From
Persia, whose ancestors were
Arab Sayyids who settled there, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī was born in 1143 in
Sistan. He was sixteen years old when his father, Sayyid G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn (d. c. 1155), died, leaving his
grinding mill and
orchard to his son. Despite planning to continue his father's business, he developed mystic tendencies in his personal piety and soon entered a life of destitute itineracy. He enrolled at the
seminaries of
Bukhara and
Samarkand, and (probably) visited the shrines of
Muhammad al-Bukhari (d. 870) and
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944), two widely venerated figures in the
Islamic world. While traveling to
Iran, in the district of
Nishapur, he came across the Sunni mystic Ḵh̲wāj̲a ʿUt̲h̲mān, who initiated him. Accompanying his spiritual guide for over twenty years on the latter's journeys from region to region, Muʿīn al-Dīn also continued his own independent spiritual travels during the time period. It was on his independent wanderings that Muʿīn al-Dīn encountered many of the most notable Sunni mystics of the era, including
Abdul-Qadir Gilani (d. 1166) and
Najmuddin Kubra (d. 1221), as well as Naj̲īb al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḳāhir Suhrawardī, Abū Saʿīd Tabrīzī, and ʿAbd al-Waḥid G̲h̲aznawī (all d. c. 1230), all of whom were destined to become some of the most highly venerated saints in the Sunni tradition. ==South Asia==