consequently played a political role.The heads of all the independent states,
which succeeded the Mongols in all lands except Persia, favoured this Sunni
order, honouring its leaders during their lifetimes and building mausoleums
over their graves. For long the Naqshbandi remained the dominant regional
order with centres in Samarqand, Merv, Khiva, Tashkand, Herat and
Bhukhara. There were also significant groups in Chinese Turkestan,
Afghanistan, Persia, Baluchistan and India.
6
Abdur Rahman Jami
Mawlana Nur ud din Abdur Rahman Jami (1414-1492) was born in the
town of Jam in Khurasan, but spent most of his life in theTimurid court at
Herat. He was fortunate enough to complete the course in traditional
learning at a young age but the study at the
madrasa
did not satisfy his
spiritual yearning. It occurred to him that mysticism might hold the key to
ultimate knowledge and thought of the Sufis, who expounded works of
tasawwuf
to select disciples chosen for their aptitude to grasp the hidden
meanings. Therefore, he approached a Sufi saint, Khwaja Saiduddin
Kashghari (d. 1459), a
khalifah
of Khwajah Bahauddin Naqshband, to give
him spiritual training. He was accepted and remained under his guidance
for several years.
After the death of Khwaja Said, he became a disciple of Khwajah
Ubaidullah Ahrar, another Naqshbandi shaykh, who taught him, amongst
other works,
al-Futuhat al Makkiyah
(‘The Makkan Revelations’) of Ibn‘Arabi.
As a sign of respect, Jami later wrote a
masnavi
, which he called
Tuhfat-ul-
Ahrar
7
(‘Present toAhrar’). KhwajaAhrar on his part was highly appreciative
6
Trimingham, J.S.,
The Sufi Orders in Islam
, 1971, p..94
7
Ahrar means ‘noble’ but is also used as a personal name; that is why the name of the poem is
alternatively given as
The Present to the Noble
.
Th e Na q s h ba n d i Or d e r 160
