Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 224

208
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
| AUGUST, 1923
From Alahf we are taken to Sh. Sa'id Ahmad al-Bukhari, as to whom I fail to find any record. Thence we come to Sh, Muhammad Chalabi (the Turkish cognomen is noteworthy), "nephew of Aziz," and so to Sh. 'Abd-ul-Latif, nephew of Muhammad Chalabi. Here it is patốnt that tho pedigree is quite fragmentary.
These data and omissions suggest that by Evlia's time the Naqshbandis had fallon under the disfavour of the imperial government, that the heads of the Western Naqshbandis wero only recognized by it when they were harmless, and that, while that Government did not venture to abolish the con vents of the Order in the capital or elsewhere, it suppressed any leading institution which was likely to recall memories of the great names in the Order or increase the influence of its independent heads for the time being.
The conneotion with the Eastern Naqshbandis, was similarly discouraged, if not entirely broken off. None of the great Naqshbandis of India are commemorated by foundations at Constantinople. There is indeed one Hindilar8 (Indians') takia at Khorkhor near Aq Sarai in Stambal, just as there is an Usbek-lar takia there too. But most of the Naqshbandi con vents bear names that are merely picturesque, or only commemorate latter-day Saints of the Order who were, frankly, nonentities. And so, when the author of the Turkish Mirdt al-Muqasid gives a list of the Naqshbandi saints of modern times, he has to omit all allusion to their chequered history in the West and fall back on the Indian silsila, which nover had any real jurisdiction in Turkey and was certainly not recognised there by the imperial authorities.
The Eastern Naqshbandi s. To turn now to the Eastern Naqshbandîs, we have first to deal with the Khwaja Ahrar. In his youth this saint had a vision of Christ, which was interpreted to mean that he would become a physician, but he himself declared that it foretold that he would have a living heart. Later on he obtained great influence over Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza, a great-grandson of Timar and ruler of Mâwara-un-Nahr from A.D. 1451 to 1468. This sovereign was then the most powerful of the Timûrids in Central Asia : and Herât his capital was famous for its institutions and its learning. The Khwaja acted as envoy to the rivals of this ruler who were also descendants of Timûr. For the nonce he succeeded in making peace between them, but it was not permanent. The Khwaja died in A.D. 1490 or porhaps a year later. 10 His descendants were
(Khwaja Ahrar, 'Ubeid-ullah.)
Khwajaka
Khwaja.
Khwaja Yahya, whom Babur styles Kh. Kalân : his father's guccessor,
Zakaria, 'Abd-ul-Baqi. Muhammad Amin. ? Ya'qub.
both, with Kh. Yahyâ, murdered by Uzbegs in A.D. 1500. Regarding the sons of Kh. Ahrar, Babur makes a significant statement. Between them enmity arose, and then the elder became the spiritual guide of the elder prince (Baisan qar
Was this the 'Ahd-ulLatif Naqshbandi who died in 971 1. (A.D. 1564), according to the Mirat al. Kd'indt of Nishanji-zAda Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Ramapan, a Qiri of Adrianople who died in 1031 H. vid. Cat. of Turkish MSS. in the British Museum, p. 30. If so, we have again the curious fact that his headship of the Order is suppressed.
Evlis mentions two Indian convents, one of the Hindus, "worshippers of fire," where bodies could by burnt, and the other, the convent of the Indian Qalandare, at the head of the bridge of Kaghid. khana : Travels, I, Pt. 2, p. 87.
• E.., the Agvan-lar Takia-si, near the Chinili Mosque at Scutari, seems to be so named from the Pers. akawan, 'flower of the arghawdn, (red) Judas-tree : Johnson, Pera..Ar..Eng. Dicty., p. 144, and Red. house, Turk.- Eng.. Lex., p. 69. Evlia's translator calls it the Syringa.
10 JRAS., 1916, p. 56.