Place · Chishti dargah · India
Zainuddin Shirazi Dargah, Khuldabad
Also known as Khuldabad, Zainuddin Shirazi, Zainuddin Shirazi Dargah, Zainuddin Shirazi Dargah — Khuldabad
The 14-century Chishti dargah of Hazrat Zainuddin Daud Shirazi (c.1301-1370) at Khuldabad in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra — the Chishti Sufi master whose dargah houses Aurangzeb's grave in its courtyard. Shirazi was a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi and brought the Chishti order to the Deccan in the 14-century under the Tughlaq empire's expansion. He is credited with the Islamisation of much of the Marathwada region through his khanqah network at Khuldabad. The dargah complex includes Shirazi's own tomb, Aurangzeb's grave (in the courtyard), and the tombs of several Deccan Sultanate rulers (including Nizamuddin Auliya's own hair relic). The current structure is 14-century Tughlaq with major 17-century Mughal additions. The annual Urs each 15-17 Rajab draws over 100,000 Sufi pilgrims. The dargah is managed by the Khuldabad Dargah Committee.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 20.000, 75.190
Connections (3)
- Chishti SilsilaHazrat Nizāmuddīn Dargah, Delhi
The Chishti order reached the Deccan through Nizāmuddīn's disciples when the Delhi court moved south in the 1320s. Zaynuddīn Shīrāzī at Khuldabad and Gesūdarāz at Gulbarga are the two principal seats it founded there, and both became the spiritual anchors of the sultanates that followed. Gesūdarāz wrote in Dakhni as well as Persian, giving the emerging Deccan language one of its first literary bodies, so the order's move south produced a literature as well as two shrines.
- Silsila lineageGulbarga / Kalaburagi
Gesūdarāz at Gulbarga and Zainuddīn Shīrāzī at Khuldābād are the Chishti order's two Deccan seats, founded when Delhi's khānqāhs were scattered south by Muhammad bin Tughluq's transfer of the capital. Each became the spiritual anchor of the sultanate that grew around it. Gesūdarāz also wrote in Dakhni, giving the emerging Deccan language one of its first literary bodies, so the order's exile produced a new literature as well as two new shrines.
- Site adjacencyAurangzeb's Tomb, Khuldabad
The Zainuddin Shirazi dargah and the tomb of Aurangzeb stand within the walled Sufi burial town of Khuldabad, a few steps apart in the same compound-rich settlement on the Deccan plateau; they are neighbouring sites of Khuldabad rather than one inside the other.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Khuldabad”. Chishti tazkira literature; Carl Ernst and Bruce Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love (2002).
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