ʿUthmān Sirāj ad-Dīn al-Bangālī ( ar, عثمان سراج الدين البنغالي; 1258-1357), known affectionately by followers as Akhi Siraj ( bn, আখি সিরাজ), was a 14th-century

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

. He was a Sufi belonging to the

Chishti Order The Chishtī Order ( fa, ''chishtī'') is a tariqa, an order or school within the mystic Sufi tradition of Sunni Islam. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness. It began with Abu Ishaq Shami in Chisht, a ...

and was a disciple of

Nizamuddin Auliya Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya (sometimes spelled Awliya; 1238 – 3 April 1325), also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, and Mahbub-e-Ilahi () was an Sunni Muslim scholar, Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, and is one of the most famous Sufis from the India ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

. As one of the senior disciples of Nizāmuddīn Auliyā, he spent long years with him in

and earned the

sobriquet A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...

of Āinā-e-Hind ( fa, ''Mirror of India''). His shrine, the Pirana Pir Dargah in

Gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ), also known as the Indian bison, is a bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 m ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

, attracts hundreds of thousands of devotees every year. Siraj and his successor, Alaul Haq, are credited with the rise to prominence of the Chishti order in Bengal.

Early life and education

'Abd al-Haqq al-Dehlawi mentions in his ''Akhbar al Akhyar'', the name of ''Akhi Sirāj Gaurī''; which suggests that Siraj was a native of

in Bengal. He is thought to have been born around 1258 CE, when the region was under the rule of the Mamluk dynasty (Delhi), Mamluk dynasty based in

. As a young man, Siraj travelled to Delhi where he studied under prominent Muslim personalities. Siraj studied with Nizāmuddin and took lessons from Mawlānā Rukn ad-Din, studying ''Kafiah'', ''Mufassal'', the ''Mukhtaṣar of al-Qudurī'' and ''Majma'a-ul Bahrain''. Amir Khurd, a disciple and biographer of

as well as the author of ''Siyār ul-Awliyā'', also participated in these lessons. Siraj completed his studies in a short period of time and became an accomplished scholar, such was his zeal for learning. He was then to be made a senior disciple of Nizamuddin, but was informed that he was still not educated enough. As a result, he was taught the Islamic sciences for a further six months, by Shaykh Fakhr ad-Din Zarradi, a great scholar and another senior disciple of

. After presenting himself to Nizamuddin, Siraj was then conferred the ''khirqa'' (initiatory cloak) of ''khilafat'' (succession) and was given the Farsi, Persian title of ''Āinā-e-Hind'' (Mirror of India).

Later life

After receiving khilafat, Siraj remained in Delhi in the company of his mentor Nizamuddin for four years, though continuing to return to Bengal to see his mother once a year. Prior to his death in 1325, Nizamuddin ordered Siraj to return to Bengal to preach. Siraj was present at the bedside of Nizamuddin when he died in 1325 AD. He stayed in Delhi until 1328–1329, at which point he departed for Gaur after the Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq had transferred the capital to Daulatabad Fort, Daulatabad and forced Delhi's citizens to migrate. After resettling down in Bengal, Siraj was made the court scholar of Bengal under the government of the Sultan of Bengal, Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah. Siraj established a huge Langar (Sufism), langar kitchen where free food was distributed to the poor and destitute. He also brought some valuable books along with him from the library of Nizamuddin and these books formed the nucleus of the first Chishti khanqah in Bengal. Soon after his arrival in Hazrat Pandua, Alaul Haq became his disciple. Such was his love and devotion to Siraj that when they travelled, like Jalaluddin Tabrizi before him, Alaul Haq would carry a cauldron of hot food on his head even though it would burn his hair, so that he could provide his teacher with warm food on demand. It is said that this even took place during Siraj's numerous Hajj visits, which they would travel by on foot. He lived and worked in Bengal for the rest of his life and he also married. One of his daughters later married his disciple, Alaul Haq. Amir Khurd, his fellow student, said that he won great esteem from the people of Bengal and "illumined the whole region with his spiritual radiance." Siraj buried the khirqa he received from Nizamuddin in the northwestern corner of the Sagar Dighi,

Death and legacy

In 1357, Akhi Siraj died and was buried in a suburb of Lakhnauti called ''Sadullahpur''. Siraj was succeeded by Alaul Haq. It is said that he buried the ''khirqa'' (robes) that he had received from Sheikh

in the north-western corner of the Sagar Dighi (reservoir) and ordered that he be buried close to that piece of cloth. He was interred near his buried robes according to his wishes, and a mausoleum was erected over his grave. The date of construction of the mausoleum is not known, but two inscriptions attached to its gateways show that the gateways were erected in the 16th century by Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah and later Sultan Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah. Husain Shah built a siqayah (water fountain) at the mausoleum too. His urs is commemorated annually on Eid al-Fitr (1st and 2nd Shawwaal) and his tomb is still visited by many today. During this event, Jahaniyan Jahangasht's flag (which is kept in Jalaluddin Tabrizi's dargah) and Nur Qutb Alam's handprint are taken to Siraj's mausoleum.

Sources

*''Siyar-ul-Auliya p. 368-452'' *''Akhbar-ul-Akhyar p. 162-3'' *''Mir'at-ul-Israr p.888-91''

Early life and education

Later life

Death and legacy

Sources

See also

References

Further reading