The Shrine of Bayazid Bostami, one of the two most venerated Sufi holy places in Bangladesh is situated in Chattogram (Chittagong), Bangladesh (the other being Hazrat Shah Jalal in Sylhet).
Abu Yazid Ṭayfur b. Isa b. Surushan al-Bisṭami, commonly known in the Iranian world as Bayazid Bistami, was Persian Sufi from north-central Iran. Known to future Sufis as Sultan-ul-Arifin (“King of the Gnostics”), he is characterised in three different ways: a free thinking radical, a pious Sufi who is deeply concerned with following the Sha’riah and engaging in “devotions beyond the obligatory,” and a pious individual who is presented as having a dream similar to the Mi’raj of Prophet Muhammed.
While there is no historical record of Bayazid Bostami having visited Chattogram, it is plausible that either he or his followers did so in the middle of the 9th century as Chittagong as Chattogram was known then was a major port on the southern Silk Route connecting India, China and the Middle East.
The Bayazid Bostami shrine complex consists of Bostami’s tomb, which has been enclosed in a modern structure, an ancient mosque believed to date back to the time of the last great Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb (1658-1707), and a pond with many sacred turtles. While locals acknowledge that the body of Bayazid Bostami is not buried there, the tomb, attributed to him as a jawab or imitation, is nonetheless the object of veneration for the many thousands of pilgrims who visit there each year.
The pond, locally known as Bayazid Bostami Pukur, is the home of a large number of rare and endangered fresh-water black soft-shell turtles known as Bostami Kasim (Aspideretes nigricans). The people of Chittagong call these turtles Gadali-Madali and believe that they are supernatural creatures that did not obey the order of Bayazid Bostami and took this shape after angering him. It is said these turtles are doomed to spend eternity in the pond.
SHRINE OF BAYAZID BOSTAMI
SHRINE OF BAYAZID BOSTAMI
While there is no historical record of Bayazid Bostami having visited Chattogram, it is plausible that either he or his followers did so in the middle of the 9th century as Chittagong as Chattogram was known then was a major port on the southern Silk Route connecting India, China and the Middle East.