Data Ganj Bakhsh Khwaja Ali Hujjwiri

Tomb of Hazrat Data Ganj Baksh / Image source

Also known as Data Ganj Baksh (Distributor of Unlimited Power), Khwaja Ali Hujjwiri lived in 11th century AD and is considered to be the earliest Sufi Saint of repute who made India his home.

Born in Ghazni in Afghanistan, he died in Lahore and his tomb, known popularly as Data Darbar, is an important place of pilgrimage in the city.

Also called Shaykh al-Hujwiri, Khwaja Ali Hujjwiri was a scholar and is known for compiling Kashf-ul-Mahjoob or Kashf al-Mahjub (Revelation of Mystery), a Persian treatise on Sufism, which was translated into English by British Orientalist and scholar Reynold Alleyne Nicholson. The work gives the biographies of Sufis from Prophet Muhammad's days to his own time.

Hujwiri died in 1073 and was buried in Lahore. His shrine was visited by famous Chisti saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti who paid his homage to him by hailing him as 'Ganj Baksh' , the perfect pir.

The grandson of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni constructed a tomb over the grave of Hujwiri, and this tomb-shrine became a site of pilgrimage for his devotees.

Even today Hujwiri is revered as Data Ganj Bakhsh or “Giver who bestows treasures” and his mausoleum is called Data Darbar or “Court of the Giver”.

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