Jalāluddīn Tabrīzī | |
|---|---|
أبو القاسم جلال الدین تبریزی | |
.jpg) Baish Hazari Dargah contains Tabrizi's tomb | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 12th-century |
| Died | 13th-century |
| Resting place | Baish Hazari Dargah,Pandua,Malda district,West Bengal |
| Other names | Jalal Uddin Tabrezi |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Order | Suhrawardiyya |
| School | Hanafi |
| Muslim leader | |
| Teacher | Abu Sayyid Tabrizi Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi[1] |
| Period in office | 13th century |
Abū al-Qāsim Jalāl ad-Dīn Tabrīzī (Persian:أبو القاسم جلال الدین تبریزی) was a celebratedSufi saint ofSouth Asia.[2] He arrived inBengal shortly after the start of itsMuslim rule, where he propagatedIslam to the local populace and spent the rest of his life. The Jaliliyyah Order, a smalltariqah, is named after him,[3] and he is considered to be theprotagonist of theSanskrit fictionSekhaśubhodayā (Advent of theShaykh).[4]
Abul Qasim Jalaluddin was born inTabriz, in northwesternIran.[5] He studied under Abu Sayyid Tabrizi, a localSunni scholar. After the death of this teacher, Jalaluddin Tabrizi became a disciple ofShahab al-Din Suhrawardi.[6] Under Suhrawardi's service, Tabrizi frequently accompanied him duringHajj toMecca and would carry astove atop his head to keep food warm.[7]
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Tabrizi migrated toDelhi during the reign of Mamluk emperorIltutmish in circa 1210, and was given a place to stay near the palace. His popularity was said to have annoyed Shaykh al-Islam Nizamuddin Sughra,[8] who allegedly accused him of adultery with an infamous woman.[9] However, other scholars likeQutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki andBahauddin Zakariya maintained good relations with Tabrizi. The accusations were later proved to be false.[10]
He then proceeded toBengal, which had recently been conquered byMuhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji. Among his numerous contributions, Tabrizi is credited for inviting many locals toIslam and amass a large following. The nearby town of Deotala was named as Tabrizabad in his honour, which suggests that he lived there for some time too.
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The date of death of Jalaluddin Tabrizi is contested. Ghulam Sarwar asserts that he died in 1244,[8] whilst Mirza Muhammad Akhtar Dehlavi records his death to be in 1225.[11] Tabrizi was buried in his khanqah atHazrat Pandua. The income of the donated land of thedargah was worth twenty-two thousandtakas, and hence came to be known as theBaish Hazari Dargah.[3]
However,Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak claims that Tabrizi died in a place called Devmahal. Historians have struggled to locate such as a place as there is no place called Devmahal in Bengal.[6] Colonial-era studies identify Devmahal with theMaldives.[12][13]
The influence of Tabrizi to Muslim Bengal in the 13th-century can be seen from the succeeding centuries with confusions arising due to other Sufi saints with the common name Jalal. The 14th-century Moroccan travellerIbn Battuta mentions his encounter with aJalaluddin Tabrizi nearKamarupa although modern historians consider Ibn Battuta to have confused the former withShah Jalal ofSylhet, due to an abundance of supporting inscriptions and evidences suggesting otherwise.[3] Ibn Battuta wrote his book when he returned to Morocco, many years after travelling to these places.
During the reign ofMughal emperorShah Alam II, Munshi Syed Sadruddin (d. 1796) was appointed as themutawalli (guardian) of the Baish Hazaripargana. Sadruddin also built a library near his madrasa inBohar which he gave the name Madrasa-i-Jalalia, in honour of the saint.[14] The madrasa successively produced hundreds ofulama including Ghulam Mustafa Burdwani, Izharul Haque, Abdur Rab Lucknowi, Abdur Rahman Lucknowi and Nurul Haque Ansari.[15]