Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE

Ajmer
(1,954 words)

Ajmer in Rajasthan, in northwestern India, is one of the most important destinations of Islamic
pilgrimage in South Asia. Despite the importance of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī's shrine in Ajmer as a
place of pilgrimage, the facts about Muʿīn al-Dīn's life that can reasonably be deduced from
historical sources are few; the writings ascribed to him are apocryphal, there are no
contemporary records, and later hagiographies re ect the growth of legend. He was born in
about 536/1140 to a family from Sijistān in southwestern Afghanistan; he was educated in Balkh
and Samarqand before becoming the disciple of ʿUthmān Harwanī, a Chishtī shaykh from
Harwan, near Nīshāpūr in eastern Iran; he travelled the Muslim world to acquire wisdom; arrived
in Ajmer around the time of the Ghūrid conquest of India (589/1193); established himself there
in spite of opposition; won the respect of believers and non-believers; attracted disciples,
including his immediate spiritual heir, Quṭb al-Dīn Bakhtiyār Ushī, whose shrine is near the
Quṭb Minār in Mehrauli, Delhi; married the niece of the rst Muslim governor of Ajmer; and
died at the age of 97, in about 633/1236.

Interest in Muʿīn al-Dīn was stimulated by the rise of the Chishtī shaykhs to a position of great
in uence and prestige in Delhi around the time of his distant spiritual heir Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ
(d. 726/1325). This led to a demand for information about their spiritual antecedents. In
response, the facts of Muʿīn al-Dīn's life were supplemented by hagiographers, who provided
stories depicting him as an exemplar of Chishtī precepts of the good life and endowed him with
miraculous powers.

The hagiographies relate that the prophet Muḥammad came to Muʿīn al-Dīn in a vision and told
him to take Islam to India, showing him an image of his destination in a pro fered pomegranate.
Having arrived at Anā Sāgar, the lake that is still an important feature of the city of Ajmer, Muʿīn
al-Dīn overcame strong opposition from the resident yogi ( jogī), Ajaipāl, and the local deity,
Shādī Dev. After an epic struggle requiring the use of supernatural weapons Muʿīn al-Dīn
converted Shādī Dev to Islam and at his invitation moved into his former temple.
The legend, in addition to describing Muʿīn al-Dīn as a pioneer of Islam in India, emphasises the
signi cance of Ajmer's position in the heartland of the Hindu world—the popularity of its
temples, its proximity to the Hindu holy lake of Pushkar, and the secular power of the Chauhān
dynasty from the founding of the city in about 494/1100 until its Muslim conquest, in which
Muʿīn al-Dīn is believed to have played a role (though the details of how he managed this are not
consistent). Against that background, Muʿīn al-Dīn's survival and success at Ajmer are seen to be
the more remarkable, and in the fullest development of the tradition Muʿīn al-Dīn becomes the
prophet Muḥammad's special envoy in India (nabī al-Hind) and Ajmer a second Mecca.

This increased interest in Muʿīn al-Dīn was a stimulus to the development of Ajmer as a
pilgrimage centre. Another contributing factor was Ajmer's strategic importance as a gateway to
much of Rajasthan and the strength of its fort on Tārāgaŕh Hill that still dominates the city. This
brought successive rulers to Ajmer for military purposes, and many of them also showed interest
in the shrine. Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khiljī visited it when he conquered Ajmer in 861/1455 and,
according to tradition, was responsible for the construction of the mosque, known as the Ṣandal
Khāna. The rst mausoleum of Muʿīn al-Dīn was built at the time of Sulṭān Ghiyāth al-Dīn Khiljī
of Mandū (r. 874–906/1469–1500), who is also thought to have constructed the shrine's
ceremonial gate known as the Buland Darwāza (High Gate). By the tenth/sixteenth century
there is evidence of long-established families looking after the shrine and signi cant quantities
of gifts brought to it by Hindus as well as Muslims.

Akbar (r. 963–1014/1556–1605) was the rst Mughal emperor to take an interest in Muʿīn al-Dīn,
attributing his military success and the birth of his son to Chishtī intercession. He made
frequent pilgrimages to Ajmer, which was also an important base for his military operations,
visiting the shrine on fourteen occasions, making substantial endowments to it and causing the
mosque named after him to be built there. His successor Jahāngīr (r. 1014–37/1605–27) lived in
Ajmer for three years and attributed his inheritance of imperial o ce to Muʿīn al-Dīn. The
commitment of Jahāngīr's successor, Shāh Jahān (r. 1037–68/1628–58), to the Ajmer shrine is
demonstrated by his construction of the Shāh Jahānī mosque and a second monumental
gateway and by his belief that the birth of his son, Dārā Shikoh, was due to Muʿīn al-Dīn's
intercession.

After a period of rule by the Rājputs (a Hindu patrilineal clan claiming princely status) of
Jodhpur, in Rajasthan, Ajmer was annexed in 1205/1791 by the Scindias (an Anglicised form of
“Shinde”), a Maratha clan in control of Gwalior, who, though Hindu, were signi cant benefactors
of the shrine and paid for the repair of its buildings, which had become dilapidated during a
period of territorial dispute and occasional revolt. Other benefactors included the nawāb
(deputy ruler) of Karnataka, who built the Karńātʾakī Dālān as a shelter for pilgrims, in 1207/1793;
Sir Āsmān Jāh who was responsible for building the Maḥ l Khāna in 1306/1888, where Ṣūfī
devotional singing (samāʿ) is performed; and the niẓām (autonomous “ruler”) of Hyderabad Āsif
Jāh VII (r. 1911–1967), who had the main gate of the shrine built in 1915. Recent additions to the
shrine include additional accommodation for pilgrims, built in the 1970s.

Distinguished visitors, such as Queen Mary of Britain (1911), the President of India (1951), and
Indira Gandhi (1977), continued to come to Ajmer, but only a minority of visitors are recorded or
otherwise commemorated. Many thousands of less noted visitors come each year, particularly at
the anniversary of the death (ʿurs, lit. “marriage” with God) of Muʿīn al-Dīn, at the beginning of
the Muslim month of Rajab. The motives of the pilgrims and their activities at Ajmer vary but
include penitence, contemplation of the story of Muʿīn al-Dīn's life, making o ferings, receiving
charity from the shrine's administration, participation in samāʿ, communal prayers, individual
requests for Muʿīn al-Dīn to intercede on their behalf and help with their practical problems,
and the ritual washing (ghusl) of the shrine at the end of the ʿurs.

There is a substantial community that depends on the shrine economically and looks after its
ceremonial life, its institutions, and its pilgrims. The claims of descent of this community from
Muʿīn al-Dīn and his entourage, appointments to particular o ces, and rights to o ferings at the
shrine have been the subject of frequent dispute and litigation since at least the time of the
emperor Akbar. Such is the attachment of this community to the shrine, however, that very few
left Ajmer at the time of Partition. More than a thousand khuddām (attendants) continue to
make practical arrangements for the pilgrims (providing accommodation, escorting them to the
various ceremonies at the shrine, showing them around the sacred sites, and receiving o ferings).
A subset of the khuddām, the haft bārīdār (seven watch-keepers), manage the ceremonial
routines of the shrine. The sajjāda nishīn (inheritor of the prayer rug, one of the Chishti insignia
of spiritual authority) provides the shrine's spiritual leadership. Under the terms of the Dargāh
Khwāja Sahib Act of 1955 a secular administrator manages the shrine's funds and its institutions,
which provide accommodation, education and devotional singing for the pilgrims, and food and
medicine for the needy.

The shrine de nes the importance of Ajmer as a major centre of pilgrimage, which has come to
stand for the irenic, altruistic, contemplative Chishtī tradition, the successful arrival of Islam in
the Subcontinent, and the popular belief that Muʿīn al-Dīn can provide personal assistance to
his followers.

Peter Mark Currie

Bibliography
For an overview of the life of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī, an analysis distinguishing between fact and
legend in the relevant malfūẓāt (recorded “sayings”) and tadhkirāt (hagiographies, lit.
“remembrances”), the factors that contributed to the development of the shrine and Ajmer as a
place of pilgrimage, a description of the ceremonial life, funding and administration of the
shrine, the motives of the pilgrims there, and a survey of the role of intermediaries in Islam, see
Peter M. Currie, The shrine and cult of Muʿin al-Dīn Chishti of Ajmer, Delhi 1989 (repr. 1992, 2007).
For the signi cance of the Islamic takeover of Hindu holy sites see also Simon Digby, Encounters
with jogis in Indian Su hagiography (unpublished paper delivered to a S.O.A.S. seminar on
aspects of religion in South Asia, 1970)

and Thomas Walker Arnold, Survivals of Hinduism among the Mohammedans of India,
Transactions of the Third International Congress of the History of Religion 1 (1908), 312–20. For an
analysis of the early sources see also Mohammad Habib, Chishti mystic records of the sultanate
period, Mediaeval Indian Quarterly 3 (1950), 1–42. The principal tadhkira (compilations of
anecdotes) on which the above article draws are Amīr Khwurd, Siyar al-Awliyāʾ, Lahore 1914

Jamālī, Siyar al-ʿArifīn, Delhi 1893

ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Dihlawī, Akhbār al-akhyār, Delhi 1891

and Allāh Diyā Chishtī, Siyar al-Aqṭāb, Lucknow 1877. More recent hagiographies in English
include Wahiduddin Begg, The Holy Biography of Hazrat Khwājā Muinuddin Hasan Chishti of
Ajmer, Ajmer 1960, and Zahurul Hassan Sharib, Khwājā gharīb nawāz, Lahore 1961. For
information on the early secular rulers of Ajmer, see Dasharatha Sharma, Early Chauhan
dynasties, Delhi 1959, 19752. For early visitors to the shrine at Ajmer, see Simon Digby, Early
pilgrimage to the tomb of Muʿin al-Dīn Sijzi and other Indian Chishti shaykhs (unpublished paper).
For references to the shrine at Ajmer in Mughal times, see ʿAbd al-Qādir Badāyūnī, Muntakhab
al-tawārikh, trans. George S. A. Ranking, William Henry Lowe, and Wolseley Haig, Calcutta 1898,
and Abū l-Faḍl, Akbarnāma, trans. Henry Beveridge, Calcutta, 1907–39. For insights into
Jahāngīr's understanding of his debt to Muʿīn al-Dīn, see the miniature painting by Bichitr (c.
1030/1620) in the Minto Album, Chester Beatty Collection, Dublin, which depicts Jahāngīr
receiving the orb and sceptre of imperial o ce from Muʿīn al-Dīn, and the commentary on this
in Currie, Shrine and cult, 92, 106–7. For more general accounts of the Chishtī Ṣūfīs in India, see
Khaliq A. Nizami, Some aspects of khānqāh life in medieval India, SI 8 (1957), 51–69, and Khaliq
Ahmad Nizami, Some aspects of religion and politics in thirteenth century India, Bombay 1961,
19742

Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, Su martyrs of love. The Chishti order in South Asia and
beyond, New York 2002. For more detailed descriptions of Ajmer and its history, topography, and
strategic signi cance, see Robert H. Irvine, Some account of the general and medical topography
of Ajmeer, Calcutta 1841
Kailash Chand Jain, Ancient cities and towns of Rajasthan. A study of culture and civilisation, Delhi
1972

James Tod, Annals and antiquities of Rajasthan, ed. William Cooke, London 1920

Har Bilas Sarda, Ajmer historical and descriptive, Ajmer 1941

and A. A. Tirmizi, Persian inscriptions at Ajmer, Epigraphia Indica (Arabic and Persian
Supplements), Delhi 1957, 1959. For the numbers attending the annual ʿurs, see the Annual
administrative reports of the Ajmer-Merwara district. For a recent exposition of the signi cance
of Ajmer as a symbol of a particular tradition within Islam, see Akbar Ahmed, Journey into Islam,
Delhi 2007.

Cite this page

Currie, Peter Mark, “Ajmer”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson.
Consulted online on 14 June 2020 <http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_23249>
First published online: 2009
First print edition: 9789004181304, 2009, 2009-3