The Naqshbandī Silsila: From Bukhara to Vakhshuvor

The Naqshbandī order is one of the most widely diffused mystical paths of Central Asia. If the history of the order is considered, it may be seen that although the Naqshbandī teaching took shape at Bukhara, new centres appeared in later times in other regions. The article sets out information concerning ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār, Mawlānā Muḥammad Zāhid and Sufi Allāhyār, three of the most influential representatives of the Naqshbandī chain, whose lives and activity are directly bound up with the regions of Bukhara, Samarkand and Surkhandarya. All three are among the celebrated spiritual guides of Sufism who carried the Naqshbandī order to Surkhandarya, and it was there that the new centres of the order were founded. Upon the basis of manuscript sources, of epigraphic material from the gravestones of the descendants of Sufi Allāhyār at Chonqaymish and of archival documents, the article traces the movement of the chain from Bukhara through Samarkand and Hisar to Vakhshuvor, and establishes the periods during which each of the three guides occupied the seat of the order.