Aal-e-Qutub Aal-e-Syed Abdullah Shah Ghazi

In the eighteenth century, several Mughal emperors — Bahadur Shah I, Shah Alam II, and Akbar Shah II — found their final resting place near the shrine of Sheikh Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. Even the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, longed to be buried beside the saint he revered so deeply, though fate carried him far away, to his lonely grave in Rangoon.

The fame of Sheikh Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki’s dargah, however, was no passing Mughal fancy. Long before, it had already drawn immense devotion. In the fourteenth century, the great Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta listed it among the three most-visited pilgrimage sites of Delhi, a place where kings, nobles, and commoners alike sought blessings.

By the fifteenth century, the shrine was linked with another turning point in Delhi’s history — the rise of Afghan power. A story often told speaks of Bahlol Lodi, founder of the Lodi dynasty. When threatened by the Sharqi Sultan of Jaunpur, Bahlol turned not to his army, but to prayer.

He spent an entire night at Sheikh Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki’s dargah, bowing, pleading, and reciting prayers. Just before dawn, the tale goes, a mysterious figure — a mard-i ghayb, a man of the unseen — appeared before him. In his hand was a weapon. He gave it to Bahlol with the promise of victory.

Bahlol carried the weapon into battle and fought with renewed courage. And just as foretold, triumph was his. From then on, the saint’s dargah became tied to the very foundation of Afghan rule in Delhi.

(References: Rehla, Ibn Battuta; Waqiat-i Mushtaqi, Sheikh Rizqullah Mushtaqi; Early Chishti Shrines in India, Iqtidar Husain; The Pir’s Barakat, Sunil Kumar)