Ala Bakhsh

Shāh Muḥammad ʿAlāʼ Bakhsh (Bengali: শাহ মুহম্মদ আলা বখশ) was a 16th-century Bengali theologian, activist and Islamic scholar. He was the ancestor of Abdul Latif Chowdhury Fultali, a prominent Ṣūfī the 20th century.

Early life and family[]

Bakhsh was born in the 1500s in the disintegrating Sultanate of Bengal to a Bengali Muslim family of theologians from Sylhet. He was a descendant of Shāh Kamāl Yemenī (also known as Shah Pahlawān), a disciple of Shāh Jalāl who contributed in the Muslim conquest of Sylhet in 1303.^[1][2] Shah Kamal Yemeni settled in the village of Moqamduar in Jalālpur, along with Shāh Muʿīn ad-Dīn and Shāh Jawhar ad-Dīn, where he was later buried in a mazar (mausoleum).^[3]

Bakhsh migrated from Jalālpur with his family for spiritual reasons, eventually settling down in the village of Fultalī. He also had a son named Shāh Elāhī Bakhsh.^[4]

Beliefs and views[]

In connection to his ancestors and descendants, Bakhsh is generally thought to be a member of the Naqshbandī Ṣūfī order. This is also backed up by Bakhsh being a follower of contemporary scholar Aḥmad Sirhindī of Punjāb.^[4] Similarly, Bakhsh was a critic of the Din-i Ilahi established by Mughal emperor Akbar and took part in Sirhindī's opposition movement in the 1580s.^[5]

Legacy[]

Bakhsh's descendants continued the family tradition of being notable regional transmitters of religious knowledge. His grandson, Shāh Muḥammad Ṣādiq, had a son named Shāh Muḥammad Dānish, who had a son named Shāh Muḥammad Hiron. Hiron was the father of Shāh Muftī Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Majīd an-Naqshbandī al-Mujaddidī who was bestowed the title of Choudhury. Hiron's grandson, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Chowdhury Fultalī, gained prominence as the founder of the Fultalī movement in Bangladesh, India and the United Kingdom.^[5] Shaykh Fāṭir ʿAlī, another descendant of Bakhsh, established the Badedeorail Fultali Kamil Madrasa in 1920.^[6]

See also[]

• Ali Sher Bengali, another 16th-century Muslim scholar of Bengali origin

References[]