Sirdar ikbal ali shah
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Sirdar
Ikbal Ali Shah ' onMouseout='HidePop("21714")' href="/topics/Sardhana">Sardhana
, India
, died 4 November 1969 in Tangier
, Morocco
) was an India
n-Afghan
author and diplomat descended from the Sadaat
of Paghman. Educated in India, he came to Britain as a young man to continue his education in Edinburgh, where he married a young Scotswoman.
Travelling widely, Ikbal Ali Shah undertook assignments for the British Foreign Office and became a publicist for a number of Eastern statesmen, penning biographies of Kemal Ataturk, the Aga Khan
and others. His other writing includes lighter works such as travel narratives and tales of adventure, as well as more serious works on Sufism
, Islam
and Asian politics. He hoped that Sufism might "form a bridge between the Western and the Eastern ways of thinking"; familiar with both cultures, much of his life and writing was devoted to furthering greater cross-cultural understanding.
Ikbal Ali Shah fathered three children, all of whom became notable writers themselves; his son Idries Shah
became particularly well known and acclaimed as a writer and teacher of Sufism in the West. When Ikbal Ali Shah's wife died in 1960, he moved from Britain to Morocco
, spending the last decade of his life in Tangier
.
Controversy related to his sons' claims to have a special role in representing Sufism in the West also reflected back on Ikbal Ali Shah; a researcher seeking to discredit his son Idries unearthed Foreign Office records which appeared to cast doubt on Ikbal Ali Shah's honesty, and towards the end of his life he was involved in a literary scandal surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a joint work by his eldest son Omar
and the English poet Robert Graves
. He died in a road accident in Morocco, aged 75.
s (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad
through his daughter Fatimah
and also through Musa al-Kadhim
, the great-great-grandson of Husayn ibn Ali
and seventh Imam
of the Twelver Shi'a sect of Islam). The family originated from Paghman
near Kabul
, Afghanistan
. In 1840, Ali Shah's great-grandfather was awarded the title Jan-Fishan Khan for his support of Shah Shuja
, a puppet ruler installed by the British. In 1841, following the defeat of the British, Jan-Fishan Khan was forced to leave Afghanistan. The British-Indian government rewarded his loyalty with an estate in Sardhana
, Uttar Pradesh
, which thereafter became the family seat.
Ali Shah's granddaughter Saira Shah
relates that her grandfather "maintained that ancestry was something to try to live up to, not to boast about" and told her that "it is less important who your forebears were than what you yourself become."
. He met his future wife Saira Elizabeth Luiza Shah (pseudonym: Morag Murray Abdullah, b. 1900) during the war, while engaged in an unsuccessful attempt to study medicine
at Edinburgh Medical School. They eloped while she was only sixteen; her family did not approve of the match, and her father never spoke to her again. Ali Shah's own father, asked to give his consent to the marriage, enquired by telegram "whether she was prepared to become a Muslim and whether she would be able to defend a fortress, if required." She answered yes on both counts; satisfied, he gave his blessing. The young couple subsequently had three children, the Sufi
writers and translators Amina Shah
(b. 1918), Omar Ali-Shah
(b. 1922) and Idries Shah
(b. 1924).
, contributing articles on Islam to the Society's journal. He travelled widely and became a publicist for a variety of Eastern statesmen such as the Kemal Atatürk, Sharif of Mecca
, King Abdullah
of Jordan
, King Fuad I of Egypt
, the Emir Abdul Illah of Iraq
and members of the royal family of Afghanistan
. He was on friendly terms with both orthodox leaders (like the Rector of Azhar University in Cairo
) and reformers (like Kemal Ataturk).
Ikbal Ali Shah believed that Bolshevism's encroachment on the countries of Central Asia
would almost inevitably lead to catastrophic results, and by 1921 was reporting in the Edinburgh Review
on the methods of propaganda and political influence used by the Bolshevists in Central Asia and Afghanistan
, with its consequences for British rule in India
.
He was also associated with the British Foreign Office for several decades. James Moore
states that his work for the Foreign Office occasionally raised controversy: in 1929, after Ali Shah "tried to compromise" the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald
, Foreign Office investigations concluded that there "was hardly a word of truth in his writings".
Ali Shah was a passionate advocate of the modernisation of Islam. He viewed this as nothing more and nothing less than a return to genuine Islam, an Islam without a priest class, writing in 1929:
Justifying Turkey
's modernisation efforts under Kemal Atatürk, Ali Shah condemned what Islam had become in Turkey:
He noted with approval that –
In the 1930s he was in Geneva, working in collaboration with the League of Nations
supporting disarmament
, and attending the European Muslim Congress of 1935, promoting Islamic unity. According to Augy Hayter (a student of Ikbal's son Omar Ali-Shah
) the Sirdar's connection with the League of Nations
began in its early days when he was working with professor Gilbert Murray
and the Agha Khan, and records of his contributions and position as a "respected intellectual" of the time can be found in the Unesco
archives in Paris.
Ikbal Ali Shah was also a member of the Royal Geographical Society
and the Royal Asiatic Society
. By contributing to the work of such organisations, he aimed to bridge the gap between east and west. In 1937, he wrote:
In 1940, the family moved from London to Oxford to escape German bombing. In 1945, Ali Shah and his son Idries travelled to Uruguay
as expert advisors on halal
led meat questions for the India Office
; a scandal resulted, leading the British ambassador
to describe him as a "swindler".
as India's cultural representative in all of West Asia.
According to his grandson Tahir
, Ali Shah was heartbroken when his wife died in 1960, aged 59; feeling unable to continue living in the places in which they had shared their lives, he moved to Tangier
in Morocco
, a place they had never visited together, and lived there in a small villa close to the seafront. L. F. Rushbrook Williams
, a British scholar bound to Ali Shah through a friendship spanning more than half a century, attributes Ali Shah's move to Morocco to a tightening of British residence regulations and says that Ali Shah, never having acquired British domicile, was obliged to leave behind the study centre for sufism that he had set up in England.
Near the end of his life, Ali Shah was caught up in the controversy surrounding the 1967 publication of a new translation of Omar Khayyam
's Rubaiyat
by his son Omar Ali-Shah
and the English poet Robert Graves
. The translation was based on an annotated "crib" made by Omar Ali-Shah, who asserted that it derived from an old manuscript said to have been in the Shah family's possession for 800 years. L. P. Elwell-Sutton, an orientalist
at Edinburgh University, expressed his conviction that the story of the ancient family manuscript was false. Graves believed that the disputed manuscript was in the possession of Ikbal Ali Shah, and that he was about to produce it at the time of his death from a road accident, to allay the growing controversy surrounding the translation. However, the manuscript never was produced.
Richard Perceval Graves describes how, in a letter to Robert Graves in 1970, Idries Shah pointed out that "production of the MSS would prove nothing, because there would be no way of telling whether it was original, or whether someone had washed the writing from a piece of ancient parchment, and then applied a new text using inert inks." Shah believed that the critics were "intent only on opposition" and said he agreed with his father, who had been so infuriated by the "hyaenas" that he wanted nothing to do with the controversy. O'Prey (1984) writes that this last point was not entirely true: Ikbal Ali Shah had in fact written to Graves from Morocco, saying the manuscript should be produced; Graves then forwarded the letter to Omar Ali-Shah. Unfortunately, he neglected to take a copy; Omar never received the letter, and Ikbal Ali Shah died a few days later.
The scholarly consensus today is that the "Jan-Fishan Khan" manuscript was a hoax, and that the Graves/Shah translation was in fact based on a study of the sources of FitzGerald's work by Victorian amateur scholar Edward Heron-Allen
. The affair did considerable damage to Graves' reputation.
On 4 November 1969, Ikbal Ali Shah was struck by a reversing Coca-Cola truck in Tangier. He was rushed to hospital unconscious, but died a few hours later. He was buried in England next to his wife. On his gravestone, along with his name, there is only the appellation "Al Mutawakkil", which means "the one who resigns himself to the will of the Almighty."
Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah's obituary in The Times
of Saturday, November 8, 1969 stated:
biographies of major leaders in the Islamic World, like Kemal: Maker of Modern Turkey (1934) and Controlling Minds of Asia (1937); anthropological, historical and political works like Afghanistan of the Afghans (1928), Pakistan: A Plan for India (1944) and Vietnam (1960); anthologies of literature from the East, like The Book of Oriental Literature (1937) and Oriental Caravan (1933); anthologies and explanations of Eastern religious and mystical literature, with an emphasis on Sufism, like Spirit of the East (1939), Lights of Asia (1937), and Islamic Sufism (1933); and books specifically on Islam, like Mohammed: The Prophet (1932) and Selections from the Koran (1933).
Along with noted author Achmed Abdullah
, writer of The Thief of Baghdad, he set up fiction-writing workshops to disseminate Eastern stories and tales in books like Fifty Enthralling Stories of the Mysterious East (1937).
Altogether, Ikbal Ali Shah wrote more than fifty books, including:
In his book Islamic Sufism, Ikbal Ali Shah stated that he was instructed in the Sufi Way by his father, to whom he referred as "that Fountain of Goodness Hadrat Syedna Nawab Amjed Ali Shah Naqshbandi Paghmani". He said that the Nawab had, in turn, been taught by his father Nawab Mohammed Ali Shah, who is buried in the Delhi shrine of the Naqshbandi Khwaja Baqi Billah (and an extract from whose Nishan-i-Ghaib, Signs of the Unseen, is given in the "Letters and Lectures" section of Idries Shah's The Way of the Sufi). Nawab Mohammed Ali Shah's father was Jan-Fishan Khan, who in turn had been a disciple of the celebrated Naqshbandi master Haji Dost Muhammad Qandhari
. Ikbal Ali Shah sets out the remainder of this silsila
, from Qandhari backwards to Yaqub Charkhi (the disciple of Bahauddin Naqshband) in Islamic Sufism (where it is described as "The Punjab Tradition").
In addition to his father Ikbal Ali Shah also gives credit, in his introduction to "Islamic Sufism", to 'the earlier discourses of Sheikh al Akbar Hadratna Shah Abdul [sic] Khair Mujaddadi'. Shah Abul Khair Naqshbandi Dihlawi (1855-1922) was the successor of Shah Muhammad Umar Mujaddidi, who in turn was the son of Ahmad Saeed Mujaddidi Fārūqi Dehlavi, the teacher of Haji Dost Qandhari. Abul Khair took over responsibility for the 'Delhi house' - the dargah and burial place of Mirza Mazhar Jan-i-Janaan and Ghulam Ali Dihlawi by the Turkmen Gate of the old city of Delhi - from Haji Dost Qandhari's deputy Rahim Bakhsh Ajmeri, and today it bears his name. It seems most likely that Ikbal Ali Shah attended Abul Khair's assemblies in person, prior to his coming to Edinburgh, thus linking his Sufi teaching (and, by extension, that of his sons) directly into the main line of the Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiya.
Ikbal Ali Shah introduced this tradition of Sufism in the West, with special reference to the controversial metaphors in Sufi poetry, in an article published in Hibbert Journal (1921–1922) entitled The General Principles of Sufism.
Four consecutive stages of spiritual advancement were indicated there: Nasut—Humanity; Tariqa—the Way; Jabarut (Araff)—Power, and Haqiqa—Truth, corresponding to the four stages in Naqshbandi practice as observed by the Shattari Pir Shah Muhammad Ghawth
(died 1563).
These four stages involved the illumination (tajalli) of five centers: Qalb
, Ruh
, Sirr, Khafi, Ikhfa—Heart, Spirit, Secret, Mysterious and Deeply Hidden.
In his more substantial introduction Islamic Sufism (1933), Ali-Shah attributed the discovery of this system (Latayifi Sitta
)—with its corresponding colours: yellow (qalb); red (ruh); white (sirr); black (khafi), and green (ikhfa)—to Ahmad Sirhindi, the founder of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi.
In the preface to Islamic Sufism, the Sirdar presents his views on how and why Sufism can be a way for modern humanity to reconnect with its spiritual heritage. Deploring the current state of the world, he notes that it is in such times that new revivals of spiritual thought often take place, guided by great exemplars who make a significant impact on society. Focusing on Sufism, he points out that the Sufi way is open to all people and that it can be followed in any society while maintaining contact with the world, regardless of the prevailing materialism. The student's work is done through ordinary life in human society: Be in the world, but not if it is the Sufi dictum. The Sufi encourages not only personal refinement, but the uplifting of others as part of working towards a 'universal brotherhood' of humanity.".
As examples of practical methods of Sufism which can be of use in the modern world, the Sirdar discusses meditation, the giving of charity, and focusing more on durable truths and realities than on transient and illusory pursuits. He also discusses the relationship between Sufism and the mind-body connection in healing. He asserts that, through Sufism, "our latent forces for good can be increased, as well as our creative productivity".
Islamic Sufism contains Sufi interpretations of Islamic beliefs and practices, explanations of the history and theory of Sufism with reference to similar Western ideas, selections from the work of the great Sufis of the past, like Al-Ghazali
, Rumi, al-Hujwiri, Jami
, Hafez
and others, as well as examples of the thought of contemporary visionaries like Muhammad Iqbal
.
In the revised edition of Alone In Arabian Nights, Ikbal Ali Shah had this to say about Sufism:
He adds that his travelling was done, in part, to carry out missions connected with Sufism, and he describes his attempts to explain to groups in the East and the West that what they imagined to be Sufism was highly inaccurate. As examples, he points out that, according to Sufi experience, random collections of people, indulgence in most of the popular mystical practices of physical and emotional excitement, and amalgamations of all kinds of Eastern ideas without regard for what is useful under prevailing circumstances, would usually not result in real Sufi developments. These explanations and admonitions, while intriguing to some, were often rejected by groups that felt threatened by them.
Rushbrook Williams affirms that Ikbal Ali Shah's more public work and activities, such as writing travel books and biographies of major figures, was only a byproduct of his determination to study and promote the value of Sufism as a link between Eastern and Western thought.
Westward to Mecca (1928) was described by noted Orientalist H.A.R. Gibb in the Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs as a "well-spiced Eastern review, featuring Afghan raiders, alchemists, enchanted walls, watery blue-eyed Bolshevists, singing dervishes and mysterious caves, relieved by more common-place political and literary interludes. Is it all true? How like the materially-minded West to ask such questions!"
In 1930, the Aga Khan III
penned a foreword to Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah's book Eastward To Persia, stating that he thought "Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah's books—and especially this latest book on Persia—should be read by those in the West who want to see the East through Oriental eyes.'
In a review in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, The Golden East (1931) was criticised for its imperfect command of English, its "tedium heightened by the Sirdar's efforts at wit, by his imaginary yet dull stories of adventure", and for the many incorrect renderings of Persian words.
In his introduction to the 1939 edition of Ikbal Ali Shah's book, Alone In Arabian Nights, Sir Edward Denison Ross
stated that while the Sirdar, well known to him for many years, was "tremendously modest about his achievements", he considered him "the greatest contemporary writer and traveller of the East". He referred to the book as "fascinating" and "extraordinary", commenting on its "erudition, scope and range" and declaring that the Sirdar wrote "the most excellently idiomatic English".
Viet Nam (Octagon Press, 1960) fared worse; a reviewer in the Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs accused the book of "numerous elementary errors" and questioned whether Ali Shah had ever visited the country he was describing, or had mostly just drawn on official anti-Communist government propaganda. Summing up, the reviewer concluded: "This book is heavily biased, meretricious, frequently inaccurate, and badly written. It cannot be recommended. A review in the 1962 Year Book of World Affairs similarly described the book as "highly confused and unreliable".
The popularity of Idries Shah
's work generated renewed interest in his father. Asked about his recently-deceased father in a 1970 BBC
interview, Idries Shah agreed that Ikbal Ali Shah was "very unusual". Although he did make some enemies, Shah found it remarkable how few they were, given how uncategorizable and unusual he was. People often remarked to Shah that "the trouble is we never quite knew which side your father was on", to which Shah responded, "I'm sure it never occurred to him that he had to be on any side." Shah described him as "rather a mild sort of person in manner and appearance" but capable of behaving like an "unpredictable Oriental" who often did "unexpected" and "surprising" things when it was required by circumstances. He had a wide range of information and activity but much of it was compartmentalized so that few people knew everything, and no biography had ever been written.
Aref Tamer, an Ismaili Syrian author and scholar of Islamic culture, pointed out in 1973 that "Very little has been written about Saiyid Ikbal Ali Shah... not all [historians] have been able to descry the underlying unity, the service of the community, and the view of the ultimate good that was found in him," because outside observers did not have the perspective to see the pattern.
According to Professor L. F. Rushbrook Williams
, the editor of a work published in honor of the services to sufi studies of Ikbal Ali Shah's son Idries, "Sirdar Ikbal and his son [Idries Shah], both in writing and in other ways, were ultimately to show how Sufi thought and action, educational and adaptive as they are, could be of service to contemporary thinking" and he concluded in 1973 that "... whereas Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, who pioneered the effective study of Sufi philosophy in the West, found that the time was not quite ripe for his message to be appreciated at its true value, Idries Shah has discovered that in this age of spiritual uncertainty and a dawning reaction against the prevalent materialism, the outlook and practices of Sufism are meeting exactly the needs that so many people are now experiencing."
Edinburgh orientalist L. P. Elwell-Sutton considered many of the claims made in Rushbrook Williams' book on behalf of Ikbal Ali Shah and his son Idries, concerning their representing the Sufi tradition, to be self-serving publicity, filled with "sycophantic phraseology, fawning adulation, and disarming disregard for facts".
Beginning in the 1970s, the Octagon Press
, as part of its aim to establish "the historical and cultural context" for Idries Shah's Sufi work, began re-issuing several of Ikbal Ali Shah's books, among them The Book of Oriental Literature in 1976, a 400-page anthology containing extracts from important mystical and secular literature from all over the East, including excerpts from several classical Sufi authors. A review of the reprint in the University of Oklahoma
Books Abroad journal wondered why the book had been reprinted, since it no longer appeared to meet contemporary standards; the amount of space given to various national literatures appeared very uneven, the section on Arabia lacked many essential authors, and the section on Japan, consisting of just two pages, failed to give the names of the writers whose poems were featured. As an anthology, it was considered woefully inadequate.
In 1986, James Moore researched Foreign Office records on Ikbal Ali Shah for a paper critical of his son Idries, and claimed to have found that "damaging material on Ikbal abounds throughout FO 371 and FO 395 from 1926 to 1950"; he came to the conclusion that Ikbal Ali Shah had been "charming and personable" but an inveterate teller of tall stories, a condition Moore chose to describe as "Munchhausen's syndrome".
The Contemporary Review
, discussing the 1992 re-issue of Alone in Arabian Nights, observed that it stressed "the eternal attitudes to fate, love and death".
More recently, Afghanistan of the Afghans (1927) was included in The Kite Runner
Companion Curriculum, published by Amnesty International
USA, as part of a list of books recommended for further reading by the Afghanistan Relief Organization
.
And M. H. Sidky, of Ohio State University
in Columbus, Ohio, in Asian Folklore Studies points to Afghanistan of the Afghans as one of the few useful resources on the "Shamanic configuration" in Afghanistan. The book is also currently recommended by the Embassy of Afghanistan
in Washington, DC for information about the history and culture of Afghanistan.
Sardar
Sardar is a title of Indo-Aryan origin that was originally used to denote feudal princes, noblemen, and other aristocrats. It was later applied to indicate a Head of State, a Commander-in-chief, and an Army military rank...
Ikbal Ali Shah ' onMouseout='HidePop("21714")' href="/topics/Sardhana">Sardhana
Sardhana
Sardhana is a town and a municipal board in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located northeast of New Delhi, and 13 mi from Meerut...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, died 4 November 1969 in Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
) was an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n-Afghan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
author and diplomat descended from the Sadaat
Sayyid
Sayyid is an honorific title, it denotes males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husain ibn Ali, sons of the prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida,...
of Paghman. Educated in India, he came to Britain as a young man to continue his education in Edinburgh, where he married a young Scotswoman.
Travelling widely, Ikbal Ali Shah undertook assignments for the British Foreign Office and became a publicist for a number of Eastern statesmen, penning biographies of Kemal Ataturk, the Aga Khan
Aga Khan III
Sir Sultan Muhammed Shah, Aga Khan III, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, PC was the 48th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. He was one of the founders and the first president of the All-India Muslim League, and served as President of the League of Nations from 1937-38. He was nominated to represent India to...
and others. His other writing includes lighter works such as travel narratives and tales of adventure, as well as more serious works on Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
, Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and Asian politics. He hoped that Sufism might "form a bridge between the Western and the Eastern ways of thinking"; familiar with both cultures, much of his life and writing was devoted to furthering greater cross-cultural understanding.
Ikbal Ali Shah fathered three children, all of whom became notable writers themselves; his son Idries Shah
Idries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
became particularly well known and acclaimed as a writer and teacher of Sufism in the West. When Ikbal Ali Shah's wife died in 1960, he moved from Britain to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, spending the last decade of his life in Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
.
Controversy related to his sons' claims to have a special role in representing Sufism in the West also reflected back on Ikbal Ali Shah; a researcher seeking to discredit his son Idries unearthed Foreign Office records which appeared to cast doubt on Ikbal Ali Shah's honesty, and towards the end of his life he was involved in a literary scandal surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a joint work by his eldest son Omar
Omar Ali-Shah
Omar Ali-Shah was a prominent exponent of modern Naqshbandi Sufism who lived from 1922 to 2005. He wrote a number of books on the subject, and was head of a large number of sufi groups, particularly in Latin America, Europe and Canada.- Life and work :...
and the English poet Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
. He died in a road accident in Morocco, aged 75.
Family origins
Ikbal Ali Shah was born into a family of Musavi SayyidSayyid
Sayyid is an honorific title, it denotes males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husain ibn Ali, sons of the prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida,...
s (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
through his daughter Fatimah
Fatimah
Fatimah was a daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. She is regarded by Muslims as an exemplar for men and women. She remained at her father's side through the difficulties suffered by him at the hands of the Quraysh of Mecca...
and also through Musa al-Kadhim
Musa al-Kadhim
' was the seventh of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'a Islam. He was the son of Imam and his mother was Hamidah Khātūn, a student and former Zanjiyyah slave...
, the great-great-grandson of Husayn ibn Ali
Husayn ibn Ali
Hussein ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Fātimah Zahrā...
and seventh Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
of the Twelver Shi'a sect of Islam). The family originated from Paghman
Paghman
Paghman is a town in the hills near Kabul, Afghanistan. See also Paghman Gardens. It is center of the Paghman District which has a total population of 120,000 people, and another 20,000 returnees are expected , of which 70% are Pashtuns and 30% Tajiks.. Paghman District is situated in the western...
near Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. In 1840, Ali Shah's great-grandfather was awarded the title Jan-Fishan Khan for his support of Shah Shuja
Shah Shuja
Shāh Shujā was the second son of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and empress Mumtaz Mahal.-Governor of Bengal:Emperor Shah Jahan appointed Shah Shuja as the Subahdar or governor of Bengal in 1639. In 1642, Shuja was also given the charge of the province of Orissa. He ruled the provinces for more...
, a puppet ruler installed by the British. In 1841, following the defeat of the British, Jan-Fishan Khan was forced to leave Afghanistan. The British-Indian government rewarded his loyalty with an estate in Sardhana
Sardhana
Sardhana is a town and a municipal board in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located northeast of New Delhi, and 13 mi from Meerut...
, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, which thereafter became the family seat.
Ali Shah's granddaughter Saira Shah
Saira Shah
Saira Shah is an author, reporter and documentary filmmaker. She produces, writes and narrates current affairs films.- Life and work :...
relates that her grandfather "maintained that ancestry was something to try to live up to, not to boast about" and told her that "it is less important who your forebears were than what you yourself become."
Education and marriage
Ali Shah was educated at the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College—now the university—at Aligarh and then went to Britain for further studies before the first world warWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He met his future wife Saira Elizabeth Luiza Shah (pseudonym: Morag Murray Abdullah, b. 1900) during the war, while engaged in an unsuccessful attempt to study medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at Edinburgh Medical School. They eloped while she was only sixteen; her family did not approve of the match, and her father never spoke to her again. Ali Shah's own father, asked to give his consent to the marriage, enquired by telegram "whether she was prepared to become a Muslim and whether she would be able to defend a fortress, if required." She answered yes on both counts; satisfied, he gave his blessing. The young couple subsequently had three children, the Sufi
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
writers and translators Amina Shah
Amina Shah
Amina Shah is a prominent anthologiser of Sufi stories and folk tales, and was for many years the Chairperson of the College of Storytellers. She is the sister of the Sufi writers Idries Shah and Omar Ali-Shah, and the daughter of Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah and Saira Elizabeth Luiza Shah...
(b. 1918), Omar Ali-Shah
Omar Ali-Shah
Omar Ali-Shah was a prominent exponent of modern Naqshbandi Sufism who lived from 1922 to 2005. He wrote a number of books on the subject, and was head of a large number of sufi groups, particularly in Latin America, Europe and Canada.- Life and work :...
(b. 1922) and Idries Shah
Idries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
(b. 1924).
Traveller, writer, diplomat and publicist
In 1918, Ali Shah became only the second Asian to join the Royal Society for Asian AffairsRoyal Society for Asian Affairs
The Royal Society for Asian Affairs is a learned society based in the United Kingdom, founded in 1901 to "promote greater knowledge and understanding of Central Asia and surrounding countries". The geographical extent of the Society's interest has since expanded to include the whole of Asia...
, contributing articles on Islam to the Society's journal. He travelled widely and became a publicist for a variety of Eastern statesmen such as the Kemal Atatürk, Sharif of Mecca
Sharif of Mecca
The Sharif of Mecca or Hejaz was the title of the former governors of Hejaz and a traditional steward of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina...
, King Abdullah
Abdullah I of Jordan
Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan [‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Husayn] عبد الله الأول بن الحسين born in Mecca, Second Saudi State, was the second of three sons of Sherif Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca and his first wife Abdiyya bint Abdullah...
of Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, King Fuad I of Egypt
Fuad I of Egypt
Fuad I was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, Kordofan, and Darfur. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, he became Sultan of Egypt and Sudan in 1917, succeeding his elder brother Sultan Hussein Kamel...
, the Emir Abdul Illah of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and members of the royal family of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. He was on friendly terms with both orthodox leaders (like the Rector of Azhar University in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
) and reformers (like Kemal Ataturk).
Ikbal Ali Shah believed that Bolshevism's encroachment on the countries of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
would almost inevitably lead to catastrophic results, and by 1921 was reporting in the Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Review
The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...
on the methods of propaganda and political influence used by the Bolshevists in Central Asia and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, with its consequences for British rule in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
He was also associated with the British Foreign Office for several decades. James Moore
James Moore (Cornish author)
James Harry Manson Moore in Saltash, Cornwall, United Kingdom is a Cornish author.-Biography:A fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and leading authority on G. I. Gurdjieff, Moore became active in practical and thematic Gurdjieff studies in 1956, after studying with Kenneth Walker and later with...
states that his work for the Foreign Office occasionally raised controversy: in 1929, after Ali Shah "tried to compromise" the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
, Foreign Office investigations concluded that there "was hardly a word of truth in his writings".
Ali Shah was a passionate advocate of the modernisation of Islam. He viewed this as nothing more and nothing less than a return to genuine Islam, an Islam without a priest class, writing in 1929:
"In the New Dark Age of my faith, from which we have just emerged into the sunny vistas of real religion, a curious politico-religious system had grown; and it is indeed by reason of our forebears having been seen so long under that influence that the average European wonders whether we have not definitely divorced Islam by our modernization. The truth is that the organization of the Doctors of Moslem Law, backed by autocratic Eastern monarchs was the very antithesis of the words of the Koran. In Turkey, for instance, no man was permitted to consult the Holy Book of Islam and seek interpretation for himself; despite the fact that the only reason for which the faithful places his book above every other Revealed Law is that any man can have his cue directly from it. The Prophet himself emphasized this fact repeatedly and thereby meant to destroy the human tendency of priestcraft. This particular teaching was so deep that it was not until many political cross-currents amongst the Moslem States had much weakened the spiritual essence that the clergy at last won the battle which they had fought for at least a thousand years."
Justifying Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
's modernisation efforts under Kemal Atatürk, Ali Shah condemned what Islam had become in Turkey:
"Even the slightest divergence from the established church was considered the highest crime; and the faithful wandered in and out of the four water-tight compartments of schools of theology completely dazed by the priest-made dogma that neither would reconcile with the early teachings of Islam nor ring true to the advancing humanity of the present age. The clergy made every effort to circumscribe the view of every Moslim and placed the right of interpretation beyond the reach of even the intelligent seeker after truth."
He noted with approval that –
"When ecclesiastics frowned upon women parading the streets in Stamboul, the young men were able to silence the objections by quoting the Koran to prove that the Koran enjoined only modesty and not the cruel practice of closing women in the houses."
In the 1930s he was in Geneva, working in collaboration with the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
supporting disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
, and attending the European Muslim Congress of 1935, promoting Islamic unity. According to Augy Hayter (a student of Ikbal's son Omar Ali-Shah
Omar Ali-Shah
Omar Ali-Shah was a prominent exponent of modern Naqshbandi Sufism who lived from 1922 to 2005. He wrote a number of books on the subject, and was head of a large number of sufi groups, particularly in Latin America, Europe and Canada.- Life and work :...
) the Sirdar's connection with the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
began in its early days when he was working with professor Gilbert Murray
Gilbert Murray
George Gilbert Aimé Murray, OM was an Australian born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century...
and the Agha Khan, and records of his contributions and position as a "respected intellectual" of the time can be found in the Unesco
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
archives in Paris.
Ikbal Ali Shah was also a member of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
and the Royal Asiatic Society
Royal Asiatic Society
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...
. By contributing to the work of such organisations, he aimed to bridge the gap between east and west. In 1937, he wrote:
"... since my early days I have striven to interpret the East to the West, and Europe to Asia. Through this, I believe, lies the way of mutual sympathy between the nations; and such can only be accomplished by means of reading the effusions of one another's Great Minds; because if we but endeavour to understand about our fellow men, good will can come as the gentle dawn of peace."
In 1940, the family moved from London to Oxford to escape German bombing. In 1945, Ali Shah and his son Idries travelled to Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
as expert advisors on halal
Halal
Halal is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law...
led meat questions for the India Office
India Office
The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the colonial administration of India, i.e. the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as territories in South-east and Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of the east coast of Africa...
; a scandal resulted, leading the British ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to describe him as a "swindler".
Latter years
Ikbal Ali Shah later taught Sufi "classes" in England, which were the precursors to the Sufi school established by his son, Idries Shah. He was also appointed by Dr. Zakir HussainZakir Hussain (politician)
Dr. Zakir Hussain , was the third President of India from 13 May 1967 until his death on 3 May 1969. He was the first elected Muslim president of India....
as India's cultural representative in all of West Asia.
According to his grandson Tahir
Tahir Shah
Tahir Shah , né Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi is an Anglo-Afghan Indian author, journalist and documentary maker. He lives in Casablanca, Morocco.-Family origins and life:...
, Ali Shah was heartbroken when his wife died in 1960, aged 59; feeling unable to continue living in the places in which they had shared their lives, he moved to Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, a place they had never visited together, and lived there in a small villa close to the seafront. L. F. Rushbrook Williams
L. F. Rushbrook Williams
Laurence Frederic Rushbrook Williams CBE, FRSA, was a British historian and civil servant who spent part of his working life in India, and had an abiding interest in Eastern culture.-Life and work:...
, a British scholar bound to Ali Shah through a friendship spanning more than half a century, attributes Ali Shah's move to Morocco to a tightening of British residence regulations and says that Ali Shah, never having acquired British domicile, was obliged to leave behind the study centre for sufism that he had set up in England.
Near the end of his life, Ali Shah was caught up in the controversy surrounding the 1967 publication of a new translation of Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyám
Omar Khayyám was aPersian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and theology....
's Rubaiyat
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám , a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer...
by his son Omar Ali-Shah
Omar Ali-Shah
Omar Ali-Shah was a prominent exponent of modern Naqshbandi Sufism who lived from 1922 to 2005. He wrote a number of books on the subject, and was head of a large number of sufi groups, particularly in Latin America, Europe and Canada.- Life and work :...
and the English poet Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
. The translation was based on an annotated "crib" made by Omar Ali-Shah, who asserted that it derived from an old manuscript said to have been in the Shah family's possession for 800 years. L. P. Elwell-Sutton, an orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
at Edinburgh University, expressed his conviction that the story of the ancient family manuscript was false. Graves believed that the disputed manuscript was in the possession of Ikbal Ali Shah, and that he was about to produce it at the time of his death from a road accident, to allay the growing controversy surrounding the translation. However, the manuscript never was produced.
Richard Perceval Graves describes how, in a letter to Robert Graves in 1970, Idries Shah pointed out that "production of the MSS would prove nothing, because there would be no way of telling whether it was original, or whether someone had washed the writing from a piece of ancient parchment, and then applied a new text using inert inks." Shah believed that the critics were "intent only on opposition" and said he agreed with his father, who had been so infuriated by the "hyaenas" that he wanted nothing to do with the controversy. O'Prey (1984) writes that this last point was not entirely true: Ikbal Ali Shah had in fact written to Graves from Morocco, saying the manuscript should be produced; Graves then forwarded the letter to Omar Ali-Shah. Unfortunately, he neglected to take a copy; Omar never received the letter, and Ikbal Ali Shah died a few days later.
The scholarly consensus today is that the "Jan-Fishan Khan" manuscript was a hoax, and that the Graves/Shah translation was in fact based on a study of the sources of FitzGerald's work by Victorian amateur scholar Edward Heron-Allen
Edward Heron-Allen
Edward Heron-Allen was an English polymath, writer, scientist and Persian scholar who translated the works of Omar Khayyam.-Life:...
. The affair did considerable damage to Graves' reputation.
On 4 November 1969, Ikbal Ali Shah was struck by a reversing Coca-Cola truck in Tangier. He was rushed to hospital unconscious, but died a few hours later. He was buried in England next to his wife. On his gravestone, along with his name, there is only the appellation "Al Mutawakkil", which means "the one who resigns himself to the will of the Almighty."
Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah's obituary in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of Saturday, November 8, 1969 stated:
Writings
In keeping with his theme of interpreting the East to the West, Ikbal Ali Shah authored travel narratives of his adventures in Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries, like Alone in Arabian Nights (1933); compilations of tales and adventure, like The Golden Caravan and Escape From Central Asia;biographies of major leaders in the Islamic World, like Kemal: Maker of Modern Turkey (1934) and Controlling Minds of Asia (1937); anthropological, historical and political works like Afghanistan of the Afghans (1928), Pakistan: A Plan for India (1944) and Vietnam (1960); anthologies of literature from the East, like The Book of Oriental Literature (1937) and Oriental Caravan (1933); anthologies and explanations of Eastern religious and mystical literature, with an emphasis on Sufism, like Spirit of the East (1939), Lights of Asia (1937), and Islamic Sufism (1933); and books specifically on Islam, like Mohammed: The Prophet (1932) and Selections from the Koran (1933).
Along with noted author Achmed Abdullah
Achmed Abdullah
Achmed Abdullah , a pseudonym of Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff, was a Russian-born writer. He is most noted for his pulp stories of crime, mystery and adventure. He wrote screenplays for some successful films. He was the author of the progressive Siamese drama Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness,...
, writer of The Thief of Baghdad, he set up fiction-writing workshops to disseminate Eastern stories and tales in books like Fifty Enthralling Stories of the Mysterious East (1937).
Altogether, Ikbal Ali Shah wrote more than fifty books, including:
- Westward to Mecca
- The Golden East
- Black and White Magic: Its theory and practice
- The Golden Pilgrimage
- Afghanistan of the Afghans
- Modern Afghanistan
- The Controlling Minds of Asia
- Occultism: Its theory and practice
- Eastward to Persia
- Escape from Central Asia
- Islamic Sufism
- Kemal: Maker of Modern Turkey
- The Tragedy of Amanullah
- Lights of Asia
- Mohamed: The Prophet
- Nepal: Home of the Gods
- Viet Nam
- Alone in Arabian Nights
- Spirit of the East
- Afridi Gold
- The Prince Aga Khan
- Fuad: King of Egypt
Sufism
According to his long-time friend L.F. Rushbrook Williams, Ikbal Ali Shah believed that the Sufi message "might form a bridge between the Western and the Eastern ways of thinking, and that the methods that [the Sufis] were using to convey it— methods well-tested by centuries of successful practice— would certainly be of interest and might be of value to the Western world in the quest for the best ways of promoting independent thought and the re-examination of accepted values to test their suitability to the needs of modern social organization."In his book Islamic Sufism, Ikbal Ali Shah stated that he was instructed in the Sufi Way by his father, to whom he referred as "that Fountain of Goodness Hadrat Syedna Nawab Amjed Ali Shah Naqshbandi Paghmani". He said that the Nawab had, in turn, been taught by his father Nawab Mohammed Ali Shah, who is buried in the Delhi shrine of the Naqshbandi Khwaja Baqi Billah (and an extract from whose Nishan-i-Ghaib, Signs of the Unseen, is given in the "Letters and Lectures" section of Idries Shah's The Way of the Sufi). Nawab Mohammed Ali Shah's father was Jan-Fishan Khan, who in turn had been a disciple of the celebrated Naqshbandi master Haji Dost Muhammad Qandhari
Haji Dost Muhammad Qandhari
Khwaja Haji Dost Muhammad Qandhari was an Afghan Sufi master in the Naqshbandi tradition in the 19th century .-Biography:Dost Muhammad was born and received his early education in Kandahar in Afghanistan. While still a young man he encountered the great Indian Naqshbandi master Ghulam Ali Dehlavi ...
. Ikbal Ali Shah sets out the remainder of this silsila
Silsila
Silsila is a 1981 Bollywood film directed by Yash Chopra. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar and Rekha, with Shashi Kapoor in a special appearance.-Plot:...
, from Qandhari backwards to Yaqub Charkhi (the disciple of Bahauddin Naqshband) in Islamic Sufism (where it is described as "The Punjab Tradition").
In addition to his father Ikbal Ali Shah also gives credit, in his introduction to "Islamic Sufism", to 'the earlier discourses of Sheikh al Akbar Hadratna Shah Abdul [sic] Khair Mujaddadi'. Shah Abul Khair Naqshbandi Dihlawi (1855-1922) was the successor of Shah Muhammad Umar Mujaddidi, who in turn was the son of Ahmad Saeed Mujaddidi Fārūqi Dehlavi, the teacher of Haji Dost Qandhari. Abul Khair took over responsibility for the 'Delhi house' - the dargah and burial place of Mirza Mazhar Jan-i-Janaan and Ghulam Ali Dihlawi by the Turkmen Gate of the old city of Delhi - from Haji Dost Qandhari's deputy Rahim Bakhsh Ajmeri, and today it bears his name. It seems most likely that Ikbal Ali Shah attended Abul Khair's assemblies in person, prior to his coming to Edinburgh, thus linking his Sufi teaching (and, by extension, that of his sons) directly into the main line of the Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiya.
Ikbal Ali Shah introduced this tradition of Sufism in the West, with special reference to the controversial metaphors in Sufi poetry, in an article published in Hibbert Journal (1921–1922) entitled The General Principles of Sufism.
Four consecutive stages of spiritual advancement were indicated there: Nasut—Humanity; Tariqa—the Way; Jabarut (Araff)—Power, and Haqiqa—Truth, corresponding to the four stages in Naqshbandi practice as observed by the Shattari Pir Shah Muhammad Ghawth
Muhammad Ghawth
Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari was a 16th century Sufi master of the Shattari order and Sufi saint, a musician, and the author of Jawahir-i Khams ....
(died 1563).
These four stages involved the illumination (tajalli) of five centers: Qalb
Qalb
قلب is an Arabic word meaning "Heart". It is the second among the six purities or Lataif-e-sitta in Sufi philosophy.-Sixteen stages of Taming Qalb:To attend Tasfiya-e-Qalb, the Salik needs to achieve the following sixteen goals.#Zuhd or abstention from evil...
, Ruh
Ruh
Rūḥ is an Arabic word meaning spirit. It is the third among the six purities or Lataif-e-sitta-Thirteen stages of taming ruh:To attend Tajalliy-e-Ruh, the Salik needs to achieve the following thirteen.#Iradah or Commitment with God...
, Sirr, Khafi, Ikhfa—Heart, Spirit, Secret, Mysterious and Deeply Hidden.
In his more substantial introduction Islamic Sufism (1933), Ali-Shah attributed the discovery of this system (Latayifi Sitta
Lataif-e-sitta
Lataif-as-Sitta are psychospiritual "organs" or, sometimes, faculties of sensory and suprasensory perception in Sufi psychology. They are thought to be parts of the self in a similar manner to the way glands and organs are part of the body...
)—with its corresponding colours: yellow (qalb); red (ruh); white (sirr); black (khafi), and green (ikhfa)—to Ahmad Sirhindi, the founder of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi.
In the preface to Islamic Sufism, the Sirdar presents his views on how and why Sufism can be a way for modern humanity to reconnect with its spiritual heritage. Deploring the current state of the world, he notes that it is in such times that new revivals of spiritual thought often take place, guided by great exemplars who make a significant impact on society. Focusing on Sufism, he points out that the Sufi way is open to all people and that it can be followed in any society while maintaining contact with the world, regardless of the prevailing materialism. The student's work is done through ordinary life in human society: Be in the world, but not if it is the Sufi dictum. The Sufi encourages not only personal refinement, but the uplifting of others as part of working towards a 'universal brotherhood' of humanity.".
As examples of practical methods of Sufism which can be of use in the modern world, the Sirdar discusses meditation, the giving of charity, and focusing more on durable truths and realities than on transient and illusory pursuits. He also discusses the relationship between Sufism and the mind-body connection in healing. He asserts that, through Sufism, "our latent forces for good can be increased, as well as our creative productivity".
Islamic Sufism contains Sufi interpretations of Islamic beliefs and practices, explanations of the history and theory of Sufism with reference to similar Western ideas, selections from the work of the great Sufis of the past, like Al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali
Abu Hāmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzālī , known as Algazel to the western medieval world, born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia was a Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic....
, Rumi, al-Hujwiri, Jami
Jami
Nur ad-Dīn Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī also known as DJāmī, Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti who is commonly known as Jami , is known for his achievements as a scholar, mystic, writer, composer of numerous lyrics and idylls, historian, and one of the greatest...
, Hafez
Hafez
Khwāja Shamsu d-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī , known by his pen name Hāfez , was a Persian lyric poet. His collected works composed of series of Persian poetry are to be found in the homes of most Iranians, who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day...
and others, as well as examples of the thought of contemporary visionaries like Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
.
In the revised edition of Alone In Arabian Nights, Ikbal Ali Shah had this to say about Sufism:
In contemporary terms, the Sufis can be seen as people who, initially, work against the evils of coercive organized religion and restrictive cults; then try to help expand the understanding of those who are interested: strictly according to the potential of the people and the times... This latter contention is.. unacceptable to the vast majority of people, who cannot feel happy with it at all... because they always need the reassurance of tradition and of the familiar. If they don't know what to reject, they may deify it.
He adds that his travelling was done, in part, to carry out missions connected with Sufism, and he describes his attempts to explain to groups in the East and the West that what they imagined to be Sufism was highly inaccurate. As examples, he points out that, according to Sufi experience, random collections of people, indulgence in most of the popular mystical practices of physical and emotional excitement, and amalgamations of all kinds of Eastern ideas without regard for what is useful under prevailing circumstances, would usually not result in real Sufi developments. These explanations and admonitions, while intriguing to some, were often rejected by groups that felt threatened by them.
Rushbrook Williams affirms that Ikbal Ali Shah's more public work and activities, such as writing travel books and biographies of major figures, was only a byproduct of his determination to study and promote the value of Sufism as a link between Eastern and Western thought.
Reception
Ikbal Ali Shah's writings and work received mixed reviews and responses.Westward to Mecca (1928) was described by noted Orientalist H.A.R. Gibb in the Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs as a "well-spiced Eastern review, featuring Afghan raiders, alchemists, enchanted walls, watery blue-eyed Bolshevists, singing dervishes and mysterious caves, relieved by more common-place political and literary interludes. Is it all true? How like the materially-minded West to ask such questions!"
In 1930, the Aga Khan III
Aga Khan III
Sir Sultan Muhammed Shah, Aga Khan III, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, PC was the 48th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. He was one of the founders and the first president of the All-India Muslim League, and served as President of the League of Nations from 1937-38. He was nominated to represent India to...
penned a foreword to Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah's book Eastward To Persia, stating that he thought "Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah's books—and especially this latest book on Persia—should be read by those in the West who want to see the East through Oriental eyes.'
In a review in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, The Golden East (1931) was criticised for its imperfect command of English, its "tedium heightened by the Sirdar's efforts at wit, by his imaginary yet dull stories of adventure", and for the many incorrect renderings of Persian words.
In his introduction to the 1939 edition of Ikbal Ali Shah's book, Alone In Arabian Nights, Sir Edward Denison Ross
Edward Denison Ross
Sir Edward Denison Ross was an Orientalist and one of the world's foremost linguists, specializing in languages of the Far East. He could read 49 languages, and speak 30 of them. He was director of the British Information Bureau for the Near East. Along with Eileen Power, he wrote and edited a...
stated that while the Sirdar, well known to him for many years, was "tremendously modest about his achievements", he considered him "the greatest contemporary writer and traveller of the East". He referred to the book as "fascinating" and "extraordinary", commenting on its "erudition, scope and range" and declaring that the Sirdar wrote "the most excellently idiomatic English".
Viet Nam (Octagon Press, 1960) fared worse; a reviewer in the Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs accused the book of "numerous elementary errors" and questioned whether Ali Shah had ever visited the country he was describing, or had mostly just drawn on official anti-Communist government propaganda. Summing up, the reviewer concluded: "This book is heavily biased, meretricious, frequently inaccurate, and badly written. It cannot be recommended. A review in the 1962 Year Book of World Affairs similarly described the book as "highly confused and unreliable".
The popularity of Idries Shah
Idries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
's work generated renewed interest in his father. Asked about his recently-deceased father in a 1970 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
interview, Idries Shah agreed that Ikbal Ali Shah was "very unusual". Although he did make some enemies, Shah found it remarkable how few they were, given how uncategorizable and unusual he was. People often remarked to Shah that "the trouble is we never quite knew which side your father was on", to which Shah responded, "I'm sure it never occurred to him that he had to be on any side." Shah described him as "rather a mild sort of person in manner and appearance" but capable of behaving like an "unpredictable Oriental" who often did "unexpected" and "surprising" things when it was required by circumstances. He had a wide range of information and activity but much of it was compartmentalized so that few people knew everything, and no biography had ever been written.
Aref Tamer, an Ismaili Syrian author and scholar of Islamic culture, pointed out in 1973 that "Very little has been written about Saiyid Ikbal Ali Shah... not all [historians] have been able to descry the underlying unity, the service of the community, and the view of the ultimate good that was found in him," because outside observers did not have the perspective to see the pattern.
According to Professor L. F. Rushbrook Williams
L. F. Rushbrook Williams
Laurence Frederic Rushbrook Williams CBE, FRSA, was a British historian and civil servant who spent part of his working life in India, and had an abiding interest in Eastern culture.-Life and work:...
, the editor of a work published in honor of the services to sufi studies of Ikbal Ali Shah's son Idries, "Sirdar Ikbal and his son [Idries Shah], both in writing and in other ways, were ultimately to show how Sufi thought and action, educational and adaptive as they are, could be of service to contemporary thinking" and he concluded in 1973 that "... whereas Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, who pioneered the effective study of Sufi philosophy in the West, found that the time was not quite ripe for his message to be appreciated at its true value, Idries Shah has discovered that in this age of spiritual uncertainty and a dawning reaction against the prevalent materialism, the outlook and practices of Sufism are meeting exactly the needs that so many people are now experiencing."
Edinburgh orientalist L. P. Elwell-Sutton considered many of the claims made in Rushbrook Williams' book on behalf of Ikbal Ali Shah and his son Idries, concerning their representing the Sufi tradition, to be self-serving publicity, filled with "sycophantic phraseology, fawning adulation, and disarming disregard for facts".
Beginning in the 1970s, the Octagon Press
Octagon Press
Octagon Press is a cross-cultural publishing house based in London, UK. It was founded in 1960 by Sufi teacher, Idries Shah to establish the historical and cultural context for his ideas.-Description:Octagon Press published many of Shah's later works...
, as part of its aim to establish "the historical and cultural context" for Idries Shah's Sufi work, began re-issuing several of Ikbal Ali Shah's books, among them The Book of Oriental Literature in 1976, a 400-page anthology containing extracts from important mystical and secular literature from all over the East, including excerpts from several classical Sufi authors. A review of the reprint in the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
Books Abroad journal wondered why the book had been reprinted, since it no longer appeared to meet contemporary standards; the amount of space given to various national literatures appeared very uneven, the section on Arabia lacked many essential authors, and the section on Japan, consisting of just two pages, failed to give the names of the writers whose poems were featured. As an anthology, it was considered woefully inadequate.
In 1986, James Moore researched Foreign Office records on Ikbal Ali Shah for a paper critical of his son Idries, and claimed to have found that "damaging material on Ikbal abounds throughout FO 371 and FO 395 from 1926 to 1950"; he came to the conclusion that Ikbal Ali Shah had been "charming and personable" but an inveterate teller of tall stories, a condition Moore chose to describe as "Munchhausen's syndrome".
The Contemporary Review
Contemporary Review
-Foundation:It was founded in 1866 by Alexander Strahan and a group of intellectuals anxious to promote intelligent and independent opinion about the great issues of their day. They intended it to be the church-minded counterpart of the resolutely secular Fortnightly Review, which was founded by...
, discussing the 1992 re-issue of Alone in Arabian Nights, observed that it stressed "the eternal attitudes to fate, love and death".
More recently, Afghanistan of the Afghans (1927) was included in The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007....
Companion Curriculum, published by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
USA, as part of a list of books recommended for further reading by the Afghanistan Relief Organization
Afghanistan Relief Organization
Afghanistan Relief Organization is a humanitarian organization which provides direct aid and education to those in need in Afghanistan. It runs a large technology education centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and is also involved in the training of midwives.-Description:Afghanistan Relief...
.
And M. H. Sidky, of Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
in Columbus, Ohio, in Asian Folklore Studies points to Afghanistan of the Afghans as one of the few useful resources on the "Shamanic configuration" in Afghanistan. The book is also currently recommended by the Embassy of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in Washington, DC for information about the history and culture of Afghanistan.