Person · Sufi shaikh
Nizāmuddīn Auliyā
Also known as Nizamuddin Auliya, Mehboob-e-Ilahi, Sultan-ul-Mashaikh
The Chishti shaikh whose khānqāh at Ghiyaspur ran for half a century in the sultanate's capital while he refused to attend any of the seven sultans whose reigns he lived through. His langar fed all comers, and his successors carried the order across the subcontinent.
- Date
- c. 1238 – 1325
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Fawaid al-Fuad; Chishti hagiography
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Told that Ghiyasuddin Tughluq was marching back to Delhi to deal with him, he is said to have answered Dillī dūr ast — Delhi is far off. The sultan died when a pavilion collapsed on him before he reached it, and the phrase has been Urdu shorthand ever since.
Connections (2)
- Monastic foundationHazrat Nizāmuddīn Dargah, Delhi
Nizāmuddīn's khānqāh at Ghiyaspur ran for about fifty years through seven sultans' reigns, and he attended none of their courts. The langar fed whoever came. That refusal, in the capital itself, is why the shrine has the independent standing it still has. Told that Ghiyasuddin Tughluq was marching back to deal with him, he is said to have answered Dillī dūr ast — Delhi is far off — and the sultan died before reaching it.
- Teaching lineageAmīr Khusrau
Amīr Khusrau was Nizāmuddīn's disciple for forty years and died six months after him; he is buried at the shaikh's feet. He gave qawwali its musical shape, wrote the earliest literary Hindavi, and served seven sultans — the courtier and the saint who refused courts, inseparable for a lifetime. Khusrau wrote in Persian and in Hindavi and is credited with the qawwali form, the tarana, and several rāgas, so India's most consequential musician was a Sufi disciple and a court poet at once.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Nizamuddin Auliya”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
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