The Silsila Tree — Dakhni.org

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RootThe Prophet Muhammad ﷺ — according to the traditional initiatic genealogies of the orders^[1]^[2]

Early transmittersʿAli ibn Abi Talib in most classical order genealogies; Abu Bakr is especially important in Naqshbandi tradition^[1]^[3]

Silsilas shownChishti · Qadiri · Suhrawardi · Naqshbandi

Deccan figures tracedSeven

Major seatsKhuldabad · Gulbarga · Pahadi Sharif · Hyderabad^[4]^[5]

MethodNamed links where supported; dashed gaps where the archive has not independently verified every intermediate generation

The Shajara The Chains◆The Tree◆Reading the Tree

I · The Chains

Seven saints, one tree

Every saint recorded in this archive stood inside a chain of masters — and every chain ascends to the same root.

A silsila is an initiatic genealogy: an order's traditional record of transmission from teacher to disciple. These genealogies are important historical evidence for how Sufi communities understood spiritual authority, but they are not identical to a modern archival pedigree, and individual order histories can preserve different versions of remote links. Most classical Sufi orders traditionally trace initiatic descent through ʿAli ibn Abi Talib; Naqshbandi tradition gives a distinctive place to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, while also preserving links through Jaʿfar al-Sadiq in its initiatic genealogy.^[1,3,6]

The Deccan portion of this chart is assembled from the cited scholarship and from the seven biographical records linked from the tree. The Chishti line around Nizamuddin Awliya, Burhanuddin Gharib and Bandanawaz is especially well documented in scholarship on the Deccan and the Chishti order; Bandanawaz's relationship to Nasir al-Din Chiragh-i-Delhi is independently documented in Encyclopaedia Iranica.^[4,5,2] The Qadiri founder ʿAbd al-Qadir Jilani and Naqshbandi eponym Baha al-Din Naqshband are likewise identifiable historical figures, while later local branches require more caution.^[7,6]

The gold cards are the seven Deccan figures covered by this archive. Solid named links represent relationships supported by the cited biographical/order sources or by the linked saint records. Dashed gaps are deliberately not presented as fully verified intermediate genealogies: they indicate generations or local connections that this archive has not independently documented name by name. Family descent is shown separately from formal initiatic succession where the source material distinguishes them.

Five chains at once make a wide chart. Use the row of chips above the chart to read one silsila at a time; the zoom, fit and full-screen controls sit in the corners of the chart itself.

II · The Tree

From the Prophet ﷺ to the Deccan

The tree opens at the founders of the orders. Use the button in the top-left of the chart to reveal the earlier generations, up to the Companions and the Prophet ﷺ.

Chain

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✦ Saint of this archive — opens his record Founder of a silsila Documented but unnamed links · family descent

Drag the chart to travel across it · the circle beneath a card folds or unfolds its successors · + − zoom, 0 fit, F full screen, Esc to leave it

The chains, in brief (the interactive tree needs JavaScript):

Chishti — Khwaja Mu'inuddin Chishti of Ajmer → Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki → Baba Farid of Pakpattan → Nizamuddin Awliya → Burhanuddin Gharib of Khuldabad, whose successors were Zayn al-Din Shirazi and Rukn al-Din Dabir al-Mulk; and Nizamuddin Awliya → Nasir al-Din Chiragh-i-Delhi → Bandanawaz Gisudaraz of Gulbarga, whose disciple Sayyid Muhammad Akbar Husayni compiled his discourses.

Qadiri — Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir Jilani of Baghdad → (documented chain) → Sayyid Yusuf al-Husayni of Bidar → Shah Raju Qattal of Hyderabad, whose own Husayni Sayyid ancestry runs through Sayyid Hamza → his descendants, the Yousufain brothers and the Mahbub Subhani line.

Suhrawardi — Shaykh Shihab al-Din 'Umar al-Suhrawardi of Baghdad → Baha al-Din Zakariya of Multan → (documented chain) → Baba Sharfuddin of Pahadi Sharif.

Hamadani line — the family of Sayyid 'Ali al-Hamadhani of Kashmir → Hussain Shah Wali of Hyderabad.

Naqshbandi — Khwaja Baha al-Din Naqshband of Bukhara → (brought south by Mughal-era scholars) → Khwaja Habibullah Naqshbandi → the Naqshbandi-Qadiri line of Hyderabad → Shah Khamosh.

Reading the Tree

Read this chart as a source-qualified map of traditions, not as a claim that Dakhni.org has independently proven every link back to the seventh century. Named links nearest the Deccan figures are drawn from the cited order histories, scholarly biographies and the linked saint records. Dashed segments mark unverified or unnamed intermediate generations, condensed transmission, or family descent rather than formal khilafat. The upward roots through ʿAli and Abu Bakr reproduce conventional order genealogies discussed in the scholarly literature; they are presented as the orders' initiatic traditions, not as independently reconstructed modern genealogies.^[1,3,6] Where local records preserve two different threads — for example initiatic succession and family ancestry — the visualization keeps them separate rather than forcing them into a single parent-child claim.

References

^ ^ ^ ^ Hamid Algar, “Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq iii. And Sufism,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. ↗
^ ^ Carl W. Ernst & Bruce B. Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
^ ^ ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica, “ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭāleb ii. ʿAlī as seen by the community,” section on Sufi order genealogies. ↗
^ ^ Richard M. Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761: Eight Indian Lives, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
^ ^ Richard M. Eaton, “Gisu-Daraz,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. ↗
^ ^ ^ Hamid Algar, “Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Naqšband,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. ↗
^ Bruce B. Lawrence, “ʿAbd-al-Qāder Jīlānī,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. ↗

Compiled and edited by Syed Azhar Farhan for Dakhni.org from the sources cited on this page. AI may assist research and drafting; see the editorial method, corrections log, and AI policy.