260 H. Blochmann —Geography and History of Bengal. [No. 3, 
Muhammadan saints of Gaur and Panduah. Their names often occur in 
Bengal History, while their dargahs, as elsewhere, are the natural depositories 
of inscriptions. 
The principal personages of saintly renown are Shaikh Jalaluddin 
Tabriz!, Shaikh Akin Sirajuddin ’Usman, Shaikh ’Alaulhaq, and Nur Qutb 
’Alam. # All larger works on Muhammadan Saints contain biographical 
notices of them. 
1. Shaikh Jalaluddin Tabrizi. 
He was a pupil of Abu Sa’id Tabrizi and of the renowned Shaikh 
Shihab-uddin Suhrawardi. He accompanied the latter on his pilgrimages to 
Makkah, and used to carry on his head a small oven with the hot pots in 
which his master kept his food. Numerous miracles are ascribed to him. 
Among others, he converted, with one look, at Badaon a Hindu milkman to 
Islam. Though several times charged with immoral practices, he defeated 
his accusers. When he went to Bengal, he commenced to destroy idols ; 
in fact, his vault occupies the site of an idol temple. He kept a langarklidnah, 
where he housed and fed beggars and travellers. He died in 612 A. H., 
or A. D. 1244. The place where he died does not seem to be accurately 
known. The Mutawallis of the tomb near Gaur say that he died in 
Aurangabad (the old K’harki), and that his shrine in Bengalf is a mere 
jawab, or imitation-vault; but the Ain i Akbari (IVtli book) says that he 
was buried at Bandar Diu Mahall.f Vide below under Yusuf Shah. 
2. Shaikh Akin Sirajuddin ’’Usman. 
Siraj came as a boy to Nizamuddin Aulia of Dihli, who handed him over 
to Fakhruddin Zarradi to teach. In course of time, he became very learned, 
and was told to go to Bengal, where he died in 758, A. H., or 1357, A. D. 
The Haft Iqlim says that Nizam called him ‘ the mirror of Hindustan,’ and 
that he only received, when advanced in age, proper instruction from 
Fakliruddin. After Niz&m’s death, he went to Lak’hnauti, and all the 
king became his pupils. 
For the inscriptions at his tomb, vide below under Husain Shah. 
* Besides these, the Riyaz mentions a Shaikh Raja Bayabam (died in 754, when 
Firuz besieged Ilyas Shah). Shaikh Hamid of Nagor, one of Nur Qntb ’Alam’s 
teachers, belongs to Nagor in Jodhpur, not to Nagor in Birbhum, as Stewart says. 
f As most Dargahs in Bengal, Shah Jalal’stomb is rich. Its lands lie chiefly in 
Bardwan District, at Bohat, near Maimari, a station on the E. I. Railway, There 
is a Madrasah and a Sarai in Bohat. 
The oven is still shewn at the Ganr shrine, and “till three generations back 
it cooked rice without fuel.” 
% I. e., either the Maldives, or Diu in Gujarat. Vide Dowson, IV, 96, note. 
