Place · Sufi dargah · India
Makhdoom Ali Mahaimi, Mahim
Also known as Faqih Ali Mahaimi, Mahim, Mahim, Mumbai, Makhdoom Ali Mahaimi, Mumbai
The 14-century dargah of Makhdoom Fakih Ali Mahaimi (1372-1431) at Mahim in Mumbai, Maharashtra — the Sufi scholar who was simultaneously a Qadi (judge) of the Gujarat Sultanate's Mahim subah and a Chishti-Qadri mystic. Mahaimi wrote the Khulasat-ul-Iman (Essence of Faith), a Persian treatise on Islamic jurisprudence, and the Mahim Muhammadi, a divan of Persian poetry. The dargah draws Mumbai pilgrims across religious boundaries — the annual Urs each 7-9 Shawwal draws over 300,000 pilgrims, with roughly a third identifying as Hindu or Christian. The dargah is particularly associated with Mumbai police officers (a tradition of police officers visiting the dargah before major investigations began in the 19-century). The current structure is 15-century with major 19-century British Bombay additions and 2000s renovations. The dargah is managed by the Mahim Dargah Trust.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 19.040, 72.838
Connections (2)
- Companion in the same setHaji Ali Dargah, Mumbai
Haji Ali on its causeway islet and Makhdūm ʿAlī Māhimī at Mahim are Mumbai's two great dargahs, both on the shoreline of what were separate islands before the city was joined together. Māhimī was a Konkani Muslim scholar and qāzī who wrote Qur'anic commentary in Arabic; the Mumbai police have presented the first chādar at his urs every year for decades, which puts a fourteenth-century saint in the civic calendar.
- Site withinMumbai
Makhdoom Ali Mahaimi, Mahim lies within Mumbai — the two sites sit about 11 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. Makhdoom Ali Mahaimi, Mahim is one of the specific sites that give Mumbai its layered character, and reads differently when seen as a stop within the larger city rather than as an isolated monument on an open map. The surrounding neighbourhoods, roads and other heritage ensembles belong to the same single urban fabric.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Mahim”. Chishti tazkira literature; Carl Ernst and Bruce Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love (2002).
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