The Chishti Order was founded by Khwaja Abu Ishaq Shami ("the Syrian") (d. 941 C.E.) who brought sufism to the town of Chisht, some 95 miles east of Herat in present-day Afghanistan. Before returning to the Levant, Shami initiated, trained, and deputized the son of the local Amir, Khwaja Abu Ahmad Abdal (d. 966). Under the leadership of Khwaja Abu Ahmad’s descendants, the Chishtiyya as they are also known flourished as a regional mystical order specializing in sema -- ritual music and Islamic prayer combined with sacred dancing. Qawwali devotional music, very popular in the Indian subcontinent and particularly in Pakistan, spawned from the Chishtia Order. Sufism (Arabic تصوف tasÌ£awwuf) is the school of esoteric philosophy in Islam, which is based on the pursuit of spiritual truth as a definite goal to attain. ... Herāt (Persian هرات) is a city in western Afghanistan, in the valley of the Hari Rud river in the province also known as Herat, and was traditionally known for wine. ... SEMA SEMA is the Specialty Equipment Market Association of automotive aftermarket, which is a $29 billion-a-year retail industry (2004 numbers). ... Islam   listen? (Arabic: al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ... Prayer is an effort to communicate with God, or to some deity or deities, or another form of spiritual entity, or otherwise, either to offer praise, to make a request, or simply to express ones thoughts and emotions. ... Qawwali (), also spelt qawaali or quwalli, is a Sufi devotional musical genre. ... Composite satellite image of the Indian subcontinent Map of South Asia. ...

The most famous of the Chishti saints is Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (also spelled Muinuddin Chisti) who settled in Ajmer, India. Other famous saints of the Chishtia Order are Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, Fariduddin Ganjshakar of Pak Pattan, and Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. Hazrat Inayat Khan was the first to bring the Chishtia Order to North America. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (1141 - 1230 AD), also known as Gharib Nawaz, is the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order of South Asia. ... Ajmer, or Ajmere, is a city in Indias Rajasthan state. ... Nizamiddun Bawli Nizamuddin Auliya (1238 - 1325 AD) also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, is a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order in India. ... Delhi (दिल्ली or Dillī in Hindi and Bengali and دیلی in Urdu) is a term that refers to either the State of Delhi or the National Capital Territory (NCT) of the Republic of India. ... Fariduddin Ganjshakar (Farid-ul-Din Masaud Shakar Ganj) c. ... Hazrat Inayat Khan (July 5, 1882 - February 5, 1927), founder of Universal Sufism, and the Sufi Movement International, came to the west as a representative of several musical traditions of his native India. ...

External links

• Chishti Order
• Book Collection by Chishti Saints
• The Chishti website
• Islam, Sufism and the Sufi Tradition of Chishti Qadhiri