's tomb (left),
Nizamuddin Auliya's tomb (right) and
Jama'at Khana Masjid (background), at
Nizamuddin Dargah complex, in
Nizamuddin West,
Delhi The
Encyclopedia of Islam divides Chishti history into four periods: • Era of the great shaykhs (/1200 to 757/1356) • Era of the provincial khānaḳāhs (8th/14th & 9th/15th centuries) • Rise of the Ṣābiriyya branch (9th/15th century onwards) • Revival of the Niẓāmiyya branch (12th/18th century onwards) The order was founded by
Abu Ishaq Shami ("the Syrian") who taught Sufism in the town of Chisht, some 95 miles east of Herat in present-day western
Afghanistan. Before returning to Syria, where he is now buried next to
Ibn Arabi at
Jabal Qasioun, Shami initiated, trained and deputized the son of the local emir, Abu Ahmad Abdal. Under the leadership of Abu Ahmad's descendants, the
Chishtiya, as they are also known, flourished as a regional mystical order. When he was just nine, he memorized the Qur'an, thus becoming a
hafiz. His father died when he was a teenager; Moinuddin inherited the family grinding mill and orchard. He sold everything and gave the proceeds to the poor. He traveled to
Balkh and
Samarkand, where he studied the Qur'an,
hadith, and
fiqh. He looked for something beyond scholarship and law and studied under the Chishti shaykh
Usman Harooni (Harvani). He moved to Lahore and then to Ajmer, where he died. His tomb, in Ajmer, is the
Dargah Sharif, a popular shrine and pilgrimage site. Moinuddin was followed by
Qutab-ud-Din Bakhtyar Kaki and Farīduddīn Mas'ūd '
Baba Farid'. After Fariduddin, the Chishti Order of South Asia split into two branches. Each branch was named after one of Fariduddin's successors. •
Nizamuddin Auliya – the
Chishti Nizami branch •
Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari – the
Chishti-Sabiri branch It was after Nizamuddin Auliya that the Chishti Sufism chain spread throughout the Indian Peninsula. Two prominent lines of transmission arose from Nizamuddin Auliya, one from his disciple
Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi and the other from another disciple,
Akhi Siraj Aainae Hind, who migrated to West Bengal from Delhi on Nizamuddin Auliya's order. Siraj Aanae Hind was followed by his notable disciple
Alaul Haq Pandavi settled in Pandava, West Bengal itself. From this chain of transmission another prominent sub-branch of Chishti way emerged known as Ashrafia Silsila after the illustrious saint
Ashraf Jahangir Semnani, who was the disciple of
Alaul Haq Pandavi in the thirteen century A.D. Later, yet other traditions branched from the Chishti lineage; in many cases they merged with other popular Sufi orders in South Asia. As a result of this merging of the Chishti order with other branches, most Sufi masters now initiate their disciples in all the four major orders of South Asia: the Qadiri, Chishti, Naqshbandi, and Suhrawadi Sufi orders. They do however teach devotional practices typical of the order with which they are primarily associated. In 1937 the
Sufi Imam Al-Hajj Wali Akram founded the First
Cleveland Mosque, made his Sufi affiliation public and during the 1950s started to introduce new members to the Chishti, making the mosque the first public Sufi center of the United States. In more recent times, a more contemporary expression of traditional Chishti Sufi practices can be found in the establishment of the
Ishq-Nuri Tariqa in the 1960s, as a branch of the Chishti-Nizami
silsila. In addition, a number of mixed-Sufi type groups or movements in Islam, have also been influenced by the Chishti Order proper. The best known and most widespread example is of the
Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, a
Sunni Muslim sect with a huge international following, which is in essence not a proper Sufi organization, though adopting many Sufi customs and traditions. ==Indo-Islamic rulers==