yousuf


Multan
City of Saints
SHAH YOUSUF GARDEZI

Family Photograph on June ,1928

Family Photograph on June ,1951

The legend declared that ,nine hundred years ago
Shah Yusef Gardezi came riding into Multan on a lion ,
with alive snake for a whip and with a pair of pigeons
fluttering over his head .he had ridden his lion all the way
from gardaz in Afghanistan,and he had broght with him the
teaching of the Twelve Imam branch of the shi ah sect of
Islam.Thiswhole quarter of the city is now occupied by the
houses of the gardezis and the gardezis'cousins'cousins.
Asfor the pigeons,thay live on the gardezis'roof and cluster,
in force,on the gardezis'saintly ancestor's tomb. The tomb is
cased in blue tiles,dating from the reign of the mughal emperor
humayun,and at intervels there are apertures inthe tile-work ,
opening into cavities specially prrovided to give the pigeons a
lodging as close as possible to the spot where the saint's
body lies.It is a pretty sight to see them poking in and out,
for all the worldas
if the tomb had been build solely for their benefit.
The pigeons flutter here below. The kites soar there,up aloft,
at what looks almost like jet-plane altitude when one lifts up one's
eyes towards the sky.Since this is the indian sub-continent,
the kites do not make the pigeons their prey.Thay take their
cue from the locel human beings and leave the pigeons alone.
Nine hundred years of unbroken fimily history,what a
sheet-anchor for the furtunate Gardezis in this swiftly
changing word.

ARNORD J. TOYNBEE (BETWEEN OXUS AND JUMNA)

Shrine to Shah Yousef Gardezi who arrived in Multan from Afghanistan in 1060 AD stands inside the Bohar Gate entrance to Hussein Aghai Bazaar. Its interior walls are painted with exuberant floral motifs and courtyard tombstones are covered with the exquisite blue-patterned tiles identified with Multan.



The legend declared that ,nine hundred years ago
Shah Yusef Gardezi came riding into Multan on a lion ,
with alive snake for a whip and with a pair of pigeons
fluttering over his head .he had ridden his lion all the way
from gardaz in Afghanistan,and he had broght with him the
teaching of the Twelve Imam branch of the shi ah sect of
Islam.Thiswhole quarter of the city is now occupied by the
houses of the gardezis and the gardezis'cousins'cousins.
Asfor the pigeons,thay live on the gardezis'roof and cluster,
in force,on the gardezis'saintly ancestor's tomb. The tomb is
cased in blue tiles,dating from the reign of the mughal emperor
humayun,and at intervels there are apertures inthe tile-work ,
opening into cavities specially prrovided to give the pigeons a
lodging as close as possible to the spot where the saint's
body lies.It is a pretty sight to see them poking in and out,
for all the worldas
if the tomb had been build solely for their benefit.
The pigeons flutter here below. The kites soar there,up aloft,
at what looks almost like jet-plane altitude when one lifts up one's
eyes towards the sky.Since this is the indian sub-continent,
the kites do not make the pigeons their prey.Thay take their
cue from the locel human beings and leave the pigeons alone.
Nine hundred years of unbroken fimily history,what a
sheet-anchor for the furtunate Gardezis in this swiftly
changing word.

ARNORD J. TOYNBEE (BETWEEN OXUS AND JUMNA)

Shrine to Shah Yousef Gardezi who arrived in Multan from Afghanistan in 1060 AD stands inside the Bohar Gate entrance to Hussein Aghai Bazaar. Its interior walls are painted with exuberant floral motifs and courtyard tombstones are covered with the exquisite blue-patterned tiles identified with Multan.: The city of Multan possesses the finest collection of mausoleums. The earliest of these, the mausoleum of Shah Yousuf Gardezi (1152), with a simple rectangular shape, appears to have been an initial effort. It relies wholly on the brilliant play of colour produced by its surface ornamentation of encaustic tiles which encase of these tiles are merely painted, some are moulded into a form of low relief decoration .The Shrine of Muhammad Yusaf Gardezi commonly known as Shah Gardez just inside the Bohar Gate.

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