The Chishti

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This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on The Races, Castes and Tribes of the People in the Report on the Census of the Panjab published in 1883 by the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, KCSI Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article.

The Chishti

Caste No. 116 This heading includes two different classes of people. The Chishti or Chislitia is an order of Mahomedan faqirs founded by Banda Nawaz who is injuried at Kalbargah They are much given to singing, and are generally Shialis. The Indian Chishtis are also said to be followers of Khwajah Muin-ul-din of Chisht, who died in 471 Hij and was perhaps the same man as or a disciple of Banda Nawaz . At any rate there are members of the Chlshtia order in the Pan jab, and these are Chishtia by reason of their belonging to that order. But the celebrated Baba Farid of Pak Pattan was a Chishtia faqir ; and the descendants of his relations and children, whether carnal or spiritual, have developed into a caste which is found In the lower Satluj and ehielly In the Montgomery district, though they would appear to be found in other parts of the Panjab also, and which in niany respects much resembles the Bodlas next to be described.

Of the Chishtis of our table the whole 887 of the Dehli division and 140 of those of the Lahore division returned themselves as Chishtia faqirs, nnd are probably mere members of the order. The other figures I cannot separate. Mr. Purser savs that the ancestors of the Montgomery Chishtis are supposed to have come from Kabul to Lahore 600 years ago, and then moved to Montgomery where Baba Farid settled at Pak Pattan. Like the Bodlas they were till lately wholly nomad, and like them they claim Qureshi origin ; and it is not impossi ble that some of them have returned themselves as Shekh. They take Rajput girls to wife. There is a saying — You can tell a Chishti by his squint-eye ; but what the origin of it may be I know not.