Paper short abstract:

The paper will try to understand if the poetry pattern of space as expressed by the Sufi Quṭub `Alī Shāh (1810-1910) had had an impact on the structure of the Jahāniyyān shrines, including his own dargāh, as well as the āstānahs his Hindu followers have built in India.

Paper long abstract:

Quṭub `Alī Shāh (1810-1910) was the heir of two Sufi traditions, the Sohrawardiyya and the Qalandariyya. His work is still much acclaimed among Sindhi speaking people. My contention is to show that the Sufi poetic space he has built in his dīwān is better expressed in the shrines built in India, than in his dargāh of Hyderabad, in Sindh. I shall thus investigate how the utopia he has built in his poetry finds a way to be expressed in the material space of the dargāh.

In his kalām, Quṭub `Alī Shāh drew a space which was centering on the concept of `ishq. Through it, many borders were suppressed like for example, there was no longer distinction between Muslims and Hindus: his poetic space was located beyond such affiliations. Nevertheless, his dargāh in Hyderabad (Sindh) hardly reflects this encompassing space: no inscription or other artefacts remind the utopia. In the darbār of Rā'i Rochaldās (1879-1957), located in Ulhasnagar near Mumbai, Quṭub `Alī Shāh's imaginative space was managed in a different way. It was translated into ritual, architecture and iconography.