SAYYID ATHAR ABBAS RIZVI

ISLAMIC SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS in the Indian subcontinent developed
features uniquely their own, but as was the case in other parts of the
Islamic world, they remained deeply rooted in the Quran, Ḥadīth, and
the teachings of the righteous caliphs and those of 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭalib's
descendants. The spiritual guide of the great Persian Sufi Bayazīd Basṭāmī
was Abū 'Alī Sindī. ¹ In ca. 292/904, on his second pilgrimage to Mecca,
Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj with his four hundred disciples traveled through Gujarat,
the Lower Indus Valley and the northern Indian borders to Khurasan and
Turkestan. ² From time to time other Sufis also moved to different parts of
Sind and the Punjab, but the contributions of only those Sufis who settled
in India after the conquest of the Punjab and Sind by Sultan Maḥmūd of
Ghaznah (388/998-421/1030) are documented.

By the fourth/ tenth century, the Sufis had formed several orders and frater-
nities. One of them was founded by Shaykh Abū Isḥaq Ibrāhīm ibn
Shahriyār (d. 426/ 1035), who died at Kazirun, situated between Shiraz and
the Persian Gulf coast. He ordered his nephew Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn to mount
a camel and travel in whatever direction the animal took him; he was then
to remain where finally the camel halted. The camel stopped at Uchh
(Upper Sind in Pakistan), where Ṣafī al-Dīn founded his khānqāh. The
shaykh died in Uchh, but the influence of his uncle penetrated very deeply
into the life of seamen and mariners who undertook hazardous voyages

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