He died during the Mongol invasion of Khurasan and Jami gives an account
of his death: “When the Tartar heathen reached Khwarizm, the Shaykh
assembled his disciples…and said, ‘Arise quickly and depart to your
countries...’ Some of the disciples said,‘How would it be if you were to pray
that perhaps this (catastrophe) might be averted from the lands of Islam….’
‘Nay,’ replied the Shaykh, ‘this is a thing irrevocably predetermined which
prayer cannot avert.’ Then his disciples besought him, saying, ‘If you also
would join us and depart into Khurasan it would not be amiss.’‘Nay,’ replied
the Shaykh, ‘here shall I die a martyr, for I am not permitted to go forth.’ So
his disciples left for Khurasan. He said, ‘Arise in God’s name and let us
fight in God’s cause.’ When he came face to face with the heathen, he
continued to cast stones at them till he had no stones left.The heathen fired
volleys of arrows at him, and an arrow pierced his breast.”
1
Shaykh Najmuddin Kubra is the spiritual founder of the Kubrawiya order,
which spread to Baghdad, Khurasan and India. The two Indian branches
were known as the Firdausiya and the Hamadaniya.
An impor tant order named the Silsila-i-Khwajagan thrived in
Transoxiana. It later spread into India in a reorganized form and went on to
be known as the Naqshbandiya. It traced its spiritual origin to Khwaja Abu
YaqubYusuf al Hamadani (d.1140), who was educated in Baghdad but lived
most of his life in Marw and Herat, dying in Marw. One of his main disciples,
Khwaja ‘Abdul Khaliq bin ‘Abdul Jamil came from Ghujduwan, a large
village in the vicinity of Bhukhara and it was he who gave the order its
distinct framework.
The 12
th
and 13
th
centuries could, therefore, be considered one of the
most important periods in the history of Sufism. The Sufi saints, who lived
1
A Literary History of Persia, Cambridge, 1964, vol II, pp. 492-93
