Jalaluddin Tabrizi
{{short description|Sufi saint of Bengal}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| honorific_prefix = Makhdum Shaykh
| name = Jalāluddīn Tabrīzī
| native_name = {{Nastaliq|أبو القاسم جلال الدین تبریزی}}
| image = Badi Dargah Malda (2).jpg
| caption = Baish Hazari Dargah contains Tabrizi's tomb
| religion = Islam
| denomination = Sunni
| school = Hanafi
| order = Suhrawardiyya
| alias = Jalal Uddin Tabrezi
| location =
| title =
| period = 13th century
| father =
| teacher = Abu Sayyid Tabrizi
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi{{cite book|title=Siraj al-Majalis|author=Khan, Ghulam Ahmad|location=Delhi|page=55}}
| children =
| post =
| relatives =
| previous_post =
| present_post =
| birth_date = 12th-century
| birth_place = Tabriz
| death_date = 13th-century
| death_place = Hazrat Pandua, Bengal
| resting_place = Baish Hazari Dargah, Pandua, Malda district, West Bengal
}}
Abū al-Qāsim Jalāl ad-Dīn Tabrīzī ({{langx|fa|{{Nastaliq|أبو القاسم جلال الدین تبریزی}}}}) was a celebrated Sufi saint of South Asia.{{cite book|title=Mirat al-Asrar|author=Chishti, Syed Abdur Rahman|language=fa|location=University of Dhaka}} He arrived in Bengal shortly after the start of its Muslim rule, where he propagated Islam to the local populace and spent the rest of his life. The Jaliliyyah Order, a small tariqah, is named after him,{{cite Banglapedia|article=Shaikh Jalaluddin Tabrizi}} and he is considered to be the protagonist of the Sanskrit fiction Sekhaśubhodayā (Advent of the Shaykh).{{cite Banglapedia|article=Sekhashubhodaya}}
Early life and education
Abul Qasim Jalaluddin was born in Tabriz, in northwestern Iran.{{cite book|title=Memoirs|page=102}} He studied under Abu Sayyid Tabrizi, a local Sunni scholar. After the death of this teacher, Jalaluddin Tabrizi became a disciple of Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi.{{cite book|title=Ain-i-Akbari|page=406|volume=2|author=Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak}} Under Suhrawardi's service, Tabrizi frequently accompanied him during Hajj to Mecca and would carry a stove atop his head to keep food warm.{{cite book|title=Irshad-i-Mahbub|author=Nizami, Muslim|location=Delhi|pages=351–352}}
Later life
File:Badi Dargah Malda (3).jpg
Tabrizi migrated to Delhi during the reign of Mamluk emperor Iltutmish in circa 1210, and was given a place to stay near the palace. His popularity was said to have annoyed Shaykh al-Islam Nizamuddin Sughra,{{cite book|author=Sarwar, Ghulam|title=Khazinat al-Asfiya|volume=1|pages=278–289}} who allegedly accused him of adultery with an infamous woman.{{cite book|title=Khwajgan-i-Chisht|author=Khan, Ghulam Ahmad|location=Delhi|page=129}} However, other scholars like Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki and Bahauddin Zakariya maintained good relations with Tabrizi. The accusations were later proved to be false.{{cite book|title=Akhbar al-Akhyar fi Asrar al-Abrar|pages=44|author='Abd al-Haqq al-Dehlawi}}
He then proceeded to Bengal, which had recently been conquered by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji. Among his numerous contributions, Tabrizi is credited for inviting many locals to Islam and amass a large following. The nearby town of Deotala was named as Tabrizabad in his honour, which suggests that he lived there for some time too.
Death and legacy
File:Badi Dargah Malda (4).jpg
The date of death of Jalaluddin Tabrizi is contested. Ghulam Sarwar asserts that he died in 1244, whilst Mirza Muhammad Akhtar Dehlavi records his death to be in 1225.{{cite book|title=Tazkirat-i-Awliya-i-Hind|pages=56|volume=1|author=Mirza Muhammad Akhtar Dehlavi}} Tabrizi was buried in his khanqah at Hazrat Pandua. The income of the donated land of the dargah was worth twenty-two thousand takas, and hence came to be known as the Baish Hazari Dargah.
However, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak claims that Tabrizi died in a place called Devmahal. Historians have struggled to locate such as a place as there is no place called Devmahal in Bengal. Colonial-era studies identify Devmahal with the Maldives.{{cite journal |last=Beveridge |first=H. |author-link=Henry Beveridge (orientalist) |year=1895 |title=The Khurshid Jahan Numa of Sayyad Ilahi Bakhsh al Husaini Angrezabadi |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/255617#page/242/mode/1up |journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |volume=64 |issue=3 |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal |page=230}}{{cite journal |last=Blochmann |first=H. |author-link=Heinrich Blochmann |year=1873 |title=Contributions to the Geography and History of Bengal |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t6161rh01&view=1up&seq=278 |journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |volume=42 |issue=3 |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal |page=260}}
The influence of Tabrizi to Muslim Bengal in the 13th-century can be seen from the succeeding centuries with confusions arising due to other Sufi saints with the common name Jalal. The 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta mentions his encounter with a Jalaluddin Tabrizi near Kamarupa although modern historians consider Ibn Battuta to have confused the former with Shah Jalal of Sylhet, due to an abundance of supporting inscriptions and evidences suggesting otherwise. Ibn Battuta wrote his book when he returned to Morocco, many years after travelling to these places.
During the reign of Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, Munshi Syed Sadruddin (d. 1796) was appointed as the mutawalli (guardian) of the Baish Hazari pargana. Sadruddin also built a library near his madrasa in Bohar which he gave the name Madrasa-i-Jalalia, in honour of the saint.{{cite thesis|title=Bengal's contribution to Islamic studies during the 18th century|publisher=Aligarh Muslim University|year=1994|chapter=Religious institutions of Bengal in the eighteenth century: Buhar Madrasah|pages=44-50|first=Shabnam|last=Begum}} The madrasa successively produced hundreds of ulama including Ghulam Mustafa Burdwani, Izharul Haque, Abdur Rab Lucknowi, Abdur Rahman Lucknowi and Nurul Haque Ansari.{{cite thesis|title=Life and works of Mulla Bahrul Uloom (d. 1225 A.H.)|author=Molla, M. Isharat Ali|publisher=Aligarh Muslim University|year=1993|pages=48, 68-69|chapter=4. Life of Mulla Bahrul Uloom, his teachers and pupils, and views of prominent Ulama on him}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Hanafi scholars}}
{{Islam in South Asia}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabrizi, Jalaluddin}}
Category:Missionaries in India
Category:People from Malda district
Category:13th-century Muslim scholars of Islam