ḴALIL-ALLĀH ŠAH

 

ḴALIL-ALLĀH ŠAH (or Sayyed) BORHĀN-AL-DIN (b. Kuhbanān, Kermān, 1373-74; d. Deccan, India, 1455-56), the only son of the Sufi master, Šāh Neʿmat-Allāh Wali of Kermān. Ḵalil-Allāh, who had been trained by his father to become a Sufi master, succeeded the latter as head of the Neʿmat-Allāhi Sufi order after his death in 1437 and resided in Māhān. Unlike his father who was a poet and a rather prolific author, Ḵalil-Allāh wrote no Sufi treatises and composed no poetry. He was invited by the Timurid monarch, Šahrok b. Amir Timur, to his court in Herat. According to Neʿmat-Allāhi sources such as Mostawfi Bāfqi’s Jāmeʿ-e mofidi (see Aubin, ed., pp. 201-2), Ḵalil-Allāh was well received and respected by Šahroḵ- and his son Ḡiāṯ-al-Din Bāysonḡor. He then returned to Māhān.

Ḵalil-Allāh had four sons, all of whom were born during the lifetime of their grand father; they were Nur-Allāh, Šams-al-Din Moḥammad, Moḥebb-al-Din Ḥabib-Allāh, and Ḥabib-al-Din Moḥebb-Allāh. The eldest son, Nur-Allāh, was sent to the Deccan by his grandfather to propagate Sufism in India. He was well received by the king of the Deccan, Aḥmad Shah Bahmani, and remained there for the rest of his life. Some time later, Šāh Ḵalil-Allāh decided, as head of the order, to visit the Deccan branch and join his son Nur-Allāh there. He left Šams-al-Din Moḥammad in Māhān to look after the spiritual affairs of their disciples and took his two other sons along with him. According to ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Samarqandi(II, pp 766-67) and Hendušāh Astarābādi(I, p. 329), Ḵalil-Allāh returned to Māhān around 1441. He seems to have gone back to the Deccan, where he died and was buried in a sumptuous tomb near that of Aḥmad Shah Bahmani. He was succeeded as the head of the Māhān branch of the order by his son Moḥebb-al-Din, who in turn was succeeded by his own son.

 

Bibliography:

ʿAbd-al-ʿAziz b. Šir-Malek Wāʿeẓi, Resāla dar sayr-e Šāh Neʿmat-Allāh Wali, ed. Jean Aubin, in idem, ed., Majmuʿa ..., Tehran, 1956.

ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Kermāni, Taḏkera dar manāqeb-e Šāh Neʿmat-Allāh Wali, ed. Jean Aubin, in idem, ed., Majmuʿa ..., Tehran, 1956.

Kamāl-al-Din ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Samarqandi, Maṭlaʿ-e saʿdayn wa majmaʿ-e baḥrayn I, ed., ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Navāʾi, Tehran, 1974; II, ed. Moḥammad Šafiʿ, Lahore, 1368/1949.

Jean Aubin, ed., Majmuʿa dar aḥwāl-e Šāh Neʾmat-Allāh Wali/Matériaux pour la Biographie de Shāh Niʿmatullah Walī Kermānī, Tehran, 1956.

Idem, “De Kûhbanân à Bidar: la famille Niʿmatullahī,” Studia Iranica 20, 1991, pp. 233-55.

Ḥamid Farzām, Taḥqiq dar aḥwāl wa naqd-e āṯār wa afkār-e Šāh Neʿmat-Allāh Wali,Tehran, 1995.

Moḥammad-Qāsem Hendušāh Astarābādi Ferešta, Golšan-e Ebrāhimi, ed. J. Briggs and Ḵayrāt-ʿAli Khan, 2 vols., Bombay and Poona, 1831; tr. J. Briggs as History of the Rise of the Mohammedan Power in India, 4 vols., Calcutta, 1966.

Moḥammad-Mofid Mostawfi Bāfqi, “Faṣli az jāmeʿ-e mofidi,” ed. Jean Aubin, in idem, ed., Majmuʿa ..., Tehran, 1956.

Nasrollah Pourjavady and Peter Lamborn Wilson, Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Niʿmatullāhi Sufi Order, Tehran, 1978.

(Nasrollah Pourjavady)

Originally Published: December 15, 2010

Last Updated: April 19, 2012

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Vol. XV, Fasc. 4, pp. 384-385