Person · Sufi saint · India
Shah Jalal
Also known as Hazrat Shah Jalal, Shaykh Jalal al-Din, Jalal al-Din Mujarrad
Fourteenth-century Yemeni Sufi who arrived at Sylhet in 1303 with three hundred and sixty companions after a journey through Delhi where he received the blessing of Nizamuddin Auliya, defeated the Hindu raja Gour Govinda, and in doing so opened the Surma valley to the Islamic settlement that eventually made east Bengal the subcontinent's largest Muslim-majority region. His shrine at Sylhet is still the destination of one of the largest annual Islamic urs in the subcontinent, and the Suhrawardi-Rifa'i chain he brought remains the dominant Sufi order of Bangladesh. The order he established is distinctive for its direct link between Yemen and Bengal, bypassing the Chishti-Delhi mediation.
- Date
- 1271–1346
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles and institutional records as applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
The three hundred and sixty companions each took a village in the Surma valley and became the founding Sufi anchors of their localities; many of those villages still carry the companion's name. Pigeon-feeding at the dargah is traced to a flock that arrived with him from Yemen. The 1971 war saw the shrine protected by both sides as a specific exception within the general devastation of the valley; the Mujib government rebuilt it formally after independence.
About the place
Placed at Sylhet where his dargah is.
Connections (1)
- Buried atHazrat Shāh Jalāl, Sylhet
Shah Jalal's dargah at Sylhet holds his tomb and the mazars of his three hundred and sixty companions arranged around it, in a hilltop compound that has remained the Surma valley's central Islamic shrine since the fourteenth century. The urs each year draws pilgrims from across Bangladesh and northeast India; the pigeons at the shrine are said to be descendants of a flock that arrived with him from Yemen, and are fed daily at state expense. His Suhrawardi-Rifa'i chain remains the dominant Sufi order of Bangladesh.