A correction is warranted. The protagonist’s name in Pir Abdur Rahman’s story is Abdul Rahman bin Abbas bin Rabia bin Harris bin Abdul Muttalib and not Abdul Rahman bin Muhammad bin Ash’us (as mistakenly mentioned in the previous column). The two were contemporaries but two different persons, the only commonality being the animosity of the Umayyad governor of Iraq, Hajjaj bin Yousaf al-Saqafi (661-714).

A highly capable and ruthless statesman and a strict, harsh and demanding administrator, Hajjaj was greatly feared by many contemporaries and became a controversial figure because of his persecution of political opposition and the mass executions orchestrated by him. As for the two Abdul Rahmans, the former, this write-up’s protagonist, was a Hashmi and a close companion of Hazrat Ali (with whom Allah was pleased), in the power tussle between the latter and Amir Muawiya (with whom Allah was pleased).

Abdul Rahman’s Hashmi ancestry and his unequivocal support for Hazrat Ali (with whom Allah was pleased) was enough for the Umayyad tormentor (Hajjaj) to hound him. It merits mention that Hazrat Ali (with whom Allah was pleased) was the fount of spiritual enlightenment for most of the sufi orders. Concomitantly, he was a warrior par excellence, so that the title of Asadullah (or Sher-i-Khuda) was granted to him. For the Naqshbandi order, Hazrat Abu Bakr (with whom Allah was pleased) is the spiritual fountain head. Thus, the spiritual quest to reach out to the supra-rational being was not considered a binary opposite to battlefield action. Prior to the systematisation of sufism into structure(s) of sorts, most sufis had been striking a balance between excelling in the realm of the esoteric and their military prowess. It was probably under the British that sufis were first described as lethargic and inactive.

Having established that early Sufis epitomised the balance between spiritual excellence and mundane life, which included participation in battles, we turn to our protagonist’s namesake. Abdul Rahman bin Muhammad bin Ash’us was once a general in the Umayyad army who turned dissident. After offering stiff resistance to Hajjaj, he was defeated in a battle at Kufa and was executed.

In this acutely fought battle, our protagonist, Abdul Rahman bin Abbas, sided with his namesake. After the defeat, he had no option but to escape to Sindh via Sistan. The Sindh principality then included Multan and the territories on its outskirts. To put the matter in perspective, it is pertinent to underscore that the story of Pir Abdul Rahman has been transmitted orally.

The legend is an inalienable part of the folk memory that has been transmitted from one generation to the next. Kudos to Prof Samiullah Qureshi who has noted this legend in his scholarly book, Sarzameen-i-Jhang: Aasar wa Saqafat. It is worth mentioning that the events and their sequence as preserved in orally transmitted narrative don’t always meet the authenticity criteria required of history. Having laid out the context, we circumscribe the scope of our inquiry about Abdul Rahman bin Abbas, a progeny of the Holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) eldest paternal uncle, Harris bin Abdul Muttalib, one of the Tab’a-i-Tab’een (those who came after and followed those who followed the illustrious companions of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him)).

It has been noted in Tazkara-hai-Auliya-i-Hind that because of the esteemed status of Pir Abdul Rahman, some of the most revered sufis including Baha-ud-Din Zakariya, Farid ud-Din Ganj Shakr, Jalal-ud Din Surkh Bokhari, Shahbaz Qalandar and Sultan Bahu used to pay visits to the shrine of Pir Sahib. Some of them are reported to have spent days and weeks there in spiritual deliberation (chilla).

Abdul Rahman was born in 37 AH (659 AD). He was arguably one of the earliest (Arab) Muslims to venture into northern India and make proselytising of Islam his mission. The exact date of his slipping into the subcontinent and his settling down at a place known as Qasba (settlement) Pir Abdul Rahman has not been worked out with any measure of exactitude. Conjecturally speaking, he probably came to the subcontinent around 83-84 AH.

The settlement named after him is situated west of the road that leads from Garh Maharaja to Ahmadpur Sial. It is tantalisingly close to the River Chenab mainstream. The settlement is inhabited almost exclusively by the Qureshi clan who considered the progeny of Pir Sahib. It appears quite certain according to Prof Qureshi, that Islam had reached Jhang in the first century of the Hijra calendar. This is a very significant piece of information. Once he settled down, Pir Abdul Rahman built a mosque from where he disseminated the message of Islam.

That mosque exists to this day. A noteworthy aspect of the building is its antiquity. Prof Qureshi contends that this might be one of the oldest mosques ever built in this part of the subcontinent. The claim is very significant but needs authentication from archaeological sources. Folk lore provides us with a name of a small principality, Zorover, the remnants of which exist not far from the shrine of Pir Abdul Rahman. However, no mention has ever been made of it either in the tazkaras, Jhang gazetteers or the colonial settlement reports.

The site calls for the attention of archaeologists and historians so that new vistas of knowledge are opened in the realm of regional history. Let’s turn to the legend associated with Pir Abdul Rahman which is a part of the folklore. Thus, an early medieval event of history is preserved through oral source. That probably is the reason that dates and years are not part of the narration. The year of his demise engraved at his tomb stone is 122 AH at the age of 85. In the concluding piece, I will relate and analyse the folk tale in which Pir Abdul Rahman took on Raja Sill of Zorover in a tightly contested battle.

(To be concluded)

The author is a professor of history and a writer. He can be reached at tahir.kamran@bnu.edu.pk