´¡á¸¤M´¡¶Ù ḴᵛĀJAGĪ B. JALÄ€L-AL-DĪN °Ä€³§Ä€±·Äª (866/1461-62—949/1542-43), known as MAḴDŪM-E AʿẒAM, Sufi, author of about thirty religious treatises, political activist, and founding ancestor of two important saintly lineages of NaqšbandÄ« ḵᵛÄåÇ°²¹²µÄå²Ô. He was born into a family of sayyeds of KÄsÄn in the FarḡÄna valley. As a youth he farmed for a living, then in Tashkent became a disciple of the NaqšbandÄ« ±èÄ«°ù Moḥammad QÄżī b. BorhÄn-al-dÄ«n (d. 921/1515-16), a ḵa±ôÄ«´Ú²¹ of ḴᵛÄÇ°a AḥrÄr (d. 895/1490). In the conditions of the time, the NaqšbandÄ« á¹a°ùÄ«±ç²¹ provided a link between nomad tribes, the artisan guild life of the cities and towns, and the cultivating population of the villages. As a leading NaqšbandÄ« ±èÄ«°ù, KÄsÄnÄ« was able to use his broad following to wrest concessions from Central Asian rulers. He obtained the patronage of the Uzbek ruler of KarmÄ«na, JÄnÄ« Beg b. ḴᵛÄÇ°a Moḥammad, and his sons, and he also won the patronage of the Uzbek khan, Ê¿ObaydallÄh, who gave KÄsÄnÄ« enough gold to build a NaqšbandÄ« hostel in Bokhara and housed him near the khan’s own quarters. KÄsÄnÄ« helped force Baraq Khan b. Süyüá¹‡Ä to lift his siege of Bokhara. Even SaÊ¿Ä«d Khan of the Mughals sent a gift to the KÄsÄn NaqšbandÄ«s. KÄsÄnÄ« died at his estate in the village of DahbÄ«d outside Samarqand, leaving as a legacy his reputation for sanctity and scholarship, his political role, and much property in waqf both in MÄ WarÄʾ-al-nahr and in Altïšahr. Although KÄsÄnÄ« himself never visited Altïšahr, it was there that his descendants played their main historical role, dividing into two saintly lineages, the EsḥÄqÄ«ya (called Qarataḡlïq) and the Ä€fÄqÄ«ya (Aqtaḡlïq), and dominating the history of eastern Turkestan in the 11th-12th/17th-18th centuries. The Ä€fÄqÄ«ya were instrumental in establishing the NaqšbandÄ«ya among the SÄlÄrs and Huis of Tsinghai and Kansu in northwest China. The JÅ«ybÄrÄ« shaikhs of Bokhara also trace their selsela to KÄsÄnÄ«.
Bibliography:
Abu’l-BaqÄʾ b. ḴᵛÄÇ°a BahÄʾ-al-dÄ«n b. MaḵdÅ«m-e Aʿẓam, JÄmeÊ¿ al-maqÄmÄt (completed 1026/1617).
ŠÄh-MaḥmÅ«d b. MÄ«rzÄ Fażl ÄŒoras, AnÄ«s al-á¹ÄlebÄ«n (completed ca. 1107/1695-96) and °ÕÄå°ùīḵ (completed ca. 1087/1676-77), ed. and tr. O. F. Akimushkin, Pamyatniki pis’mennosti vostoka XLV Moscow, 1976.
Three ²Ñ²¹Ç°³¾Å«Ê¿Äå³Ù of KÄsÄnÄ«’s °ù±ð²õÄå±ôÄå³Ù, catalogued in Persidskie i tadzhikskie rukopisi Instituta Narodov Azii AN SSSR (KratkiÄ alfavitnyÄ katalog), ed. N. D. Miklukho-MaklaÄ, part 1, Moscow, 1964, nos. 3872-3874. NafÄ«sÄ«, Naẓm o naṯr, pp. 400-01.
(J. Fletcher)
Originally Published: December 15, 1984
Last Updated: July 28, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 6, p. 649
J. Fletcher, “´¡á¸¤M´¡¶Ù °Ä€³§Ä€±·Äª,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 1982, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahmad-kasani
