Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki

Qutb al-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki
Detail of Khawaja Qutub-ud-din from a Guler painting showing an imaginary meeting of Sufi saints
TitleKhwaja
Personal
Born1173
Osh, Qara Khitai (present-day Kyrgyzstan)
Died1 December 1235(1235-12-01) (aged 61–62)
Resting placeMehrauli, Delhi
28°31′09″N 77°10′47″E / 28.519303°N 77.179856°E / 28.519303; 77.179856
ReligionIslam
DenominationSunni
SchoolSufism
LineageChishti Order
JurisprudenceHanafi
CreedMaturidi
Other namesMalik al-Mashaa'ikh
Organization
OrderChisti Sufism
Muslim leader
Based inDelhi
Period in officeEarly 13th century
PredecessorMu'in al-Din Chishti
SuccessorFariduddin Ganjshakar, Bu Ali Shah Qalandar

Quṭb al-Aqṭāb Khwāja Sayyid Muḥammad Bakhtiyār al-Ḥusaynī, Quṭb al-Dīn Bakhtiyār Kākī (born 1173 – died 1235) was a Sunni Muslim Sufi mystic, saint and scholar of the Chishti Order from Delhi, India. He was the disciple and the spiritual successor of Mu'in al-Din Chishti as head of the Chishti order. Before him the Chishti order in India was confined to Ajmer and Nagaur. He played a major role in establishing the order securely in Delhi.[1] His dargah located adjacent to Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli, and the oldest dargah in Delhi, is also the venue of his annual Urs festivities. The Urs was held in high regard by many rulers of Delhi like Iltutmish who built a nearby stepwell, Gandhak ki Baoli for him, Sher Shah Suri who built a grand gateway, Bahadur Shah I who built the Moti Masjid mosque nearby and Farrukhsiyar who added a marble screen and a mosque.[2]

His most famous disciple and spiritual successor was Fariduddin Ganjshakar, who in turn became the spiritual master of Delhi's noted Sufi saint, Nizamuddin Auliya, who himself was the spiritual master of Amir Khusrau and Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi.

Qutb al-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki had much influence on Sufism in India. As he continued and developed the traditional ideas of universal brotherhood and charity within the Chisti order, a new dimension of Islam started opening up in India which had hitherto not been present. He forms an important part of the Sufi movement which attracted many people to Islam in India in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. People of every religion like Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, etc. visiting his Dargah every week.

  1. ^ Biographical encyclopaedia of Sufis By N. Hanif.Pg 321
  2. ^ Smith, Ronald Vivian (2005). The Delhi that no-one knows. Orient Blackswan. pp. 11–12. ISBN 81-8028-020-9.