Syed Muhammad ibn Yousuf al-Hussaini (30 July 1321 − 1 November 1422), commonly known as Bande Nawaz or Gisu Daraz, was a Hanafi Maturidi scholar and Sufi saint from India of the Chishti Order. Gaisu Daraz was a disciple and then successor of Sufi saint Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi. When he moved to Daulatabad around 1400, owing to the attack of Timur on Delhi, he took the Chishti Order to South India. He finally settled down in Gulbarga, at the invitation of Bahmani Sultan, Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah.

Life

Bande Nawaz was born in Delhi 1321 to a Sayyid family originally from Herat. At the age of seven, he and his family arrived in Daulatabad in the Deccan after Delhi sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq had declared the city to be the co-capital and called upon Muslims in Delhi to migrate there. In, he returned to Delhi without his father, who had died in Daulatabad, and soon began training under Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi, the preeminent Sheikh of the Chishti Order in the city.

Migration to the Deccan

Bande Nawaz fled Delhi on 17 December 1398, at the age of 77, due to the threat of the advancing forces of Timur, who had recently launched an invasion of the Delhi Sultanate and was quickly approaching the city. He first travelled to Gwalior, and ventured through modern-day Madhya Pradesh into Gujarat, where he arrived at Khambhat in the summer of 1399. From Baroda, he embarked in hope of returning to Daulatabad to pay homage to his father's tomb. At the invitation of Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah, sultan of the Bahmani Kingdom, Bande Nawaz settled in the Bahmani capital Gulbarga in.

Works

Bande Nawaz wrote 195 books in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. He also composed a book on the Prophet of Islam titled Miraj-al Ashiqin for the instruction of the masses in Dakhni, a South Indian branch of the Urdu language. He was the first Sufi to use this vernacular which was elaborated upon by many other Sufi saints of South India in later centuries. He wrote many treatises on the works of Ibn Arabi and Suhrawardi, which made the works of these scholars accessible to Indian scholars and played a major role in influencing later mystical thought. Other books authored are Qaseeda Amali and Adaab-al-Mureedein.

Urs

His death anniversary takes place on 15, 16 and 17 Dhu al-Qadah at the Bande Nawaz mausoleum in Gulbarga. Several hundred thousand people from different religions gather to seek blessings.

In popular culture

Indian Muslim social films revolving around the saint and his dargah have been made. These include: Sultan E Deccan: Banda Nawaz (1982) by Malik Anwar, Banda Nawaz (1988) by Saini.