{"id":289,"date":"2014-06-15T23:26:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T23:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vargiskhan.com\/log\/?p=289"},"modified":"2021-03-31T11:06:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T11:06:41","slug":"jinns-jamali-kamali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vargiskhan.com\/log\/jinns-jamali-kamali\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jinns Of Jamali Kamali"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before I write anything here, the whole situation of Jamali Kamali kind of reminds of some couplets that I read a long time ago. I will start the article with a couplet,<\/p>\n

Na Mandir mein sanam, Na Masjid mein Khuda hota,
\nHamse hi ye tamasha hai, Na ham hote toh kya hota…<\/p>\n

Right next to Qutub Minar is another Archaeological site that very few people know about. People who do know about it just know that it is another one of several Mughal Era monuments standing in ruins all over Delhi. This is the Jamali Kamali mosque which if one is to consider has more glory to it than Qutub Minar itself but the only attention it now gets is because of the haunting stories related to\u00a0 Jinns that are believed to reside there.<\/p>\n

\"Jamali<\/a>
\nThis mosque, built in 1528-29, is located within Mehrauli Archaeological Park, which actually shares boundary with Qutub Minar premises. Entrance to this park is however about 500 meters away from Qutub Minar’s entrance gate. Within the mosque, built in a separate area, are the tombs of Jamali and Kamali. There is no entry fee here and the park is always full with kids playing and elderly people taking a walk. Within the lush green of the park, at an almost isolated corner, stands this magnificent monument which just by one look you can tell needs some serious attention of authorities but unfortunately isn\u2019t getting any. There is a single security guard posted in the premises which I am sure must get bored a lot because there is rarely anyone around here ever. He looks like a ghost himself sitting in a corner. Right outside the gate of the mosque and as a matter of fact all over this park are several other tombs that are now just stones and walls crumbling down, exposing the graves that were once inside the tombs. In fact we wouldn\u2019t know about the other tombs if we didn\u2019t bother to read the signs put up by ASI. In short, it is a perfect setting for a ghost story.<\/p>\n

\"Jamali<\/a><\/p>\n

So who were Jamali and Kamali?<\/p>\n

Jamali was pseudonym of Sheikh Hamid bin Fazlu\u2019llah who was also known as Sheikh Jamal-ud-din Kamboh Dehlawi aka Jalal Khan. He was a Sufi saint known for his poetry and came to India during the reign of Sultan Sikendar Lodi [ruled 1489-1517 AD] and settled in Delhi. He was already known by 3 different names but people, impressed by his poetry and seeing the beauty in the words, gave him his fourth name Jamali. Jamali comes from Urdu word Jamal which means beauty and positive aura. He was a disciple of another Sufi poet Sheikh Sama-ud-din and the mosque that now hosts his tomb was his place of chilla-nashini. It is said that such was the beauty of Jamali’s poems that even Sikendar Lodi who himself was a renowned poet used to get his works corrected by Jamali. After Mughals conquered India, Jamali was offered a place in their court and remained there during the reign of Babar and Humayun, until his death. It is also said that it was Humayun himself who had the tomb built after Jamali’s death.<\/p>\n