A contemporary of Hazrat Amir Khusrau and just as great

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sufism-in-the-simplest-terms/article22920256.ece

Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, who lived from 1238 to 1325, is an extremely popular Sufi saint of the Chishti Order. The Nizamuddin Dargah (mausoleum) in New Delhi is visited by thousands every week. He had two disciples, both well-known poets of their time: Amir Khusrau and Amir Hasan Sijzi. Next to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s shrine lies the shrine of Hazrat Amir Khusrau. It is called the Choti Dargah. This is the story of the shrine of Auliya’s other disciple, Amir Hasan Sijzi.

On a recent trip to Aurangabad, I visited Khuldabad, also referred to as the valley of saints. Most people know it as the burial place of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, but there is much more to the area. There is a reason why Aurangzeb had asked to be buried there.

The valley of saints

When Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq ordered in 1327 that his capital be shifted from Delhi to Deogir, which he named Daulatabad, he instructed the elites, nobles, officers, common men, and even the saints to shift with him.

The Sufi saints, 1,400 of them, decided to settle in an area near Daulatabad. The shrines of these saints dot the area, which is why that place was initially called Rauza (shrine). After Aurangzeb’s burial it was renamed Khuldabad as he was given the posthumous title of khuld-makani (hw who resides in paradise). Famous saints such as Shah Raja Qattal, Shaikh Burhanuddin Gharib, Shaikh Muntajibuddin and Aurangzeb’s spiritual master, Shaikh Zaynuddin Shirazi, are buried there.

It was while I was researching why this place is called the valley of saints that I found that Amir Najm al-Din Hasan Dihlavi ibn Khwaja Ala al-Din Sistani, commonly known as Amir Hasan Sijzi or Hazrat Amir Hasan Dehlvi, was also buried there. He too had been ordered to leave Delhi for Daulatabad, and was never to return.

If Amir Khusrau captured Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s teachings in his songs and poetry, Amir Sijzi did the same in the famous compilation titled Fawa’id-al-Fu’ad, which contains the literary discourses of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. Unlike Amir Khusrau who became his disciple when he was around eight years old, Amir Sijzi became Auliya’s disciple quite late in life, when he was already an established poet and called the Saadi-e-Hind. Amir Sijzi was born in Badaun in Uttar Pradesh in 1254 and died in Daulatabad in 1337.

Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri, professor at the department of history at Delhi University, says that Fu’ad was the first book of its kind in India. It was for the first time that anyone had written about the day-to-day interactions, reactions and teachings of a Sufi Shaikh in his khanqah. He says: “In this book, you find the principles of Sufism being talked about in the simplest of terms by the great Shaikh, and we also see that every section of society is represented. The Shaikh is not only talking to the elites but to the common man as well. It’s not that Shaikhs didn’t speak earlier, but a mature scholar, recognising the value of these discourses, recorded it for posterity. The entire book is in the form of conversations supported by examples. It is a lively speech that captures the reader’s imagination.” It is also important because the saint himself checked the account for veracity. Very simply written, this book is an important historical, social and literary document as it records contemporary life and society.

Professor K.A. Nizami has written in his preface to the English translation of Fu’ad by Bruce Lawrence: “It soon found a distinctive place in Muslim mystic literature.” In fact, Amir Khusrau offered to exchange all his works for it.

The shrine and some sugar

When I reached Khuldabad, I had to ask many people about this shrine. I was told to look out for a big gate with an old man sitting in front of it. This was to the west of Khuldabad and it seemed as though not many people visit this place. I found the old man, the caretaker, sitting in front of a big gate, which he opened when my car stopped there. He took me inside and I offered my prayers.

It is believed that the original copy of the Fawa’id-al-Fu’ad is buried with Amir Hasan Sijzi as per his will. The caretaker told me that children who can’t talk are brought to this shrine and given sugar, which is believed to give them the power of speech. On hearing that I was a writer, the caretaker offered me some sugar to sweeten my pen. I pray that it works.

Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya as per legend had said, that if it was permissible by shariah he would have willed they be buried in the same grave.

This is mentioned in many Urdu accounts of 19th and 20th century as being revealed to Bahadur Shah Zafar by a saint.

The dome in the rear of the pic belongs to H Amir Khusrau’s dargah, called Choti Dargah. The people are sitting in front of Mohammad Shah’s tomb facing Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya ‘s shrine

• Khabaram raseed imshab ki nigaar khwahi aamad
• Sar-e man fidaa-e raah-e ki sawaar khwahi aamad
• Tonight I received word that you,
• O beloved, would come,
• May my head be sacrificed to the road
• along which you come riding
•  
• – Hazrat Amir Khusrau

Amir Khusrau was born as Abul Hasan Yameenuddin in Patiyali village of modern-day Kasganj, in 1253, to Amir Saifuddin Turk Lachin Mahmood, a Turkish soldier from Balkh, and an Indian woman. His maternal grandfather Imad-ul-Mulk Rawat Arz was sultan Balban’s minister of war.

It is said that when he was born, his father swaddled him in a piece of cloth and took him to a mystic neighbour. He cast a glance at the baby and said, “Amir Lachin, you have brought to me one who will go two steps beyond Khaqani.”

At the age of eight, Abdul accompanied his father to the khanqah of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

When his father went inside, the young boy remained at the door, remarking:

“I shall choose my ‘Peer/Spiritual guide’ myself, and if bestowed with Divine Power, he will converse with me even from a distance.”

Thus, sitting at the door, he composed:

• Tu an Shah-e-ke bar aiwan-e-qasrat.
• Kabutar gar nashinad baz garded.
• Gharib-e mustanande baradar amad.
• Be ayat andar un ya baz gardad.
• You are such a mighty King
• that if a pigeon sits in your palace, it turns into a hawk.
• An outsider and a man of need has reached your doorstep,
• please let him know whether he should come in, or go away.

Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, who it was said had supernatural powers, sent him the following verse as a response, via a disciple:

• Biya yet andarun marde haqiqat,
• Kibama yak nafas hamraz gardad,
• Agar ablah buwad an mard nadan,
• Azan rahe ki amad baz gardad.
• The person who knows the truth may come inside
• so that we may exchange divine secrets for a moment.
• If this person is ignorant, he should return
• on the same path he has come from

Hazrat Amir Khusrau immediately rose and ran to the saint, and fell at his feet and wept!

After this famous spiritual exchange, the saint accepted him as his mureed — his seeker. Gradually, the two became inseparable.

Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya called his mureed Miftah-al Sama (the key of religious ecstasy).

According to legend, “Mehboob-e-Ilahi” — as Nizamuddin was called — rubbed his luab e dahan (saliva) on his disciple’s lips and that led to his voice and words becoming sweeter.

He recited the verse:

• Zulfat za-har-do jaanib, khoonrez e aashiqaan ast
• 
Cheezey namii tawaaN guft, roo e tu darmeyaan ast

• While your tresses shed lovers’ blood from both sides

• Your face, in the middle, robs them of any power to complain
• (translated by Avinash Pandey)

Thus he received the title of Tooti-e-Hindustan, or the parrot of Hindustan.

That was an era of cultural attainment and there were many incomparable poets in the Khilji Sultanate but according to the famous historian Zaiuddin Barni, “The incomparable Amir Khusrau stands unequalled for the volume of his writings and the originality of his ideals; for, while other great masters of prose and verse have excelled in one or two branches, Amir Khusrau was conspicuous in every department of letters. A man with such mastery over all forms of poetry has never existed in the past and may perhaps not come into existence before the Day of Judgement.”

He was not just a poet but also a musician, a venerated composer and is credited with the invention of several musical instruments and laying down the theoretical basis for much of Indo-Muslim music.

Amir Khusrau is credited with turning the sema music into qawwali as it is sung today. He was entrusted with developing it as a complete form of music, and chose 12 young students to accomplish the task — and called them the qawwal bachcha. It is through them that he presented Qaul Qalbana and other forms of Qawwali.Munshi Raziuddin and his sons Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohamed are descendants of those very qawwal bachchas.

Khusrau is said to be the inventor of many musical instruments, including the tabla.

He composed numerous new ragas and is said to have created six forms of music — namely Qaul, Qalbana, Khayal, Tarana, Naqsh and Gul. The last two have lapsed into obscurity while the rest remain.

Safinat-ul-Auliya mentions that he was always burning in the flames of passion and longing, so much so that often the clothes on his body would be charred. (A beautiful way of expressing his emotions; I am sure it is not to be taken literally).

He (Amir Khusrau) was one of the chief disciples of Sheikh Nizamuddin Auliya; and a disciple with a firmer faith in his master I have never seen. Of love and affection, too, he had his full share, and he was a man of ecstasy and rapture.

Khusrau, a fervent devotee of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, was devastated when the saint left this world. At the time, he was in Lakhnauti on official work and upon hearing the tragic news, he gave up all his worldly possessions, left the imperial service and immediately left for Delhi.

On reaching the dargah, he recited the doha:

• Gori soye sej par
• mukh par dare kes
• Chal Khusrau ghar aapnay
• saanjh bhayi chahu des

• The fair maiden rests on the wreath (of roses),

• Her tresses covering her face,
Let us,
• Oh Khusrau, go back now,

• The dark dusk settles in four corners

Though those around him tried to alleviate his agony, especially Hazrat Nasiruddin Chiragh Delhi, Khusrau was utterly inconsolable. He spent his entire time weeping at the foot of his master’s shrine six months after he died at the age of 74 on Friday, the 20th , Zil Qayda 725 AH (1324 AD).

Their love for each other had been so great that Mehboob e Ilahi had said that Amir should be buried near him as they could not share a grave as per Islam. And so he was buried at the Yaarani Chabutra — next to his master, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

Chronicler Basheeruddin Ahmed writes in Waqeat e Darul Hukumat Dehli that there had indeed been spare space next to Hazrat Nizamuddin’s grave, but one Khwaja Sara remarked that if the two graves lay next to each other, those who came to pay respects would get confused.

Thus, he was buried a little away from his master, resting in a separate tomb. It is said that Khwaja Sara, who had gone against the saint’s will, died in his sleep a few days later.

For ages, his grave had no dome or enclosure and was built much later, in 1014 AH/1605 AD.

In the last years of Akbar and the initial years of Jahangir’s reign, Imaduddin Hasan — known as Tahir — had an enclosure and a beautiful marble dome constructed on his grave, with the following verse inscribed on it:

• TAi Khusrau benazeer e aalam
• Beh rauza tu mora niyaaz ast
• Oh matchless Khusrau
• I have faith in your shrine

A compilation from various sites to make it easier for his admirers is my tribute to his genius.
The original Mr. India : for me Amir Khusrau is Mr. Hindustan.

Early Life
The life of Amir Khusrau is very well documented.
He was born in Patiali, which is in modern day Etah, U.P.in 1253. His father, Amīr Saifud-Dīn Mahmud, was a Turkish officer from Transoxania. His mother was the daughter of Rawat Arz,a Rajput and the famous war minister of the Delhi Sultan Balban.
His real name was Ab’ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau ( Khusrow is the anglicized pronunciation).

Khusrau in Dilli:
“How lovely is winter in India
that makes the home and outside look like a garden.”
Khusrau served under seven rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and was a prolific writer and wrote 92 books in all.
His masnawi ‘Qiran-us-Sa’dain’,written at age 36 earned him the post of poet laureate in court of King Kaikobad.
This is also called ‘Mathnavi dar Sifat-I-Dilli’ as it was his ode to the city of Delhi.
In ‘Mathnavi Nuh-Sipihr’ he pays further tribute to India’s birds and animals, flowers and trees, its languages and people.
In ‘Nuh Siphir'(songs of nine heavens) he talks of the religious and cultural plurality of Hindustan of those times. He talks of the mutual love between Hindus and Muslims and equates a Haji going toMecca with a Hindu pilgrim going to Somnath. He says:
“The Brahmans of India have greater wealth of philosophical thought than what Rumi had revealed to the World.
As nobody has tried to learn from the Brahmans, their learning has not been revealed to the world.”
(Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation By G. N. Devy (Orient Longman))

Khusrau and Hazrat Nizamuddin :

Amir Khusrau came to the khanqah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (R.A) at a very early age and his love between the Peer o Murshid and his disciple is legendary.

“When Hazrat Amir Khusrau, went to see His Holiness Hazrat Syed Nizamuddin Aulia (R.A) for the very first time. It is said that young Amir Khusrau went to His Holiness khanqah, but did not enter and remained at the door by remarking,
“I shall select my “Peer/Spiritual guide” myself, and if it is bestowed with Divine Power he will converse with me even from distance.”

Thus sitting at the door he composed:
Tu an Shah-e-ke bar aiwan-e-qasrat.
Kabutar gar nashinad baz garded.
Gharib-e mustanande baradar amad.
Be ayat andar un ya baz gardad.

(You are such a mighty King that if a pigeon sits on your palace,
it turns into a hawk.
An outsider and a needy person has come at your door,
please let him know whether he should come in, or go away).

His Holiness who had supernatural powers sent him the following verse in reply:

“Biya yet andarun marde haqiqat,
Kibama yak nafas hamraz gardad,
Agar ablah buwad an mard nadan,
Azan rahe ki amad baz gardad.”

(The person who knows the truth may come inside so that we may exchange divine secrets between us for a moment.
If that person is ignorant, then he should return on the same path from where he has come here.)

Hazrat Amir Khusrau (R.a) immediately got up and ran to His Holiness and fell on his feet and wept!
His Holiness accepted him as his disciple (mureed) and gradually the two became inseparable. Haq”
( http://debatesangeet.blogspot.ae/2008/12/amir-khusro-i.html)

Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya is quoted as saying that if Islam allowed it,he would have Khusrau and himself buried in the same grave after their death.
When Hazrat Nizamuddin passed away from this world Khusrau was away at Lakhnawati in Bengal on a mission on behalf of Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq. He rushed back to Delhi on hearing the tragic news and when he saw his Beloved Khwaja’s grave he “blackened his face and rolled over in dust in utter grief, tearing his garments.”
The following famous lines were recited by him at the spur of that moment:
Gori sovay sej par,
Mukh par daray kes;
Chal Khusrau ghar aapnay, saanjh bhaee chahu des.
( The Fair Maiden sleeps on her couch
Her beautiful face hidden by her tresses
Oh Khusrau let us go from here as dusk covers the four corners of the world

Amir Khusrau’s condition started deteriorating after this within 6 months of hazrat Nizamuddin’s on Friday 29th Ziq’ad 725AH/1325, he too left this world.

Khusrau and Qawwali:

Sufi ‘sama mehfils’ always used music as a means of inducing trance – ‘haal’
It is narrated that once Baba Farid Ganj Shakker came to visit Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya at his khanqah in Dilli.
Hazrat Nizamuddin arranged for a sema mehfil for him with his chief disciple and acoomplished musician Amir Khusrau as the main singer. Baba Farid called out to him, “Oh Amir, I want you to start with a Qaul, today.”
Note : Qaul literally means a saying and this name is bestowed to the sayings of the Prophet pbuh.

The most popular qaul of the Prophet
“Man kunto maula,
Fa haza Ali-un maula ”
”whoever accepts me as a maul (master), Ali is his master too”.
was set to music by the genius Amir Khusrau on the spot. He added the famous tarana

“Dara dil-e dara dil-e dar-e daani.
Hum tum tanana nana, nana nana ray
Yalali yalali yala, yala ray ”

to give body and soul to the music and help to induce a trance.

I have 13 versions of Man Kunto Maula and my favourite versions are by Aziz Mian, Abida Parween, Ustad Shujaat Hussain and Abbas Ali Khan.

Amir Khusrau was entrusted with the work of developing Qawwali as a complete form of music and he selected 12 young students whom he called qawwal bachcha. It is through them that he presented Qaul Qalbana and other forms of Qawwali.
Munshi Raziuddin and his sons Farid Ayaz and Abu mohamed are descendants from those qawwal bachchas

Khusrau and Indian Music

“A superb musician in his own right and credited with the invention of several musical instruments and with having laid the theoretical basis for much of Indo-Muslim music, Khusraw imparted to his ghazals a lilt and melody that have assured their inclusion in musical programs in India to the present day”
(Sangeet Natak, Volume XLII, No. 4, 2008)

Khusrau is said to be the inventor of the Sitar and the Tabla. In addition to these musical instruments, he is said to have been the originator of genres such as the tarana, khayal and the qaul. He is also said to have composed numerous new ragas.
It is said that he invented new ragas . At the time he came to the scene, Indian music had been slowly disappearing because of the advent of Persian influence. By an amalgamation of Indian and Persian music, Amir Khusrau gave Indian music a new lease of life.
Amir Khusrau is also credited with the creation of seventeen talas (patterns of rhythm) including the talas prevailing today such as teen tal, Jhoomra and Ara Chautala, and a number of raags including Yaman Kalyan, Sazgiri and Sarparda.
Though he himself modestly states that they already existed in Indo-Iranian music.
“Nevertheless, subsequent scholars consider Khusro to be the creator of a number of them. They point out that the Ragas mentioned are actually blends of existing Indian and Persian melodies. Yaman, for example, is an amalgam of the Indian Hindol (as it existed then) and the Persian Nairez or Nairiz. Similarly, Saazgiri comprises the ancient Indian forms of Purbi, Vibhaas, Gaud and Gunkali along with the Persian Ahang.”
(http://debatesangeet.blogspot.ae/2008/12/amir-khusro-ii.html)

Khusrau and the Tarana

Amir Khusro is said to have created six forms of music, namely Qaul, Qalbana, Khayal, Tarana, Naqsh, and Gul. The last two have lapsed into obscurity but the rest remain.
The word tarana itself means a song in Persian.
Though it is generally believed that Tarana is a composition of meaningless syllables followed sometimes by the bols (words coined to denote the various sounds of instruments) of the tabla and sometimes by Persian poetry, Ustad Amir Khan who devoted much of his life to music, discovered meanings in it.
According to Ustad Amir Khan
Tanan Dar Aa – Enter my body.
O Dani – He knows
Tu Dani – You know.
Na Dir Dani – You are the Complete Wisdom.
Tom – I am yours, I belong to you.
Yala – Ya Allah
Yali – Ya Ali

Other musicologists have also tried to explain their meanings, e.g:

Dar – Bheetar, Aandar (inside)
Dara – Andar Aa (get in or come inside)
Dartan – Tanke Aandar (inside the body)
Tanandara – Tanke Aandar Aa (Come inside the body)
Tom – Main Tum Hun (I am you)
Nadirdani – Tu Sabse Adhik Janata Hai (You know more than anyone else)
Tandardani – Tanke Aandarka Jannewala (One who knows what is inside the body) [2]
( http://qaul.blogspot.ae/2008/05/tarana-singing-ustad-amir-khan.html )

Khusrau and Basant

Khusrau and Riddles

Ek guni nay yeh gun keena,
Hariyal pinjray mein dedeena;
Dekho jadoogar ka kamaal,
Daalay hara, nikaalay laal.

One trickster performed this trick,
Inserted a (green) parrot into the cage;
Oh, what an act the sorcerer shows,
Puts in green, takes out red !

(http://www.ektaramusic.com/ak/riddle.html)
“Keh (say) Mukarni (denial) is an interesting genre of riddles played between two young women, where one of them describes something in a way that it is mistaken by the other girl as her beloved, and finally turns out to be something completely different.”

Lipat lipat kay wa-kay soyee,
Chhaati say chhaati lagakay royee,
Daant say daant bajay to taada.
Aye sakhi saajan? Na sakhi jaada!

(Cuddled up in his arms she slept,
Bosoms pressed against each other, she sobbed,
When the teeth started clattering, she saw.
Was it the beloved? No my dear.Winter!)
read more at
http://www.ektaramusic.com/ak/kemukar.html

Khusrau and Braj Bhasha
In The poem Zihal e Miskin Khusrau wrote alternating verses in Persian and braj bhasha the prevailing local language of Delhi and its neighborhood.



Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khansings Zihal e Miskin

For lyrics and translate please check :

Zehaal-E-Miskeen | Amir Khusro

Amir Khusrau was also instrumental i development of Hindi/Hindavi as he wrote in the language of the local people called Hindavi. This later developed into Hindustani.

Khusrau and folk songs
To this day no wedding is complete without the wedding songs composed by Amir Khusrau

Some of the songs in the beautiful voice of Kajjan Begum

Kaahe ko Biyaahi Bides by Malini Awasthi

Documentary on Amir Khusrau



Part 1

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Part 2

Further Reading
1. http://www.svabhinava.org/abhinava/Dileep%20Karanth/AmirKhusrauIndianMusic.pdf)

2. http://lalioutloud.blogspot.ae/2010/09/of-qaul.html

But what is a qawwali?
Its a genre which has its origin in India and is most popular in the sub continent.
Sufi ‘sama mehfils’ always used music as a means of inducing trance – ‘haal’.
Those who go into state of ‘haal’ trance and dance are very popularly known as the Whirling Dervish.

There are various stories about the origin of qawwali. I give one below.
Be as it may it was developed by Hazrat Amir Khusrau from the Prophets qaul.
It is narrated that Hazrat Amir Khusrau went to the khanqah of Hazrat Bu Ali Shah Qalandar , who asked him to sing something in praise of Amirul Momineen Hazrat Ali.Hazrat Bu Ali Shah was a famous Chisti sufi saint.Amir Khusrau obeyed Hazrat Bu Qalander and set Rasool e Khuda, pbuh s qaul to music
Note : Qaul literally means a saying and this name is bestowed to the sayings of the Prophet pbuh.

The most popular qaul of the Prophet
“Man kunto maula,
Fa haza Ali-un maula ”
”whoever accepts me as a maul (master), Ali is his master too”.
was set to music by the genius Amir Khusrau on the spot. He added the famous tarana

“Dara dil-e dara dil-e dar-e daani.
Hum tum tanana nana, nana nana ray
Yalali yalali yala, yala ray “

to give body and soul to the music and help to induce a trance.

I have 13 versions of Man Kunto Maula and my favourite versions are by Aziz Mian, Abida Parween, Ustad Shujaat Hussain and Abbas Ali Khan.
Amir Khusrau was entrusted with the work of developing Qawwali as a complete form of music and he selected 12 young students whom he called qawwal bachcha. It is through them that he presented Qaul Qalbana and other forms of Qawwali.
Munshi Raziuddin and his sons Farid Ayaz and Abu mohamed are descendants from those qawwal bachchas
Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammed
Famous scions of the Qawwal bachcha also include Ustad Bahauddin Khan Qawwal and Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami