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Salim Chishti

Sheikh Salim Chishti
شیخ سلیم چشتی
Personal
Born1478
Died1572(1572-00-00) (aged 93–94)
Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Subah, Mughal Empire
ReligionIslam
DenominationSunni
TariqaChishti
RelativesBaba Farid (grandfather)

Sheikh Musa (nephew)

Sheikh Islam Khan Chishti (grandson)
Muslim leader
Influenced

Sheikh Salim Chishti (Urdu: شیخ سلیم چشتی, 1478–1572) (also known as Sheikh al- Hind) was a Sufi saint of the Chishti Order during the Mughal Empire in India.

Biography

Shaikh Salím Chishtí with Mughal Emperor Akbar

Sheikh Salim Chishti was a descendant of Sheikh Farid, a Punjabi Sunni Muslim preacher and mystic.[1]

The Mughal Emperor Akbar came to Chishti's home in Sikri to ask him to pray for a male heir to the throne. Chishti blessed Akbar, and soon the first of three sons was born to him. After a year Mariam-uz-Zamani the queen had a son. Akbar named his first son 'Salim' (later emperor Jahangir). In 1569, Akbar began construction of a religious compound to commemorate the Shaikh. After Jahangir's second birthday, he began the construction of a walled city and imperial palace at the same site. The city came to be known as Fatehpur Sikri, the "City of Victory", after Akbar's victorious Gujarat campaign in 1573.

A daughter of Sheikh Salim Chishti was the foster mother of Emperor Jahangir. The emperor was deeply attached to his foster mother, as reflected in the Jahangirnama[2] and he was extremely close to her son Qutb-ud-din Khan Koka who was made the governor of Bengal and Orissa.[3]

His eldest son, Saaduddin Khan, was ennobled Saaduddin Siddique and was granted three jagirs in the Gazipur District of Amenabad, Talebabad and Chandrapratap. Currently, his great grandson Kursheed Aleem Chishti lives there and is the 16th generation of Salim Chishti.[4] These descendants in Bangladesh include Chowdhury Kazemuddin Ahmed Siddiky, the co-founder of the Assam Bengal Muslim League and the University of Dhaka; Justice Badruddin Ahmed Siddiky;[5] Chowdhury Tanbir Ahmed Siddiky, the Commerce Minister of Bangladesh;and Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky, an anti-corruption activist and candidate for the Mayor of Dhaka in 2015. The descendant of his second-eldest son, Shaikh Ibrahim, was granted the title Kishwar Khan and now reside in Sheikhupur, Badaun in India.[citation needed]

Salim Chishti Tomb

Salim Chishti Tomb taken by Samuel Bourne in 1865
Another view of Salim Chishti Shrine
Fatehpur Sikri: Salim Chishti's Tomb

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ma'asir al-Umara of Shahnavaz Khan Aurangabadi, Vol. 2, English". MUGHAL LIBRARY. p. 87. Retrieved 19 February 2023. Sheikh Salim Chishti, surnamed Sheikh-ul-Islam was a descendant of Shaikh Farid of Shakarganj
  2. ^ Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan (1999). The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India. Translated by Thackston, Wheeler M. Oxford University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-19-512718-8. Qutbuddin Khan Koka's mother passed away. She had given me milk in my mother's stead—indeed, she was kinder than a mother—and I had been raised from infancy in her care. I took one of the legs of her bier on my own shoulder and carried it a bit of the way. I was so grieved and depressed that I lost my appetite for several days and did not change my clothes.
  3. ^ Rogers, Alexander; Beveridge, Henry, eds. (1909). The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī or Memoirs of Jahāngīr, Volume 2. Royal Asiatic Society, London. p. 62.
  4. ^ Khan, Muazzam Hussain (2012). "Qutbuddin Khan Kokah". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  5. ^ Siddiky, Leila Rashida (2012). "Siddiky, Justice Badruddin Ahmad". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.