Thursday, 26 April 2018

Meaning, Origin and Main Features of Sufism


Meaning, Origin and Main Features of Sufism
Meaning of Sufism:

The philosophy and practices of Sufism may very aptly be stated in the words of Dr. Tara Chand,
“Sufism is a religion of intense devotion; Love is its manifestation, poetry, music and dance are the instruments of its worship and attaining oneness with God is its ideal.”
In other words, it implies that the ideal before an individual should be to be one with God. For the attainment of this ideal, intense devotion for God is needed in the individual. Devotion is reflected in love. This love for the Almighty is expressed through three fold activities on the part of the individual i.e. poetry of love towards God, music of love towards God and dance of love towards God.

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Origin of Sufism:

It is generally believed that Sufism is derived from two Arabic words i.e. ‘Saf’ and ‘Suf. The word ‘Saf means a carpet. Since the Sufis meditated upon God on a carpet, Sufism took its birth i.e. pure people who meditated on a carpet.

The word ‘Sufi’ derives its name from another Arabic word ‘Suf which means wool. The Muslim saints who wore garments of coarse wool began to be called Sufi saints. The first epoch of Sufism is said to have begun in the seventh century A.D.

Sufism entered India in the 12th century with Muslim invaders and became popular in the 13th century.

Main Features of Sufism:

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1. Sufism derives is inspiration from Islam. While the orthodox Muslims depend upon external conduct and blind observance of religious rituals, the Sufi saints seek inner purity.

2. According to Sufi saints, God is the beloved of the lover (‘Mashook”) i.e. the devotee and the devotee is eager to meet his beloved (God).

3. The Sufis think that love and devotion are the only means of reaching God.

4. Along with Prophet Muhammad, they also attach great importance to their ‘Murshid’ or ‘Pir’ (Guru).

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5. Devotion is more important than fast (Roza) or prayer (Namaz)

6. Sufism does not believe in caste system.

7. Sufism emphasizes upon leading a simple life.

8. Sufi saints preached in Arabic, Persian and Urdu etc.

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9. The Sufis were divided into 12 orders each under a mystic Sufi saint. Prominent Sufi Saints.

Khawja Moin-ud-Din Chisti (1143-1234 A.D.):

He came to India towards the close of the 12th century. Initially he stayed at Lahore. Then he moved to Delhi and finally settled at Ajmer. On account of his pious and simple life, people of different faiths looked upon him as their spiritual teacher.

He mixed freely with the lower classes of both Hindus and Muslims. He used to hold devotional musical gatherings. On account of his virtues of renunciation, meditation and selfless service, people from different parts of India came to his place at Ajmer.

His ‘dargah’ (tomb) at Ajmer (Ajmer Sharif) has become a place of pilgrimage for the Muslims as well as the Hindus. His devotees believe that by offering prayer at his tomb, their wishes (‘minit’) are fulfilled.

Baba Farid-ud-Din Ganj-i-Shakar (13th century):

His outlook was broad and humane. Some of his devotional verses are found in ‘Adi-Granth’ of the Sikhs. Thousands of his devotees visit his tomb at Faridkot in the Punjab.

Nizam-ud-Din Aulia (14th century):

He laid great stress on love as a means of the realization of God. He said, “O Muslims! I swear by God that he holds dear those who love Him for the sake of human beings and also those who love human beings for the sake of Him. This is the only way to love and adore Him.”

During his life time he was held in great esteem by several Sultans of Delhi as well as the general public.

He also used Hindi in his teachings.

His tomb at Nizam-ud-Din in Delhi has become a place of pilgrimage for both Muslims and Hindus.

Impact of Sufism:

Religions impact:

The efforts of Sufi saints helped to lessen religious fanaticism in India. Hindus in larger numbers became followers of Sufi saints. The tombs built after their death has continued to become places of worship for the Muslims as well as the Hindus. Their belief in unity of God helped to remove mutual differences.

Social Impact:

Their stress on social welfare led to the establishment of works of charitable nature i.e. opening of orphanages and women service centres. The efforts of Sufi saints helped to promote equality and lessen the evils of casteism. They also tried to infuse a spirit of piety and morality.

Political Impact:

Some of the renowned Sufi saints on account of their virtuous and saintly life motivated some of the Delhi Sultans to follow a liberal policy.

Cultural Impact:

The sacred places built in the memory of the Sufi saints clearly demonstrate the development of a new type of architecture. The Dargah’ of Khawaja Muin-ud-Din Chisti at Ajmer and the Tomb of Nizam-ud-Din Aulia at Delhi have a special place in architecture.

Sufi saints popularized devotional music and songs.

Several Sufi saints composed literary works in vernacular languages.

Amir Khusro, a disciple of Nizam-ud-Din Aulia, was a noted ‘guzzle’ writer. The poetry of Khusro was so full of sweetness that he was called ‘Tutiy-i-Hind. He is credited with more than 90 works on different subjects i.e. historical and romantic as well.



Study Notes on Sufism and Bhakti Movement
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Study Notes on Sufism and Bhakti Movement!

Sufism:
Sufi or Sufism is derived from Suf which means un-dyed garments of wool worn as a mark of personal penitence and poverty.

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The Sufis originally drew their ideas from certain verses of the Quran and Hadith i.e. traditions of the prophet. Their difference with orthodox Muslims lay in the fact that while the latter interpreted the Quran and Hadith in a literal way, the Sufis gave a mystic interpretation to them.

Sufism flourished in Persia where from the Sufi saints had fled to Kabul due to Safavi persecution. It may be recalled that Akbar’s mother who was the daughter of a Persian scholar and was influenced by Sufism sowed the seeds of toleration in the mind of her son Akbar. His early life in Kabul also brought him in contact with Sufism.

Sufism believed in communion between man and God through loving devotion. It is somewhat akin to Bhakti cult. Sufism had its own practices and did not always conform to the rituals of orthodox Islam. For instance singing, dancing etc. not permitted by the Muslim Ulamas were considered by the Sufis as methods of reaching an ecstatic stage which would bring them nearer to God.

Although the Sufis accepted Muhammad as prophet and the authority of the Quran in course of time they drew diverse religious practices from different religions such as Gnostic Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Neo- Platonism and Indian philosophical system—the Vedanta and Yoga. Sufism had been likened to a stream that gathered volume by joining of tributaries from many lands.

Sufism found its way into India during the eleventh and twelfth centuries when many Sufi saints came to India particularly in Multan and Lahore of the Punjab. The most celebrated of these Sufi saints was Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti who came to Lahore from Ghazni in 1161 and settled in Ajmer under Prithviraj.

Muinuddin Chisti is the greatest Sufi and holds the highest position of honour in the history of Sufism. He died in either 1235 or 1236 at Ajmer where his tomb is still today a place of pilgrimage for many. Muinuddin Chisti founded the Chisti order of the Sufis in India. Shaikh Farid Shakarganj (1175-1265) belonged to the Chisti order of the Sufis, Shaikh Farid was one of the earliest contributors to Punjabi language and his writings are regarded as the earliest specimens of Punjabi.

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Some of his contributions were incorporated in the Adi Granth by Guru Arjan and Shaikh Farid is known in Sikh tradition as Baba Farid. Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya (1238-1325) settled near Delhi where his tomb is also a shrine and centre of devotion and proselytism.

Apart from the Chisti order another Sufi order that dminated the Muslim thought during the thirteenth and early years of the fourteenth centuries was Suhrawardy order founded by Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya. In the fourteenth century, however, the influence of the Sufis declined due to anti-Sufi attitude of Muhammad bin Tughluq and Sunni orthodoxy of Firuz Tughluq which gave opportunity to the Ulamas to oppose the Sufi heterodoxy with greater vehemence.

The result was that greater emphasis was laid on religious ceremonies and rituals thus reducing religion into a mere formalism. The predominance of the Ulamas, Mullas, Pirs continued from the latter half of the fourteenth century to the first half of the sixteenth.

Besides the Chisti and Suhrawardy orders two more Sufi orders were founded, namely the Qadivis by Sayyid Ghaus Wala Pir and the Shattaris by Shaikh Abdul Shattari in the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century Khwaja Baqi Billa founded the Naqsbandi order.

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During the sixteenth and earlier part of the eighteenth the Sufi poets made great contribution to Punjabi literature. Sufi poetry appealed to the heart of the common people and became very popular among all classes of people of the Punjab. Spiritual urges are expressed in terms of simple objects familiar to common folk, such as the spinning wheel, the Persian wheel, the dancing Dervishes, Characters drawn from popular mythology Hindu as well as Muslim.

Among the Sufis of this period the names of Hafiz Barkhudar Vajid, Ali Haidar, Sultan Bahu, Shah Hussain and Bulhe Shah deserve mention. Sultan Bahu was a mystic dervish. He expressed himself in passionate poetry of devotion and renunciation. Shah Hussain was a fakir given to free way of life, loved by the people for his sincerity of passion and devotion, but reproved by the orthodox Muslims.

The song-lyrics practiced by Hussain and other Sufi poets is known as Kafi. Bulhe Shah was, however, the prince of the Sufi poets. Some sects were founded in the seventeenth century which emphasised the unity of religions between the Hindus and the Muslims. The name of Dadu (1544- 1603) stands foremost among the founders of such sects. Dadu founded the Parabrahma Sampradaya with a view to uniting different faiths in one bond of love and comradeship.

A Kshatriya of Malwa named Baba Lai gave seven interviews to Dara Shukoh in 1648 and their conversations are recorded in a Persian work named Nadu un Mikat which is an admixture of the Vedanta and Sufi doctrines. A few other sects apart from Parabrahma Sampradaya were those of Qalandar and Jangam. The followers of the latter were fakirs who like Hindu Sannyasis kept long matted hair and wandered about. Under Shah Jahan the renowned Sufi and author Muhibbullah Illahabadi wrote a commentary on Quarn from sufistic view point, entitled Maratib al-Arbaah.

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Lastly, it may be pointed out that Sufis helped the spread of Islam in India by emphasising social equality of all men. Many of the Sufis were men of great learning; they were guides to good life. They are “thought of as forming a bridge of understanding with the Hindu Bhakti movement, with their emphasis on the inner life and the unity of all believers in one God.”

Bhakti Movement:
Bhakti is intense devotion’ to God conceived as personal, a Saviour worthy of trust and ready to be gracious, it is an important element of Vaishavism and Saivism as expounded in the Gita and Svetasvatara Upanishad. Followers of Bhakti cult preached the fundamental equality of all religions and the unity of Godhead, and held that dignity of man depended on his actions and not on his birth, protested against too much ritualism and formalities in matters of religion as also the domination of the priesthood. They emphasised simple devotion and faith as a means of salvation for one and all. Substance of Bhakti cult lies in loving devotion to the supreme Diety variously named Krishna, Vishnu, Narayana etc. and communion with Him.

Bhakti was propagated by Ramanuja in the eleventh century and during the period twelfth to fourteenth centuries it was propagated in South India by the Vaishnava teachers like Nimbarka, Lokacharya, Vedantadesika, Madhava Pillai etc. The Bhakti movement in the period between the sixth and the twelfth centuries was raised above caste restrictions in the Tamil country where the Alvars and Adiyars introduced this revolutionary social equality.

One of the preachers arose from the lower caste. Likewise, the Bhakti movement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tended to raise the status of non-Brahmanas. Some of the non-Brahmanas became the spiritual preachers of the Brahmanas. During the Mughal period a considerable Bhakti literature grew up in Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati and Assamese languages.

With the establishment of the Turkish rule in North India, Islam came as a challenge to Hinduism and Hindu society. Bhakti cult met this challenge of Islam by introducing a liberal character in the society under Ramananda’s leadership. He is said to have been born in Mysore by some and at Allahabad by others and perhaps lived during the end of the fourteenth and early years of the fifteenth centuries.

Ramananda served as “the bridge between the Bhakti movement of the South and the North.” He preached in the language of the common people, i.e. Hindi. He rejected castes and admitted men of all classes as his disciples, among whom were a cobbler, a barber and a Muhammadan weaver, namely Kabir. Ramananda was a worshipper of Rama and his followers are still numerous in the Gangetic plain.

Mira Bai, a Rajput princess renounced the palace life of Chitor and became a disciple of the follower of Ramananda. Ramananda’s doctrines were embodied by her in Hindi and Gujarati devotional verses of high quality. Some of Ramananda’s hymns have been included in the Adi Granth by Guru Arjan.

Ramananda is supposed to have been connected with the great Vaishnava Ramanuja. But Ramananda substituted Ram and Sita for Vishnu and Lakshmi of Ramanuja sect as objects of devotion. Ramananda propagated his Bhakti cult in Hindi and not in Sanskrit as did Ramanuja sect, and thus his appeal to common people was great as they understood his language.

Ramananda raised his movement above caste prejudices, unlike Ramanuja sect, allowing people of all castes high or low to eat and drink together, thus get emancipated from the restrictions of caste prejudices. The followers of Ramananda were therefore, known as Abhadhuts, i.e. emancipated.

Ramananda considered formalities of worship as immaterial and superfluous, for, “supreme reward” would come to the devotee by incessant taking of the name of God. One, who loves God, is loved by God Himself. “Whoever adores God is God’s own” he would say, hence there was no question of any one’s identification by his caste or birth.

The liberal idea propagated by Ramananda appears to have been to an extent due to the impact of Islam. This was most likely for he lived during the period of Muslim rule in India. But his liberalism in matters of castes and inter-dining was regarded as a great threat to Hindu orthodoxy. But despite a section of orthodox Hindus, who would like to cling to traditional class restrictions in social behaviours, the need for acceptance of the challenge of Islam and socio-religious adjustment was felt by a liberal section of the Hindus and as such Ramananda’s movement was welcomed by them. Ramananda did not leave any organised sect behind him and this was the reason why while his influence had flowed into different channels it lost its momentum in its original form.


Amir Khusrow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aamir Khusrow
Amir Khusro.jpg
Amir Khusrow teaching his disciples in a miniature from a manuscript of Majlis al-Ushshaq by Husayn Bayqarah.
Background information
Birth name Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn K͟husrau
Born 1253
Patiyali, Delhi Sultanate
Died October 1325 (aged 71-72)
Delhi, Delhi Sultanate
Genres Ghazal, Qawwali, Ruba'i, Tarana
Occupation(s) Sufi, musician, poet, composer, author, scholar
[hide]Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
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Sufism and Tariqat
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Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325) (Urdu: ابوالحسن یمین‌الدین خسرو‎), better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlavī, was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar from the Indian subcontinent. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was a mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. A vocabulary in verse, the Ḳhāliq Bārī, containing Arabic, Persian, and Hindavi terms is often attributed to him.[1] Khusrow is sometimes referred to as the "voice of India" (Tuti-e-Hind), and has been called the "father of Urdu literature."[2][3][4][5]

Khusrow is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (a devotional music form of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent), and introduced the ghazal style of song into India, both of which still exist widely in India and Pakistan.[6][7] Khusrow was an expert in many styles of Persian poetry which were developed in medieval Persia, from Khāqānī's qasidas to Nizami's khamsa. He used 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. He wrote in many verse forms including ghazal, masnavi, qata, rubai, do-baiti and tarkib-band. His contribution to the development of the ghazal was significant.[8]


Alexander Visits the Sage Plato, from the Khamsa of Amir Khusrow
Contents 
1 Family background
2 Early years
3 Career
4 Qawwali
5 Legacy
5.1 Development of Hindavi
5.2 700th Birth Anniversary
6 Shalimar Bagh Inscription
7 Works
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 Further reading
12 External links
Family background
Amīr Khusrow was born in 1253 at Patiyali near Etah in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, India, in what was then the Delhi Sultanate, the son of Amīr Saif ud-Dīn Mahmūd, a man of Turkic extraction, by his Indian Rajput wife Bibi Daulatnaz.

Amīr Khusrow's father, Amīr Saif ud-Dīn Mahmūd, was born a member of the Lachin tribe of Transoxania, themselves belonging to the Kara-Khitai set of Turkic tribes.[8][9][10] He belonged to Kesh, a small town near Samarkhand in what is now Uzbekistan, and that is where he grew up. When he was a young man, that country was despoiled and ravaged by Genghis Khan's invasion of Central Asia, and much of the population fled to other lands, India being a favored destination. Amir Saif ud-Din migrated from his hometown of Kesh to Balkh (now in northern Afghanistan), which was a relatively safe place; from here, they sent representations seeking refuge and succour to the Sultan of distant Delhi. This was granted, and the group then travelled to Delhi. Sultan Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, ruler of Delhi, was himself a Turk like them; indeed, he had been raised in the same region of central Asia, and had undergone somewhat similar circumstances in earlier life. He not only welcomed the refugees to his court but also granted high offices and landed estates to some of them. Iltutmish provided shelter and lavish patronage to exiled princes, artisans, scholars and rich nobles. In 1230, Amir Saif ud-Din was granted a fief in the district of Patiyali.

Amir Saif ud-Din married Bibi Daulatnaz, the daughter of Rawat Arz of the Rajput caste who was the famous war minister of Ghiyas ud-Din Balban, the ninth Sultan of Delhi. Daulatnaz's family belonged to the Rajput community of modern-day Uttar Pradesh.[10][11]

Early years
Amir Saif ud-Din and his Rajput-born Indian wife Bibi Daulatnaz became the parents of four children: three sons (one of whom was Khusrow) and a daughter. Amir Saif ud-Din Mahmud died in 1260, when Khusrow was only seven years old. After the death of her husband, Khusrow's mother moved back to her father's house in Delhi with her children. It was thus in the house of his Rajput maternal grandfather, Rawat Arz (known by his title as Imad-ul-Mulk), that Khusrow was raised. He thus grew up very close to the culture and traditions of Indian society, and was not alienated from real Indian society in the way that the ruling Turkic classes may have been. He grew up rooted in his environment, and not hankering after some foreign land. Over and over again in his poetry, and throughout his life, he affirmed that he was Indian and nothing else ("I have not the noteds of Misr or fars he says).

Khusrow was an intelligent child. He started learning and writing poetry at the age of eight. His first divan, Tuhfat us-Sighr (The Gift of Childhood), containing poems composed between the ages of 16 and 18, was compiled in 1271. In 1273, when Khusrow was 20 years old, his grandfather, who was reportedly 113 years old, died.

Career
After Khusrow's grandfather's death, Khusrow joined the army of Malik Chajju, a nephew of the reigning Sultan, Ghiyas ud-Din Balban. This brought his poetry to the attention of the Assembly of the Royal Court where he was honored.

Nasir ud-Din Bughra Khan, the second son of Balban, was invited to listen to Khusrow. He was impressed and became Khusrow's patron in 1276. In 1277 Bughra Khan was then appointed ruler of Bengal, and Khusrow visited him in 1279 while writing his second divan, Wast ul-Hayat (The Middle of Life). Khusrow then returned to Delhi. Balban's eldest son, Khan Muhammad (who was in Multan), arrived in Delhi, and when he heard about Khusrow he invited him to his court. Khusrow then accompanied him to Multan in 1281. Multan at the time was the gateway to India and was a center of knowledge and learning. Caravans of scholars, tradesmen and emissaries transited through Multan from Baghdad, Arabia and Persia on their way to Delhi. Khusrow wrote that:

I tied the belt of service on my waist and put on the cap of companionship for another five years. I imparted lustre to the water of Multan from the ocean of my wits and pleasantries.

On 9 March 1285, Khan Muhammad was killed in battle while fighting Mongols who were invading the Sultanate. Khusrow wrote two elegies in grief of his death. In 1287, Khusrow travelled to Awadh with another of his patrons, Amir Ali Hatim. At the age of eighty, Balban called his second son Bughra Khan back from Bengal, but Bughra Khan refused. After Balban's death in 1287, his grandson Muiz ud-Din Qaiqabad, Bughra Khan's son, was made the Sultan of Delhi at the age of 17. Khusrow remained in Qaiqabad's service for two years, from 1287 to 1288. In 1288 Khusrow finished his first masnavi, Qiran us-Sa'dain (Meeting of the Two Auspicious Stars), which was about Bughra Khan meeting his son Muiz ud-Din Qaiqabad after a long enmity. After Qaiqabad suffered a stroke in 1290, nobles appointed his three-year-old son Shams ud-Din Kayumars as Sultan. A Turk named Jalal ud-Din Firuz Khalji then marched on Delhi, killed Qaiqabad and became Sultan, thus ending the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate and starting the Khalji dynasty.

Jalal ud-Din Firuz Khalji appreciated poetry and invited many poets to his court. Khusrow was honoured and respected in his court and was given the title "Amir". He was given the job of "Mushaf-dar". Court life made Khusrow focus more on his literary works. Khusrow's ghazals which he composed in quick succession were set to music and were sung by singing girls every night before the Sultan. Khusrow writes about Jalal ud-Din Firuz:

The King of the world Jalal ud-Din, in reward for my infinite pain which I undertook in composing verses, bestowed upon me an unimaginable treasure of wealth.

In 1290 Khusrow completed his second masnavi, Miftah ul-Futuh (Key to the Victories), in praise of Jalal ud-Din Firuz's victories. In 1294 Khusrow completed his third divan, Ghurrat ul-Kamaal (The Prime of Perfection), which consisted of poems composed between the ages of 34 and 41.

After Jalal ud-Din Firuz, Ala ud-Din Khalji ascended to the throne of Delhi in 1296. Khusrow wrote the Khaza'in ul-Futuh (The Treasures of Victory) recording Ala ud-Din's construction works, wars and administrative services. He then composed a khamsa (quintet) with five masnavis, known as Khamsa-e-Khusrow (Khamsa of Khusrow), completing it in 1298. The khamsa emulated that of the earlier poet of Persian epics, Nizami Ganjavi. The first masnavi in the khamsa was Matla ul-Anwar (Rising Place of Lights) consisting of 3310 verses (completed in 15 days) with ethical and Sufi themes. The second masnavi, Khusrow-Shirin, consisted of 4000 verses. The third masnavi, Laila-Majnun, was a romance. The fourth voluminous masnavi was Aina-e-Sikandari, which narrated the heroic deeds of Alexander the Great in 4500 verses. The fifth masnavi was Hasht-Bihisht, which was based on legends about Bahram V, the fifteenth king of the Sasanian Empire. All these works made Khusrow a leading luminary in the world of poetry. Ala ud-Din Khalji was highly pleased with his work and rewarded him handsomely. When Ala ud-Din's son and future successor Qutb ud-Din Mubarak Shah Khalji was born, Khusrow prepared the horoscope of Mubarak Shah Khalji in which certain predictions were made. This horoscope is included in the masnavi Saqiana.[12]

In 1300, when Khusrow was 47 years old, his mother and brother died. He wrote these lines in their honour:

A double radiance left my star this year
Gone are my brother and my mother,
My two full moons have set and ceased to shine
In one short week through this ill-luck of mine.

Khusrow's homage to his mother on her death was:

Where ever the dust of your feet is found is like a relic of paradise for me.

In 1310 Khusrow became close to a Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, Nizamuddin Auliya. In 1315, Khusrow completed the romantic masnavi Duval Rani - Khizr Khan (Duval Rani and Khizr Khan), about the marriage of the Vaghela princess Duval Rani to Khizr Khan, one of Ala ud-Din Khalji's sons.

After Ala ud-Din Khalji's death in 1316, his son Qutb ud-Din Mubarak Shah Khalji became the Sultan of Delhi. Khusrow wrote a masnavi on Mubarak Shah Khalji called Nuh Sipihr (Nine Skies), which described the events of Mubarak Shah Khalji's reign. He classified his poetry in nine chapters, each part of which is considered a "sky". In the third chapter he wrote a vivid account of India and its environment, seasons, flora and fauna, cultures, scholars, etc. He wrote another book during Mubarak Shah Khalji's reign by name of Ijaz-e-Khusravi (The Miracles of Khusrow), which consisted of five volumes. In 1317 Khusrow compiled Baqia-Naqia (Remnants of Purity). In 1319 he wrote Afzal ul-Fawaid (Greatest of Blessings), a work of prose that contained the teachings of Nizamuddin Auliya.

In 1320 Mubarak Shah Khalji was killed by Khusro Khan, who thus ended the Khalji dynasty and briefly became Sultan of Delhi. Within the same year, Khusro Khan was captured and beheaded by Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq, who became Sultan and thus began the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321 Khusrow began to write a historic masnavi named Tughlaq Nama (Book of the Tughlaqs) about the reign of Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq and that of other Tughlaq rulers.

Khusrow died in October 1325, six months after the death of Nizamuddin Auliya. Khusrow's tomb is next to that of his spiritual master in the Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi.[13] Nihayat ul-Kamaal (The Zenith of Perfection) was compiled probably a few weeks before his death.

Qawwali
File:Friday Evening Qawali at Dargah Salim Chisti, Fatehpur Sikri, UP, India.theora.ogv
Friday evening qawwali at the Tomb of Salim Chishti in Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Khusrow is credited with fusing the Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Indian musical traditions in the late 13th century to create qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music.[14] Qaul (Arabic: قَوْل) is an "utterance (of the prophet)", Qawwāl is someone who often repeats (sings) a Qaul, and Qawwāli is what a Qawwāl sings. The word sama is often still used in Central Asia and Turkey to refer to forms very similar to qawwali.

Legacy

An illustrated manuscript of one of Amir Khusrow's poems.
Amir Khusrow was a prolific classical poet associated with the royal courts of more than seven rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. He wrote many playful riddles, songs and legends which have become a part of popular culture in South Asia. His riddles are one of the most popular forms of Hindavi poetry today.[15] It is a genre that involves double entendre or wordplay.[15] Innumerable riddles by the poet have been passed through oral tradition over the last seven centuries.[15] Through his literary output, Khusrow represents one of the first recorded Indian personages with a true multicultural or pluralistic identity. Musicians credit Khusrau with the creation of six styles of music: qaul, qalbana, naqsh, gul, tarana and khyal, but there is insufficient evidence for this.[16][17]

Amir Khusro’s putative associations with the Tarana run much deeper. One of the most persistent legends of Hindustani music relates to the encounter between Amir Khusro, who was then associated with the court of emperor Allauddin Khalji, and Gopal Nayak, court-musician to the king of Devagiri. Allauddin commanded Gopal Nayak to present the Raga Kadambak for six evenings running. During the entire performance, Khusro lay concealed under the emperor’s throne, and stealthily absorbed all that the Nayak had sung. On the seventh day, he astonished everyone present in the court by reproducing all that Gopal Nayak had presented. However, since he couldn’t follow the Nayak’s language, he substituted the text of the compositions with meaningless syllables. And that is how the Tarana was born! (Willard 1834: 121) [18]

Development of Hindavi
Khusrow wrote primarily in Persian. Many Hindustani (historically known as Hindavi) verses are attributed to him, although there is no evidence for their composition by Khusrow before the 18th century.[19][20] The language of the Hindustani verses appear to be relatively modern. He also wrote a war ballad in Punjabi.[21] In addition, he spoke Arabic and Sanskrit.[10][22][23][24][25][26][27] His poetry is still sung today at Sufi shrines throughout Pakistan and India.

700th Birth Anniversary
In 1976 the renowned Pakistani musician Khurshid Anwar played a key role in observing the 700th birth anniversary of Amir Khusrow. Since he was also a musicologist, he wrote one of his rare music articles on Amir Khusrow, "A gift to posterity". In addition, he actively planned music events and activities throughout 1976. In Pakistan, Anwar had also been praised for his efforts to keep alive classical music not only through his many film compositions in Pakistan, but also through his unique collection of classical music performances recorded by EMI Pakistan, known as Aahang-e-Khusravi in two parts in 1978. The second part of the Aahang-e-Khusravi recordings was known as Gharanon Ki Gaiyki which consisted of audio recordings of representatives of the main gharanas of classical singers in Pakistan on 20 audio cassettes. All this was meant to be a tribute to Amir Khusrow.[28]

Shalimar Bagh Inscription
Inscribed in the top terrace of the Shalimar Bagh, Srinagar (now in Jammu and Kashmir, India), are some famous phrases in Persian, which are sometimes attributed to Khusrow, although are not found in any of his written works:

Agar Firdaus bar ru-ye zamin ast,
Hamin ast o hamin ast o hamin ast.

In English: "If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this."[29][30][31] This verse is also found on several Mughal structures, supposedly in reference to Kashmir.[32]

Works

Mughal illustrated page from the Hasht-Bihisht, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tuhfat us-Sighr (The Gift of Childhood), 1271 - Khusrow's first divan, contains poems composed between the ages of 16 and 18.
Wast ul-Hayat (The Middle of Life), 1279 - Khusrow's second divan.
Qiran us-Sa’dain (Meeting of the Two Auspicious Stars), 1289 - Khusrow's first masnavi, which detailed the historic meeting of Bughra Khan and his son Muiz ud-Din Qaiqabad after a long enmity.
Miftah ul-Futuh (Key to the Victories), 1290 - Khusrow's second masnavi, in praise of the victories of Jalal ud-Din Firuz Khalji.
Ghurrat ul-Kamaal (The Prime of Perfection), 1294 - poems composed by Khusrow between the ages of 34 and 41.
Khaza'in ul-Futuh (The Treasures of Victories), 1296 - details of Ala ud-Din Khalji's construction works, wars, and administrative services.
Khamsa-e-Khusrow (Khamsa of Khusrow), 1298 - a quintet (khamsa) of five masnavis: Matla ul-Anwar, Khusrow-Shirin, Laila-Majnun, Aina-e-Sikandari and Hasht-Bihisht.
Saqiana - masnavi containing the horoscope of Qutb ud-Din Mubarak Shah Khalji.
Duval Rani - Khizr Khan (Duval Rani and Khizr Khan), 1316 - a tragedy about the marriage of princess Duval Rani to Ala ud-Din Khalji's son Khizr Khan.
Nuh Sipihr (Nine Skies), 1318 - Khusrow's masnavi on the reign of Qutb ud-Din Mubarak Shah Khalji, which includes vivid perceptions of India and its culture.
Ijaz-e-Khusravi (The Miracles of Khusrow) - an assortment of prose consisting of five volumes.
Baqia-Naqia (Remnants of Purity), 1317 - compiled by Khusrow at the age of 64.
Afzal ul-Fawaid (Greatest of Blessings), 1319 - a work of prose containing the teachings of Nizamuddin Auliya.
Tughlaq Nama (Book of the Tughlaqs), 1320 - a historic masnavi of the reign of the Tughlaq dynasty.
Nihayat ul-Kamaal (The Zenith of Perfection), 1325 - compiled by Khusrow probably a few weeks before his death.
Qissa Chahar Dervesh (The Tale of the Four Dervishes) - a dastan told by Khusrow to Nizamuddin Auliya, resulting in Auliya becoming cured from his illness.
Ḳhāliq Bārī - a versified glossary of Persian, Arabic, and Hindavi words and phrases often attributed to Amir Khusrow. Hafiz Mehmood Khan Shirani argued that it was completed in 1622 in Gwalior by Ẓiyā ud-Dīn Ḳhusrau.[33]
Jawahir-e-Khusravi - a divan often dubbed as Khusrow's Hindavi divan.



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