Sirhindi, Ahmad al-Farruki

Sirhindi, Ahmad al-Farruki

 

Born 1562; died 1624. Head of the Sufi order of Naqshabandi, which had followers throughout Middle Asia and India.

Sirhindi sought to bring Sufi teachings into the mainstream of orthodox Islam. He attacked heresies and the religious reforms of Akbar. Sirhindi had many followers among high Mongol officials and military commanders and strove to make the Naqshabandi order into a political force. His epistles on the Muslim faith constitute a valuable historical source. They are kept in the institutes of Oriental studies of the academies of sciences of the USSR and the Uzbek SSR. [23–1373–]