Dargāh of Shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn

The Dargāh of Kamāl al-Dīn Chishtī is a tomb located within a walled enclosure with several other tombs in the centre of old Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. Shaykh Kamāl Mālvī or Kamāl al-Dīn arrived in Malwa in the late 13th century and died there in 1331.[1] He was a follower of Farīd al-Dīn Gaṅj-i Shakar (circa 1173–1266 ) and the Chishti saint Nizamuddin Auliya (1238–1325). Some details about Kamāl al-Dīn are recorded in Muḥammad Ghauthi's Azkar-i Abrar, a hagiography of Sufi saints written in 1613.[2] The cloak presented to Kamāl al-Dīn by Nizam al-Dīn is still displayed inside the tomb. The custodians of the tomb, Kamāl al-Dīn's direct descendants, have served continuously for 700 years.[3]

Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. Dargāh of Kamāl al-Dīn Chishtī, as photographed in 1912 by Vernon & Company (Bombay) at the time of Viceroy Lord Hardinge's visit to Dhar.

Architecture

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The original tomb from the 14th century was supplemented by the Sultans of Malwa in the 15th century, at which time a surrounding wall and gatehouse were added. Inside the gatehouse under the dome is a long Persian language inscription, according to which the shrine was enlarged to accommodate poor and needy pilgrims and pious men in AH 861 (1456-57 CE).[4] The shrine proper was refurbished in the 20th century.

 
Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. Gatehouse to the Dargāh precinct, built in 1456–57, as documented 2010.

History

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The economic and social histories of the Dargāh are told by a series of documents daing from the 17th century to the 20th. These have been digitized in a project carried out under the auspices of the French Institute of Pondicherry, funded by the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library. All the documents are visible online.[5]

 
Royal order from Rānī Sakwār Bāī of the Pawār dynasty at Dhār issued to ‘Abd al-Ghanī Chishtī in 1753. The order reaffirms the Dargāh's ancient holdings of gifted land.

References

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  1. ^ The death date given as 4 Zilhaj 731, the corresponding day being 8 September 1331, in Hasan Kashani, Dargah Sharif in India (np, 2022): 161, available online at archive.org.
  2. ^ Muḥammad Ghauthi Mandawi, Azkar-i abrar, Urdu Tarjuma-i Gulzar-i Abrar, trans. Fazl Ahmad Jewari [Urdu lithograph] (Agra: Matba'-i Mufid-i 'Amm, 1326/1908, reprint ed., Lahore: Islamic Book Foundation, 1395/1975): 581.
  3. ^ The key modern work is Rām Sevak Garg, Hazrat maulānā kamāluddīn ciśtī rah. aur unkā yug (Bhopāl, 2005).
  4. ^ Zafar Hasan, “The Inscriptions of Dhār and Māṇḍū,” Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica, ed. J. Horovitz (1912), pp. 14-5.
  5. ^ See Documents from the Sufi shrines at Dhār. https://zenodo.org/communities/documents?q=&l=list&p=1&s=10&sort=newest and http://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1416