The chains or orders (silsilas) of Sufi mysticism in India, each tracing a spiritual lineage from master to disciple, divided into the ba-shara orders (following Islamic law) and the be-shara (free of formal law).
- Chishti order: founded in India by Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (dargah at Ajmer); leading saints Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki (Delhi), Baba Farid (Punjab) and Nizamuddin Auliya; valued sama (devotional music), poverty and distance from the state.
- Suhrawardi order: established by Bahauddin Zakariya in Multan; unlike the Chishtis, its saints accepted state patronage and held property.
- Qadiri order: spread later (15th to 16th century), strong in the Deccan; the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh was a follower.
- Naqshbandi order: introduced by Khwaja Baqi Billah, made influential by Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (Mujaddid); orthodox, opposed sama and innovations, and pressed for stricter Islamic practice.
- Vocabulary: khanqah (hospice), pir or shaikh (master), murid (disciple), dargah (tomb-shrine), wali (saint), urs (death anniversary festival).
Order-to-founder and order-to-attitude matching (Chishti at Ajmer favouring sama and shunning the state, Naqshbandi orthodox and anti-sama, Suhrawardi accepting state patronage) is a recurring medieval-culture grid.
Chishti and Suhrawardi are both early ba-shara orders, but Chishtis kept away from rulers while Suhrawardis took state office; the Naqshbandi order was orthodox and opposed the music (sama) that the Chishtis embraced.
Four main silsilas: Chishti (Ajmer, sama), Suhrawardi (Multan, state-linked), Qadiri (Dara Shikoh) and Naqshbandi (orthodox, Sirhindi).