Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Uthman ibn Ali al-Jullabi, commonly known by the nisbaal-Hujwiri and reverentially asData Ganj Bakhsh, was an 11th-century Islamic scholar and writer.[1] He made a significant contribution both to the spreading ofIslam inSouth Asia.
Ali ibn Uthman ibn Ali ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah ibn Ali ibn Hasan ibn Zayd ibn Hasan ibn Ali is said to be his genealogy. He was born around 990 CE nearGhazni,Afghanistan during the era of the Ghaznavid Kingdom and moved toLahore in present-dayPakistan in 1077 CE.
His most famous written work is theKashf al-Mahjub, written in thePersian language. This is one of the earliest and most respected treatises ofSufism in Persian, and it debates Sufi doctrines of the past.[2]
Al-Hujwiri was interred in a famous mausoleum in Lahore, which is surrounded by a large marble courtyard, a mosque and other buildings. It is the most frequented of all the shrines in that old city, and indeed one of the most famous in Pakistan and the entire region. He is venerated as the Patron Saint of Lahore, where his name is a household word, and his mausoleum the object of pilgrimage from distant places, by people of all religious beliefs. Along with KhwajaMoin-ud-Din Chishti,Farid-ud-Din Ganj Shakar,Lal Shahbaz Qalandar andJalal-ud-Din Surkh Bukhari, he is deemed in popularPunjabi literature and culture, as one of thePanj Peer (Five Sages/Holy Ones) who exert mystic control and authority over all of the South Asia.[3]
