Abstract
Ismailis flourished in Baghdad during the days of Abbasid Caliphate and preached their religious thoughts and ideology amongst the masses mainly that of Iraq. Since their beliefs and practices were poles apart form that of Abbasids, the Ismailis suffered badly at the hands of Abbasids, who were succeeded to drive them out of Iraq. After wards, Ismailis settled down in the Saleemah (City of present Syria) and sent their missionaries in Arab Penisula, Egypt, Iran and Sindh. During the Soomra regime (1050 A.D - 1351 A.D) in Sindh, a number of Ismaili missionaries arrived here and commenced the preach of their own version of religious ideology. Amongst them, Syed Noor-u-ddin, Pir Shams-u-ddin Sabzwari, Pir Saddar-u-ddin, Pir Hassan Kabir-u-ddin and Pir Taj-u-ddin alias Shah Turail stand at the top. They all richly contributed in the newly- introduced style of poetry called ‘Ginan’, whos poetic structure closely matches with Sindhi Kafi. The Ginan repleted with the subjects like, worship of God - head, mysticism, spiritualism and ethics, was greatly utilized by Ismailis for the very purpose of spreading out their religious ideas mainly in the southern parts of Sindh. Ginans, without saying, form a dominant portion of early Sindhi poetry and are still sung in the Jamait khanas of Ismailis in Sindh. Besides, Pir Saddar-u-ddin invented a new alphabet named Khwajki Sindhi, consisting of 40 letters and thus called Chaleeh Akhri -a unique experience in Sindhi alphabet making.
Ghulam Mustafa Solangi. (2014) Ismaili Preachers And Sindhi Literature , Karoonjhar Research Journal, Volume-10, Issue-1.
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