Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai

Tuhfat al-Kiram and Maqalat al-shu'ara, written by Mir Ali Sher Qani Tahttwi, a contemporary of Shah Abdul Latif, some fifteen years after the death of the poet, give some basic details of his life. Other than these, however, little written records exist from the early period and most of the material was transmitted orally through generations. The oral traditions were collected and documented in the late 19th century by Mirza Qalich Beg and Mir Abd al-Husayn Sangi. Together with Thattwi's works, these form the basis for the outline of the poet's life.[3][4]

Bhittai was born in 1689 or 1690 in Hala Haweli near modern-day Hala,[5][6] to Shah Habib, a great-grandson of the Sufi poet Shah Abdul Karim Bulri.[3] His ancestors traced their lineage back to the fourth caliph Ali and Fatima, the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. They had emigrated to Sindh from Herat during the late 14th century.[7] Bhittai spent early years of his childhood in Hala Haweli, but the family then relocated to the nearby town of Kotri Mughal.[5] Local tradition holds that he was illiterate, however his use of Arabic and Persian in his poetry and the influence of the Persian poet Rumi evident on his thought show that he was well educated.[8][9] At the age of around 20, he fell in love with Saida Begum, a daughter of an Arghun aristocrat of Kotri Mughal, Mirza Mughal Beg, which landed Bhittai's family in trouble and caused them return to Hala Haweli. Her love, however, had a deep impact on young Bhittai and he left home wandering deserts and embarking on travel through Sindh and adjacent lands.[10][11] According to Motilal Jotwani, it was perhaps during these travels that his poetic nature came to the fore.[12] He mentions the places he visited in his poems. First he went to Ganjo Hill near what is now Hyderabad, thereafter traveling to Kalachi (modern Karachi) through Thatta and Banbhore. On the journey he met Jogis and accompanied them to Hinglaj in mountains of southern Balochistan. On his return east, he visited Lahut in Lasbela, and then travelled across to Dwarka, Porbandar, Junagadh, and several other places in Kutch region. Returning west, he visited Karoonjhar Mountains in Nagarparkar. Parting ways with the Jogis in Thar, he went to Jaisalmer before returning to Thatta and then home. His travels seem to have had a strong influence on his poetry.[13]

Those who get acquainted with Ganja Hill,
Become Yogis, forsaking all books and scriptures.[14]

Entry to the shrine

Bhittai returned home after three years.[11]

In 1713 Mirza Mughal Beg was killed while in pursuit of robbers who had looted his house. After this incident, Bhittai was married to Saida Begum, the woman whom he had been in love with. The marriage did not result in any offspring and Saida Begum died a few years into the marriage. Bhittai did not remarry and remained childless his entire life.[15][11] He now seems to have settled down and devoted to prayer and worship. His piety attracted a large following, which reportedly earned him hostility of nobles and Noor Mohammad Kalhoro, the ruler of Sindh, who is said to have unsuccessfully tried assassinating him by poisoning.[16]

Some ten years before his death, Bhittai left his home, relocating to a sandhill a few miles from Hala Haweli, which later became known as Bhit Shah (Mound of Shah), hence his title Bhittai (the dweller of Bhit).[17] Bhittai died at Bhit on 21 December 1752 (14 Safar 1166 AH) at the age of 63[3] and was buried there.[18] A tomb was built over his grave by the then ruler of Sindh Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro in 1754,[8] or 1765.[19]

Shah Abdul Latif was of pretty tall stature, straight and strong buiIt, with a broad chest and a thin waist. He was neither lean nor corpulent. His head was well-shaped, with a broad and a high forehead. He had a pleasant face, an acquiline nose, black eyes with a brilliant lustre passing into redness, fair and nicely set teeth; black hair and a full beard, not longer than the Prophet Muhammad's, which, when turned grey in old age, he never coloured, as is an oriental fashion. His deportment was calm and equable. He occasionally indulged in mild pleasantry, but more commonly he was grave and gloomy, as though he were pondering over something. His complexion was wheat-coloured, inclined to paleness. He had no ostentation about him, put on a very simple dress, generally of deep yellow, colour, like that worn by Sufis or Sanyasis. His head dress was a cap of the conical shape, with a piece of cloth turned round it, to serve as a sort of turban. He put on shoes, but on occasions when he was in his melancholy fits, he was barefooted. He slept on a coarse patched blanket as his bedding; carried a big staff in his hand when he walked about and used a big wooden bowl for receiving food and water, what is termed Kajkol and is often carried by Fakirs or ordinary beggars. Almost all of these things are still preserved as relics and can be seen by visitors. There is the white conical cap, about a foot long, stuffed at the bottom with a piece of cloth, now turned yellow for being old; the black turban cloth, about 6 feet long; the overcoat in the form of a winding-sheet; of the colour of ochre (Geroo in Sindhi) sewn with black thread; the blanket; the walking stick or staff in the form of the letter T, made of a kind of blackwood, with a sharp iron point; two bowls or Kajkols one made of sandalwood and another a white transparent stone; the rosary with big beads; the low planked frame in the form cot, used for saying prayers on, what they term sandal the pair of shoes sewn with their leather pieces instead of thread and rather too deep for an ordinary man's foot; and some books. Most of these relics are in the possession of Shah's Fakirs and the Pirs of Hala.[20]

The shrine's inner sanctum is the site of the poet's tomb.

Bhittai's poetry is mainly Sufi in nature and deeply religious. He connects the traditional folk tales with the divine love.[6] The poems, known locally as bayt (pl. abyat) and similar in form to the Indian doha,[3] are lyrical and are intended for a musical performance,[21] and are usually very compact.[22]

In addition, he has also used a bit more relaxed format called wa'i.[3]

Bhittai is said to have always kept with himself the Qur'an, Karim jo Risalo, and the Mathnawi of Rumi.[23] He seems to have been significantly influenced by the latter;[24] sometimes he reflects his ideas and sometimes translates his verses in his poems.[25][26]

Rumi has expressed similar idea in his verses:[27]

Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire,
Come, and come yet again,
Ours is not a carvan of despair.[27]

Dervishes singing Shah jo Rag at his shrine

During Bhittai's lifetime, Sindh transitioned from Delhi-based Mughal rule to the local Kalhora dynasty. During the later part of Bhittai's life, Nadir Shah Afshar sacked Delhi and made Sindh his tributary. Bhittai also witnessed Ahmad Shah Durrani's attack on Delhi and his subjection of Sindh to Afghan rule. Despite all this, his poetry is devoid of any mention of these upheavals or the political landscape of his time in general. H. T. Sorley has attributed this to his interest in "eternal verities" and indifference to "transient phenomena" and "petty wars".[18]

Bhittai is regarded as the greatest Sufi poet of the Sindhi language,[3][11] and the national poet of Sindh.[34] According to the orientalist Annemarie Schimmel, he is "The most outstanding master of popular Sufi poetry in Pakistan."[35] According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Bhittai's Risalo has been compared with Rumi's Mathnawi, and Bhittai was "direct emanations of Rūmī's spirituality in the Indian world."[24] Every Thursday evening, Bhittai's poetry is sung by traditional musicians and dervishes at the shrine in a typical ecstatic style. The performance is commonly referred to as Shah jo Rag (Shah's music).[3][19]

• Khawaja Muhammad Zaman of Luari
• Sachal Sarmast
• Shah Inayat Shaheed

• Advani, K. B. (1970). Makers of Indian Literature: Shah Latif. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
• Ahmed, Vaqar (10 April 2015). "Bhit Shah: After the dhamaal". Dawn. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
• Baqir, M. (1982). "ʿAbd-al-Laṭīf Bheṭāʾī". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. 1. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
• Baloch, Nabi Bakhsh (2010). Life and Thought of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Translated by Umrani, Gul Muhammad. Karachi: Culture Department, Government of Sindh.
• Fatimi, S. Q. (2002). "Shah ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Ḇẖiṭāʾī and the East India Company". Islamic Studies. 41 (3): 495–505. JSTOR 20837213.
• Jotwani, Motilal (1986). Sufis of Sindh. New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. ISBN 9788123023410.
• Lashari, Mubarak Ali; Awan, Muhammad Safeer (2014). "The Concept of Love: A Comparative Study of Maulana Rumi and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai". 1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MISFS 2014, vol.2, 23–26 April 2014, Beirut, Lebanon. Vol. 2. Kocani: European Scientific Institute. pp. 52–59. ISBN 978-608-4642-21-3.
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1975). "Rūmī and the Sufi Tradition". In Chelkowski, Peter J. (ed.). The Scholar and the Saint: Studies in Commemoration of Abuʼl-Rayhan Al-Bīrūni and Jalal Al-Din Al-Rūmī. New York: New York University Press. pp. 169–185. ISBN 9780814713600.
• Schimmel, Annemarie (1975). Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1271-6.
• Schimmel, Annemarie (1976). Pain and Grace: A Study of Two Mystical Writers of Eighteenth-Century Muslim India. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 9789004378544.
• Smith, Paul (2012). Shah Latif: Selected Poems. Victoria, AU: New Humanity Books, Book Heaven. ISBN 978-1480039933.
• Sorley, H. T. (1960). "Bhitāʾī". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume I: A–B (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 1194–1195. OCLC 495469456.
• Sorley, H. T. (1966) [1940]. Shah Abdul Latif of Bhit: His Poetry, Life and Times: A Study of Literary, Social and Economic Conditions in Eighteenth Century Sind. Karachi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0196360294.
• Shackle, Christopher (2013). "ʿAbd al-Laṭīf". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24149. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Ghulam Hussain (2021) The politics of metaphor: traces of casteism and patriarchy in the work of Shah Abdul Latif, Postcolonial Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13688790.2021.1923154

Biographies

• M. M. Gidvani (1922). Shah Abdul Latif. London: The India Society.
• Biography of Shah Abdul Latif
• Shah Bhitai — The soul of Sindh
• Life and times of Shah Bhitai

Poetry

• Shah Latif's poetry: translated into English by Elsa Kazi
• Audio samples of Shah Bhitai's poetry set to music

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