The land of five waters gave the world its first cities, its saints and its songs. Broken by every empire that crossed it, it is still ours to remember, and to make whole again.

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Kingdoms & Struggles

Kingdoms & WarsWho ruled the Punjab, the Kingdom of Lahore, and the battles fought over itWho ruled the PunjabEvery ruling power, 518 BCE to todayWars & BattlesFrom the Hydaspes to BasantarStruggles & Partitions1849, 1919, 1947, 1966, 1984, 2020

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Punjab WikiPeopleSaints and teachers
Mian Mir
Unknown · Wikimedia
Sufi saint

Mian Mir

ਮੀਆਂ ਮੀਰمیاں میر

Qadiri Sufi of Lahore and friend of Guru Arjan. Tradition holds he laid the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib.

Mian Mir, Sheikh Muhammad Mir, was born in Sehwan in Sindh around 1550 and became the most respected Qadiri Sufi of Lahore. He lived simply in a small house outside the city and refused the gifts of emperors.

He was a friend of Guru Arjan. The Sikh tradition holds that the Guru invited him to lay the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib in 1588, a story that expresses the closeness of the Gurus to the Sufis of their time. When the Guru was tortured in Lahore in 1606, Mian Mir is said to have come to him offering to plead with the emperor, and to have been told to accept God's will.

Jahangir and Shah Jahan both visited him, and Prince Dara Shikoh became his devoted disciple. He died in 1635, and his shrine in the Mian Mir quarter of Lahore remains a place of pilgrimage for Muslims and Sikhs alike.

Places linked to Mian Mir, numbered in order

Connected

Guru Arjan Dev
Guru Arjan Dev1563 – 1606

Fifth Guru. Built the Harmandir Sahib, compiled the Adi Granth in 1604 and became the first Sikh martyr, tortured to death in Lahore in 1606.

Guru Hargobind
Guru Hargobind1595 – 1644

Sixth Guru. Wore two swords, miri and piri, for worldly and spiritual authority, built the Akal Takht and fought the first Sikh battles against Mughal forces.

Data Ganj Bakhsh (Ali Hujwiri)
Data Ganj Bakhsh (Ali Hujwiri)c. 1009 – 1072

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.

Shah Hussain
Shah Hussain1538 – 1599

Lahore poet who shaped the Punjabi kafi. His shrine hosts the Mela Chiraghan, the festival of lamps.

The Sufi lineages

Teacher to disciple
CHISHTISUHRAWARDIQADIRIgenerations laterfriend and companionData Ganj BakhshLahore, d. c. 1072Moinuddin ChishtiAjmer, d. 1236Bakhtiyar KakiDelhi, d. 1235Baba FaridPakpattan, 1173–1266Nizamuddin AuliyaDelhi, d. 1325Alauddin SabirKaliyarAmir Khusraupoet, d. 1325Khwaja Ghulam FaridKot Mithan, 1845–1901Bahauddin ZakariyaMultan, 1170–1262Shah Rukn-e-AlamMultan, d. 1335Lal Shahbaz QalandarSehwan, d. 1274Abdul Qadir JilaniBaghdad, d. 1166Mian MirLahore, 1550–1635Dara ShikohMughal prince, d. 1659Shah HussainLahore, 1538–1599Sultan BahuJhang, 1630–1691Shah InayatLahore, d. 1728Bulleh ShahKasur, 1680–1757before the orders: the first great Sufi of Lahore

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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.

In the world's museums

3 objects
Sikh recruits, 34th Sikh Pioneers taking the 'Pahal', Mian Mir 1906', India, 1906Sikh recruits, 34th Sikh Pioneers taking the 'Pahal', Mian Mir 1906', India, 1906National Army Museum, London · photo Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Commons) ↗Portrait of Mian Mir and Mulla Shah MET sf09-227-4rPortrait of Mian Mir and Mulla Shah MET sf09-227-4rThe Met, New York · photo Creator:Muhammad Musa (Wikimedia Commons) ↗Painting of Dara Shikoh (left) and Mian Mir (right) seated together, ca.1630Painting of Dara Shikoh (left) and Mian Mir (right) seated together, ca.1630British Library, London · photo Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Commons) ↗

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