Written heritage of Khwajagan/Naqshbandiyya followers: the formation period and the role of the Persian language in it

Abstract

The formation of the Naqshbandiyya order should be attributed to the era of Khwaja Yusuf Hamadani and his successors, who called themselves as Khwajagan. Naqshbandiyya should be considered as the successor of Khwajagan order. Naqshbandiyya owes its popularity to the teachings and activities of Khwadji Baha’ ad-Din Muhammad Naqshband Bukhari. Khwaja Baha’ ad-Din Naqshband gave the Khwajagan a brand new life and established new rules in its cult, which, of course, was descended from the ancient traditions of the Khorasanian and Transoxianian Sufism. Naqshband’s teachings opened the way for his pupils to new, so this ancient tariqah is quite reasonably named after Baha’ ad-Din himself. The rich handwritten heritage left by the formers of the Naqshbandiyya and their predecessors is written in Persian. For this reason, Naqshbandiyyah accepted Persian terminology and used it even in texts composed in Turkic languages, Arabic and Urdu. In this article, we briefly review the treatises of two key figures of the Khwajagan order — Khwaji Yusuf Hamadani and Khwaji ‘Abd al-Khaliq Gijduvani, and then we will proceed to consider the written heritage of Khwaja Baha’ al-Din Naqshband and his circle.