ʿABD-AL-ḴĀLEQ ḠOJDOVĀNĪ

 

ʿABD-AL-ḴĀLEQ ḠOJDOVĀNĪ, teacher and distinguished saint of the Selsela-ye Ḵᵛāǰagān (Naqšbandī order), d. 617/1220. His birthplace, the modern Gizhduvan in Uzbekistan, was an important commercial center, according to Samʿānī [Leiden], fol. 406b). His father, ʿAbd-al-Jamīl, had originally lived at Malatya (Melitene). At the age of 22, ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq became the disciple of Ḵᵛāǰa Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsof Hamadānī (d. 535/1140) and turned to the cultivation of his soul. He died and was buried in Ḡoǰdovān.

ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq consolidated and transmitted the thought of the selsela. The following eight principles on which the mystic ideology of the Selsela-ye Ḵᵛāǰagān, and later of the Naqšbandī order, was built were contributed by him: hūš dar nam (“awareness in breathing”), naẓar bar qadam (“watching over one’s steps”), safar dar vaṭan (“internal mystical journey”), ḵalvat dar anǰoman (“solitude in the crowd”), yād-kard (“recollection”), bāz-gard (“restraining one’s thoughts”), negāh-dāšt (“watching one’s thoughts”), and yād-dāšt (“concentration upon God”). According to Jāmī (Nafaḥāt, p. 339), the focal point of his activities was to attract people to the path of the Sunna and to dissuade them from indulging in innovations in religion (beḍʿat). He left no detailed account of his teachings. A few short texts and a collection of poems have, however, survived: 1. Resāla-ye ṭarīqat, 2.Vaṣīyatnāma (commentary by Fażlallāh b. Rūzbehān), and 3. Resāla-ye ṣāḥebīya (published with commentary by S. Nafīsī in Farhang-e Īrān Zamīn 1/1, 1332 Š./1953, pp. 70-100).

Bibliography:

Ḵᵛāǰa Moḥammad Pārsā, Faṣl al-ḵeṭāb, Tashkent, 1331/1913, pp. 518-20.

ʿAlī b. Ḥosayn Kāšefī, Rašaḥāt, Cawnpore, 1912, pp. 18-27.

Moḥammad Morād Qāzānī, Tarǰama ʿayn al-ḥayāt, Mecca, 1307/1889-90, p. 35.

Dārā Šokūh, Safīnat al-awlīāʾ, Lucknow, 1972, p. 76.

Ḡolām Sarvar, Ḵazīnat al-aṣfīāʾ, Cawnpore, 1914, I, pp. 532-34.

Haft eqlīm III, pp. 425-27.

Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ I, p. 338.

Ẕekr-e Ḵᵛāǰa ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq Ḡoǰdovānī (ms., Leiden V, no. 2641: Storey, I, p. 1055).

Reżā-qolī Khan Hedāyat, Rīāż al-ʿārefīn, Tehran, 1316 Š./1937, p. 172.

Yūsof b. Esmāʿīl Nabhānī, Jāmeʿ karāmāt al-awlīāʾ, Beirut, 1972, II, p. 55.

Moḥammad Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Ṣabā, Rūz-e rawšan, Bhopal, 1295/1878, pp. 433-34.

EI2, pp. 1077-78.

(K. A. Nizami)

Originally Published: December 15, 1982

Last Updated: July 14, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 2, pp. 120-121

Cite this entry:

K. A. Nizami, “'Abd-Al-Kaleq Gojdovani,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, pp. 120-121; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-kaleq-gojdovani (accessed on 15 January 2014).