Khâlid-i Shahrazuri

Mawlana Khâlid Shahrazuri also known as Khâlid-i Baghdâdî and Mawlana Khalid^[1][2] (Kurdish: مەولانا خالیدی نەقشبەندی, romanized: Mewlana Xalîdî Neqişbendî; 1779–1827) was a Kurdish Sufi,^[3] and poet by the name of Shaykh Diya al-Dīn Khalid al-Shahrazuri,^[4] the founder of a branch of the Naqshbandi Sufi order - called Khalidi after him - that has had a profound impact not only on his native Kurdish lands but also on many other regions of the western Islamic world.^[5] His writings are among the earliest examples of prose and poetry in Central Kurdish.^[2][6]

Shahrazuri acquired the epithet Baghdadi through his frequent stays in Baghdad, for it was in the town of Karadağ (Qaradagh) in the Shahrizur region,^[7] about 5 miles from Sulaymaniyah, that he was born in 1779.

Early life

He was born in the year 1779 in the village of Karadağ, near the city of Sulaymaniyah, in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan. His family belonged to the Jaff tribe that claimed descent from the 3rd caliph 'Uthman. Hence, the attribution al-'Uthmani is sometimes added to his name. He was raised and trained in Sulaymaniyah, where there were many schools and many mosques and which was considered the primary educational city of his time. Young Khalid studied with the two great scholars of his time, Shaykh `Abdul Karam al-Barzinji and Shaykh `Abdur Rahim al-Barzinji, and he read with Mullah Muhammad `Ali.^[8]

See also

• Sharh al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya
• List of famous Sufis
• List of Kurdish people

• List of Kurdish philosophers

• List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
• List of Muslim theologians