Halal Travel Guide: Delhi Sufi Sites — Shrines, Mosques and Muslim Communities (Part 1)
Reposted from the web
Summary: Delhi Sufi Sites — Shrines, Mosques and Muslim Communities is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: Delhi has two important Muslim communities. One is inside Old Delhi, centered around the Mughal-era. The account keeps its focus on Delhi Sufi Sites, Sufi Heritage, Muslim Community while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source.
Delhi has two important Muslim communities. One is inside Old Delhi, centered around the Mughal-era
Friday Mosque (Jama Masjid). The other is in the southeastern suburbs of Delhi, the Nizamuddin community, which is centered around the Nizamuddin Dargah complex.
Nizamuddin is the most important Sufi holy site in Delhi. Every year during Ramadan, hundreds or thousands of believers gather here, and the shrine provides free meals for suhoor and iftar to everyone. The area is busy even on normal days. Sometimes at night, there are performances of Qawwali, a type of South Asian Sufi music, which is very moving.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Eating and Exploring
Chapter 2: The Core Area of the Shrine of Nizamuddin (Nisangmuding Shengling)
1. North Gate: Built in the 15th century
2. Entering the shrine from the North Gate
3. Water tank: 1321
4. Jamaat Khana mosque: 14th century
5. Nizamuddin shrine (gongbei): 19th century
6. Tomb of Amir Khusrau: 1605
7. South Asian Sufi music (Qawwali)
1. Praise songs (nasheed) at the shrine of Nizamuddin.
2. Qawwali performance inside the mosque.
3. Sufi music at the music festival.
8. Tomb of Princess Jahanara: 1681.
9. Tomb of Muhammad Shah: 1748.
10. Tomb of Prince Mirza Jahangir: 1821
11. East Gate Bazaar
Chapter 3: The area around the shrine of Nizamuddin
1. Tomb of Ataga Khan: 1566
2. Chausath Khamba: 1624
3. Tomb of the poet Ghalib: 1869.
4. Barah Khamba: 14th-15th century.
5. Gol Gumbad: 15th century
6. Tomb of Malik Maqbul: 1388
7. Kali Mosque: 1370
Chapter 1: Eating and Exploring
Before we look at the architecture of Nisamuding, let's wander around the neighborhood and grab something to eat. The Nisamuding neighborhood is very lively, especially outside the north and east gates where vendors sell all sorts of things. Many of them sell religious supplies, including fresh flowers and prayer headscarves (shanbu).
If you turn from the busy market into the small alleys, you can see a quieter side of the area.
The tailor
These branches are used for brushing teeth.
At a stall selling religious items, I bought a photo of the shrine of Nizamuddin.
Eating food.
You can find many snacks in Nizamuddin.
Papayas on the street.
Lassi is a popular yogurt drink in South Asia. It is usually made by mixing yogurt with water, fruit, and various spices, and it comes in both sweet and salty versions.
Oily flatbread (you nang)
Chicken rice (biryani) is perhaps the most popular way to cook rice in South Asia. Biryani comes from South Asian Muslims. The word is a Persian loanword in Urdu, generally believed to come from the Persian word for rice, birinj.
According to historian Lizzie Collingham, modern biryani likely originated in the royal kitchens of the Mughal Empire. It was created when chefs combined spicy Indian rice with Persian pilaf. However, some believe that biryani existed even before the Mughal Empire. Documents from the 16th-century Mughal Empire mention both biryanis and pulao, but the two terms were interchangeable back then. Another historian, Pratibha Karan, believes that biryani formed after Arab traders brought Middle Eastern pilaf to South India.
People generally agree that there are three main differences between biryani and Indian pilaf:
1. Biryani is mixed with more spices and has a stronger curry flavor, while Indian pilaf uses almost no spices.
Biryani usually has two layers of rice with meat hidden in the middle, while Indian pilaf (pulao) is generally not layered.
Biryani is usually made by cooking the rice and meat separately, while Indian pilaf (pulao) is cooked all together.
A classic Indian samosa uses a dough made from vegetable oil, melted butter, warm water, salt, and wheat flour. The filling is a mix of mashed potatoes, onions, green peas, spices, and green chilies, which is then fried until golden brown.
The South Asian samosa, the Arab sanbusak, the Afghan sambosa, the Tajik samboosa, the Turkic samsa, and the Somali and Ethiopian sambusa all come from the Persian word sanbosag.
Persian poetry praised the samosa as early as the 10th century. This snack was very popular in Iran until the 16th century, but today it is only found in a few areas. In the 13th or 14th century, Muslim merchants from Central Asia brought the samosa to South Asia, where it became a favorite of the Delhi Sultanate royalty. A scholar from the Delhi Sultanate wrote in 1300 that princes and nobles enjoyed samosas made with meat, ghee, and onions. "
The famous 14th-century traveler Ibn Battuta visited the court of the Tughlaq dynasty in the Delhi Sultanate. In his travelogue, The Rihla, he wrote about eating a pastry called sambusak at the Sultan's court, which was filled with minced meat, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and spices.
I still do not know the name of this fried food.
You can also buy many South Asian-style prayer caps in Nizamuddin.
I bought this Sindhi cap, which comes from the Sindh region and is often seen at Indian Sufi music performances.
Chapter 2: The Core Area of the Shrine of Nizamuddin (Nisangmuding Shengling)
Next, we will enter the core area of the Nizamuddin shrine (Dargah). The core area centers on the shrine (Shrine) and includes a series of historical buildings from the 14th to the 19th centuries. I have marked a diagram here.
Next, we will enter through the north gate and exit through the east gate to take a detailed look at the historical buildings in the core area of the Nisamuding Gongbei.
1. North Gate: Built in the 15th century
First, enter the core area of the shrine from the north gate. You must take off your shoes from this point on. The local vendors nearby will be very eager for you to store your shoes in their shops, but I chose to put my shoes in my own backpack.
2. Entering the shrine from the North Gate
The route is as follows:
3. Water tank: 1321
After entering from the north gate, the first thing you see is a water tank (baoli) built in 1321. It is the oldest surviving structure in the core area of the Nizamuddin shrine. There is a legendary story about the construction of this water tank:
In 1321, more and more people came to visit Nizamuddin Auliya (1238-1325). Many chose to stay there permanently, so Nizamuddin began building a water tank near his home. At the same time, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, started building a massive fortress called Tughlaqabad in Delhi. He ordered all laborers in Delhi to work on the fortress, including the workers building a water tank for Nizamuddin. These workers preferred to work for Nizamuddin, so they built the fortress during the day and snuck back at night to work on the water tank.
When Ghiyasuddin found out, he banned the workers from working for Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin then made a prophecy: "Ya rahey ujjar, ya basey gujjar". It roughly means, "Either it will become a wasteland, or it will be inhabited by the Gujjar people." After the sultanate fell, the nomadic Gurjar (gujjar) people took over this castle and it turned into a wilderness.
Legend says Nizamuddin made many prophecies about Ghiyas. Another famous one is 'Hunuz Dilli dur ast'. It means 'Delhi is still far away'. Ghiyas led a successful expedition to Bengal in 1324. In February 1325, while he was on his way back, a wooden pavilion collapsed and crushed him to death before he could reach Delhi.
After the pool was finished, Nizamuddin said a dua for it. People believe this pool has magical powers and can cure skin diseases.
Right next to the pool are two women's graves. Persian inscriptions on them show they were built in 1563. One woman was shown mercy and forgiveness, while the other died in deep sorrow.
Follow the path south from the pool to reach the true heart of the Nizamuddin shrine. Many people are buying fresh flowers where the path meets the courtyard to offer to the saint.
4. Jamaat Khana mosque: 14th century
The Jamaat Khana mosque is the most important building in the heart of Nizamuddin. There are many different stories about its history, but it is likely the second mosque built in Delhi after the Qutb mosque.
One story says that Sultan Alauddin Khalji (reigned 1296-1316) of the Khalji dynasty built this mosque because Nizamuddin once refused a large sum of money offered by the Sultan. Because it has been restored, this mosque looks very different from the Alai Darwaza, the southern gate of the Qutb mosque built by Alauddin Khalji. However, if you look closely, the proportions and decorations of the two buildings are actually very similar.
Another story says the main hall of this building was originally built by Alauddin Khalji's son, Khizr Khan, as a tomb for Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin did not want to be buried in a tomb, so the building became a mosque and side rooms were added to both sides. But looking at the existing structure, the main hall and the side chambers seem to be built together perfectly, with no signs that they were constructed at different times.
A third theory says Nizamuddin was buried in the wilderness according to his final wishes, and this mosque was built for believers by Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq (reigned 1351-1388). Overall, the building's style is still very close to the architectural style of the Khalji dynasty.
The hall on the north side of the mosque is currently undergoing repairs.
5. Nizamuddin shrine (gongbei): 19th century
The Shrine of Nizamuddin (Shrine) sits right in front of the Jamaat Khana mosque. It is impossible to know what the original shrine looked like. The first shrine was built in the late 14th century by Firoz Shah Tughlak, who was the Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate from 1351 to 1388.
In 1562, a noble serving under the Mughal Emperor Akbar added marble screens around the shrine.
Starting in 1608, the governor of Delhi at the time, Sheikh Farid Bukhari, added several new features to the shrine, including a wooden canopy inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
In 1652, a red sandstone corridor was built around the shrine, but it was replaced in 1809 by the marble columns we see today.
The shrine's canopy was rebuilt in 1820, and a dome was added in 1839, giving it the appearance it has now.
Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya (1238-1325), also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, was a key figure in the Sufi Chishti Order and is considered one of the most important Sufis in South Asia.
Nizamuddin was born in 1238 in Badayun, near the Ganges River in Uttar Pradesh. His father died when he was five, and his mother brought him to Delhi to make a living. At age 20, Nizamuddin traveled to Ajodhan (now in the Punjab region of Pakistan) to follow the famous Sufi master Fariduddin Ganjshakar, who was also one of the founders of the Sufi Chishti Order. After that, Nizamuddin spent three consecutive Ramadans traveling from Delhi to Ajodhan to be with Fariduddin Ganjshakar. During the third Ramadan, Fariduddin Ganjshakar named Nizamuddin as his successor. Not long after, Nizamuddin received news in Delhi that his teacher had passed away.
Nizamuddin lived in many parts of Delhi. In his later years, he moved to a place outside the city called Ghiyaspur to escape the noise. There, he built his own Sufi lodge (khanqah). A lodge is usually part of a complex that includes a school, a mosque, and a tomb (gongbei). Inside the prayer hall (daotang), Nizamuddin generously shared his knowledge with everyone who came to ask him for guidance. Soon, more and more people gathered around him, from the poor to the wealthy, and even court poets from the Delhi Sultanate came to learn from his teachings.
Nizamuddin did not focus much on Sufi theory, choosing instead to put his energy into practice. His key principles included helping those in need, providing food for the hungry, and showing compassion to the oppressed. He strongly opposed mixing with the Sultan and the royal nobility. He urged the wealthy to stay in close contact with the poor and the oppressed. He took an uncompromising stance against all forms of political and social oppression.
Nizamuddin was also a strong supporter of the Sufi Sama ceremony, which some people at the time considered un-Islamic. Sama is a Sufi ritual centered on remembrance (Dhikr) that includes singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and reciting poetry. The famous Sufi whirling dance is one part of Sama.
Music and dance have always been an important part of various religious rituals in India. Nizamuddin hoped to use music and dance to make it easier for ordinary believers to participate in Sufism. Influenced by Nizamuddin, his famous student Amir Khusrow invented Qawwali, the most well-known form of Sufi music in South Asia.
6. Tomb of Amir Khusrau: 1605
The tomb of Nizamuddin's student Amir Khusro (1253-1325) sits south of the shrine and is the second most important tomb in the core area after Nizamuddin's own.
In 1310, 57-year-old Khusro met Nizamuddin and eventually became his student. In 1319, Khusro wrote a prose work called Afzal ul-Fawaid (The Greatest Blessings) that explains the teachings of Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin passed away on April 3, 1325, and Khusrau died just six months later. His tomb, like the shrine of Nizamuddin, was rebuilt many times. During the reign of Humayun (1530-1560), a surrounding wall was added, which makes it difficult to see the original appearance of the tomb.
Amir Khusrau holds a high status in India and is known as an iconic figure in Indian cultural history. He is called the father of Urdu literature and the father of Indian Sufi music, among many other titles. He was a Sufi musician who invented Qawwali, the most important form of Sufi music in South Asia, and he was also a great Persian poet. Ghazal was a very important form in his poetry. Khusrau made great contributions to the ghazal style of poetry and was the first to introduce ghazal-style songs to India, where they became an important musical form in South Asia.
A portrait of Khusrau teaching his students, painted in the Bukhara region between the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
1. Exiled Turks
Khusrau's father came from the Lachin tribe of the Turks. He was born and raised near Samarkand under the rule of the Western Liao dynasty. In 1218, Genghis Khan's army destroyed the Western Liao dynasty and devastated Central Asia. Many Turks fled in all directions, and Khusrau's father escaped to what is now northern Afghanistan.
At that time, Sultan Shams ud-Din Iltutmish of the Delhi Sultanate also came from a Turkic tribe in Central Asia. He welcomed these Turkic refugees to settle in the Delhi Sultanate and provided significant support and many positions in the sultan's court to exiled Turkic nobles, craftsmen, and scholars.
In 1230, the Sultan gave Khusrau's father a piece of land, and he married the daughter of an Indian Rajput noble.
2. Receive an Indian education
In 1260, when Khusrau was only 7 years old, his father passed away. His mother then took the whole family back to live at her parents' home in Delhi. So, in reality, Khusrau grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Rawat Arz.
Khusrau's maternal grandfather was a highly cultured, high-ranking official in the court of the Delhi Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban (1266-1286). Khusrau started his formal education at his grandfather's house when he was eight, and he also began learning how to write poetry.
In 1271, Khusrau finished his first poetry collection, Tuhfat us-Sighr (Gift of Childhood), which included poems he wrote between the ages of 16 and 18.
3. Gaining recognition from the Mamluk dynasty
Khusrau's grandfather passed away when he was 20, and after that, Khusrau joined the army of the Mamluk dynasty in the Delhi Sultanate. By then, his poetry had already made a big impression on the Sultan's court, and Sultan Balban's second son, Bughra Khan, was his biggest fan. In 1276, Bughra Khan became a patron of Khusrau.
Bughra Khan left the Sultan's court in 1277 to rule Bengal. In 1279, Khusrau visited him in Bengal and finished his second poetry collection there, Wast ul-Hayat (The Middle of Life).
After this, the Sultan's eldest son, Khan Muhammad, visited Delhi from Multan. He also loved Khusrau's poetry and invited him to come live in Multan. In 1281, Khusrau traveled to Multan with Khan Muhammad. At that time, Multan was the gateway from India to Arabia and Persia. It was an important cultural center in India that brought together brilliant scholars from Persia, India, and other places, and Khusrau learned a great deal there.
In 1285, Khan Muhammad died in battle while fighting the Mongol army. Sultan Balban died in 1287. His grandson, Muiz ud din Qaiqabad, who was the son of his second son Bughra Khan, took the throne as the final sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.
Between 1287 and 1288, Khusrau became a court poet for the sultan. In 1288, he finished his first long poem (Mathnawi) titled Qiran us-Sa'dain (The Meeting of the Two Auspicious Stars). It tells the story of Bughra Khan, who had been hostile toward his son for a long time, finally meeting with Sultan Qaiqabad.
4. Gaining respect from the Khalji dynasty
In 1290, the military officer Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji led a coup to overthrow the Mamluk dynasty and established the Khalji dynasty.
Firuz Khalji also greatly admired Khusrau's poetry, so Khusrau was invited back to be the court poet and was treated with great respect. In the court of the Khalji dynasty, Khusrau was able to focus on his literary work. His ghazal poems were turned into songs, and the Sultan had female singers perform them for him every night.
Khusrau once wrote about this experience: The King of the World, Firuz Khalji, gave me unimaginable treasures to reward me for the endless pain I suffered while writing poetry.
In 1290, Khusrow finished his second long poem (masnavi), Miftah ul-Futuh (Key to Victories), which praised the victories of Firuz Khalji. In 1294, he completed his third poetry collection, Ghurrat ul-Kamaal (The Pinnacle of Perfection), which includes poems he wrote between the ages of 34 and 41.
In 1296, Alauddin Khalji became the new Sultan of Delhi. Khusrow wrote Khaza'in ul-Futuh (Treasures of Victories) for Sultan Alauddin Khalji, recording the Sultan's achievements in various areas. In 1298, Khusrow finished a set of five long poems (khamsa) known as Khamsa-e-Khusrow (Khusrow's Quintet). These two works brought Khusrau great fame and status. Sultan Alauddin Khalji was very pleased and rewarded him generously.
Illustrations for the Quintet (Khamsa)
7. South Asian Sufi music, Qawwali
Legend says that in the late 13th century, Khusrau blended Persian, Indian, Turkic, and Arabic music to create the local Indian Sufi music known as Qawwali.
The word Qawwali comes from the Arabic term Qaul, which means the saying of the Prophet. A Qawwal is someone who frequently chants the Qaul, and the act of chanting it is called Qawwali.
During the Mughal Empire, Qawwali was mostly sung in Persian. As it spread across South Asia, it began to be performed in many other languages, including Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi. Today, besides Delhi, Qawwali is popular in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, North India, Hyderabad, and Muslim-populated areas in Bangladesh like Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet. The performance style in each place is influenced by local traditional music, giving each one its own unique character.
1. Praise songs (nasheed) at the shrine of Nizamuddin.
The Nizamuddin Dargah hosts Qawwali performances two nights a week, but I didn't plan well enough and missed them. At the shrine, I was lucky to see an old man singing a song of praise for the Prophet, and it was very moving.
2. Qawwali performance inside the mosque.
I was very lucky to catch a Qawwali performance at a small mosque in the northeast of the Nizamuddin neighborhood, which was one of the most memorable parts of my trip to Delhi.
A Qawwali group usually has 8 to 9 people. This includes one lead singer, one or two backup singers, one or two harmonium players (who can also be the lead or backup singers), and one or two drummers playing the tabla and dholak drums. There are also 4 to 5 chorus members who repeat key verses and clap to keep the beat. During the performance, everyone sits cross-legged on the floor, with the lead singer, backup singers, and harmonium player in front, and the drummers and chorus members behind them.
Before the harmonium was introduced, qawwali usually used the sarangi, a stringed instrument similar to a violin.
Qawwali themes are love, devotion, and longing, and they are divided into seven types based on their content:
The first type is called hamd, which means praise. It is a song praising Allah and usually starts the qawwali.
The second type is called na'at, which means description. It is a song praising the Prophet Muhammad and is usually the second song in a qawwali.
The third type is called manqabat, which means virtue. It is a song praising Imam Ali or one of the Sufi saints and is usually the third song in a qawwali.
The fourth type is called marsiya, which means elegy. It tells the story of how Imam Hussain, the son of Imam Ali, and his family were all martyred in the Battle of Karbala. This type is usually only performed during Shia rituals.
The fifth type is called ghazal, meaning love song. This is a song that seems very secular on the surface, usually singing about the joy of drinking wine and the pain of being separated from a lover. In South Asia, ghazal is an independent musical genre on its own and usually does not have a deeper meaning. However, in the context of Sufi Qawwali rituals, these secular metaphors are used to express the longing for the soul to unite with the divine and a love for the sacred. In songs about being drunk, wine represents divine knowledge, the wine glass is Allah or a spiritual guide, the tavern is considered the spiritual background where the soul exists, and being drunk means having gained divine knowledge or being filled with the joy of loving Allah. Songs that seem to describe a longing for a lover are actually singing about the pain of the soul being separated from Allah and the desire to be reunited.
The sixth type is called kafi, a unique form of poetry in Punjabi, Sindhi, and Seraiki.
The seventh type is called munajaat, which means monologue. The singer uses various forms to express praise to Allah, usually singing in Persian.
3. Sufi music at the music festival.
For the first 600 years, Qawwali was a type of music performed only at Sufi shrines or places of spiritual practice (dargah) in South Asia. Since the 20th century, Qawwali music has gained mainstream attention through major world music labels and the international music scene. It now holds a certain international status, and many bands have started performing Qawwali melodies. I saw a rock band performing Sufi music in front of the Select Citywalk mall in Delhi.
8. Tomb of Princess Jahanara: 1681.
Because of Nizamuddin's important status in India, many significant figures are buried near him. There are several important tombs around the Nizamuddin shrine. The first one, right next to the mosque, is the white marble tomb of Princess Jahanara Begum Sahiba (1614-1681).
Princess Jahanara was the most powerful woman in the Mughal Empire during the mid-17th century. She was also the only female Sufi practitioner in the Mughal court, belonging to the Qadiriyya order, which is known as the Qadiriyya menhuan in Northwest China.
The white marble latticework tomb in the center of the picture is the tomb of Princess Jahanara.
1. Becoming the First Lady of the Empire
Princess Jahanara was the eldest daughter of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-1658), who built the Taj Mahal. She was educated from a young age by Sati al-Nisa Khanam, the sister of the famous Mughal Empire poet Talib Amuli. Sati al-Nisa Khanam was highly accomplished in the Quran, Persian literature, court etiquette, and medicine. At that time, women in the Mughal royal family could enter the famous Akbar the Great Library to read books in Persian, Turkish, and Indian languages. The young princess became skilled in reading, writing, poetry, and painting, and she also enjoyed hobbies like chess, polo, and hunting.
After her mother died in 1631, the 17-year-old princess became the First Lady of the empire (Padshah Begum) and took charge of court ceremonies. After moving past the grief of losing her mother, the princess hosted the engagement and wedding ceremonies for her brother, Dara Shukoh, to fulfill her mother's final wishes.
The princess became increasingly favored by her father and eventually rose to be the highest-ranking woman in the Mughal Empire, with her father, Shah Jahan, even letting her hold the imperial seal.
In 1644, his younger brother, the future Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, angered their father. The princess successfully convinced her father to forgive Aurangzeb and restore his military rank.
2. Burned and healed
In March 1644, 30-year-old Princess Jahanara suffered severe burns and was so badly injured that she almost died. To pray for the princess's recovery, Shah Jahan gave large amounts of charity to the poor and released many prisoners. The princess's brothers, including Aurangzeb, also returned to Delhi to visit her.
During her illness, Emperor Shah Jahan stayed in the Red Fort and barely left his daughter's side. The Mughal Empire's royal doctors could not heal her burns, so Shah Jahan brought in Persian doctors, and the princess's condition slowly improved. Finally, after a full year, the princess made a complete recovery.
3. Managing the empire's charity work
In the Mughal court, Princess Jahanara was mainly in charge of charity work, and she was famous for actively caring for the poor and funding the construction of mosques. Whenever a major holiday arrived or a famine struck a region, the princess organized large-scale relief efforts. The princess was also responsible for organizing the pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
4. Sufi practice
Princess Jahanara was a student of the Sufi master Mullah Shah Badakhshi. She officially joined the Sufi Qadiriyya order in 1641 and achieved great success in her spiritual practice.
She wrote several books on Sufism. The most famous one is a biography of Moinuddin Chishti, the founder of the Chishti order. At the time, this book was highly praised for its excellent literary quality and accurate judgment. The princess also commissioned the translation and publication of a series of Sufi works, including many commentaries on Rumi's famous Mathnawi, which were very popular in the Mughal Empire.
5. Becoming First Lady again
In 1657, Shah Jahan fell seriously ill, and his four sons began a war of succession. Princess Jahanara supported Shah Jahan's eldest son, Dara Shikoh, but the following year, Dara Shikoh was defeated by his younger brother Aurangzeb and fled to Delhi.
Shah Jahan hoped the princess would use her influence over her brothers to persuade them, but in June 1658, Aurangzeb still besieged his father at Agra Fort. Aurangzeb cut off the water supply to force his father to surrender, then kept his father and the princess under house arrest.
The princess cared for Shah Jahan until he passed away in 1666, after which she reconciled with Aurangzeb and became the First Lady of the Mughal Empire once again.
During Aurangzeb's reign, the princess still held privileges that no other women in the Mughal royal family possessed. She opposed Aurangzeb's conservative religious policies, especially when he strictly regulated public life in 1679 by reinstating the poll tax on non-Muslims, a policy the princess believed would alienate the Hindus within the empire.
An 18th-century portrait of the princess.
6. The Princess's Tomb
Princess Jahanara built her own tomb next to the Nizamuddin shrine while she was still alive. The tomb is made of white marble and features lattice screens. After the princess passed away in 1681, Aurangzeb gave her the title Sahibat-uz-Zamani, which means "Mistress of the Age."
The princess's tomb is in the top right corner.
Inside the circle.
9. Tomb of Muhammad Shah: 1748.
Right next to the tomb of Princess Jahanara is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah (reigned 1719-1748), which also features white marble latticework.
During the reign of Muhammad Shah, the Mughal Empire declined rapidly and irreversibly. In the royal court, local Indian culture gradually replaced the influence of Persian and Turkic cultures.
1. Inheriting the throne
Muhammad Shah was born in 1702 in what is now Ghazni, Afghanistan. After his grandfather, Emperor Bahadur Shah I (reigned 1707-1712), died in 1712, his father was killed in a war for the throne. At just 10 years old, Muhammad Shah and his mother were imprisoned by his uncle, Jahandar Shah (reigned 1712-1713). While in prison, Muhammad Shah was raised and educated by his mother, and he was a very diligent student.
Soon after, Jahandar Shah was assassinated by the Sayyid Brothers, who held real power in the empire. They installed Farrukhsiyar (reigned 1713-1719) as a puppet emperor.
In 1719, Farrukhsiyar was killed by the Sayyid brothers. They then installed two puppet rulers, but both died of illness a few months after taking the throne. Finally, the Sayyid brothers chose 17-year-old Muhammad Shah to be emperor. In 1720, Muhammad Shah got rid of the Sayyid brothers one after another, took direct control of the military, and officially ruled the empire.
A portrait of Muhammad Shah with nobles painted in 1730, kept at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.
2. Developing arts and culture
During the reign of Muhammad Shah, the influence of Persian and Turkic cultures in the Mughal Empire gradually faded, while local Indian cultural influence grew stronger. Muhammad Shah replaced Persian with Urdu as the court language and oversaw the first translation of the Quran into Urdu. In the royal court, the Turkic formal wear worn by nobles from Samarkand was replaced by the local Indian formal coat (Sherwani).
At the same time, Muhammad Shah brought the local Indian Sufi musical performance (Qawwali) back into the court, which caused it to spread quickly across South Asia.
Although the political power of the Mughal Empire declined during the reign of Muhammad Shah, he strongly encouraged literature and the arts. Muhammad Shah hired many great painters to depict various scenes of palace life in their artwork. At the same time, Indian classical music continued to develop and evolve in Muhammad Shah's court.
A portrait of Muhammad Shah and his family painted in 1735, held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
A scene of Muhammad Shah meeting Nader Shah painted in 1740, held by the Guimet Museum in Paris.
3. Died in sorrow
In 1747, the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan led 30,000 cavalrymen from Peshawar. They defeated 70,000 Mughal troops who tried to stop them, then carried out a massacre in the important Mughal city of Lahore and looted a massive amount of wealth. On March 11, 1748, while on the way to Delhi, the Durrani army was intercepted by Mughal forces sent by Muhammad Shah, and the two sides began a decisive battle. During the fighting, Ahmad Shah's artillery ammunition caused a fire. Many soldiers burned to death, and the Durrani had to retreat back to Afghanistan. During the decisive battle against Afghanistan, the Mughal Empire's prime minister, Qamaruddin Khan, was hit by artillery fire and died. When Muhammad Shah heard the news, he was heartbroken. He eventually died from his overwhelming grief on April 26, 1748, and was buried next to the Nizamuddin shrine.
10. Tomb of Prince Mirza Jahangir: 1821
Summary: Delhi Sufi Sites — Shrines, Mosques and Muslim Communities is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: Delhi has two important Muslim communities. One is inside Old Delhi, centered around the Mughal-era. The account keeps its focus on Delhi Sufi Sites, Sufi Heritage, Muslim Community while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source.
Delhi has two important Muslim communities. One is inside Old Delhi, centered around the Mughal-era
Friday Mosque (Jama Masjid). The other is in the southeastern suburbs of Delhi, the Nizamuddin community, which is centered around the Nizamuddin Dargah complex.
Nizamuddin is the most important Sufi holy site in Delhi. Every year during Ramadan, hundreds or thousands of believers gather here, and the shrine provides free meals for suhoor and iftar to everyone. The area is busy even on normal days. Sometimes at night, there are performances of Qawwali, a type of South Asian Sufi music, which is very moving.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Eating and Exploring
Chapter 2: The Core Area of the Shrine of Nizamuddin (Nisangmuding Shengling)
1. North Gate: Built in the 15th century
2. Entering the shrine from the North Gate
3. Water tank: 1321
4. Jamaat Khana mosque: 14th century
5. Nizamuddin shrine (gongbei): 19th century
6. Tomb of Amir Khusrau: 1605
7. South Asian Sufi music (Qawwali)
1. Praise songs (nasheed) at the shrine of Nizamuddin.
2. Qawwali performance inside the mosque.
3. Sufi music at the music festival.
8. Tomb of Princess Jahanara: 1681.
9. Tomb of Muhammad Shah: 1748.
10. Tomb of Prince Mirza Jahangir: 1821
11. East Gate Bazaar
Chapter 3: The area around the shrine of Nizamuddin
1. Tomb of Ataga Khan: 1566
2. Chausath Khamba: 1624
3. Tomb of the poet Ghalib: 1869.
4. Barah Khamba: 14th-15th century.
5. Gol Gumbad: 15th century
6. Tomb of Malik Maqbul: 1388
7. Kali Mosque: 1370
Chapter 1: Eating and Exploring
Before we look at the architecture of Nisamuding, let's wander around the neighborhood and grab something to eat. The Nisamuding neighborhood is very lively, especially outside the north and east gates where vendors sell all sorts of things. Many of them sell religious supplies, including fresh flowers and prayer headscarves (shanbu).
If you turn from the busy market into the small alleys, you can see a quieter side of the area.
The tailor
These branches are used for brushing teeth.
At a stall selling religious items, I bought a photo of the shrine of Nizamuddin.
Eating food.
You can find many snacks in Nizamuddin.
Papayas on the street.
Lassi is a popular yogurt drink in South Asia. It is usually made by mixing yogurt with water, fruit, and various spices, and it comes in both sweet and salty versions.
Oily flatbread (you nang)
Chicken rice (biryani) is perhaps the most popular way to cook rice in South Asia. Biryani comes from South Asian Muslims. The word is a Persian loanword in Urdu, generally believed to come from the Persian word for rice, birinj.
According to historian Lizzie Collingham, modern biryani likely originated in the royal kitchens of the Mughal Empire. It was created when chefs combined spicy Indian rice with Persian pilaf. However, some believe that biryani existed even before the Mughal Empire. Documents from the 16th-century Mughal Empire mention both biryanis and pulao, but the two terms were interchangeable back then. Another historian, Pratibha Karan, believes that biryani formed after Arab traders brought Middle Eastern pilaf to South India.
People generally agree that there are three main differences between biryani and Indian pilaf:
1. Biryani is mixed with more spices and has a stronger curry flavor, while Indian pilaf uses almost no spices.
Biryani usually has two layers of rice with meat hidden in the middle, while Indian pilaf (pulao) is generally not layered.
Biryani is usually made by cooking the rice and meat separately, while Indian pilaf (pulao) is cooked all together.
A classic Indian samosa uses a dough made from vegetable oil, melted butter, warm water, salt, and wheat flour. The filling is a mix of mashed potatoes, onions, green peas, spices, and green chilies, which is then fried until golden brown.
The South Asian samosa, the Arab sanbusak, the Afghan sambosa, the Tajik samboosa, the Turkic samsa, and the Somali and Ethiopian sambusa all come from the Persian word sanbosag.
Persian poetry praised the samosa as early as the 10th century. This snack was very popular in Iran until the 16th century, but today it is only found in a few areas. In the 13th or 14th century, Muslim merchants from Central Asia brought the samosa to South Asia, where it became a favorite of the Delhi Sultanate royalty. A scholar from the Delhi Sultanate wrote in 1300 that princes and nobles enjoyed samosas made with meat, ghee, and onions. "
The famous 14th-century traveler Ibn Battuta visited the court of the Tughlaq dynasty in the Delhi Sultanate. In his travelogue, The Rihla, he wrote about eating a pastry called sambusak at the Sultan's court, which was filled with minced meat, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and spices.
I still do not know the name of this fried food.
You can also buy many South Asian-style prayer caps in Nizamuddin.
I bought this Sindhi cap, which comes from the Sindh region and is often seen at Indian Sufi music performances.
Chapter 2: The Core Area of the Shrine of Nizamuddin (Nisangmuding Shengling)
Next, we will enter the core area of the Nizamuddin shrine (Dargah). The core area centers on the shrine (Shrine) and includes a series of historical buildings from the 14th to the 19th centuries. I have marked a diagram here.
Next, we will enter through the north gate and exit through the east gate to take a detailed look at the historical buildings in the core area of the Nisamuding Gongbei.
1. North Gate: Built in the 15th century
First, enter the core area of the shrine from the north gate. You must take off your shoes from this point on. The local vendors nearby will be very eager for you to store your shoes in their shops, but I chose to put my shoes in my own backpack.
2. Entering the shrine from the North Gate
The route is as follows:
3. Water tank: 1321
After entering from the north gate, the first thing you see is a water tank (baoli) built in 1321. It is the oldest surviving structure in the core area of the Nizamuddin shrine. There is a legendary story about the construction of this water tank:
In 1321, more and more people came to visit Nizamuddin Auliya (1238-1325). Many chose to stay there permanently, so Nizamuddin began building a water tank near his home. At the same time, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, started building a massive fortress called Tughlaqabad in Delhi. He ordered all laborers in Delhi to work on the fortress, including the workers building a water tank for Nizamuddin. These workers preferred to work for Nizamuddin, so they built the fortress during the day and snuck back at night to work on the water tank.
When Ghiyasuddin found out, he banned the workers from working for Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin then made a prophecy: "Ya rahey ujjar, ya basey gujjar". It roughly means, "Either it will become a wasteland, or it will be inhabited by the Gujjar people." After the sultanate fell, the nomadic Gurjar (gujjar) people took over this castle and it turned into a wilderness.
Legend says Nizamuddin made many prophecies about Ghiyas. Another famous one is 'Hunuz Dilli dur ast'. It means 'Delhi is still far away'. Ghiyas led a successful expedition to Bengal in 1324. In February 1325, while he was on his way back, a wooden pavilion collapsed and crushed him to death before he could reach Delhi.
After the pool was finished, Nizamuddin said a dua for it. People believe this pool has magical powers and can cure skin diseases.
Right next to the pool are two women's graves. Persian inscriptions on them show they were built in 1563. One woman was shown mercy and forgiveness, while the other died in deep sorrow.
Follow the path south from the pool to reach the true heart of the Nizamuddin shrine. Many people are buying fresh flowers where the path meets the courtyard to offer to the saint.
4. Jamaat Khana mosque: 14th century
The Jamaat Khana mosque is the most important building in the heart of Nizamuddin. There are many different stories about its history, but it is likely the second mosque built in Delhi after the Qutb mosque.
One story says that Sultan Alauddin Khalji (reigned 1296-1316) of the Khalji dynasty built this mosque because Nizamuddin once refused a large sum of money offered by the Sultan. Because it has been restored, this mosque looks very different from the Alai Darwaza, the southern gate of the Qutb mosque built by Alauddin Khalji. However, if you look closely, the proportions and decorations of the two buildings are actually very similar.
Another story says the main hall of this building was originally built by Alauddin Khalji's son, Khizr Khan, as a tomb for Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin did not want to be buried in a tomb, so the building became a mosque and side rooms were added to both sides. But looking at the existing structure, the main hall and the side chambers seem to be built together perfectly, with no signs that they were constructed at different times.
A third theory says Nizamuddin was buried in the wilderness according to his final wishes, and this mosque was built for believers by Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq (reigned 1351-1388). Overall, the building's style is still very close to the architectural style of the Khalji dynasty.
The hall on the north side of the mosque is currently undergoing repairs.
5. Nizamuddin shrine (gongbei): 19th century
The Shrine of Nizamuddin (Shrine) sits right in front of the Jamaat Khana mosque. It is impossible to know what the original shrine looked like. The first shrine was built in the late 14th century by Firoz Shah Tughlak, who was the Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate from 1351 to 1388.
In 1562, a noble serving under the Mughal Emperor Akbar added marble screens around the shrine.
Starting in 1608, the governor of Delhi at the time, Sheikh Farid Bukhari, added several new features to the shrine, including a wooden canopy inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
In 1652, a red sandstone corridor was built around the shrine, but it was replaced in 1809 by the marble columns we see today.
The shrine's canopy was rebuilt in 1820, and a dome was added in 1839, giving it the appearance it has now.
Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya (1238-1325), also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, was a key figure in the Sufi Chishti Order and is considered one of the most important Sufis in South Asia.
Nizamuddin was born in 1238 in Badayun, near the Ganges River in Uttar Pradesh. His father died when he was five, and his mother brought him to Delhi to make a living. At age 20, Nizamuddin traveled to Ajodhan (now in the Punjab region of Pakistan) to follow the famous Sufi master Fariduddin Ganjshakar, who was also one of the founders of the Sufi Chishti Order. After that, Nizamuddin spent three consecutive Ramadans traveling from Delhi to Ajodhan to be with Fariduddin Ganjshakar. During the third Ramadan, Fariduddin Ganjshakar named Nizamuddin as his successor. Not long after, Nizamuddin received news in Delhi that his teacher had passed away.
Nizamuddin lived in many parts of Delhi. In his later years, he moved to a place outside the city called Ghiyaspur to escape the noise. There, he built his own Sufi lodge (khanqah). A lodge is usually part of a complex that includes a school, a mosque, and a tomb (gongbei). Inside the prayer hall (daotang), Nizamuddin generously shared his knowledge with everyone who came to ask him for guidance. Soon, more and more people gathered around him, from the poor to the wealthy, and even court poets from the Delhi Sultanate came to learn from his teachings.
Nizamuddin did not focus much on Sufi theory, choosing instead to put his energy into practice. His key principles included helping those in need, providing food for the hungry, and showing compassion to the oppressed. He strongly opposed mixing with the Sultan and the royal nobility. He urged the wealthy to stay in close contact with the poor and the oppressed. He took an uncompromising stance against all forms of political and social oppression.
Nizamuddin was also a strong supporter of the Sufi Sama ceremony, which some people at the time considered un-Islamic. Sama is a Sufi ritual centered on remembrance (Dhikr) that includes singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and reciting poetry. The famous Sufi whirling dance is one part of Sama.
Music and dance have always been an important part of various religious rituals in India. Nizamuddin hoped to use music and dance to make it easier for ordinary believers to participate in Sufism. Influenced by Nizamuddin, his famous student Amir Khusrow invented Qawwali, the most well-known form of Sufi music in South Asia.
6. Tomb of Amir Khusrau: 1605
The tomb of Nizamuddin's student Amir Khusro (1253-1325) sits south of the shrine and is the second most important tomb in the core area after Nizamuddin's own.
In 1310, 57-year-old Khusro met Nizamuddin and eventually became his student. In 1319, Khusro wrote a prose work called Afzal ul-Fawaid (The Greatest Blessings) that explains the teachings of Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin passed away on April 3, 1325, and Khusrau died just six months later. His tomb, like the shrine of Nizamuddin, was rebuilt many times. During the reign of Humayun (1530-1560), a surrounding wall was added, which makes it difficult to see the original appearance of the tomb.
Amir Khusrau holds a high status in India and is known as an iconic figure in Indian cultural history. He is called the father of Urdu literature and the father of Indian Sufi music, among many other titles. He was a Sufi musician who invented Qawwali, the most important form of Sufi music in South Asia, and he was also a great Persian poet. Ghazal was a very important form in his poetry. Khusrau made great contributions to the ghazal style of poetry and was the first to introduce ghazal-style songs to India, where they became an important musical form in South Asia.
A portrait of Khusrau teaching his students, painted in the Bukhara region between the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
1. Exiled Turks
Khusrau's father came from the Lachin tribe of the Turks. He was born and raised near Samarkand under the rule of the Western Liao dynasty. In 1218, Genghis Khan's army destroyed the Western Liao dynasty and devastated Central Asia. Many Turks fled in all directions, and Khusrau's father escaped to what is now northern Afghanistan.
At that time, Sultan Shams ud-Din Iltutmish of the Delhi Sultanate also came from a Turkic tribe in Central Asia. He welcomed these Turkic refugees to settle in the Delhi Sultanate and provided significant support and many positions in the sultan's court to exiled Turkic nobles, craftsmen, and scholars.
In 1230, the Sultan gave Khusrau's father a piece of land, and he married the daughter of an Indian Rajput noble.
2. Receive an Indian education
In 1260, when Khusrau was only 7 years old, his father passed away. His mother then took the whole family back to live at her parents' home in Delhi. So, in reality, Khusrau grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Rawat Arz.
Khusrau's maternal grandfather was a highly cultured, high-ranking official in the court of the Delhi Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban (1266-1286). Khusrau started his formal education at his grandfather's house when he was eight, and he also began learning how to write poetry.
In 1271, Khusrau finished his first poetry collection, Tuhfat us-Sighr (Gift of Childhood), which included poems he wrote between the ages of 16 and 18.
3. Gaining recognition from the Mamluk dynasty
Khusrau's grandfather passed away when he was 20, and after that, Khusrau joined the army of the Mamluk dynasty in the Delhi Sultanate. By then, his poetry had already made a big impression on the Sultan's court, and Sultan Balban's second son, Bughra Khan, was his biggest fan. In 1276, Bughra Khan became a patron of Khusrau.
Bughra Khan left the Sultan's court in 1277 to rule Bengal. In 1279, Khusrau visited him in Bengal and finished his second poetry collection there, Wast ul-Hayat (The Middle of Life).
After this, the Sultan's eldest son, Khan Muhammad, visited Delhi from Multan. He also loved Khusrau's poetry and invited him to come live in Multan. In 1281, Khusrau traveled to Multan with Khan Muhammad. At that time, Multan was the gateway from India to Arabia and Persia. It was an important cultural center in India that brought together brilliant scholars from Persia, India, and other places, and Khusrau learned a great deal there.
In 1285, Khan Muhammad died in battle while fighting the Mongol army. Sultan Balban died in 1287. His grandson, Muiz ud din Qaiqabad, who was the son of his second son Bughra Khan, took the throne as the final sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.
Between 1287 and 1288, Khusrau became a court poet for the sultan. In 1288, he finished his first long poem (Mathnawi) titled Qiran us-Sa'dain (The Meeting of the Two Auspicious Stars). It tells the story of Bughra Khan, who had been hostile toward his son for a long time, finally meeting with Sultan Qaiqabad.
4. Gaining respect from the Khalji dynasty
In 1290, the military officer Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji led a coup to overthrow the Mamluk dynasty and established the Khalji dynasty.
Firuz Khalji also greatly admired Khusrau's poetry, so Khusrau was invited back to be the court poet and was treated with great respect. In the court of the Khalji dynasty, Khusrau was able to focus on his literary work. His ghazal poems were turned into songs, and the Sultan had female singers perform them for him every night.
Khusrau once wrote about this experience: The King of the World, Firuz Khalji, gave me unimaginable treasures to reward me for the endless pain I suffered while writing poetry.
In 1290, Khusrow finished his second long poem (masnavi), Miftah ul-Futuh (Key to Victories), which praised the victories of Firuz Khalji. In 1294, he completed his third poetry collection, Ghurrat ul-Kamaal (The Pinnacle of Perfection), which includes poems he wrote between the ages of 34 and 41.
In 1296, Alauddin Khalji became the new Sultan of Delhi. Khusrow wrote Khaza'in ul-Futuh (Treasures of Victories) for Sultan Alauddin Khalji, recording the Sultan's achievements in various areas. In 1298, Khusrow finished a set of five long poems (khamsa) known as Khamsa-e-Khusrow (Khusrow's Quintet). These two works brought Khusrau great fame and status. Sultan Alauddin Khalji was very pleased and rewarded him generously.
Illustrations for the Quintet (Khamsa)
7. South Asian Sufi music, Qawwali
Legend says that in the late 13th century, Khusrau blended Persian, Indian, Turkic, and Arabic music to create the local Indian Sufi music known as Qawwali.
The word Qawwali comes from the Arabic term Qaul, which means the saying of the Prophet. A Qawwal is someone who frequently chants the Qaul, and the act of chanting it is called Qawwali.
During the Mughal Empire, Qawwali was mostly sung in Persian. As it spread across South Asia, it began to be performed in many other languages, including Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi. Today, besides Delhi, Qawwali is popular in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, North India, Hyderabad, and Muslim-populated areas in Bangladesh like Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet. The performance style in each place is influenced by local traditional music, giving each one its own unique character.
1. Praise songs (nasheed) at the shrine of Nizamuddin.
The Nizamuddin Dargah hosts Qawwali performances two nights a week, but I didn't plan well enough and missed them. At the shrine, I was lucky to see an old man singing a song of praise for the Prophet, and it was very moving.
2. Qawwali performance inside the mosque.
I was very lucky to catch a Qawwali performance at a small mosque in the northeast of the Nizamuddin neighborhood, which was one of the most memorable parts of my trip to Delhi.
A Qawwali group usually has 8 to 9 people. This includes one lead singer, one or two backup singers, one or two harmonium players (who can also be the lead or backup singers), and one or two drummers playing the tabla and dholak drums. There are also 4 to 5 chorus members who repeat key verses and clap to keep the beat. During the performance, everyone sits cross-legged on the floor, with the lead singer, backup singers, and harmonium player in front, and the drummers and chorus members behind them.
Before the harmonium was introduced, qawwali usually used the sarangi, a stringed instrument similar to a violin.
Qawwali themes are love, devotion, and longing, and they are divided into seven types based on their content:
The first type is called hamd, which means praise. It is a song praising Allah and usually starts the qawwali.
The second type is called na'at, which means description. It is a song praising the Prophet Muhammad and is usually the second song in a qawwali.
The third type is called manqabat, which means virtue. It is a song praising Imam Ali or one of the Sufi saints and is usually the third song in a qawwali.
The fourth type is called marsiya, which means elegy. It tells the story of how Imam Hussain, the son of Imam Ali, and his family were all martyred in the Battle of Karbala. This type is usually only performed during Shia rituals.
The fifth type is called ghazal, meaning love song. This is a song that seems very secular on the surface, usually singing about the joy of drinking wine and the pain of being separated from a lover. In South Asia, ghazal is an independent musical genre on its own and usually does not have a deeper meaning. However, in the context of Sufi Qawwali rituals, these secular metaphors are used to express the longing for the soul to unite with the divine and a love for the sacred. In songs about being drunk, wine represents divine knowledge, the wine glass is Allah or a spiritual guide, the tavern is considered the spiritual background where the soul exists, and being drunk means having gained divine knowledge or being filled with the joy of loving Allah. Songs that seem to describe a longing for a lover are actually singing about the pain of the soul being separated from Allah and the desire to be reunited.
The sixth type is called kafi, a unique form of poetry in Punjabi, Sindhi, and Seraiki.
The seventh type is called munajaat, which means monologue. The singer uses various forms to express praise to Allah, usually singing in Persian.
3. Sufi music at the music festival.
For the first 600 years, Qawwali was a type of music performed only at Sufi shrines or places of spiritual practice (dargah) in South Asia. Since the 20th century, Qawwali music has gained mainstream attention through major world music labels and the international music scene. It now holds a certain international status, and many bands have started performing Qawwali melodies. I saw a rock band performing Sufi music in front of the Select Citywalk mall in Delhi.
8. Tomb of Princess Jahanara: 1681.
Because of Nizamuddin's important status in India, many significant figures are buried near him. There are several important tombs around the Nizamuddin shrine. The first one, right next to the mosque, is the white marble tomb of Princess Jahanara Begum Sahiba (1614-1681).
Princess Jahanara was the most powerful woman in the Mughal Empire during the mid-17th century. She was also the only female Sufi practitioner in the Mughal court, belonging to the Qadiriyya order, which is known as the Qadiriyya menhuan in Northwest China.
The white marble latticework tomb in the center of the picture is the tomb of Princess Jahanara.
1. Becoming the First Lady of the Empire
Princess Jahanara was the eldest daughter of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-1658), who built the Taj Mahal. She was educated from a young age by Sati al-Nisa Khanam, the sister of the famous Mughal Empire poet Talib Amuli. Sati al-Nisa Khanam was highly accomplished in the Quran, Persian literature, court etiquette, and medicine. At that time, women in the Mughal royal family could enter the famous Akbar the Great Library to read books in Persian, Turkish, and Indian languages. The young princess became skilled in reading, writing, poetry, and painting, and she also enjoyed hobbies like chess, polo, and hunting.
After her mother died in 1631, the 17-year-old princess became the First Lady of the empire (Padshah Begum) and took charge of court ceremonies. After moving past the grief of losing her mother, the princess hosted the engagement and wedding ceremonies for her brother, Dara Shukoh, to fulfill her mother's final wishes.
The princess became increasingly favored by her father and eventually rose to be the highest-ranking woman in the Mughal Empire, with her father, Shah Jahan, even letting her hold the imperial seal.
In 1644, his younger brother, the future Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, angered their father. The princess successfully convinced her father to forgive Aurangzeb and restore his military rank.
2. Burned and healed
In March 1644, 30-year-old Princess Jahanara suffered severe burns and was so badly injured that she almost died. To pray for the princess's recovery, Shah Jahan gave large amounts of charity to the poor and released many prisoners. The princess's brothers, including Aurangzeb, also returned to Delhi to visit her.
During her illness, Emperor Shah Jahan stayed in the Red Fort and barely left his daughter's side. The Mughal Empire's royal doctors could not heal her burns, so Shah Jahan brought in Persian doctors, and the princess's condition slowly improved. Finally, after a full year, the princess made a complete recovery.
3. Managing the empire's charity work
In the Mughal court, Princess Jahanara was mainly in charge of charity work, and she was famous for actively caring for the poor and funding the construction of mosques. Whenever a major holiday arrived or a famine struck a region, the princess organized large-scale relief efforts. The princess was also responsible for organizing the pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
4. Sufi practice
Princess Jahanara was a student of the Sufi master Mullah Shah Badakhshi. She officially joined the Sufi Qadiriyya order in 1641 and achieved great success in her spiritual practice.
She wrote several books on Sufism. The most famous one is a biography of Moinuddin Chishti, the founder of the Chishti order. At the time, this book was highly praised for its excellent literary quality and accurate judgment. The princess also commissioned the translation and publication of a series of Sufi works, including many commentaries on Rumi's famous Mathnawi, which were very popular in the Mughal Empire.
5. Becoming First Lady again
In 1657, Shah Jahan fell seriously ill, and his four sons began a war of succession. Princess Jahanara supported Shah Jahan's eldest son, Dara Shikoh, but the following year, Dara Shikoh was defeated by his younger brother Aurangzeb and fled to Delhi.
Shah Jahan hoped the princess would use her influence over her brothers to persuade them, but in June 1658, Aurangzeb still besieged his father at Agra Fort. Aurangzeb cut off the water supply to force his father to surrender, then kept his father and the princess under house arrest.
The princess cared for Shah Jahan until he passed away in 1666, after which she reconciled with Aurangzeb and became the First Lady of the Mughal Empire once again.
During Aurangzeb's reign, the princess still held privileges that no other women in the Mughal royal family possessed. She opposed Aurangzeb's conservative religious policies, especially when he strictly regulated public life in 1679 by reinstating the poll tax on non-Muslims, a policy the princess believed would alienate the Hindus within the empire.
An 18th-century portrait of the princess.
6. The Princess's Tomb
Princess Jahanara built her own tomb next to the Nizamuddin shrine while she was still alive. The tomb is made of white marble and features lattice screens. After the princess passed away in 1681, Aurangzeb gave her the title Sahibat-uz-Zamani, which means "Mistress of the Age."
The princess's tomb is in the top right corner.
Inside the circle.
9. Tomb of Muhammad Shah: 1748.
Right next to the tomb of Princess Jahanara is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah (reigned 1719-1748), which also features white marble latticework.
During the reign of Muhammad Shah, the Mughal Empire declined rapidly and irreversibly. In the royal court, local Indian culture gradually replaced the influence of Persian and Turkic cultures.
1. Inheriting the throne
Muhammad Shah was born in 1702 in what is now Ghazni, Afghanistan. After his grandfather, Emperor Bahadur Shah I (reigned 1707-1712), died in 1712, his father was killed in a war for the throne. At just 10 years old, Muhammad Shah and his mother were imprisoned by his uncle, Jahandar Shah (reigned 1712-1713). While in prison, Muhammad Shah was raised and educated by his mother, and he was a very diligent student.
Soon after, Jahandar Shah was assassinated by the Sayyid Brothers, who held real power in the empire. They installed Farrukhsiyar (reigned 1713-1719) as a puppet emperor.
In 1719, Farrukhsiyar was killed by the Sayyid brothers. They then installed two puppet rulers, but both died of illness a few months after taking the throne. Finally, the Sayyid brothers chose 17-year-old Muhammad Shah to be emperor. In 1720, Muhammad Shah got rid of the Sayyid brothers one after another, took direct control of the military, and officially ruled the empire.
A portrait of Muhammad Shah with nobles painted in 1730, kept at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.
2. Developing arts and culture
During the reign of Muhammad Shah, the influence of Persian and Turkic cultures in the Mughal Empire gradually faded, while local Indian cultural influence grew stronger. Muhammad Shah replaced Persian with Urdu as the court language and oversaw the first translation of the Quran into Urdu. In the royal court, the Turkic formal wear worn by nobles from Samarkand was replaced by the local Indian formal coat (Sherwani).
At the same time, Muhammad Shah brought the local Indian Sufi musical performance (Qawwali) back into the court, which caused it to spread quickly across South Asia.
Although the political power of the Mughal Empire declined during the reign of Muhammad Shah, he strongly encouraged literature and the arts. Muhammad Shah hired many great painters to depict various scenes of palace life in their artwork. At the same time, Indian classical music continued to develop and evolve in Muhammad Shah's court.
A portrait of Muhammad Shah and his family painted in 1735, held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
A scene of Muhammad Shah meeting Nader Shah painted in 1740, held by the Guimet Museum in Paris.
3. Died in sorrow
In 1747, the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan led 30,000 cavalrymen from Peshawar. They defeated 70,000 Mughal troops who tried to stop them, then carried out a massacre in the important Mughal city of Lahore and looted a massive amount of wealth. On March 11, 1748, while on the way to Delhi, the Durrani army was intercepted by Mughal forces sent by Muhammad Shah, and the two sides began a decisive battle. During the fighting, Ahmad Shah's artillery ammunition caused a fire. Many soldiers burned to death, and the Durrani had to retreat back to Afghanistan. During the decisive battle against Afghanistan, the Mughal Empire's prime minister, Qamaruddin Khan, was hit by artillery fire and died. When Muhammad Shah heard the news, he was heartbroken. He eventually died from his overwhelming grief on April 26, 1748, and was buried next to the Nizamuddin shrine.
10. Tomb of Prince Mirza Jahangir: 1821
