Qalandar
Encyclopedia
Qalandars are wandering ascetic Sufi dervish
Dervish
A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...

es who may or may not be connected to a specific tariqat. They are most prevalent in Central Asia, India and Pakistan, in the latter "qalandar" is also used as a title. Some famous Qalandars include Lal Shahbaz Qalandar
Lal Shahbaz Qalandar
Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar , a Sayed Sufi saint, philosopher, poet, and qalandar. Born Syed hussain Shah, he belonged to the Suhrawardiyya order of Sufis. He preached religious tolerance among Muslims and Hindus...

 and Bu Ali Shah Qalandar
Bu Ali Shah Qalandar
Shaikh Sharafuddeen Bu Ali Qalandar Panipati was a Sufi saint of the Chishtī Order who lived in India. His dargah in the town of Panipat is a place of pilgrimage....

.

Qalandar as Honorific Title

If used as a title (South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

), Qalander is a title given to a unmarried saint who is at a very high level of spirituality. Qalanders are considered chosen saints of God Almighty. They are different from other saints and they have a very strong feelings of love in them. Qalandars, amongst the saints, are those persons who may enjoy freedom from the ties and bounds of Time and Space. All the living things are given in their charge and command, every bit and part of the universe may be at their disposal but these holy persons are far above temptations, greed or lust. When people request them they feel duty-bound to listen and rectify the cause of miseries of people because they have been appointed by Nature for this very purpose.

They are the ones about whom God Almighty says, "I befriend My servants and become their ears, eyes and tongue in order to make them talk, and touched through me". Qalandars have always spread the message of love and humanity. Among the contemporary people who hold the title Qalandar are Shahbaz Qalander, Nathar Vali of Trichy, Baba Fakruddin
Baba Fakruddin
Hazarath Syedna Baba Fakhruddin Suharwardy is a great Sufi saint of 12th century. His Mausoleum is located in a place called Penukonda, Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh. This place is located on NH 7 i.e. Bangalore - Hyderabad highway and is around 120 Kilometers from Bangalore and 90 Kilometers...

 of Penukonda India, and Sayyad Mehmood ul Hassan Shah Khaki Mastwaar Qalandar amongst others.

Songs honoring famous Qalandars are called Qalandri dhamaal in Pakistan and India. Dhamaal are a popular South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

n musical sub-genre about Sufi saints such as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. These songs typically incoporate qawwali
Qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other parts of northern India...

 styles as well as different local folk styles, such as bhangra and intense naqareh
Naqareh
The naqqāra is a drum with a rounded back and a hide head. It is thus a membranophone.The term naqqāra , also naqqarat, naqqarah, naqqåre, nakkare, nagora comes from the Arabic verb naqr- that means "to strike, beat".-Construction:The rounded section of a naqqara is made of baked clay, while the...

 or dhol
Dhol
Dhol can refer to any one of a number of similar types of double-headed drum widely used, with regional variations, throughout the Indian subcontinent and nearby regions. Its range of distribution in India and Pakistan primarily includes northern areas such as the Assam Valley, Bengal, Gujarat,...

 drumming.

Origin

The Qalandariyya were a unorthodox tariqa of roaming Sufi dervishes that originated in medieval al-Andalus
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...

 as an answer to the fundamentalist onslaught of the Almohad Caliphate. From there they quickly spread into North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

, the Mashriq
Mashriq
Mashriq or Mashreq is derived from the Arabic consonantal root sh-r-q relating to the east or the sunrise, and essentially means "east"...

, Greater Iran
Greater Iran
Greater Iran refers to the regions that have significant Iranian cultural influence. It roughly corresponds to the territory on the Iranian plateau and its bordering plains, stretching from Iraq, the Caucasus, and Turkey in the west to the Indus River in the east...

, Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

 and the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

.

See also

  • Qalandariyah
    Qalandariyah
    The Qalandariyyah , Qalandaris or Kalandars are wandering Sufi dervishes. The term covers a variety of sects, not centrally organized. One was founded by Qalandar Yusuf al-Andalusi of Andalusia, Spain....

  • Dervish
    Dervish
    A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...

  • Qalandar
    Qalandar (caste)
    The Qalandar are a Muslim community, found in North India . They are also known as Qalander Faqir. A few Qalandar are also found in the Terai region of Nepal.-History and origin:...

  • Lal Shahbaz Qalander R.A.
  • Rabia Basri R.A.
  • Mast Qalandar
  • Fakir
    Fakir
    The fakir or faqir ; ) Derived from faqr is a Muslim Sufi ascetic in Middle East and South Asia. The Faqirs were wandering Dervishes teaching Islam and living on alms....

  • Sadhu
    Sadhu
    In Hinduism, sādhu denotes an ascetic, wandering monk. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa , the fourth and final aśrama , through meditation and contemplation of brahman...


Sources

  • Ewing, Katherine Pratt (1997) Arguing sainthood: modernity, psychoanalysis, and Islam Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, ISBN 0-8223-2026-6
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