Data Ganj Bakhsh (Ali Hujwiri)
Persian Sufi who settled in Lahore and wrote the Kashf al-Mahjub, one of the oldest Sufi treatises in Persian. His shrine is Lahore's most visited.
Abul Hasan Ali Hujwiri was born around 1009 near Ghazni in Afghanistan, travelled widely among the Sufis of the Islamic world, and came to Lahore with the Ghaznavid armies, settling there in the 1030s or 1040s. He died around 1072.
He wrote the Kashf al-Mahjub, 'The Unveiling of the Hidden', the oldest treatise on Sufism in Persian, which explains the path, its stages and its masters, and is still read by Sufis everywhere.
His tomb, Data Darbar, outside the old walls of Lahore, is the most visited shrine in Pakistan. He is called Data Ganj Bakhsh, the giver of treasures, and later saints including Moinuddin Chishti are said to have meditated at his grave before setting out. For a thousand years, the people of Lahore have called him the patron of their city.
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The Sufi lineages
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Teacher to disciple, simplified. Dashed lines skip generations: the Qadiri saints of the Punjab belonged to Abdul Qadir Jilani's order but lived centuries after him. Darker boxes are poets and saints of the Punjab with their own pages. Mian Mir was a friend of Guru Arjan; Sikh tradition says he laid the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib.