Person · Qalandari Sufi & poet
Lāl Shahbāz Qalandar
Also known as Lal Shahbaz, Usman Marwandi, Jhulelal, Shahbaz Qalandar
A Persian-born wandering Sufi who settled at Sehwan on the Indus. The Qalandars were Sufism's antinomian wing — itinerant, unshaven, indifferent to religious law and to respectability — and his shrine is the largest they left. Hindu Sindhis worship him as Jhūlelāl, the river deity, without anyone treating that as a difficulty.
- Date
- 1177 – 1274
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Qalandari tradition; Sindhi devotional practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
The dhamāl, a trance dance to drums, is performed at the shrine every evening at sunset by anyone who comes. A suicide bombing in February 2017 killed about ninety people there; the dhamāl was danced the next evening at the usual time, which the custodians insisted on.
Connections (1)
- Monastic foundationSehwan Sharīf
Lāl Shahbāz settled at Sehwan on the Indus in the thirteenth century and the shrine that grew over him is the largest the Qalandari tradition left anywhere. Hindu Sindhis worship him as Jhūlelāl, the river deity, and have done so continuously through partition and after it. The dhamāl danced there at sunset is open to whoever turns up, which is not true of most shrines and is the whole point of this one.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Lal Shahbaz Qalandar”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
Open Lāl Shahbāz Qalandar in the repository →