12th c. CE — Bukhara
Khwājagān
The path of the masters and the eight sacred sayings
Overview
The Khwājagān — 'the Masters' — names the medieval Central Asian field of teachers later remembered as the ancestry of the Naqshbandiyya. Eight sacred sayings are traditionally associated with ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ghujdawānī; three further principles are connected with Bahāʾ al-Dīn Naqshband in the later Naqshbandi formulation.
Core teachings
- ◆Silent remembrance of the heart (dhikr-i khafī)
- ◆The eight sacred sayings (kalimāt qudsiyya), later expanded to eleven principles
- ◆Solitude in the crowd (khalwat dar anjuman)
Practices
- ◆Silent dhikr
- ◆Ṣuḥbat with the shaykh
- ◆Vigilance over the breath
Key texts
- Kalimāt-i Qudsiyya
- Risāla of ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ghujdawānī
Living legacy
From the Khwājagān sprang the Naqshbandī sensibility that would define Central Asian, Mughal and Ottoman Sufism.
Scholarly note
Yūsuf Hamadānī is regarded as the pivot shared between the Yasavī and Naqshbandī branches of the Khwājagān.