Pir Sabzali: Journey to Central Asia

Pir Sabzali (Sabz ‘Ali) Ramzanali (d. 1938) grew up in Mumbai. His widowed mother, worried about her teenage son’s waywardness, sent him to Gwadar, on the coast of Balochistan, to apprentice with the learned Varas Muhammad Remu. Under the latter’s tutelage, his character began to change and he soon became known as one of the most dynamic volunteers and gifted orators in the Ismaili community. In 1923, the Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III sent Pir Sabzali on a difficult mission to Central Asia to contact the isolated Ismaili communities in that mountainous region. Sabzali kept a diary in Gujarati of this harrowing journey, first serialized in The Ismaili from 1924 to 1926. Below are Episodes 10 and 23 from his fascinating travelogue in which he describes his travels through Chitral, now in Pakistan. In Episode 10, written in a literary style, Pir Sabzali relates his thoughts about the mission ahead and his complete trust in and reliance on the imam. In Episode 23, Sabzali encounters large numbers of Mawlais, Central Asian Ismailis, in the mountains of Badakhshan. He marvels at their dedication in the harshest of circumstances, revels in their all-night spiritual assembly and fervent recitation of the poetry of Nasir-i Khusraw, comments on their eagerness to hear the farmans, i.e. the commands, blessings and instructions of their imam, and expresses his admiration at the devotion of even their youngest children.

Virani, Shafique N., and Nizarali J. Virani. “Pīr Sabzālī: Journey to Central Asia (Madhya Eshiyā nī rasik vigato).” In An Anthology of Ismaili Literature: A Shiʿi Vision of Islam. Edited by Hermann Landolt, Samira Sheikh and Kutub Kassam,77-81. London: I.B. Tauris in association with Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2008.