Forum Pakistan

A Sufi order (see, Sufi orders), whose founder and eponym, Khwaja Abu Ishaq ash-Shami (d. 941 CE), founded a *Sufi monastery at Chisht near Herat, Afghanistan. In 1193 the Chishti order spread in South Asia as a result of the spiritual work of Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti (1142-236). The Chishtiya proved to be the most venerated and influential Sufi order in South Asia, many of the most illustrious saints belonged to the order. Moinuddin's spiritual successor Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki (d. 1235) sojourned in Multan before moving on to Delhi. Bakhtiar Kaki was offered several offices by Sultan Iltutrnish, which he refused, and by the time of his death his circle of devotees had greatly increased.

The Chishtiya order gained a firm basis in the *Punjab due to Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakar who passed on the 'torch to Nizamuddin Awlia (d. 1325) among whose votaries were the two poets Amir Khusrau (d. 1324) and Amir Hasan Sijzi. Khusrau celebrated his saint in a number of devotional lyrics while Sijzi recorded the sayings of Nizamuddin Awlia under the title Fawaid-ul-Fawad, thus setting a trend in *Sufi literature. Nizamuddin Awliya's successor was Naseeruddin Chiragh-i-Dehli (d. 1356). In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Chishtiya was promoted further in the north western areas of present day Pakistan by Shah Kalimullah Jahanabadi (16501729) and his successors.