Pir Sadardin

Pir Sadardin or Pir Sadruddin was a fourteenth-century Ismaili Da'i and is regarded as the founder of the Khoja Ismaili sect, also called Satpanth. Born in Persia, Sadardin later travelled to the Indian sub-continent, settled in the Sindh area, founded the Khoja community and developed the Khojki script.

Pir Saryyid Sadruddin Al-Husayni, the Ismaili missionary of the 15th Century, is also designated as Bargur, Pir Sadar Din, Sohodev, Vasimuhammad. and Haji Sadar Shah. He was born on Monday 2nd Rabiul of the year 700 after Hijra in the village Sabzwar in Persia. His year of birth is uncertain and sources differ from between twenty and fifty years. For example, Tawarikh-e-Pir gives the year as 650 A.H. whereas the Shajara, from which Professor W. Ivanow derives his information as published in his paper "The sect of Imam Shah in Gujrat" (1938) places his birth in 689 A.H. or 1,290 of the Pir Sadar Din, who traces his descent from Imam Ja'far-as-Sadiq (d. 148/763), arrived in India during the period of Imamat of Imam Kasim Shah (bet. 1310 C.E. and 1370 C.E.) and was raised to the dignity of Pirship by Imam Islam Shah - the 30th Imam in the traditional genealogical list of the Nizari branch of the Ismaili persuasion. His name appears in the 26th place amongst the authorised Pirs mentioned in the Former Holy Gujarati(Khojki) Du'a(Prayer). His father's name, as given in the Gulzar-e-Shams and corroborated by "Satveni Moti" and "Satveniji Vel" both alleged to have been written by Sayyid Muhammad Shah Bin Imam Shah, was Pir Shihabuddin or Sahebdin, to whom five of the Ginans are attributed and his mother was Noor Fatima bi'nt Ibrahim Sabzawari.

Tradition maintains that Pir Sadruddin trained as a preacher under Pir Shams Sabzawari (d. 757 A.H.) and accompanied the latter during his visit to Sindh, Punjab and Kashmir. Pir Sadruddin was not the pioneer Ismaili Da'i, who preached Ismailism in India, but it was mainly because of his preaching, courage and endeavours that the present Khoj'a community exists. The appellation "Khoja" derives from the Arabic word "Khawaja" meaning master which in course of its use by the natives has assumed the present form which has acquired international recognition. The first "Jamatkhana" − the prayer house for the new converts or Khojas was established by Pir Sadruddin at "Kotda" − a village in Punjab, Pakistan. The following translation of the verses from the work "Jannat Nama" or "Jannatpuri", composed by his grandson Sayyid Imamshah bin Pir Hasan Kabiruddin, reflects this fact:

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