Arienne M. Dwyer and Akbar Amat
This genealogical (shajara) scroll dates from the late 19th century (1870s?). It was likely purchased in the late 19th or early 20th c.in Eastern Turkestan, and later found in the archive of the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden in 2006 and donated by the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden to the Lund University Library in 2008. Since then, it has been part of the Gunnar Jarring Collection with the shelf mark Jarring Prov. 561, under the title Genealogical table from Ādam to Hazrat Khan Khwaja Muḥammad and Yaqub Beg. The scroll is nearly 10 m. long: (955 cm. l. x 36 cm. w.).
The scroll diagrams the lineage of a wealthy patron in a series of ornamented roundels (medallions) with connecting lines enhanced by architectural representations, such as mausoleums. Black and red ink are supplemented by the use of gold leaf.
The scroll appears to have been commissioned by a wealthy patron, whose family's supposed descent tree is diagrammed the length of the scroll, tracing the patron's lineage from Ādam and Ḥawwā at the top, all the way down to historically attested powerful regional figures such as Yakup Beg.
This project commissioned the scanning of the scroll in 2018-2019 at Lund University Library. Given its length, the scroll was photographed in 14 images of relatively equal size. These image sections do not necessarily correspond to the visual element sections inherently present in the scroll (e.g. a roundel or a particular group's descent lineage), nor does an image section express a boundary between major families and lineages. Each scanned image overlaps with the end of the previous image, which prevented the loss of information.
To facilitate the analysis and visual representation of the scroll, we divided these 14 images into logical visual element sub-sections. These 22 sections are labeled A through V (originally done by C.M. Sperberg-McQueen).
In this pilot publication of the scroll, we are currently publishing an image, transcription, and translation of Section A (Image 1), the roundel representing Genesis and Ādam and Ḥawwā. While the rest of this document introduces the contents of the entire scroll for context, we currently (in this first draft) describe only Section A carefully, and then jump to the historically attested figures towards the end of the scroll in Section U.
Please re-visit this website as our analysis develops. We have also published a draft transcription of the scroll, which you can view here: Prov. 561 transcript.
The scroll visualizes a narrative of unilineal descent from Adam and Eve (Ādam and Ḥawwā). It traces the patron's putative ancestry from pre-historical religious figures at the top of the scroll down through historically attested figures in Eastern Turkistan. The genealogy is accomplished through a series of medallions (roundels) connected by lines, which imply kinship.
The scroll resembles an elongated web, with ornate nodes connected by vertical and horizontal lines. Vertical lines imply patrilineal descent (father - son), while horizontal lines imply consanguineous sibling relations or sometimes marital affinity. The nodes themselves are either roundels or gilt architectural elements. Each personage's name is enclosed in a roundel or element, and each roundel is linked to an ancestor, with male siblings side by side. (Siblings considered unimportant - including most females -- were not included.) Elaborate gilt mosques and mausoleums enclose the names of particularly important personages.
The top two-thirds of the scroll concerns pre-historical figures, primarily those associated with the history of Islam. Thereafter, legendary Persian heroes and Turco-Mongol rulers are accorded mention. The final third of the scroll contains attested historical figures. Not every putative ancestor is recorded in the scroll's lineages; usually only key male members of a historical lineage are included. Some lineages are connected, while others "float" separately next to other lineages. There are also single roundels, unconnected by putative kinship lines.
Genealogies such as this late 19th century one reflect perceptions of power and influence at the time. The invoked historical and religious figures accord authority and authenticity to the patron, who commissioned the genealogy. Which figures were included and how they are connected in the lineages is a good indicator of their perceived social capital and importance for the patron, and, by extension, the élites of the time. One intriguing example is the 13th c. Persian poet Rūmī, whose name is included in a roundel next to the Persian heroic lineages.
Immediately below, we therefore begin to discuss who appears in each section (for now, focusing on Section A), and in what social network they appear. Thereafter, we evaluate some of the themes that emerge from these persons (both included and omitted) and their networks.
The genealogy begins with an enormous roundel that spans the full width of the scroll. It includes five visual elements: a decorated headpiece (a dome with vegetal decoration in the center). The Arabic text begins with basmallah written inside the dome, which is surrounded by four roundels with names of saints. There follows a the story of Genesis, of how God created Ādam and Ḥawwā from earth. The dome (A1) reads:
Allāh, I seek refuge in the security of the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah the Merciful. Praise be to Allāh, the Lord of the Worlds, and the result of the righteous, peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muḥammad, his family, and his companions, all of whom say: 'We have created man in the best of manners.' I was a hidden treasure; I loved to be known. Hence I created the world so that I would be known. I build the summer Ādam and without him. (The preceding text - "I was a hidden treasure...I would be known" - is a well-know hadith qudsi, often quoted by Sufis.)
Four roundels surround the main text. These name the prophets Djibrīl, Mīkā'īl, Isrāfīl, and ʿIzrāʾīl.
Thus, the scroll is both typical as a text and a genealogy of its time: it begins with the bi-smi llāh and invoking of the Prophet found in most text genres of the period. And typical of genealogies and hagiographies of the time, it establishes an apical ancestor, Ādam, from whom all have descended.
Under the large roundel there is a narrative of how God breathed spirit into Ādam and endowed him with life. Immediately below appears a genealogical tree, which presents the Abrahamic prophets, as well as all the peoples on earth, as descending from Ādam and Ḥawwā (Eve).
The genealogy primarily represents Central Asian Naḳs̲h̲bandī Sufi lineages. Nonetheless, in the third section of the scroll, early Islamic and pre-Islamic lineages -- including Iranian legendary kings and heroes --are sporadically represented.
Pre-Islamic Turkic and Mongolic rulers are treated differently than Persian ones in the scroll: the genealogy simply excludes them in their pre-Islamic period. For example, Genghis Khan's sons were not mentioned, even though they were ruling Central Asian territory when Khwājagān, the forebearers of the Naḳs̲h̲bandīs, rose in influence. The genealogy does not mention Turkic and Mongol khans who ruled in eastern steppe lands. Legendary Persian kings and heroes were known through Ferdowsi's S̲h̲āhnāma. That work's legendary antagonist was the Tūrānian hero Afrāsiyāb. In the scroll, Afrāsiyāb افراسياب appears (F6m) along with Persian heroes.
Although Turks and Mongols exerted great political influence in Central Asia, their significance seemed to have been reduced to chronological points of reference for the larger Sufi narrative, to indicate that certain Sufi saints were contemporaneous with them. In the genealogy, the Turco-Mongolic political leaders occupy the margins: the right and left sides of the Sufi lineage. The latter occupies the center of the shajara, indicating its central importance. The charisma of the Sufis could be continuously renewed by reference to their original descent from the Prophet of Islam. In contrast, the Turkic and Mongolic khans of Central Asia drew their charisma from political domination, devoid of religious legitimation coming from the Islamic Prophet.
Believing that our readers will be particularly interested in historically-attested figures mentioned in the scroll, in this first publication we skip over the middle section of the scroll towards the end.
Section U shows the key Naḳs̲h̲bandī Sufi kinship descent from (U4a) Mir Aḥmad Khwāja ʿĀlī Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam to his sons (U4e) Khwāja Isḥāḳ and (U7b) Saʿīd Ishan Kalan Muḥammad Amīn. Khwāja Isḥāḳ (U4e) was his first son (see below). Another son (U7b) Saʿīd Ishan Kalan Muḥammad Amīn became his successor, whose own son and successor, Muḥammad Yūsuf is named in roundel (U9a).
The first figure in this descent line is a well-known Naḳs̲h̲bandī master. Referred to here (see U4a) as Mir Aḥmad Khwāja ʿĀlī Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam, he is largely know as His Holiness Aḥmad Khwājagī-yi Kāsānī, and also as Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam Aḥmad Kāsānī Dahbidī (868/1464-949/1542). He lived in Transoxania and was relatively influential with the 15-16th c. S̲h̲ībānids (Shaybanids). He had ten sons, two of whom (from different mothers) were mentioned in both this genealogy and the Jarring Prov. 369 biography. (The latter hagiography, entitled The tazkira of the Holy Sayyid Āfāq Khwājam, describes Āfāq Khwāja (Sayyid Āfāq Khwājam), the founder of White Mountain or Āfāqiyya Naḳs̲h̲bandīs Sufis of the Tarim Basin.) The two brothers described in both sources are: His Holiness Saʿīd Ishan Kalan Muḥammad Amīn (Ishan Kalan, U7b) and Khwāja Isḥāḳ (U4e).
Khwāja Isḥāḳ (U4e) was Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam’s first son (Jarring Prov. 369). Although his father Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam never went east over the Pamirs to Altishahr (in the Tarim Basin), he gained influence there. It was his sone Isḥāḳ (d. 1007/1599) who would first bring Naḳs̲h̲bandī influence to Tarim Basin, before his death in Samarḳand. Later, (U7b) Saʿīd Ishan Kalan Muḥammad Amīn's son Muḥammad Yūsuf (d. 1653) also went to Kashgar to spread Sufi teachings.
Before his death, Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam appointed Muḥammad Amīn (U7b), also known as Ishan-i-Kalan, as his successor and asked his disciples to follow him (Jarring Prov. 369). (Yet e.g. in the Encyclopedia of Islam (Paul 2012), there is no mention of Muḥammad Amīn succeeding his father.)
[Saʿīd Ishan Kalan] Muḥammad Amīn (U7b) was Khwāja Āfāq's great-grandfather, or the son of Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam, was portrayed in the Khwāja Āfāq biography (Jarring Prov. 369) as the son who legitimately inherited his father Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam's seat. Muḥammad Amīn Ishan-i-Kalan continued to lead the people on the "righteous path", yet his brother Khwāja Isḥāḳ became jealous of his success. As the shrine of his brother Muḥammad Amīn attracted many followers, Khwāja Isḥāḳ's remained desolate, which prompted Isḥāḳ to plot to dispose of Muḥammad Amīn. As the biography describes, Isḥāḳ invited Muḥammad Amīn to dinner and poisoned him to death. Before his death, Muḥammad Amīn appointed his son Muḥammad Yūsuf (U9a) as his successor and left his estate and property to him (Jarring Prov. 369). (This presentation of chronology is typical of the Āfāqīs, to dismiss the Ishāqīs.)
(U4a)Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam's descendants solidified the Naḳs̲h̲bandī tradition during the latter half of the sixteenth century. His son Isḥāḳ Wali had rivalry with Jubairis, the Naḳs̲h̲bandī leaders of Transoxiana. After conflicting with ‘Abdallah Khan II, an Uzbek ruler, he sent his disciples to Altishahr where he later went as well. “Capitalizing on his descent, his spiritual charisma, and his loyal disciples, Isḥāḳ was soon able to establish himself as head of the various Naḳs̲h̲bandī masters in the country.” After coming to Altishahr, Isḥāḳ Wali gained a following among the local population and Kirghiz living in Pamir and Tianshan mountains. Aside from gaining a popular base, he also involved in local politics and influenced Mongol Chaghatayid rulers, thereby “combining Naqshbandiyya with Chaghatayid royalty” (Weismann 2007, 47). In 1591 his disciple Muḥammad Khan became a ruler with his support. His movements finally led to Makhdumzade Khwājas’ grab of power from Chaghatayids in the seventeenth century" (ibid).
Although the Isḥāḳiyya lineage was politically more active, influencing Yarkand Mughal Khan, the Āfāqiyya spread the Naqshbandiyya influence beyond Altishahr. (The that claim Muḥammad Yūsuf, one of Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam’s grandsons, came from Transoxiana and brought Naqshbandiyya to Muslims in Amdo Tibet (Weismann 2007, 81) is doubtful (Papas 2020, p.c.).) Muḥammad Yūsuf (d. 1063/1653) was known was Mazār Padishāh. He buried his father Ishan Kalan beside Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam and took over the shrine. He then went to the land of the 'Christians' (فرنگ), then to the Sujur (Suzhou?) city (cf. Papas 2005:66, 104), and came into contact with Sinophone Muslims. He then went among Salars. Finally, he decided to return to Kashgar. On his way, he stopped in Qomul (Jarring Prov. 369).
The next subsection includes the descendants of the Qomul king.
The genealogy shows a five-generation descent line from (U5d) Mir Saʿīd Jalīl Kāshgharī, King of Qomul to his daughter Zulaikhā Beg and her husband Mazār Pādishāh. Their son was Āfāq Khwāja (Hidāyatallāh Khwāja a.ka. Saʿīd Āfāq Khwāja a.k.a. Hadrat Pādishāh). The genealogy shows Āfāq Khwāja's brother (and son of Khwāja Yusûf) named (u9c) ʿInāyatallāh (and nicknamed Karāmatallāh), and grandson (U9b) Welayatullah, whose biographies are described below.
The king of Qomul, Mir Saʿīd Jalīl Kāshgharī (U5d) had a dream. In his dream, the Prophet Muḥammad told him to marry his daughter Zulaikhā Beg to Mazār Pādishāh. He did so according to the divine intervention. Khwāja Muḥammad Yūsuf Mazār Pādishāh and Zulaikhā Beg had three sons. According to the scroll, their first son was Hidāyatallāh Khwāja, later known as (Saʿīd) Āfāq Khwāja or Hadrat Pādishāh, the second ʿInāyatallāh (nickname Karāmatallāh, u9c), the third was Wilāyatullāh (U9b). Karāmatallāh's family was taken to Beijing by the Manchu Qing Emperor (Brophy 2018: 55). The Marginan Töres, the title with which Khwājas of Margilan addressed themselves, descended from Karāmatallāh (u9c) (Kawahara 2005, cited in Brophy 2018: 55).
Āfāq Khwāja's father Mazār Pādishāh (U5d) had a large following in Turpan and Qomul, and acquired large houses with courtyards, as well as large landholdings from wealthy patrons. In a revelatory dream, the Prophet Muḥammad urged Mazār Pādishāh to go to Moghulistan to lead their people on the “righteous path.” His wife Zulaikhā Beg (U5e) pleaded with him to go specifically to Bashkeram in Kashgar (Jarring 1964: 54), Kichik Ariq (cf. kičik, Jarring 1964: 172), where she held her ancestral land and estates. They arrived in Kashgar in 1638 and settled in Bashkeram. Their son Āfāq Khwāja was twelve years old at the time.
Āfāq Khwāja's father Mazār Pādishāh was poisoned to death by a son of Khwāja Isḥāḳ (Jarring Prov. 369), just as befell his grandfather. After Mazār Pādishāh was poisoned by this Isḥāḳiyya faction, his son Hidāyat Allāh continued his mission, and came to be known as Khwāja Āfāq as founder of the Āfāqiyya.
The other Isḥāḳiyya were allied with the Mughal Khan; the strife with the Āfāqiyya forced the latter to seek support in neighboring regions, until Khwāja Āfāq gained an alliance with the Jungars. The Jungars helped put Āfāq to power in Kashgar in 1679, while the Isḥāḳis ruled in Yarkand (Weismann 2007: 81-82). Before his death, Mazār Pādishāh appointed Āfāq Khwāja (V3a) as his successor (Jarring Prov. 369). Āfāq married Mīrzā Abubakr's granddaughter, and they had two sons, Yaḥyā Khwāja and Khwāja ʿAbd al-Ṣamad (ʿAbd al-Khāliq, Papas 2005:286). The marriage alliance between Āfāq and a Mog̲h̲ul princess must have strengthened his power through a concentration in his person religious and political authorities. Āfāq Khwāja went to the lands of Salars and Manchus (i.e. Amdo and Jungaria) to expand his influence and gained respect wherever he went (Jarring Prov. 369).
This section shows a three-generation lineage, the descent from Āfāq Khwāja and Bibi Ḵh̲ānim Pādishāh to son Qilich Burhānuddin Khwāja and thence to grandson Ḥasan Ṣaḥib Qirān Ghāzī (d. 1726-7).
Āfāq Khwāja married his second wife Bibi Ḵh̲ānim Pādishāh (V2). She was a sister of a Chaghatayid Ḵh̲ān and daughter of Sultan Sayyid Baba Ḵh̲ān who ruled Turpan and Chalish. They married after one Mantuq Sultan beat up Āfāq Khwāja's servant; she killed Mantuq Sultan with her own sword (according to Āfāq Khwāja's hagiography, Jarring Prov. 369). This display of loyalty led to their marriage. Bibi Ḵh̲ānim Pādishāh and Āfāq Khwāja had two sons (Jarring Prov. 369), Qilich Burhān ud-Din Khwāja (V3d) and Ḥasan Ṣaḥib Qirān Ghāzī (V3h) (d. 1726-1727). Sons Mahdi (V3c) and Ḥasan (V3h) also appear in this section of the genealogy. (Brophy (2018) has these latter two names as their sons.)
(U3g) Khwāja Muḥammad Yahyā
Before his death in 1694, Āfāq appointed his son from his first wife Zulaikhā Beg, Yaḥyā Khwāja, as his successor. Enraged, Āfāq Khwāja's second wife Bibi Ḵh̲ānim Pādishāh (V2) poisoned and killed Khwāja Muḥammad Yaḥyā (U3g). But she was herself was killed in retaliation. Her sons Mahdi (V3c) and Ḥasan were taken to India after her death. Ḥasan attracted followers in Ferghana Valley and initiated a non-hereditary spiritual lineage from which Black Mountain Khwājas continued Āfāq Khwāja's spiritual line (Brophy 2018:45).
In the shajara scroll, Ḥasan's lineage ends here. No biological child was attributed to Ḥasan nor were his spiritual disciples included. This absence of descendants is possibly due to this shajara's emphasis on blood relationships or because Ḥasan's career, albeit successful, was elsewhere (i.e. in the Ferghana Valley).
Thus, we can see a clear emphasis on the Āfāqiyya White Mountain Khwāja lineage in the genealogy's Sections U and V, with considerably less detail give to the rival Black Mountain Khwājas. Āfāq Khwāja's ancestry, marriages, and descendants are clearly delineated. Key figures in the bitter rivalry between two of his sons are represented. The current genealogy focuses on the descendants of Ḥasan's half-brother Khwāja Muḥammad Yahyā of the White Mountain Khwājas. Therefore, Khwāja Yahyā's hereditary succession is shown in the scroll as continuing.
The shajara reveals a number of historical and social themes worthy of exploration; what follows is our current thinking on these topics.
The banner names (U3) Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam, Aḥmad Kāsānī Dahbidī (868/1464-949/1542), a famous Naqshbandī master from Mawarannahr (Papas 2012: 354).
The Khwāja lineage depicted in this scroll is similar to the one described in two other Jarring Collection manuscripts, Jarring Prov. 48:1 The biography of Sayyid Āfāq Khodjam and Prov. 369, The tazkira of the Holy Sayyid Āfāq Khwājam. The central figure of the latter is Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam Āfāq Khwāja, whose ancestors were listed chronologically from the Prophet Muḥammad, without sibling relationships described.
The lineage of Central Asian Khwājas started from Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam, whose father was Saʿīd Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn:
These were likely chosen to be represented in this scroll because the patron was likely from the White Mountain faction of Naqshbandī. In the genealogy, the lineage of Muḥammad Yaḥyā, a son of Āfāq Khwāja from his first wife, continues until Khwāja Buzrug Khan Torem (V8e), where the scroll ends. Muḥammad Yaḥyā was the ancestor of Aq Taghliq 'white mountain' Khwājas, the centrality of White Mountain Khwāja lineage at the bottom of the genealogy indicates that that this document may have been produced by or for a descendant or a disciple who belonged to that faction.
We've seen that the names of ordinary (usually male) descendants only appear in roundels. But those whose names are honored with a mausoleum are probably the ones who inherited the family shrine, based on the father's choice of one son. Many of these shrine inheritors are poisoned to death by jealous relatives, who without the family shrine cannot attract followers.
The poisoned descendants became martyrs in the Sufi tradition, and thus increased their prestige and charisma.
In this scroll, most of the names are males. In patrilineal fashion, males are depicted descending from male ancestors. However, woman are mentioned if historically salient. Either they were themselves key figures such as Ḥawwā (Eve), or they were connected to important legendary and historical figures, such as wives and daughters of Prophet Muḥammad. or because they connected important bloodlines to the Khwājas whose genealogy is the center of the genealogy.
*The first female figure is Ḥawwā (Eve, D2), the wife of Ādam (D1) and the mother of humanity according to Abrahamic religions.
As for the Prophet's lineage, some of the Prophet Muḥammad's wives and several female descendants appear after Ḥawwā in the scroll. They are:
K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a (N8a) was the first wife of Prophet Muḥammad. Her father was K̲h̲uwaylid ibn Asad, a leader of the Ḳurays̲h tribe, Asad clan. K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a married twice before marrying Prophet Muḥammad. She sent the Prophet with her merchandise to Boṣrā as a steward. After the successful completion of the trip, she offered to marry him. They had five children, four girls and two boys. K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a provided strong support for the Prophet's career to succeed (Watt 2012b). Their son Qasim ibn Muḥammad (N19e) is represented in the scroll.
Sawda bint Zam'a (N17a) was the second wife of the prophet. Her original name was Ḳayyis b. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams, of the Ḳurays̲h tribe. She and her first husband participated the second migration of Muslims to Abyssiniya; After her husband’s death in Mecca, Sawda married the Prophet, who had just lost K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a. When the Prophet decided to divorce Sawda, she was able to persuade him to keep her. She died in 54/674 in Mecca (Vacca and Roded 2012b).
ʿĀʾis̲h̲a Bint Abī Bakr (N9a) was Prophet Muḥammad’s third, youngest, and favorite wife. The Prophet married her after K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a passed away. His marriage to ʿĀʾis̲h̲a must have strengthened his ties to his main follower Abūbakr. ʿĀʾis̲h̲a took care of the Prophet in her chamber at the end of his life, and he was was buried there after his death. After the Prophet's death, the third caliph ʿUt̲h̲mān was assassinated by rivals. ʿĀʾis̲h̲a led her followers to take revenge. In a battle with ʿAlī's army, her followers were crushed but she was respected after the battle. In other areas, too, "[s]he was noted for her knowledge of poetry and ability to quite it, and also for her eloquence; and she was versed in Arab history and other subjects" (Watt 2012a).
Hafza (N10a) is likely Ḥafṣah bint ʿUmar (605-665), a wife of the Prophet. She was born to Zainab bint Madh'uwn and Umar ibn al-Khattab of the Quraysh tribe. The Prophet was her second husband; her first husband was Khunais ibn Hudhaifah. After she became a widow, she married to the Prophet in 625. She left sixty ḥadīt̲h̲ narratives from the Prophet.
Umm Salama Hind (N11a) was one of the wives of the Prophet. Her original name was Abī Umayya b. Mug̲h̲īra. She was from Mak̲h̲zūm, which belonged to the Ḳuraysh tribe. Her clan was bitterly against the Prophet. She was one of the earliest women to accompany her first husband on Muslim migrations. After her first husband died in a battle, she married the Prophet. She was especially revered among Shi'a Muslims. She is credited with transmitting over 300 ḥadīt̲h̲. (Roded 2012)
Ṣafiyya bint Huyayy (N12a), originally named Ḥuyayy b. Ak̲h̲ṭab, was the eleventh wife of Prophet Muḥammad. Like other wives of the prophet, she was known by the title Umm-al-Muʾminīn 'mother of believers'. She was from the Jewish Arab tribe Banu ’l-Naḍīr and was born in Medina. Her father and uncle was bitter enemies of the Prophet. Ḥuyayy b. Ak̲h̲ṭab settled in K̲h̲aybar with her husband after his family was expelled from Medina. When K̲h̲aybar fell, she was captured by Muḥammad’s army and was taken by him as his wife. After the death of the Prophet, Ṣafiyya sided with ʿUt̲h̲mān and tried to protect him. She died during the time of Caliph Muʿāwiya, in 50/670 or 52/672 (Vacca and Roded 2012a).
Maymūna bt. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ (N13a) was the last wife of the Prophet. Her name was given by the Prophet. Her original name was Barrah. She had married twice before marrying the Prophet. After Meccans opposed to their marriage, they married in a village on the north Mecca, named Sarif. She lived longer than the other wives of Muḥammad and died in 61/681 (Buhl 2012b).
Maria al-Qibtiyya (N14a) (original name Maria bint Shamʿūn) was a Coptic maid given as a gift to Muḥammad by a Muwaqis, a governor of Alexandria. The Prophet took her as his concubine and was quite devoted to her, which caused jealousy among his other wives. Their son Ibrāhīm died as an infant, few months before the Prophet’s death. She was honored during the time of Abūbakr and ʿUmar and was given a pension until the end of her life. She died in 16/637. (Buhl 2012a)
Umm Habiba (N16a) was a wife of the Prophet, whose full name is Umm Habiba Ramla bint Abi Sufyan (589/594 -665). Her father Abu Sufyan ibn Harb was the chief of Umayya clan. He was also the Quraysh tribe's leader and was formerly a strong adversary of the prophet. But he joined Muḥammad after accepting Islam. She was among the earliest to embrace Islam. Her first husband was Ubayd-Allah who converted to Christianity. Her husband's conversion led to their separation. After husband's death in 627 in Abyssinia where they both lived, she married the Prophet. Some sixty-five hadiths are narrated by her. Zaynab bint Khuzayma (N18a), born al-Ḥārit̲h̲ al-Hilāliyya, was a middle-class widow who was re-married to the Prophet Muḥammad, after her second husband died in a battle (Bosworth 2012).
Three other women from the Prophet’s lineage mentioned in the genealogy are his daughters: Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (N19b), Ruqayya (N19j) and Umm Kult̲h̲ūm (N19l).
Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (N19b) was the youngest daughter of Muḥammad and his first wife K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a (N8a). and was the only daughter to enjoy fame. (In the scroll, normally only sons are listed.) She was was well-respected and known in the Muslim world by the honorary title al-Zahrāʾ 'the Shining One'. She was especially revered among S̲h̲īʿas, who treated her as a holy person. She married ʿAlī and lived an impoverished life until the conquest of K̲h̲aybar, when their situation improved. They had three sons (al-Ḥusayn, al-Ḥasan, and Muḥassin) and two daughters (Umm Kult̲h̲ūm and Zaynab). After the Prophet’s death, Fāṭima suddenly had to protect and find support for her husband during the rivalry among her father’s successors. She disputed with Abūbakr over the properties left from her father (Veccia Vaglieri 2012).
Ruqayya (N19j) was another daughter of Muḥammad and K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a (N8a). Ruqayya and her sister Umm Kult̲h̲ūm (N19l) were married to Abū Lahab’s two sons. When Muḥammad set out be a prophet, Abū Lahab asked his sons to divorce the Prophet's daughters. Later Ruqayya remarried ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, and participated in the migration to Abyssinia. They had a son named ʿAbd Allāh. (Watt 2012c).
Umm Kult̲h̲ūm (N19l) was a third daughter of the Prophet Muḥammad and K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a (N8a). After her sister Ruḳayya died, she married her brother-in-law, the third caliph ʿUt̲h̲mān. Umm Kult̲h̲ūm died in year nine, without having a child from ʿUt̲h̲mān (Buhl and Roded 2012).
Several other women were mentioned in the scroll. There primary importance appears to be that through marriage, they connected different bloodlines to the Khwājas.
(U5e) Zulaikhā Begum connected Mir Sa'id Jalīl Kashgari with the Āfāqiyya Khwājas (from Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam, the Naqshbandī Sufi master, to Muḥammad Yusuf and thence to Āfāq Khwāja).
The woman who connected the bloodline of Mir Sa'id Jalīl Kashgari to the Khwājas was Zulaikhā Begum (U5e). Although she was also the daughter of an aristocrat, Zulaikhā Begum's significance is that she was the mother of Āfāq Khwāja. Her father Mir Sa'id Jalīl Kashgari was a wealthy beg living in Qomul. He was originally fled from Besh Kerem in Kashgar and settled in Qomul. As mentioned above in the description of Image U, the marriage of Āfāq's father Muḥammad Yusuf Khwāja and Zulaikhā Begum was sealed by the by Prophet Muḥammad in Mir Sa'id Jalīl Kashgari's dream (Jarring Prov. 369). The Prophet instructed him to marry her to Muḥammad Yusuf. The Prophet's intervention strengthened the legitimacy of the political alliance between the two families. Muḥammad Yusuf Khwāja and Zulaikhā Begum had three sons including Āfāq Khwāja, their first-born. Here again, this key female figure influences the course of events: Zulaikhā Begum pleaded with her husband Muḥammad Yusuf to go to her ancestral land and estates near Kashgar. Her entreaties were reinforced when her husband was urged in a dream by the Prophet to go to Moghulistan and lead its people on the “righteous path.”
Thus, Zulaikhā Begum (U5e)'s marriage to a local wealthy Beg connected the Khwāja family, who were originally from Samarkand, to the local aristocrats in the Tarim Basin. This marriage and her presence enhanced their legitimacy, wealth and power.
(V2) Bibi Khanim Pādishāh connected the Chaghatayid Khans with Āfāq Khwāja
The Āfāqiyya Khwājas' alliance with the Chaghatay ruling family in Tarim Basin was achieved through Āfāq Khwāja's marriage to a granddaughter of the Chagatayid ruler Mīrzā Abubakr. They two sons, Yahyā Khwāja (described above) and Khwāja Abdullah Balsam. The granddaughter's name of the woman is not included in the current Shajara scroll (Prov. 561), nor does it appear in Āfāq's biography (Jarring Prov. 369). Āfāq Khwāja also married (V2) Bibi Khanim Pādishāh , a daughter of the ruler of Turpan and Chalish, Sultan Said Baba Khan. Bibi Khanim Pādishāh (V2) and Āfāq Khwāja had two sons, Qilich Burhān ud-Din (V3d) and Ḥasan Ṣaḥib Qirān Ghāzī (V3h). These two marriages with the local ruling families in the Tarim Basin served to further increase the wealth and power of the Khwājas and legitimized their political influence.
Bibi Khanim Pādishāh managed to kill Yahyā Khwāja (Āfāq's son from the granddaughter of Mīrzā Abubakri's first wife), whom Āfāq appointed in 1694 as the ruler of Yarkand Khanate, as discussed above. After Yahyā Khwāja's death, Chaghatay rule was briefly restored by Muḥammad Muʾminī Sultan (a.k.a. Akbash Khan), who ruled from 1695 until 1706. That assassination led to a brief weakening of Khwāja rule, and made Bibi Khanim Pādishāh rather infamous. (She was also the mother of ancestor of Black Mountain Khwājas, Ḥasan.)
In modern times, the publication in 2003 of a novel titled Jallat Khenim 'Madame Assassin' suddenly made Bibi Khanim a household name in Xinjiang. Also called Möhterem Khenim, she was described as belonging to the Chaghatayid ruling family (as in the current scroll). She was portrayed as a skillful warrior and a commander of her brother's army. In the novel she was reluctant to marrying Āfāq Khwāja, unlike her depiction as a willing bride in Āfāq's biography (Jarring Prov. 369). Her brother Muḥammad Amīn Bahadir Ḵh̲ān had a rivalry with Āfāq and the latter used his followers to create turmoil within the Yarkand Khanate, which Möhterem Khenim's brother was unable to pacify. Āfāq made it the condition that his sister marry him so that he would order his followers to stop creating trouble. Forced by these circumstances, Möhterem Khenim agreed to marry him. In the novel, Āfāq Khwāja finally assassinated Muḥammad Amīn Bahadir Ḵh̲ān and grabbed power. But he himself was later poisoned by Isḥāḳi Sufis in collaboration with Möhterem Khenim. Möhterem Khenim went to kill all the close followers of Āfāq Khwāja and his son Khwāja Muḥammad Yahyā (U3g). Due to the bloodshed, she acquired the sobriquet Jallat Khenim.
Nearly 20 years ago, the novel's publication led to debates among Uyghurs about both the historical Bibi Khanim Pādishāh and her fictional personage. Many admired her for what they termed her 'masculine qualities,' such as her brave, war-like, and ruthless personality. The author Yasinjan Sadiq Choghlan managed to re-create her as an anti-Āfāqi hero, matching a sentiment prevailing in Uyghur society since the 1990s publication of Nizamidin Huseyin's Jahalet Pirliri Shinjangda 'Pirs of barbarism in Xinjiang'. Huseyin blamed the White Mountain (Āfāq) Khwājas for centuries of Altishahri "Uyghur" statelessness, backwardness, and subjection to foreign rule. The Khwājas were described as anti-state and anti-culture, whose sole aim was to satisfy their own greed with state power, while using religion and superstition to keep the population of Altishahr under their thumb. Āfāq Khwāja brought Mongols to overthrow the Yarkand Khanate and sent the "Fragrant Concubine" to the Manchu Qing court; these acts were see as treasonous by many Turkic-speaking oasis dwellers.
From this novel and popular sentiment, among modern Uyghurs the Khwājas came to embody anti-modernism, having prevented Uyghurs from developing and catching up with other modernized or modernizing people. Under such prevailing sentiment, Jallat Khenim brought a symbolic redemption. Her personage was almost created to unleash revenge on Khwājas on behalf of modern Uyghurs, and her ruthlessness was welcomed as necessary to fight a common enemy the Uyghurs recently discovered. She assassinated Yaḥyā, Āfāq's son from his first wife. In the novel, the bloodshed she exacted was exaggerated. For example, she was described as lubricating a mill with the blood spurting from the bodies of the numerous Khwājas she had killed. In the novel, Jallat Khenim emerged as a true hero who not only knew how to battle but also understood the nature of politics. Her ruthlessness was seen by many as something Machiavellian, in which "noble ends" would justify means, even if all norms were violated.
While fictional in origin, this modern discrediting (if not savaging) of the Khwājas has taken on a quasi-historical cast in the Uyghur regions (dovetailing neatly, one might observe, with both the political narrative of overthrowing feudalism, and the nationalist narrative of thwarted self-determination). Thus, a hundred years after this scroll was commissioned, of the few women placed in this scroll, those who are currently salient are only those in comparatively recent memory like this historical Bibi Khanim Pādishāh (the fictional Jallat Khenim), and the earliest religious figures like Eve, Fāṭima, and ʿĀʾis̲h̲a.
Genealogical (shajara) scrolls like Prov. 561 were in common use in Central Asia and in other parts of the Muslim world. Some of them are kept in shrines and Sufi lodges. Shajara scrolls were written not just as genealogies but also to describe Sufi techniques. Some of the scrolls show thesilsila chain of succession of Sufi masters. Scrolls like this one usually start with seals and headers, and a profession of faith. The genealogy starts with Adam and Eve, continues through Prophet Muḥammad, four caliphs to Āfāqi lineage. Names of figures were usually written in roundels of shrine images and has quotations from Quran and Hadith.
Less commonly, Prov. 561 also includes Iranian mythical heroes as described in Ferdowsi's Shahname, as well as including Turkic and Mughal rulers. Opinions vary as to the role of shajara scrolls. They may act as legal documents used by the descendants of Sufis for the purpose of acquiring waqf or getting tax incentives from rulers (Sugawara and Kawahara 2006). Yet these scrolls exceed legal documents with their elaborate decorations (Papas p.c. 2015); they must have had both political and religious purposes. On the one hand, the Shajara scrolls depict the Sufi lineages as if they constituted a royal dynasty. On the other hand, the scrolls were fixed on walls and were used as “ritual readings, but ritual contemplation.” They served to display the supernatural powers the Khwājas and to prove that they were blessed by God (Alexandre Papas, p.c. 2015, A. Papas 2018).
Hagiographies (biographical writings) were used in Central Asia to transmit knowledge about Sufi matters, their lives, teachings, activities and miracles. Such works were written by descendants or disciples of Sufi masters. By tracing their lineage to Sufi saints and through them to the Prophet of Islam, the authors of hagiographies were interested in achieving solidarity within their own groups and establishing their status and privilege among outsiders. Hagiographies tell about anecdotes significant for the group and its tradition. The anecdotes were usually about the devotion and martyrdom of Sufi saints, their miracles and their efforts in spreading Islam and Sufi teachings among other people.
The relationship between Shajara and Hagiography: While Shajara scrolls present an entire putative Sufi genealogy well beyond Sufism (beginning from Ādam and Ḥawwā through Prophet to the Khwājas), hagiographies usually concentrate on the lives and teachings of individual Sufi masters alone. Due to the nature of writing, which must proceed linearly, Shajara can incorporate multiple dimensions of a Sufi's bloodline and visually present it without relying on textual representation of their connections. In that sense, hagiographies represent only a part of what is represented on Shajara. In order to understand the lives, events, stories and legends surrounding individuals in a Shajara, for example Jarring Prov. 561, one would have to refer to books like Qissesul Anbiya, Shahname, and many other hagiographies. For example, the hagiographies The biography of Sayyid Āfāq Isḥāḳ (Jarring Prov. 48) and The tazkira of the Holy Sayyid Āfāq Khwāja (Jarring Prov. 369) describes the ancestors, life events and miracles of one central protagonist, Mak̲h̲dūm-i Aʿẓam Āfāq Khwāja whose ancestors were chronologically listed. The chronological narrative excluded what is on the Shajara a horizontal relationship between the siblings of each Khwāja.
These biographical writings dedicated to individuals who were seen by their authors as having holy and saintly status, they are about Sufi masters, their lives, career and their miracles. Before the rise of hagiography in Persian and Turkic, the precursor to hagiography literature were written in Arabic and was called ṭabaqāt, meaning ‘generations’ or “mémoire, “collection of biographies.” (Paul 2002; Papas 2015, p.c.). They were written since the eleventh century and were mostly biographical records dedicated to Sufis. They included works such as Ṭabaqāt al-ṣufiya, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣufiya, Kašf al-maḥjub, and Šarḥ al-taʿarrof. They portrayed Sufis as descending from Prophet Muḥammad in a chain of succession. Such writings attempted to justify that Sufi practices were in line with the teachings of Islam. “Thus, the portraits of the individual subjects of these hagiographic collections, in which biographies are arranged in an overall chronological pattern of succession, represent their respective compilers’ specific ideals and agendas” (Paul 2002). Later hagiographic works were either translated into or written in Persian. Those works were about individual mystics. Hagiographic stories were either written or orally transmitted as first hand experience by those who witnessed the lives of the Sufi saints and were rewritten, adapted and re-adapted by different authors at different times. From being accounts of collection of events in the lives of Sufis, later works gradually developed chronological narrative of Sufi masters' lives, about their birth, childhood, adulthood, their learning and the times they stand and the end of their lives. Since 11th century, hagiographic works incorporated descriptions of miraculous events ascribed to Sufis. The hagiographic works aimed to transmit the spiritual teachings of Sufi masters, rather than describing their life events faithfully. “Hagiography can be seen as a technique for making events meaningful or, conversely, for expressing doctrines in the form of narratives, as a specific sub-genre of historiography” (Paul 2002).
During Mongol rule, religious orthodoxy declined in favor of Sufism. The period also saw the development, solidification and continuation of hereditary Sufi orders, which influenced the way hagiographical works were written. If early hagiographic works defended Sufis against religious orthodoxy by portraying them as pious Muslims who acted in accordance with the teachings of Islam, the hagiographic works under Mongol rule focused more on the elaboration of Sufi themes, narrating the transmission of Sufi teachings and the initiation and continuation of the Sufi tradition. The Timurid poet ʿAbd al-Raḥmān D̲j̲āmī's Nafaḥāt al-uns 'The breath of divine intimacy', compiled in the 15th century was a well-known ṭabaqāt genre work, which was translated into Chaghatay by the famous Turkic poet Nawā'i who was a close friend of D̲j̲āmī. Abd al-Rahmat Al-Sulamī's Ṭabaqāt Al-Ṣūfiyya 'The Book of the Generations of the Sufis' is another example of ṭabaqāt writing (Martin 1983). The work describes a group of men seeking guidance and knowledge in five classes. “In each class, the author mentions some holy words, their virtues, their path, state, and conduct.” The ṭabaqāt genre works were cumulatively produced, so that each writer added materials from their own period or change the ones came from the past (Papas 2015, p.c.).
Jarring Prov. 561 Genealogy, may be studied in two views:
Citation: Dwyer, Arienne M. and Akbar Amat 2021 [2020]. An Introduction to Prov. 561 Genealogical table from Adam to Hazrat Khan Khwaja Muḥammad and Yaqub Beg. In Arienne M. Dwyer, Jeff Rydberg-Cox and Sandra Kübler, 2018-2022. Analyzing Turki Manuscripts from the Jarring Collection Online. https://uyghur.linguistics.indiana.edu/atmo.html
Credit: Painting of Mahmud al-Kashgari © 1981 by Ghāzī Emet.
