Person · 17 January 1630 – 1 March 1691 · born 1630 · Punjabi Sufi poet, scholar and historian; founder of the Sarwari Qadiri suborder

Sultan Bahu

سُلطان باہُو

Can't read this? The Reading Bridge →

Sultan Bahu (1630–1691) was a Punjabi Sufi poet of Shorkot and Jhang who founded his own Qadiri suborder, the Sarwari Qadiri, and is remembered above all for a single surviving book of Punjabi verse, the Abyat-e Bahu, out of the roughly hundred works tradition credits him with.

What the sources did afterwards. The only substantial account of his life is a hagiography, Manaqib-i Sultani, compiled seven generations after his death — every biographical detail now repeated about him (his birthplace, his tribe, his parents' names) traces back to that source, not to a contemporary record. The shrine's own tradition adds a further, undated claim: that his body was found undecayed when the Chenab's shifting course forced its second relocation.

Draft. This entry is an unreviewed first draft. It has not yet been checked by a subject reviewer — see sources and method.

Forty books, and the poems that outlived them

Sultan Bahu (17 January 1630 – 1 March 1691) is described, in nearly all that survives of him in English reference form, as having been "a Punjabi Muslim poet, Sufi, scholar, and historian of the 17th century." Of his output the same account says: "More than forty books on Sufism are attributed to him (mostly written in Persian), largely dealing with specialised aspects of Islam and Islamic mysticism. However, it was his Punjabi poetry which had popular appeal and earned him lasting fame" (Wikipedia, "Sultan Bahu"). Tradition credits him with as many as a hundred works, among them the Abyat-e Bahu, his sole Punjabi verse collection — sung since, tradition holds, in a style particular to his couplets, in both qawwali and kafi.

A grave the river moved twice

"Little is known about Bahu's life, other than what was written in a hagiography called Manaqib-i Sultani seven generations after Bahu's own time" (Wikipedia, "Sultan Bahu") — the compilation that supplies the birthplace (Shorkot), the tribe (Awan) and the parents' names now repeated as settled fact. His shrine, at Garh Maharaja, carries its own after-the-fact claim: "It was originally built on Bahu's grave site until the Chenab River changed its course causing the need to relocate twice and as witnessed by those present at the time of relocation, claims that his body was still intact at the time" (Wikipedia, "Sultan Bahu") — a devotional tradition recorded here as the shrine's own claim, not as an established fact.

Where this sits

Everything else the archive holds on the topics this entry belongs to.

Sources

Sultan Bahu (article) · read as web was a Punjabi Muslim poet, Sufi, scholar, and historian of the 17th century
Sultan Bahu (article) · read as web More than forty books on Sufism are attributed to him (mostly written in Persian), largely dealing with specialised aspects of Islam and Islamic mysticism. However, it was his Punjabi poetry which had popular appeal and earned him lasting fame.
Sultan Bahu (article) · read as web Little is known about Bahu's life, other than what was written in a hagiography called Manaqib-i Sultani seven generations after Bahu's own time.
Sultan Bahu (article) · read as web It was originally built on Bahu's grave site until the Chenab River changed its course causing the need to relocate twice and as witnessed by those present at the time of relocation, claims that his body was still intact at the time.