ʿAbdallāh Shaṭṭār (d. 890/1485) propagated a new Ṣūfī community, the Shaṭṭāriyya, which became influential in tenth/sixteenth-century South Asia. His followers encouraged synthesis with Hindu ideals in music, literature and Yogic devotions.
1. Life
Nicknamed Shaṭṭār (swift-paced) and given the title “Shāh” (king), he lived in the vicinity of Samarqand and was the khalīfa of Shaykh Muḥammad ʿĀrif in the ʿIshqiyya (not Muḥammad ʿĀshiq, as reported in Niẓāmī). The ʿIshqiyya is a Ṣūfī ṭarīqa in Central Asia that goes b…