC) – until the dissolution of the programme in 2009.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 103

all, there is also the case of the boat ta'ziya in Uch, which recalls Shams, but
which is attributed instead to Surkhposh.

Ahmad Kabir
Surkhposh died in 1291 and was succeeded by his son, Ahmad Kabir. The exact
birth or death date for Ahmad Kabir is not known, nor is much known about
his life, except that he was initiated into Suhrawardi doctrines by his father
Surkhposh in Uch. Later, Zakiriyya’s son (and Rukn-e-'Alam’s father), Sadr
al-din 'Arif, became Ahmad Kabir’s mentor. This is the same Sadr al-din 'Arif
who had the many qalandar connections and problems with the authorities,
including the incident with the governor of Multan, who was emperor Balban’s
son.26 Ahmad Kabir’s personality tilted towards a severe asceticism, like that
of his mentor, Sadr al-din 'Arif. Ahmad Kabir’s grave is located next to that
of his father inside the Surkhposh khanqah.27 However, Surkhposh’s body
was interred in two other places before being re-buried inside this khanqah.
This means that Ahmad Kabir was the first Suhrawardi shaykh to be buried
inside Surkhposh’s khanqah in Uch. Ahmad Kabir is famous for his spiritual
feats, and a special bangle attributed to his grave was given to those haunted
by evil spirits and those prone to snakebite.28 Until recently, when people in
Uch were afflicted by such troubles or by an incurable sickness, they were tied
to his grave with chains until they were healed.

Jahaniyan Jahangasht
Surkhposh’s grandson, Jahaniyan Jahangasht, was born in Uch on 9 February
1308, to Ahmad Kabir.29 It is reported that Shah Rukn-e-'Alam initiated
Jahangasht into the Suhrawardi Order. 30 This seems odd because, as
Surkhposh’s grandson, he should already have been an initiate. But considering
the problems that Ahmad Kabir’s mentor, Sadr al-din 'Arif, had with the
imperial government (through the governor of Multan and heir-apparent
Prince Muhammad), it is possible that an ex-communication of prominent

26 See Chapter 1, ‘Shaykh Sadr al-din 'Arif.’

27 Hafiz 1931, p.141.
28 Ibid. The bangle was ‘tied’ to his sarcophagus for a certain number of days, after which
the wearer became free of his/her affliction.
29 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.277, & also Hussain (Jahangasht) 1983, p.4.
30 Ibid.

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 104 Constructing Islam on the Indus

Suhrawardi individuals had taken place, which necessitated Rukn-e-'Alam to

reinitiate Jahangasht into the Suhrawardi Order.31 After Rukn-e-'Alam’s death,
and the subsequent execution of his nephew Hud in Multan on the orders of
Muhammad Tughluq, 32 the young Jahangasht was pressurised by Tughluq
to take up the office of Shaykh al-Islam in Hud’s place, a position that he
refused. After some sort of a compromise, Jahangasht was appointed the head
of forty khanqahs in Siwistan (Sehwan, in Sind) by imperial decree, which
he accepted only for a brief period.33 Sometime after Hud’s execution, which
happened within a short time of Rukn-e-'Alam’s death in 1335, Jahangasht
left the administration of the Sind khanqahs. He claimed that he had been
told to go on pilgrimage to Mecca by the Prophet in a vision, a pretence which
could not be challenged by Muhammad Tughluq.

Jahangasht’s conflict with the Tughluq dynasty

According to Riazul Islam’s Sufism in South Asia, which reconstructs a stage in
Jahangasht’s life from the excerpts of works attributed to him, he was nominated
as the Shaykh al-Islam by Muhammad Tughluq in 1340, which he refused; he
went to Mecca the same year. Islam cites the reason as Rukn-e-'Alam, and not
the Prophet, having appeared to Jahangasht in a dream, warning that if he did
not leave immediately he would be ruined. Jahangasht subsequently returned
only after Muhammad Tughluq’s death in 1351.34 This means that Jahangasht
actually stayed in Sehwan for less than a year. When he was leaving, he is said
to have remarked, ‘If I were to remain at these (Sehwan) khanqahs, I would
surely have become arrogant.’35 The situation demonstrates the antagonism that
existed between Jahangasht and the Tughluq dynasty, one which recalls the
earlier problems between Jahangasht’s mentor Rukn-e-'Alam, and Muhammad
Tughluq. Hence, it is very possible that Jahangasht’s Sunni orthodox visage
was simply a means to keep the 'Ulama from passing religious edicts against
him. This was after all a legal mechanism that could easily become a tool for
state persecution, as is evident from the case of Shaykh Hud.

31 Sadr al-din 'Arif 's name is not included in the list of imperially endorsed Suhrawardi
shaykhs at Multan, see Chapter 1, ‘Shaykh Sadr al-din 'Arif.’
32 On trumped up charges: al-Huda 2003, p.128; Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p. 214: Ibn Battuta
Rihlah, vol. 3, pp.303-307.
33 Sindhi 2000, p.413.
34 Islam 2002, p.284.
35 Al-Huda 2004, p.129; also see Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.277.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 105

It is not known exactly when Jahangasht took over the Surkhposh khanqah
in Uch from his father Ahmad Kabir, as the exact date of Ahmad Kabir’s death
is not known. However, it must have been his first act as shaykh after succeeding
his father, and it lasted only for a brief period, since he was reappointed to the
Sehwan khanqahs in Sind. Jahangasht’s succession to Ahmad Kabir either
preceded or was very close to the earlier part of Muhammad Tughluq’s rule
(1325-1351), when Jahangasht was very young; he travelled abroad for most
of Tughluq’s reign. In Jahangasht’s absence, his younger brother Sadr al-din
(nicknamed Sayyid Raju) administered the khanqah at Uch.36 Sayyid Raju was
probably in his late teens at the time. A high level of antagonism thus emerges
between the Suhrawardi Order in Uch and the Sultan, in the likeness of the
situation in Multan and Muhammad Tughluq’s erstwhile efforts to crush the
order entirely in that city.
After returning to the country, Jahangasht made a rapprochement with
Muhammad Tughluq’s successor Firuz Shah (1351-1388), and earned some
favour at the court, but he was still in continuous conflict with the state
apparatus, which he successfully circumvented through the influence that he
wielded.37 Once in power, Firuz Shah for his part tried to pacify the many
communities and groups that had been aggrieved by Muhammad Tughluq’s
aggressive policies, hence Jahangasht’s better relations with his court are in no
way an exception.38 Jahangasht stayed mostly in Uch after his return, and never
went to Delhi except on a couple of occasions.39 This is untoward considering

36 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.277.

37 For details of his conflict with Firuz Shah’s Prime Minister, Khan-e-Jahan Maqbul,
see al-Huda 2003, p.129: Siyar al-'Arifin, p.212.
38 Firuz Shah reportedly had Muhammad Tughlaq buried in Sehwan, for the atonement
of his excesses. Muhammad died in Sind, after he suppressed a major rebellion in
1351, and had an eminent Sufi killed in Thatta. Firuz Shah had a grand mausoleum
commissioned over Shahbaz Qalandar’s grave, and it is suggested that this was due to
Muhammad Tughlaq’s burial there. Pakistani archaeologist Kalimullah Lashari has
identified an historic cupola that lay outside the main shrine in Sehwan, which according
to him was erected over Muhammad Tughlaq’s grave. The findings put forward by
Lashari are based on new evidence, mainly archaeological. They are not attested to
by established discourses on the subject, but they nevertheless answer many questions
and corroborate the rapprochement policy adopted by Firuz Shah towards groups in
the Indus region that were antagonised by his predecessor: Lecture by Kalimullah
Lashari, ‘An epigraphy of Sehwan,’ in ‘The Sehwan Lecture Series 2012,’ held at the
Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, on Wednesday, 9 May 2012.
39 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.278.

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 106 Constructing Islam on the Indus

that on his return home Jahangasht had officially been endorsed as the shaykh
of the Suhrawardi Order by Firuz Shah. When Jahangasht did travel to the
imperial capital, he did so with his entourage and scribes, who compiled his
sayings and discourses in a number of books, some of which have survived.

The shared title with Surkhposh and early life

Jahangasht was given his grandfather Surkhposh’s title, Jalal al-din, as a mark
of respect, and came to be known as Jalal al-din II. In folklore, this shared title
has become a cause for confusion between the two, especially with regard to
the Sunnism attributed to Surkhposh, whose life is unrecorded. As pointed out
above, Jahangasht’s own Sunnism was probably professed as protection from
state persecution; on account of the difficult times he had faced during the reign
of Muhammad Tughluq. In contrast, all of Surkhposh’s descendants in Uch, the
Bukhari Naqvi Sayyids, including those claiming descent through Jahangasht,
are today Twelver Shi'a by creed. Among them however, Jahangasht’s direct
descendants declared their Shi'ism openly much later in history (in the early
1700s), citing dissimulation as a reason for their previous beliefs.
Jahangasht’s initial education took place in Uch at the Surkhposh khanqah,
which was at the time run by his father Ahmad Kabir, and was completed
under Qadi Zakiriyya, who was especially appointed for this purpose.40 Due
to his reputation as a scholar of both exoteric and esoteric sciences, and his
success with Jahangasht, the title of Baha al-Halim was bestowed upon Qadi
Zakiriyya. His monument is a part of the Bibi Jaiwandi tomb complex located
adjacent to the Surkhposh khanqah, and is dealt with in Chapter 6. After Baha
al-Halim’s death, Jahangasht was sent to the khanqah of Rukn-e-'Alam in
Multan for further education. Rukn-e-'Alam apparently became very attached
to Jahangasht, and personally initiated him into the higher doctrines of the
Suhrawardi Order. He also appointed two teachers for the completion of
Jahangasht’s training. Jahangasht stayed at the khanqah in Multan for many
years, after which he went to the Hijaz.41 In the folklore of Uch, there are
many reports about the time Jahangasht spent in the Hijaz, and his performing
spiritual feats there.
These events approximately took place in the late 1320s, as Jahangasht was
to return to Uch from the Hijaz to take control of the Surkhposh khanqah,

40 Sindhi 2000, p. 412, & also Hussain 1983, p.4.

41 Ibid.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 107

before Rukn-e-'Alam died in 1335. Due to his advancing age, Rukn-e-'Alam,

as Shaykh al-Islam of the Suhrawardi Order, may actually have summoned
Jahangasht back – for the purpose of taking over the Uch khanqah, although
this is not mentioned in recorded history. In this period of Jahangasht’s life,
the Rukn-e-'Alam connection proves central to the theme of this book,
as he (Rukn-e-'Alam) is the orthodox Shaykh al-Islam whose monument,
like Jahangasht’s personality, carries hidden Shi'a motifs.42 An analysis of
Jahangasht’s Shi'a tendencies is outlined below.

Jahangasht’s Shi'a tendencies

Jahangasht authored many books, most of which have now been lost. In addition
to the primary source Malfuzat-e-Hussain used in this chapter,43 Jami' al-'Ulum
(Collection of Sciences) figures prominently among the works ascribed to
Jahangasht, and still survives in unpublished form.44 But unlike Zakiriyya’s
Al-Awrad that was explored in Chapter 1, Jami' al-'Ulum shows Jahangasht to be
an orthodox Sunni, one who is opposed to Shi'ism.45 However, considering that
Jami' al-'Ulum was compiled at the court in Delhi, during one of Jahangasht’s
two visits to the imperial capital, this should come as no surprise. Its writing
was open to the scrutiny of the court nobles and scholars, and since the book
is obviously based on the discourses which took place between them and
Jahangasht, it would in no way echo his Shi'a leanings. Jahangasht’s scribes
must have ensured that Firuz Shah’s court was not offended by the book.
In contrast, Athar 'Abbas Rizvi quoting from another manuscript writes
that in spite of Jahangasht’s (outward) orthodoxy, he marshalled evidence from
the Quran to prove that the Family of the Prophet included only 'Ali, Fatima
and her sons. He asserted that the Mubahila (3:59) and Tathir (33:33) verses
in the Quran reiterated that love and respect for the Prophet’s family should
be regarded as the same as were due to the Prophet himself. Similarly, hate
and enmity towards them should be treated as hatred for the Prophet, and
that these sentiments became a distinctive feature of Jahangasht’s khanqah in

42 For Rukn-e-'Alam’s monument and its Shi'a iconography see Chapter 5.

43 This is a compilation of Jahangasht’s life and sayings, as recorded by his scribes.
44 Jami' al-'Ulum are his letters and discourses, as collected by his scribes, on the occasion
of his extended visit to Delhi to the court of Firuz Shah, in which he tries to give a
Sunni interpretation of Sufism: Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.279.
45 Rizvi 1986b (Shi'ism), vol. 1, p.154.

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 108 Constructing Islam on the Indus

Uch.46 The interpretation of these two verses of the Quran in favour of the
Prophet’s family by Jahangasht will prevent his being painted in a Sunni light
by any scholar of Shi'a Islam. In Shi'ism, the two verses are used to accord the
Prophet’s family a status of equality with him.
In addition, Jahangasht is also reported to have written a book on obscure
Shi'a sects in another manuscript.47 The contents of this book have a special
bearing on the sub-order of Sufis that Jahangasht was to found within the
Suhrawardi Order at Uch, known as the Jalali Dervishes. At some point, the
Jalali Dervishes actually went on to emulate the extreme beliefs of the obscure
Shi'a sects that Jahangasht had written about. Moreover, such a subject would
never have attracted a real Sunni puritan, unless the book was written as a
warning of what to stay away from. But then, why obscure Shi'a sects and not
predominant Shi'a denominations, which have many more adherents and are
traditionally considered the greater ‘threat’ to orthodoxy? In fact, if Jahangasht
were a true puritan, he would have instinctively rejected the detailed study
of obscure Shi'a sects as a matter of faith – since they literally equate 'Ali
with God; instead of delving into the subject. To add to the discrepancy, in
the medieval era such a book would have been of no interest to an orthodox
Sunni readership, whether Sufi or otherwise, as traditionally this readership
has always held very rigid views on Shi'ism.

Sadr al-din Rajjan Qattal (Sayyid Raju)

Jahangasht’s younger brother was named Sadr al-din, and it is he who
administered the Surkhposh khanqah in Jahangasht’s eleven year absence from
the country, during Muhammad Tughluq’s reign. Not much detail is available
on the early life of Sadr al-din, or Sayyid Raju as he is popularly known, except
that his personality was in stark contrast to that of Jahangasht. Sayyid Raju was
withdrawn and ascetic-minded by nature. The exact date of birth for Sayyid

46 Ibid: Khazana-e-Fawa’id-e-Jalaliyya, British Museum MS., ff 152b-155a. The use of

these two verses in favour of the Prophet’s family is exclusively a Shi'a or a Shi'a-Sufi
phenomenon. They are used to assert the infallibility of the Prophet’s family, and
for admonishing the enmity and hatred shown towards them immediately after the
Prophet’s death. For the Shi'a reading of the Mubahila and Tathir verses and its similarity
to Jahangasht’s exegesis, see http://www.al-islam.org/history/history/mubahila.html
& http://www.al-islam.org/short/arabic/tathir .
47 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1 p.157: Sirajiyya, held in the Raza Library, Rampur, India.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 109

Raju is not known either, but according to local tradition, he was more than
a decade younger than Jahangasht (b.1308), and very young when his father
Ahmad Kabir died. Hence, his date of birth can be approximated to the 1320s,
and that of the death of his father to roughly the same period. Jahangasht is
said to have remarked that if God had chosen that he (Jahangasht) should be
concerned with the people’s welfare, it was so that Sayyid Raju should lead
the life of a recluse, constantly engrossed in prayer and meditation.48 In spite
of their obvious temperamental difference, the two became inseparable when
Jahangasht returned to Uch after Muhammad Tughluq’s death (in 1351). They
propagated the Suhrawardi cause together in the city. When Jahangasht came
back, a separate khanqah was set up in his name in Uch. It is inferable from
this that Sayyid Raju did not completely give up control of the Surkhposh
khanqah to the returning Jahangasht; or perhaps jointly administered it with
him thereafter. During Jahangasht’s prolonged absence, the foundation stones
for future Suhrawardi plans in Uch must have been laid by the young Sayyid
Raju, who also has a khanqah to his own name. The Sayyid Raju khanqah is
physically much larger than the Jahangasht khanqah, but probably dates from
the era after Jahangasht’s death.
Sayyid Raju’s prominence started with his taking over the administration
of the Surkhposh khanqah, after Jahangasht had left the country to escape
Muhammad Tughluq’s offer of appointment as Shaykh al-Islam (in 1340).
This era of Sayyid Raju’s life is mostly uncharted. It is said that he initiated
and supervised many disciples, although he must have been very young at the
time. Sayyid Raju was initiated into Suhrawardi doctrines by his father Ahmad
Kabir, but his brother Jahangasht also imparted spiritual training to him.49
Due to his asceticism, Sayyid Raju is more easily associable with Shi'ism and
heterodoxy than his brother, and is known to have been very temperamental.
However, after Jahangasht’s return in 1351, the two brothers are always
mentioned together in historical references to their activities in Uch, where they
rose to great eminence.50 In these references, the Sunni orthodoxy ascribed to
Jahangasht is sometimes extended to Sayyid Raju, which has prompted some
historians to paint him in a proto-Salafi light.51

48 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.281.

49 Ibid. Rizvi’s first statement makes lesser sense here, as Ahmad Kabir died when Sayyid
Raju was very young, and children are usually not initiated into Sufi orders.
50 Rizvi 1986b (Shi'ism), vol. 1, p.199.
51 A very militant Sunni evangelism is at times ascribed to Sayyid Raju, see Rizvi 1986,
vol. 1, p.281.

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 110 Constructing Islam on the Indus

Jahangasht died in 1384, and subsequently Sayyid Raju re-assumed full

control of the Surkhposh khanqah, administering it until his own death,
and never left Uch again except on one occasion.52 Soon after Jahangasht’s
passing, an incident involving Sayyid Raju and Sultan Firuz Shah took place,
due to which Sayyid Raju went to Delhi for the first and only time. His
purpose was to bring back a criminal who had escaped and sought refuge at
Firuz Shah’s court. The escapee was a prominent Hindu state official from
Uch and a favourite of the Sultan. It is reported that Firuz Shah had devised
a plan, at the behest of three imperial religious authorities in Delhi, to trap
Sayyid Raju on his arrival.53 The report suggests that some discord existed
between Sayyid Raju and the 'Ulama. However, Firuz Shah and the 'Ulama
were outmanoeuvred by Raju because of his prior knowledge of the scheme,
and his skill in retorting to their queries in debate. He succeeded in returning
back to Uch unharmed with the criminal.54
The above event demonstrates both the hostility of the imperial court,
and Sayyid Raju’s power in Uch as a dispenser of justice, since he was able to
circumvent the Sultan’s authority by not making an exception for his favourite.
The situation recalls in Uch the independence of the Zakiriyya era in Multan.
The scenario of ‘trapping’ Sayyid Raju in a religious debate however, points
towards the 'Ulama’s intention of trying to discredit and arrest him on heresy
charges. After Jahangasht’s death, Sayyid Raju’s administration in Uch heralded
increased isolation from the outside world.55

The Jalali Dervishes: Connections to Isma'ilism

An ascetic sub-order known as the Jalali Dervishes was formed within the
Suhrawardi Sufi Order by the two brothers. Although they are usually
associated with Jahangasht on account of his fame, it is more likely that

52 Ibid: Jamali Akhbar al-Akhyar, p.154.

53 By involving him in a religious debate.
54 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.280. This incident is reported in detail in the following historical
texts: Jamali, Akhbar al-Akhyar, pp.159-160; Gulshan-e-Ibrahimi, pp.417-418.
55 Sayyid Raju’s isolationist policy was assisted by the death of Firuz Shah in 1388, after
which all successive Tughluq Sultans were incompetent rulers, until the attack of Timur
decimated the Tughluq dynasty completely in 1398. Sayyid Raju’s re-administration
of the Surkhposh khanqah in 1384 corresponds with the da'wa of Shams’s descendant
Hasan Kabir al-din, who headed the Isma'ili mission in Uch. The personalities of the
two are very similar, with strong leanings towards asceticism.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 111

Sayyid Raju, due to his ascetic personality, and the time that he initially spent
administering the Surkhposh khanqah, laid the foundations for the formation
of the dervishes. It is even possible that the founding of the sub-order was a
partial reason for Jahangasht’s prolonged absence from the country, so as to give
Sayyid Raju a freer hand in Uch, and to distract attention from Suhrawardi
activities in the city. The kind of heterodox asceticism that the Jalali Dervishes
professed defines the secret connections that the Suhrawardi Order maintained
with Isma'ilism in the city, and is a far cry from the outward orthodoxy practised
by either Jahangasht or Sayyid Raju. Their formation appears to have been a
long thought out plan of the Suhrawardi Order in Uch.
Many incidents in the Sufi text Mahbubiya, relate that three generations
of Suhrawardi Sufis in Uch, Jahangasht, Sayyid Raju and their immediate
descendants and followers, were in continuous conflict with Hindu yogis. They
challenged yogis to intellectual debates and spiritual contests until the yogis
either lost and submitted, or made peace with them. Many yogis subsequently
joined the order and presumably brought to it their esoteric knowledge and
practices.56 The approach of engaging Hindu ascetics in spiritual contests is
reminiscent of early Isma'ili da'wa tactics dating back to Shams himself, and
to Satgur Nur in the Gujarat, both of whom made great strides in winning
local converts in this manner.57 In addition, it is reported in the Mahbubiya
that Jahangasht was in the habit (like Zakiriyya) of making large gifts to
qalandars and travelling dervishes,58 something which contradicts reports
about his being a puritanical Sunni.
It should be pointed out that after the death of Ahmad Kabir, and especially
during Jahangasht’s travels abroad, there are no reports of any Suhrawardi
masters in Uch supervising the young Sayyid Raju, who was at the time said
to have been administrating the Surkhposh khanqah. The last such shaykh
in Multan, Shaykh Hud, had already been executed. Jahangasht’s mentor,
Rukn-e-'Alam, had died before Hud in 1335, when Jahangasht was only
twenty seven years old. Jahangasht’s famed teacher from Uch, Baha al-Halim,
had died even earlier, due to which Jahangasht went to learn at the Rukn-e-

56 This spiritual amalgamation is still visible to those who know of the esoteric practices
of the Jalali Dervishes. They are both Muslim and Hindu, and combine jafr or Islamic
cabbala, with yogic energy meditation techniques.
57 The ginan Man Samjhani which Zawahir Moir is translating with Christopher Shackle
mentions Shams’s metaphysical debates and engagements with Buddhist monks. Also
see Chapter 2, ‘The river and the arrival from Uch.’
58 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.278: Yusufi, Mahbubiya ff. 9b-11b.

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 112 Constructing Islam on the Indus

'Alam khanqah in Multan (in his late teens). In short, for the time he was in
the country, until he left in 1340, without the help of other Sufi masters to
aid him, Jahangasht was simply too young to be imparting detailed spiritual
guidance to his younger brother. In addition, even after Jahangasht’s departure,
Uch remained a renowned Suhrawardi centre with a very young Sayyid Raju
in charge. As Jahangasht was thirty two years old in 1340 when he left the
country, this would make Sayyid Raju literally a teenager then, when he is
reported to have initiated and supervised disciples, and presumably laid the
foundations for the Jalali Dervishes. Such tasks would have been impossible
for a teenager to accomplish on his own, without help and support from others.
Therefore, the question that begs to be asked is: in the absence of any known
Suhrawardi masters, who was guiding and mentoring Sayyid Raju in Uch?

Shams’s descendants in Uch

The only real religious organisation that existed in Uch during Jahangasht’s
decade-long absence, one which could have guided the young Sayyid Raju,
and which maintained older connections with the Suhrawardi Sufi Order
(going back more than a century to Iraq), was the Isma'ili da'wa headed by
the descendants of Pir Shams. These were, Shams’s son Nasir al-din (d.1362),
who lived the life of an ascetic; Shams’s grandson Sadr al-din (d.1416), who
was responsible for the re-organisation and expansion of the da'wa in Uch; and
finally Shams’s great grandson, Hasan Kabir al-din (d.1449).59 Uch’s isolation
from the outside world has already been mentioned for the time of Jahangasht,
and especially that of Sayyid Raju; when secret cooperation between the two
religious entities proceeded unchecked. This cooperation also had a precedent
in the previous century, through the Shams-Zakiriyya link in Multan, and
the Chetir ceremony.
Shams’s descendants were responsible for large-scale conversions to
Isma'ilism in the region of Uch, after the city had (once more) become the
centre of the da'wa, subsequent to Shams’s death.60 Like Shams, Nasir al-din

59 For Shams’s descendants in Uch as da'is, see Chapter 6. For details of the accurate
chronology of Shams’s descendants in Uch from new evidence, starting with Nasir
al-din, as opposed to some exaggerated Isma'ili accounts, see this author’s doctoral
thesis, in Khan 2009, 217ff.
60 According to Zawahir Moir, Shams was murdered in 1276 in Multan, and did not die
a natural death; which is fourteen years after Zakiriyya had died (1262). This suggests
that after Zakiriyya’s death, orthodox forces in Multan may have been responsible for

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 113

and Sadr al-din cannot yet be identified as Suhrawardi Sufis, if only for lack
of textual evidence; although Sadr al-din’s tomb certainly demonstrates the
connection, while some oral narratives also refer to him as being a Suhrawardi
Sufi. However, Hasan Kabir al-din is well known to have been a Suhrawardi
Sufi,61 and was also a contemporary of Sayyid Raju (after Jahangasht’s death).
It is more than probable that Nasir al-din and Sadr al-din played some part in
Sayyid Raju’s early development, after Jahangasht had left the country (1340-
1351), and that they contributed to the formation of the Jalali Dervishes in Uch.
This is especially considering the kind of religiosity that the dervishes adhered
to, who like Isma'ili ascetics, actively engaged other religious traditions, and
rejected the Islamic shari'a altogether (see next section). There are no historical
reports of any conflict existing between Shams’s descendants and Jahangasht
and Sayyid Raju, or conversely any reports of friendship between them. In
fact, curiously enough, there are no reports of any connection having existed
between them at all, which in a small city like Uch raises questions.
The cryptic connection proposed here between the Isma'ili da'wa and the
Suhrawardi Order in Uch was obviously kept secret as a matter of strategy.
The hypothesis is strengthened by the general secrecy maintained by the two
brothers at the khanqahs, in addition to the physical isolation of Uch itself.
It is reported that even after Jahangasht’s return in 1351, no imperial official
or general outsider was allowed inside the Suhrawardi khanqahs. Hence,
any covert religious activity involving Isma'ili da'is would be untraceable,
and remains hidden to this day. In one of his own statements, Jahangasht
discouraged outside visitors to the khanqahs and exhibited both dissimulation
and secrecy in terms of religious affairs. He said that it was acceptable for
Sufis to visit rulers, noblemen and the rich to elicit the interests and welfare
of the common folk, but a dervish should never allow such people to visit him
at the khanqah, and if it were unavoidable, then the visit should be devoted to
preaching the significance of the shari'a.62
The Isma'ili Imam Islam Shah (lived 1370-1423), during the Imamate of
whom Hasan Kabir al-din was openly a Suhrawardi Sufi in Uch, lived the life
of a wandering dervish in Azerbaijan. His identity was kept hidden from all
except his inner followers. He visited his mission centres in Iran in absolute
secrecy, meeting his followers in disguise, and was fond of isolation, spending

Shams’s murder, or at least for exerting pressure on the Isma'ili da'wa, forcing it to be
shifted back to the comparative safety of Uch.
61 Hafiz 1931, pp.151-152.
62 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.280: Siraj al-Hadiya, f.62a.

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 114 Constructing Islam on the Indus

months on end in the wild.63 It is evident that the secrecy and asceticism
practised in Uch under Jahangasht and Sayyid Raju were in consonance with
contemporary Isma'ili religious attitudes then, where the agenda, as stated
by Daftary, ‘was not the propagation of a certain Shi'a sect, but rather the
‘Shi'itization’ of (a dominant) Sunnism.’64

Metaphysical tendencies and the Satpanth

Judging from their ascetic practices and metaphysical tendencies, the Jalali
Dervishes can be best explained as a crossover between Isma'ili and Twelver
concepts, and Suhrawardi beliefs, something that will become clearer in
Chapter 4, from the analysis of the iconography found on the Suhrawardi
monuments of Uch. These are the buildings from where Jahangasht and
Sayyid Raju preached, where the dervishes were formed , and which are
systematically embellished with the symbolism of many religions – something
that is originally a hallmark of the Isma'ili Satpanth. For the moment, the
manner of the dervishes’ engagement of Hindu ascetics, as reported in the
Mahbubiya, serves as evidence on their religious characteristics. Such historical
reports are complemented by present-day Jalali Dervish ascetic exercises
that this author encountered during field research, which are both Muslim
and Hindu, and combine jafr or cabbala with yogic energy techniques. The
spiritual exercises of the group suggest that it was formed to further the
advancement of batini or esoteric sciences, by engaging the Hindu tradition,
and to provide a bastion for countering the influence of yogic orders in the
region. Uch was one of the oldest centres for Shakta or Tantric practices in
India. The strength of the yogis, in terms of the control they exercised over the
local population, must have been of epic proportions, hindering proselytism
and efficient administration.

Shi'ism
In his book Shi'a of India Hollister, writing around the time of Partition, says
that no step has been taken to study the intertwined relationship between
Shi'ism and Sufism. He goes on to state that this intimacy may be judged

63 http://www.Ismaili.net/histoire/history07/history707.html . Most citations on this

website of Isma'ili history are regarded as being academically trustworthy, except where
cited on the webpage.
64 See Daftary 2007, p.419.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 115

through the Jalali Order found in the Punjab, which is an offshoot of the
Suhrawardi, by which of course he means the Jalali Dervishes. According to
him this order has the status of a sect, and is somehow connected to the Bektashi
Order in Turkey and Albania.65 About the Bektashis he states that they are
extreme Shi'as, who reject the first three caliphs, and place 'Ali in a trinity
with Allah and Muhammad. They believe that the Twelve Imams and the
Fourteen Infallibles (which comprise the Twelve Imams and Muhammad and
his daughter Fatima) of Twelver Shi'ism are special manifestations of God.66
Although Hollister’s descriptions are accurate about the general affinity, in
terms of religious ideas, between the Bektashis and the Jalali Dervishes, his
description of the Shi'ism of the Bektashis is more applicable instead to the
Twelver Alevis of Turkey.67
Hollister’s statements find resonance with Rizvi’s work, which cites visible
organisational similarity between the Suhrawardi Order in Uch, and the
Akhi and Futuwwa dervish brotherhoods in Khurasan and Anatolia.68 Rivzi
attributes this similarity to Jahangasht, but in light of the connections already
established in this book, it is probable that the order only took this shape later,
when it broke from its Suhrawardi origins. Unlike Hollister’s observation, there
are no historical reports on the formation of the dervishes as a separate sect, or
on their working outside or being an offshoot of the Suhrawardi Order within
which they were contained, either in the time of Jahangasht, or of Sayyid Raju.
This was obviously a later development.
The best available descriptions of the Jalali Dervishes are found in early
British accounts of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, from
which one can roughly deduce the shape and direction the group took away from
its Suhrawardi roots. Herklots, in his Islam in India, states that the Jalaliyya
take their name from Sayyid Jalal al-din Bukhari (Jahangasht) of Uch. They
have a scar on their right arm that is made at initiation. In their headquarters

65 Hollister 1953, p. 186: Rose, Glossary, pp. 553-556. Hollister did his fieldwork in the
pre-Partition era, when the Jalali dervishes were widespread in the Punjab; hence his
observation carries a lot of weight. The order has now become very secretive and its
members are nominal in number by comparison; they are not visible publicly, nor are
their doctrines and beliefs ascertainable by the outsider.
66 Ibid, pp.186-187; Birge 1994, pp.145 ff.
67 The Bektashis are actually less extreme than the Alevis, and in late Ottoman times
the Janissaries belonged to this order; hence it could not have been very anti-Sunni if
the Ottoman state tolerated it. However, they do have an overall Shi'a feel to them.
68 Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.281.

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 116 Constructing Islam on the Indus

in the Punjab, they give little heed to prayer, smoke quantities of hemp and
eat snakes and scorpions.69 They shave their heads, leaving a scalp lock on
one side. They are vagabonds with no fixed dwelling place, and are feared and
despised, and considered a general nuisance to society.70 Elsewhere Herklots
says that the Jalaliyya are renowned for their publicly performed spiritual
feats; the band of dervishes carries a hideous female doll, and they engage in
extreme forms of penance.71
Such descriptions of the dervishes show that they were similar to a group
akin to the early medieval qalandars of the Middle East, known as the Haydari
faqirs,72 rather than the Bektashis of Anatolia as mentioned by Hollister, or
the Akhi and Futuwwa dervish brotherhoods as stated by Rizvi. The reason
is, as Herklots has remarked, that they (the dervishes) have no fixed dwelling
place. This is not a characteristic of established dervish brotherhoods, whose
members live in lodges. The Haydaris used to undergo extreme penance and
pierced their bodies, much like the Jalali Dervishes are reported to have done
in British accounts. However, retaining the scalp lock is a feature of Indian
asceticism. Although the Haydaris may have been influenced by the pre-Jamal
al-din Sawi era qalandars at some level, who did not dwell in khanqahs and
have been surmised in Chapter 1, the probability that the Jalali Dervishes
were (initially) conceived to exist in such a manner is low. It was only with
the passage of time and the slow demise of the Suhrawardi Sufi Order that
the dervishes were influenced by religious trends from the nearby shrine of
Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, to transform into their nineteenth century
appearance at the time of Herklots’ writing.73

69 Eating snakes and scorpions is a widespread practice amongst the jogi (snake charmer)
caste in the Indus region to this day, who claim a connection to the older yogic orders
in Sind and the southern Punjab, although today jogis are considered low caste and
feared. Jogis believe that eating snakes and scorpions enhances their spiritual insight
and the ability to control spirits. This was probably a common Tantric practice amongst
the Shakta yogic orders of the past, from where it was inherited by the dervishes.
70 Herklots 1834, pp.201-202: Census Report Punjab 1891, p. 195 ff; Rose Dabistan, p.226,
amongst other citations.
71 Ibid, p.175. Here Herklots implies witchcraft.
72 For the Haydari faqirs see Humphreys 1977, p.209 ff. The Haydariyya was founded
near contemporaneously with Sawi's Qalandariyya by Qutbal-din Haydar (d.1221) in
Khurasan. Incidently, Haji Bektash, linked to the origins of both the Bektashi Order
and the Turkish Alevis, was associated to the Haydariyya.
73 The initiated dervishes of the Qalandariyya in Sehwan live in their khanqahs, but
among them those who shave their heads retain the practice of leaving a scalp lock.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 117

It appears that metaphysical experimentation in Uch, which initially led to

its glory and fame, eventually became the reason for its downfall. The process
of admitting Tantric yogis (and their beliefs) into the order must have led to a
marked change in the Jalali Dervishes themselves over a course of time, with
nobody to regulate their religious activity after Sayyid Raju. In all probability,
religious experimentation at the khanqahs in Uch simply got out of hand once
the local Suhrawardi shaykhs and Isma'ili da'is with any real spiritual authority
had died, leaving their descendants and followers to run amok. Of course, the
dissimulative Sunni profiles of Jahangasht and Sayyid Raju do not figure in
the context of this religious experimentation, but Jahangasht’s engagement
of yogis and his book on obscure and extreme Shi'a sub-sects does, as that is
what his order of dervishes eventually became.
The fact that some extreme beliefs in Uch were responsible for a change in
the nature of the dervishes is complemented by what happened to the Isma'ili
da'wa in the city. After Hasan Kabir al-din’s death in 1449, his quarrelling sons
refused to acknowledge the new Isma'ili deputy in Uch, 74 with some claiming
the mantle of pir for themselves. A secondary factor that played a part in this
change, due to which the dervishes may have come to deify the Fourteen
Infallibles as described by Hollister, is large-scale conversion to (orthodox)
Twelver Shi'ism. Such conversions also took place amongst the descendants
of Hasan Kabir al-din, and are explored below.

Breakdown
The two most prominent personalities in Uch at the time of the Jalali
Dervishes, when the Isma'ili da'wa was at its zenith in the Punjab, and a weak
imperial government existed in Delhi, were Hasan Kabir al-din, who died in
1449, and Sayyid Raju who died slightly earlier in 1444;75 both having lived
to advanced ages. The situation for the da'wa, and it is presumed for the Jalali
Dervishes, changed with their deaths. Both personalities were far too powerful

However, individual parties of faqirs or qalandars, mainly from the Punjab, with no
fixed dwelling place still visit Sehwan; it was probably the latter trend that influenced
the Jalali Dervishes in the modern era.
74 See Daftary 2007, p.445. Zawahir Moir states that historical accounts mention a plague
in Uch at the time of the dispute, along with general anarchy prevailing in the Isma'ili
community of the city on Hasan Kabir al-din’s death (d.1449), mainly due to his sons’
attitude.
75 Rizvi 1986b (Shi'ism), vol. 1, p.199.

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 118 Constructing Islam on the Indus

not to have been controlling events in Uch. After them however, things changed
so rapidly that within a short period of time the Qadiri (Sunni) Order made
inroads into the city.
On the death of Hasan Kabir al-din, some of his sons who had rejected his
younger brother Taj al-din as the new da'i were excommunicated, and (hence)
may have started becoming Twelver Shi'a.76 Similarly, extreme (Twelver)
beliefs started creeping into the Jalali Dervishes at the same time, perhaps
with the death of Sayyid Raju, and they may have started to deify the Fourteen
Infallibles as a result. The general situation in Uch deteriorated to such an
extent that the arrival of the Qadiri Order in the city, in the person of Abu
'Abd Allah Mahbub Subhani, was welcomed with open arms by many in the
local populace. He was born in 1430 in Aleppo, and died in Uch in 1517,
and is buried there.77 The exact date of his arrival in Uch is not known, but
considering his birth in 1430, it was surely after the deaths of Sayyid Raju and
Hasan Kabir al-din. He filled the spiritual vacuum left behind by them, and
attracted many in Uch to the Sunni Sufi way, after two centuries of Twelver
Shi'a and Isma'ili domination.
A conclusive piece of evidence on the secret Shi'ism of the Suhrawardi
Order in Uch is a report which states that Sayyid Raju had converted some
Sunnis of Multan to Shi'ism,78 and that he also pioneered a movement against
taqiyya in the region. According to Sayyid Raju (in this report), taqiyya was
responsible for the conversion of the sons and daughters of Shi'a parents to
Sunnism.79 These incidents are reported in Majalis al-Muminin, a voluminous
text that is regarded as the first comprehensive work on the history, doctrines
and personalities of Shi'ism in India through Shi'a eyes. It was written in
the Mughal emperor Akbar’s time, by a certain Qadi Nur Allah Shustari, an
Iranian scholar who was attached to the court. The book consists of twelve
volumes, compiled between 1582 and 1602.80 Although Shustari was a Twelver
Shi'a himself, in Majalis al-Muminin, his definition of a Shi'a is anyone who

76 Some of Hasan Kabir-al-din’s eighteen sons also became Sunni in the dispute that
surrounded his death: Virani 2007, p.125. ‘The Khojas of Uch were predominantly
Isma'ili, but are now mostly Twelver Shi'a, and regard the (Sufi) elders in Hasan Kabir
al-din’s line as belonging to the Suhrawardi Order’: Hafiz 1931, p.151.
77 Sindhi 2000, pp. 84-85.
78 Presumably late in his life, after Firuz Shah’s death.
79 See Rizvi 1986b (Shi'ism), vol. 1, p.199: Majalis al-Muminin, p. 64.
80 Ibid, p.351.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 119

believes in the Imamate of 'Ali over the first three caliphs, and is therefore
inclusive of all the Shi'a sects. After Akbar’s son Jehangir came to the throne,
Shustari was executed, having being flogged to death in the middle of the
night of 7 September 1610.81 He is regarded as a martyr by the Shi'a of India.
It should be pointed out that, in addition to conversion to Twelver Shi'ism,
the biggest loss of adherents to Isma'ilism in the late medieval era was due to
taqiyya. In the Indus region, whenever under pressure, many Isma'ilis escaped
persecution by either calling themselves Hindu, or by reverting back to their
previous Hindu denominations; this is a pattern that continued until Partition.
The change of religion in Hasan Kabir al-din’s sons, and the disarray in
the ranks of the Jalali Dervishes, does not mean that the Suhrawardi Order
in Uch stopped existing entirely. Uch recuperated and remained a Suhrawardi
centre in spite of the deaths of Sayyid Raju and Hasan Kabir al-din, and
the incursions of the Qadiri Suf i Order. For some time, Jahangasht’s son
Mahmud succeeded Sayyid Raju and headed the Suhrawardi Order in Uch.82
Mahmud was succeeded by his son, Sayyid Hamid Kabir. Another grandson
of Jahangasht’s, Burhan al-din, moved to the Gujarat and became very famous
as Qutb-e-'Alam. 83 In Uch, Sayyid Hamid Kabir was succeeded by his own
grandson Rukn al-din, who was named after Rukn-e-'Alam.84
In spite of this continuity and the expansion into the Gujarat, with renewed
connections to Isma'ilism, the Suhrawardi Order in Uch did eventually start
fading into oblivion, mainly because its Isma'ili component faced a conversion
trend towards Twelver Shi'ism. This process of conversion seems to have
begun with the descendants of Hasan Kabir al-din. Today, all of Hasan Kabir
al-din’s descendants, and those of Jahangasht and Sayyid Raju in Uch, are
orthodox Twelver Shi'a. The Suhrawardi Order is the only major Sufi order
in Pakistan, which has not retained any khanqah or institution attached to its
original identity, nor has the identity of the order survived as a whole. Most
Suhrawardi centres (and followers) have been absorbed into mainstream

81 Ibid, p.377.
82 The daughter of Mahmud’s brother Muhammad, i.e. Jahangasht’s grandniece, married
the Isma'ili da'i Imam Shah in the Gujarat. It is inferable from this that she converted
to Isma'ilism on marriage, having married a da'i. The Bukharis in the Gujarat come
to the 'urs celebrations of Imam Shah to this day (courtesy Zawahir Moir).
83 According to Zawahir Moir, it is actually Qutb-e-'Alam’s descendants who visit the
Imam Shah shrine (fn. above), and are also Jalali Dervishes.
84 See Rizvi 1986, vol. 1, p.282.

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 120 Constructing Islam on the Indus

Twelver Shi'ism; whilst the Chishti, Qadiri and Naqshbandi Orders still run
their lodges all over the country.85
Rizvi states that the organisers and adherents of the Jahangasht khanqah
proclaimed Twelver Shi'ism openly by the early eighteenth century, asserting
that Jahangasht was actually a Twelver Shi'a who had practised taqiyya for
political reasons.86 To this day, Jahangasht’s and Sayyid Raju’s descendants who
look after the Uch shrines claim to be Jalali Dervishes by tariqat or ‘order,’ and
Twelver Shi'a by creed. The word Suhrawardi has more or less disappeared. In
addition, they are members of a secret brotherhood of Jalali Dervishes spread
all over the middle Indus region of Pakistan, which is connected to the seven
Uchs located in the country. As seen in the last chapter, the existence of the
seven Uchs is (ironically) reported in an Isma'ili ginan,87 which gives the
whole milieu a strong Twelver-Isma'ili colouring. Present-day Jalali Dervishes
participate in secret ceremonies and initiatory rites as an integral part of their
religious life. When a new pir is installed in Uch, as Zamarrud Husayn Shah
was in 2003, a congregation of the Bukhari Jalali Dervish brotherhood takes
place, to hold the initiatory rite of passage for the new pir in a secret ceremony.

Conclusion
The pendulum that swung between Isma'ilism and Twelver Shi'ism in the
religiosity of the Suhrawardi Order in Uch raises many questions, but also
yields insights into intra-Shi'a connections, and pan-Shi'a agendas, which have
had other precedents in history, as seen in the Introduction. In the medieval
Sufi context of this book, these multiple identities may be viewed as, a) an
outward Sunni Sufism that was used for the purpose of dissimulation and, b)
a simultaneous belief structure based on Isma'ili metaphysics, coupled with
Twelver Shi'ism, which secretly worked under the cover of a Shi'a umbrella. In
principle, the scenario is not too different from the pan-Shi'a politics practised
by the Buwayhids and the Fatimids in the tenth century. At the highest
levels, the Isma'ili-Twelver difference would have been meaningless, because
of the Shi'a framework on which the religious model professed by the order
was based; this will become clearer in the following chapter. In addition, as

85 Only the Suhrawardi shrines of Multan, under the control of the Qureshi family are
‘Sunni;’ while those in Uch and other areas of the southern Punjab are today all Twelver
Shi'a.
86 Rizvi 1986b (Shi'ism), vol.1 p.154.
87 See Shackle and Moir 2000, p.204.

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 The Suhrawardi Order in Uch 121

seen in the Conclusion to Chapter 2, medieval Isma'ilism tolerated different

kinds of Isma'ili, and pan-Shi'a ideas due to its own pragmatism, and helped
to disseminate them. This meant that the Suhrawardi Order could exist and
continue without being directly tied to Isma'ili headquarters, and was free to
concentrate more on the Shi'a metaphysical ideas that united the two entities,
instead of paying homage to the Isma'ili Imam of the time.
Uch is the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle that existed between Isma'ili
missionaries and Suhrawardi Sufis in the middle Indus region, which began
with Zakiriyya and Shams in Multan. In Uch, Shams’s descendants became
Suhrawardi Sufis openly, starting with the person of Hasan Kabir al-din.
Annemarie Schimmel has briefly argued that Jalal al-din Surkhposh was
plausibly an Isma'ili da'i himself.88 Although this would go against the general
analysis of this book, which benefits from the freedom of an ‘open’ Isma'ili
connection argued for the Suhrawardi Order, in principle Surkhposh’s descent
from the tenth Twelver Imam, or his Twelver Shi'a origins and beliefs, would
not have been hindrances to his propagating Isma'ili ideas. Many well-known
Twelvers in history have kept close ties with, assisted, propagated and even
professed Isma'ilism. One such example was Hasan bin Sabbah (al-Himyari),
who was born to a Twelver family and studied at the Twelver madrasa in Qum
before becoming Isma'ili; he subsequently set up Alamut (in 1090).89 Another
Twelver Shi'a, who retained his faith whilst assisting Isma'ilism, was Nasir
al-din Tusi (b.1201). Although born a Twelver, Tusi authored the exegesis for
the Isma'ili doctrine of occultation at Alamut, while spending many years in
the Iranian Isma'ili enclave to escape persecution. He was considered to be
an Isma'ili for a long period of time,90 but is buried in the shrine compound
of the seventh Twelver Shi'a Imam, Musa al-Kazim. An older example still is
the close companion and agent in Najaf of the eleventh Twelver Shi'a Imam
Hasan al-'Askari (d.874), known as Abu al-Qasim bin Farah bin Haushab.
When the tenth Isma'ili Imam, Husayn al-Mastur, visited 'Ali’s tomb in Najaf
in 879 (266 Hirji), Haushab became attached to him. Haushab subsequently
went to the Yemen as an Isma'ili da'i, and won over the whole country to the
Isma'ili cause for Husayn al-Mastur.91

88 Schimmel 2000, p.72.

89 Hollister 1953, p.243 & pp.306-309, also see Daftary 2007, p.311.
90 See Daftary 2007, pp.340 &378.
91 Yet another Isma'ili da'i who was previously Twelver Shi'a and trained under Haushab
was 'Abdullah al-Shi'i. After his training, he was sent to Tunisia and the Maghreb

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 122 Constructing Islam on the Indus

In light of the evidence from this chapter, the celebration of Surkhposh’s

annual 'urs in the month of Chetir ties him directly to the metaphysics of
Shams’s Satpanth. The connection deepens further through the Nawruz
symbolism discovered on the Suhrawardi monuments of Uch. Similar cryptic
Isma'ili ties are arguable for the Twelver Sufi Jahangasht, Sayyid Raju and their
Jalali Dervishes in Uch, who were contemporaries of Shams’s descendants in
that city, working at full capacity as da'is from Iran. This was during the time
when the Nizari Isma'ili Imams also chose to live in dissimulation as dervishes.
The antagonism of Jahangasht and Sayyid Raju with Muhammad and Firuz
Shah Tughluq is reminiscent of the problems faced by Zakiriyya’s descendants
in Multan with the same two rulers. However, in the isolated environment of
Uch, which is off the beaten track so to speak, the Suhrawardi Order and the
Isma'ili da'wa probably managed, undercover, to preserve their organisations
from Tughluqid persecution, by working together more than ever before. The
question of how this secret connection, which began in Multan, rose to a higher
level of religious collaboration, will become apparent from the analysis of the
Suhrawardi monuments of Uch in Chapter 6.
One can fairly conclude from the evidence in this book until now, that the
basis for the collaboration between medieval Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism
was not simply temporal support for each other against orthodox Sunni rule.
The scenario had a metaphysical dimension; one delineated by the larger nexus
of Isma'ili missionaries, certain Sufi orders, high-level Shi'a scholars, and even
some of the Twelve Imams’ followers, working under a pan-Shi'a agenda. In
short, there was a much less stringent divide between the two major Shi'a
denominations in this period when compared with the modern era.

from the Yemen by Haushab, where he had phenomenal success in converting the local
Berber tribes: Hollister 1953, pp.209-210: 'Uyun al-Akhbar, Rise of the Fatimids, p.37.
Al-Shi'i’s missionary work in North Africa was responsible for the setting up of the
Fatimid state in 909.

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