A Mughal City on the Tapti
Burhanpur sits on the northern bank of the Tapti river in the Khandesh region of what is today the state of Madhya Pradesh. The city was founded in the late fourteenth century (commonly given as 1399 CE) by the Faruqi sultans of Khandesh, and was named after the medieval Sufi saint Burhan al-Din. Under the Faruqis it grew into the capital of the Khandesh Sultanate and a noted centre for the weaving of fine muslin, brocade and other textiles.
In 1601 CE the Mughal emperor Akbar annexed Khandesh, and Burhanpur became the capital of the Khandesh subah (province) and the principal Mughal base for operations into the Deccan. For much of the seventeenth century it was a major administrative and commercial city, its prosperity resting on long-distance trade and textile production, until the Mughal centre of gravity in the Deccan shifted southward to Aurangabad. This well-established Mughal-era city, with its trading networks and its tolerance of diverse mercantile communities, was the setting into which the Tayyibi-Ismaili dawat extended its presence — part of the broader spread of the community across Gujarat and central India described in Bohra History.
Syedi Abdulqadir Hakimuddin (RA)
The figure most closely associated with Burhanpur in Bohra devotion is Syedi Abdulqadir Hakimuddin (RA), a learned saint of the dawat whose shrine gives the complex of Dargah-e-Hakimi its name. According to community accounts he was born in Rampura in the mid-1660s (the Hijri date is generally given as 14 Jumada al-Ula 1077 AH, corresponding to 1666 CE) into a family of religious standing, and is remembered for memorising the Qur’an in childhood and for authorship across several languages.
He served the dawat under successive Du’at, rising through its ranks — accounts describe his elevation to the office of mukasir under Syedna Nur Muhammad Nuruddin (RA) and later to the rank of mazoon (the Da’i’s senior deputy) under the 38th Da’i, Syedna Ismail Badruddin (RA). His extensive travels for the dawat took him through many towns of Rajasthan, Gujarat and central India, and ultimately to the region of Burhanpur, where he died. His passing is dated to 5 Shawwal 1142 AH (1729–1730 CE). A celebrated tradition holds that when his grave was disturbed by opponents some time after burial, his body was found undisturbed and fragrant, and he was reinterred; for this reason his urus is observed on two dates, the 5th and the 27th of Shawwal. On the ranks within the dawat hierarchy referred to here, see Dai Al Mutlaq Institution.
Burhanpur as a Seat of the Dawat
Burhanpur’s importance rose beyond that of a revered burial place when, in the later eighteenth century, it became for a time a working seat of the dawat itself. This was the era of the 41st Da’i al-Mutlaq, Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin (RA), son of the 38th Da’i Syedna Ismail Badruddin (RA), whose tenure as Da’i is generally dated to 1193–1200 AH (1780–1787 CE).
Community histories record that a grand residence (haveli), built in an ornate classical idiom, was raised at Burhanpur around 1197 AH, and that the Da’i adopted the city as a seat of the dawat after spending time there. Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin (RA) died at Burhanpur in 1200 AH / 1787 CE and was buried within the shrine complex, an event that permanently bound the office of the Da’i al-Mutlaq to the city in community memory. The presence of a Da’i al-Mutlaq’s residence and resting place marks Burhanpur as one of the relatively small number of places — alongside the later centres of Surat and Mumbai — that have served as administrative homes of the dawat in India.
The seat of the dawat did not remain at Burhanpur indefinitely. Under the Du’at who followed, the administrative centre of the community moved on, with Surat emerging as the principal hub of the dawat’s institutions before the office was eventually based in Mumbai. Some details of exactly which Da’i undertook particular constructions, and the precise sequence of moves, are reported variously in different community accounts; the broad picture — of Burhanpur as an eighteenth-century seat that later yielded its administrative role to Surat — is the most consistent thread.
Dargah-e-Hakimi and the Shrine Complex
The spiritual heart of Bohra Burhanpur today is Dargah-e-Hakimi, the shrine complex built around the resting place of Syedi Abdulqadir Hakimuddin (RA). The complex is widely described as housing three domed mausolea (qubbas) — for Syedi Abdulqadir Hakimuddin (RA) himself, for the 41st Da’i Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin (RA), and for Syedi Jeewanji Saheb (RA) — together with a mosque, gardens and extensive facilities for visitors.
In the second half of the twentieth century the complex was significantly developed and renovated under the 52nd Da’i al-Mutlaq, Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (RA), whose patronage is associated with beautifying the shrine while preserving its essential character. Over the decades the dargah has been expanded with large accommodation blocks, multi-storey guest buildings and a communal dining hall (mawaid) able to serve very large numbers, reflecting the steady growth in pilgrim traffic.
Pilgrimage, Devotion and Community Life
For Dawoodi Bohras, Burhanpur is among the most frequented ziyarat (pilgrimage) destinations within India. Mumineen travel from across the subcontinent and from the global diaspora to pray at the shrines, to fulfil vows (mannat) and to seek blessing and shifa (healing). The urus of Syedi Abdulqadir Hakimuddin (RA) draws especially large gatherings, with the dual urus dates in Shawwal forming fixed points in the devotional calendar of many families.
The continuity of pilgrimage has shaped Burhanpur into a place where the wider rhythms of Bohra communal life — congregational prayer, the communal meal of the thaal, and the observance of the dawat’s calendar — are sustained for visitors throughout the year. In this way the city functions not merely as a monument to an eighteenth-century chapter of the dawat’s history but as a living centre of devotion, linking present-day mumineen to the saints and Du’at of earlier generations and to the longer arc of the community’s journey traced in Bohra History and Duat Mutlaqeen.