Shah Inayat Rizvi

Shah Ïnayatullah (Sindhi: شاه عنایت اللہ ‎) (c. 1613 – c. 1701), Shah Inayat or Inat, was a 17th-century Sindhi Sufi Poet from Nasarpur, Sindh, Pakistan.

He belonged to a branch of the Rizvi Syed family, which originated from Bukkur in Sindh province. Some time during the 14th–16th centuries, Ïnayatullah's ancestors settled at Nasarpur, in the present Hyderabad District. His father, Shah Nasruddin, was a respectable religious man who in his advanced age left the Suhrawardiyyah order of Sufis, to which the Rizvi Syeds traditionally belonged, to become a follower of Shah Khairuddin of Sukkur. According to family tradition, it was due to the blessings of Shah Khairuddin that Shah Ïnayatullah was born to Shah Nasruddin when he was at an advanced age. The birth date of the poet is not recorded, but it may be inferred that he was born during the decade of the saint's death (between 1613–1623).

In accordance with the family tradition of the Syeds in Sindh, Shah Ïnayatullah would have received his basic education in a local madrasah, but internal evidence from his poetry shows his advanced knowledge of Persian, Arabic and Islamic philosophy. Additionally, there is ample proof of his intimate knowledge of music, the Sufi saints, the life of villagers in Sindh and their folk-ways and folk-tales, and of various places, particularly in the Sindh region and the adjoining country of Kutch. He seems to have travelled far and wide in these areas.

Shah Ïnayatullah was a classical poet in as much as he used the classical Sindhi idiom and employed the classical forms of Sindhi bait and waee or kafi in his poetry. Yet he heralded a new era in the domain of Sindhi poetry by combining the poetic contents of the age-old bardic tradition and the more cultivated spiritual thought of the Sufi-saint poets. Prior to this, Sindhi poetry had been nurtured by country bards and professional minstrels to commemorate the valour of heroes in wars or the munificence of the generous in peace, and to entertain the people by composing and singing their fold tales and pseudo-historical romances. It was also employed by the Sufis and the saints as a medium to express their spiritual ideas and experiences or convey their personal approval or disapproval of the deeds of contemporary individuals.

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