Karachi
Abdullah Shah Ghazi is the patron saint of Karachi, and his shrine on the hill above Clifton Beach is the best-loved in the city. He is honoured here as…
Abdullah Shah Ghazi is the patron saint of Karachi, and his shrine on the hill above Clifton Beach is the best-loved in the city. He is honoured here as Abdullah al-Ashtar, a descendant of the Prophet ﷺ who came to Sindh in the eighth century, in the unsettled years that followed the rise of the Abbasid caliphate. He lived in Sindh for several years as the honoured guest of a local king, and was killed beside the River Indus in 151 AH (768). Who he was Abdullah al-Ashtar belonged to the family of the Prophet ﷺ through his daughter Sayyida Fatima and her husband Sayyiduna Ali ibn Abi Talib, by way of their elder son al-Hasan. His line runs as follows: al-Hasan, the grandson of the Prophet ﷺ; al-Hasan's son, known as al-Hasan al-Muthanna; his son Abdullah, known as al-Mahd; his son Muhammad, known as al-Nafs al-Zakiyya; and his son Abdullah, the saint of Karachi. In other words, al-Hasan was his great-great-grandfather, and he was the sixth generation from the Prophet ﷺ. His father, Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, was one of the most respected men of Madinah in his time, and his grandfather Abdullah al-Mahd was the head of the family. His mother, Umm Salama, came from the same family: she was a granddaughter of al-Hasan al-Muthanna. 1 He was born and brought up in Madinah. The historians call him al-Ashtar to tell him apart from the many other Abdullahs of the family; in Sindh he became known as Abdullah Shah, and after his death as al-Ghazi. His uncle Mawlay Idris of Morocco Abdullah Shah Ghazi was the nephew of Idris I, remembered in Morocco as Mawlay Idris. Idris and Abdullah's father, Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, were sons of the same father, Abdullah al-Mahd, but had different mothers: Muhammad's mother was Hind, while Idris's was Atika. This made them half-brothers, and Idris was therefore Abdullah Shah Ghazi's paternal uncle. 15 Idris made his way across North Africa after the events of Fakhkh in 169 AH, and in 788 founded the first Muslim dynasty of Morocco. His shrine at Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, near Meknes, is one of the most revered in the country. His son, Idris II, built up the city of Fez, so the founders of Morocco's Idrisid line were Abdullah's uncle and cousin. 2 His other notable relatives His other uncle, Ibrahim, led a rising in Basra in the same year as his father's. Through his grandfather's mother, Fatima bint al-Husayn, the family was also closely tied to the line of al-Husayn: Imam Ali Zayn al-Abidin was his grandfather's uncle, and Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq was his father's second cousin, living in Madinah at the same time. 3 His father and grandfather in Madinah His grandfather Abdullah was called al-Mahd, the pure-born, because he descended from the Prophet ﷺ through both parents: his father was al-Hasan al-Muthanna, a grandson of al-Hasan, and his mother was Fatima, a daughter of al-Husayn. His father Muhammad was born in Madinah around 100 AH and grew up to be one of the most admired men of his generation, known for his worship, his learning and his upright character. 4 As Umayyad rule weakened, the leading men of Banu Hashim met at al-Abwa, between Makkah and Madinah, and pledged their allegiance to him as the man best suited to lead the Muslims. Among those named as giving that pledge was Abu Ja'far, who would later rule as the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur. 3 The family in the early Abbasid period When the Abbasids came to power in 132 AH (750), Muhammad and his brother Ibrahim did not give their allegiance to the new rulers. For some years they kept away from public life, moving between the Hijaz and other lands, while the caliph sought to bring them to his court. 3 In 144 AH, during his pilgrimage, al-Mansur had Abdullah al-Mahd and many of the men of the family taken from Madinah. 4 They were brought to Iraq and held at al-Hashimiyya, near Kufa, where Abdullah al-Mahd and several of his brothers and relatives passed away. Al-Tabari records these events in detail, and Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani preserves the elegies that were composed for them. 5 1 The rising of 145 AH In Rajab 145 (September 762), Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya made his call publicly in Madinah and the people of the city gave him their allegiance, and his brother Ibrahim did the same in Basra soon after. Al-Mansur sent an army under Isa ibn Musa to Madinah. Muhammad met it with a small company at the place called Ahjar al-Zayt and was killed there in Ramadan 145 (December 762). Ibrahim fell two months later at Bakhamra, near Kufa. 5 3 The journey to Sindh Abdullah left the Hijaz during his father's rising. According to al-Tabari and Ibn al-Athir, his father sent him with a small group of supporters to Basra, where they bought fine Arab horses and then took ship down the Gulf and along the coast to Sindh, travelling as horse merchants. 6 7 Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani adds that the family's tutor, Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Mas'ada, went with him. 1 Sindh was then governed for al-Mansur by Umar ibn Hafs, known as Hazarmard, who quietly sympathised with the Prophet's family. 8 When the merchants were received by him, they asked for his assurance of safety and then made known to him who their companion was. Umar welcomed Abdullah, gave him his allegiance and began preparing to declare for Muhammad in Sindh. 6 7 Before that could happen, a ship arrived from Basra with the news that Muhammad had been killed. With his father and uncle gone, and his grandfather having passed away at al-Hashimiyya, Abdullah could not return to Madinah, and Umar could no longer receive him openly. 6 His years in Sindh Umar ibn Hafs sent Abdullah to one of the local kings of Sindh, who received him with honour and kept him under his protection. Supporters of the family found their way to him, and the historians say that several hundred followers gathered around him. He lived among them for several years, riding out and hunting with his companions. 6 9 In Sindh he married, and a son was born to him whom he named Muhammad, after his father. 9 The tradition kept in Karachi remembers him in these years as a man of prayer and generosity who lived among the people of the coast and was loved by them, and it also remembers his brother, Misri Shah, who settled there with him. 10 His death beside the Indus When al-Mansur learned where Abdullah was, he wrote to Umar ibn Hafs asking that Abdullah be sent to him. In 151 AH (768) the caliph moved Umar to North Africa and sent Hisham ibn Amr al-Taghlibi to govern Sindh, with instructions to bring him to the caliph. 6 8 Al-Tabari records that Hisham himself was reluctant, but his brother came upon Abdullah when he had ridden out near the bank of the Mihran, the River Indus, with only about ten companions. Abdullah stood his ground with his companions, and they were killed together. 6 7 From this last stand he is remembered as al-Ghazi. According to the tradition of Karachi, his followers carried his body back to the shore where he had first landed and buried him on the hill beside the sea, which has been honoured as his grave ever since. 10 11 His young son was sent with his mother to al-Mansur, who returned the boy to Madinah to be raised by his great-uncle, Musa ibn Abdullah. 6 1 The patron saint of Karachi Over the centuries Abdullah Shah Ghazi became the protecting saint of the city that grew up around his grave. Many people in Karachi believe that the city has been spared the great cyclones of the Arabian Sea because of his presence, and when storms threaten the coast, devotees gather at the shrine rather than leave it. 12 13 At the foot of the hill is a spring of fresh water. The shrine's tradition holds that when he was buried the hill stood beside the sea with no drinking water near it, and that the spring appeared as a blessing at his grave. It still runs sweet beside the salt sea, and devotees take its water for healing. 12 13 The shrine For centuries the grave was marked by a simple hut on a sandy rise. In the twentieth century its custodian, Nadir Ali Shah, a follower of the Qalandari path of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, began to develop it, adding the dome, a mosque, a langar kitchen, a qawwali court, rooms for pilgrims and the long stairway up the hill. The free kitchen he started in the 1930s still feeds visitors every day. 11 The Sindh Auqaf Department took over the shrine in 1962 and enlarged it in the following decades, and it was renovated again in 2005 to 2007 and in 2011. 11 10 A broad flight of steps leads up the hill to the tomb, which sits on a high platform. The grave itself lies in a crypt below, and the tall square chamber above is covered in Sindhi tile work under a green and white striped dome. Visitors tie garlands to its silver railing, and the terrace looks out over Clifton and the Arabian Sea. 11 The urs and visiting The urs is held over three days, from the 20th to the 22nd of Dhu al-Hijjah, with gatherings of sama and naat that draw large crowds from across Sindh; the last day is a local holiday in Karachi. 14 The shrine is open from early morning until late at night. It stands on Shahrah-e-Firdousi in Clifton, a short walk from Clifton Beach. References Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Maqatil al-Talibiyyin, section on Abdullah al-Ashtar, pp. 268–269, al-Maktaba al-Shamela "Idris I of Morocco", Wikipedia "Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya", Wikipedia (citing al-Nawbakhti, Firaq al-Shi'a, and al-Tabari) al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala, vol. 6, p. 210, entry on Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, Islamweb al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, vol. 7, events of 144–145 AH, Wikisource al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, vol. 8, year 151 AH, on the removal of Umar ibn Hafs from Sindh, Wikisource Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, vol. 5, year 151 AH, Islamweb "Umar ibn Hafs Hazarmard", Wikipedia Abd al-Hayy al-Hasani, Nuzhat al-Khawatir (al-I'lam bi-man fi Tarikh al-Hind), entry on Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Alawi, Tarajm Nadeem F. Paracha, "Abdullah Shah Ghazi: The saviour saint", Dawn, 23 November 2014 "Abdullah Shah Ghazi", Wikipedia "Saint Ghazi and his shrine", Dawn, October 2010 "Abdullah Shah Ghazi: 'The saint that keeps cyclones at bay'", Dawn, 30 October 2014 "Urs of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi", Office Holidays Al-Durr al-Nazim, p. 520: the sons of Abdullah al-Mahd and their mothers (Arabic)