Hagiography in South Asia - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Viitamäki, Mikko
Leiden
Brill
(1,339 words)
Tadhkira and malfūẓāt have been the major genres of hagiography in South Asia . Tadhkira describes the saintly lives of Ṣūfīs in the tradition of works written in the Middle East and Central Asia, whereas malfūẓāt , the recorded discourses of a Ṣūfī master, evolved in India. The first Ṣūfī text written in South Asia, ʿAlī al-Hujwīrī's (d. 465-9/1073-7) Kashf al-maḥjūb ("The revelation of the veiled"), contained biographical sketches of pious Muslims and Ṣūfīs, yet none of them had lived in India. Local hagiographical tradition dates