, now in present-day
Nawabganj,
Bangladesh, was the royal capital of the
Sultanate of Bengal and experienced an influx of scholars during this period. The Qazi family are descended from Taj ad-Din an-Nahwi, who had
Arab lineage from his ancestor, Shaykh Mahmud
al-Qurashi al-Ishqi Randposh. Prior to settling in Lakhnauti, the family was based in
Balkh in present-day
Afghanistan. In Bengal, it is said that they became the spiritual successors of the family of
Nur Qutb Alam of the
Chishti Order.
Taj ad-Din an-Nahwi Tāj ad-Dīn al-Naḥwī al-Balkhī al-Lakhnawtawī was a 15th-century
Islamic scholar,
qadi and
grammarian of the
Arabic language. According to
Abd al-Hayy al-Lucknawi, he was one of the leading scholars in the fields of grammar and Arabic language during his time. He was born into a
Sunni Muslim family in
Balkh,
Afghanistan, then part of the
Timurid Empire, where he was raised. He was famed by the
epithet al-naḥwī ('the grammarian') and
khulāṣah al-ʿulamāʾ ('epitome of the
ulama'), and had a famous
khanqah in Balkh. It is said that he left Balkh, after hearing of the scholarly patronage of Sultan
Ibrahim Shah Sharqi (r. 1402–1440). However, Taj ad-Din ended up settling in the neighbouring
Sultanate of Bengal instead. He benefitted many students in
Lakhnauti and the family established themselves there.
Shah Manjhan Shah Manjhan al-Lakhnawtawī (d.
Rabi' al-Awwal 1001
AH / 1592 CE) was a prominent 16th-century
Sufi saint and leading figure of the
Shattari Order. He was the son of Abdullah, son of Khayr ad-Dīn al-Lakhnawtawī, who was a direct descendant of Taj ad-Din an-Nahwi. From his mother's side, Shah Manjhan was a descendant of Qadi Samāʾ ad-Din of
Delhi. Manjhan was born and raised in Lakhnauti, and initially studied under Shaykh Ahmadi. He then became a
murid of Shaykh Taj ad-Din al-Husayni al-Bukhari for a long time. He dedicated much of his time in Lakhnauti towards teaching the
Islamic sciences. Taj ad-Din al-Bukhari eventually instructed Manjhan to become a disciple of
Muhammad Ghawth, the Sufi master of the
Shattari Order in
Gujarat. After the Conquest of
Malwa by
Sher Shah Suri, Manjhan moved there as he was appointed as the religious administrator of the newly conquered fort-town of
Raisen. Due to political instability, he later relocated to
Sarangpur, settling in the village of Ashnah, where he wrote several works on the Islamic sciences and was received by Emperor
Akbar. His son, Uthman, was a leading scholar in
Islamic jurisprudence and Arabic language. ==References==