Jalal Ad-Din of Sylhet (Cave of)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

The Moroccan (North African) Arab traveller Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta (born 24th February 1304 Tanger, Morocco, died 1368 or 1377, Morocco) narrates having visited , allegedly in circa 1355 A.D., a sacred troglodyte cave (note 1) in the Mountains of Kamaru (note 2) but the excursion to the site has been doubted (note 3). ETYMOLOGY: In this case, the word -cave- (English) seems to have been chosen to translate the Arabic word -qaf- (note 4) as it is used in the 19th sura of the Koran, and may refer to a hermitage or khanqah (saint's seat / abode). SITUATION: The possibly fabulous cave or hermitage (note 4) of Jalal ad-Din of Sylhet (note 5) in the Mountains of Kamaru may be found in the foothills Jaintia Hills district (Bharat a.k.a. India, Meghalaya state) or their isolated outliers in the Sylhet zone (Bangladesh). CULTURAL HISTORY - legend: Ibn BATTUTA (edited by Gibb & Beckingham 1994: 870): One of his companions told me that one day before his death he summoned them, commnded the fear of God to them, and said: 'Tomorrow I shall leave you, if God wills. My successor for you will be God, than whom there is no other God.' Next day God took him when he prayed the noon prayer, during the last prostration. Beside the cave where they lived they found a grave dug, with a shroud and aromatics for embalming … DE, Harinath (in: Ibn Battuta 1904 edited by DE, H 1904; 1978 edited by Pranabendra Nath after 1904 DE, H: 9-10): The grave of Shaikh Jalal- uddin At-Tibrizi was found at the side of the cell in which he dwelt (note 6). BECKINGHAM (1994 in Ibn Battuta, edited by Gibb & Beckingham 1994: 870 note 14): Jalal al-Din of Tabriz, one of the founders of the Suhrawardi order in India. He was particularly active in the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti [note 7] and did not visit Assam. By this time [when Ibn Battuta was on the verge of leaving India for China via South-East Asia] he had been dead for about a century. I.B. confused him with Shah Jalal, the militant preaher responsible for the conversion to Islam of the Sylhet district, now part of Bangladesh. R. M. Eaton has remarked that Bengalis commonly make the same mistake (DUNN 1986: 263 note 26). Even so it seems strange that I.B. should have travelled from Madurai [note 8] to Sylhet to meet someone who had died about a hundred years before, and have spent three days there with someone else whom he still supposed to be the man he had wanted to meet.nded the fear of God to them, and said: 'Tomorrow I shall leave you, if God wills. My successor for you will be God, than whom there is no other God.' Next day God took him when he prayed the noon prayer, during the last prostration. Beside the cave where they lived they found a grave dug, with a shroud and aromatics for embalming … DE, Harinath (in: Ibn Battuta 1904 edited by DE, H 1904; 1978 edited by Pranabendra Nath after 1904 DE, H: 9-10): The grave of Shaikh Jalal- uddin At-Tibrizi was found at the side of the cell in which he dwelt (note 6). BECKINGHAM (1994 in Ibn Battuta, edited by Gibb & Beckingham 1994: 870 note 14): Jalal al-Din of Tabriz, one of the founders of the Suhrawardi order in India. He was particularly active in the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti [note 7] and did not visit Assam. By this time [when Ibn Battuta was on the verge of leaving India for China via South-East Asia] he had been dead for about a century. I.B. confused him with Shah Jalal, the militant preanded the fear of God to them, and said: 'Tomorrow I shall leave you, if God wills. My successor for you will be God, than whom there is no other God.' Next day God took him when he prayed the noon prayer, during the last prostration. Beside the cave where they lived they found a grave dug, with a shroud and aromatics for embalming … DE, Harinath (in: Ibn Battuta 1904 edited by DE, H 1904; 1978 edited by Pranabendra Nath after 1904 DE, H: 9-10): The grave of Shaikh Jalal- uddin At-Tibrizi was found at the side of the cell in which he dwelt (note 6). BECKINGHAM (1994 in Ibn Battuta, edited by Gibb & Beckingham 1994: 870 note 14): Jalal al-Din of Tabriz, one of the founders of the Suhrawardi order in India. He was particularly active in the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti [note 7] and did not visit Assam. By this time [when Ibn Battuta was on the verge of leaving India for China via South-East Asia] he had been dead for about a century. I.B. confused him with Shah Jalal, the militant preaher responsible for the conversion to Islam of the Sylhet district, now part of Bangladesh. R. M. Eaton has remarked that Bengalis commonly make the same mistake (DUNN 1986: 263 note 26). Even so it seems strange that I.B. should have travelled from Madurai [note 8] to Sylhet to meet someone who had died about a hundred years before, and have spent three days there with someone else whom he still supposed to be the man he had wanted to meet.