Biography
Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680 in the small village of Uch in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. His ancestors immigrated from Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan.
His family moved to Malakwal when he was six months old.
His father, Shah Mohammed Derveys, was a preacher and teacher in a village mosque. His father later found a job in Pandoke, about 80 kilometers southeast of Kasur. Bulleh Shah received his early school education in Pandoke and moved to Kasur to pursue higher education to become a student of distinguished professor Ghulam Murtaz. He also received training from Maulan Mohiyuddin. His spiritual teacher was the famous Sufi saint Shah Inayat Qadri.
Bulleh Shah was a direct descendant of Mohammed, a descendant of Sheikh Abdulkadir Gillani of Baghdad.
Much of what is known about Bulleh Shah is mythical and subjective; So much so that historians cannot even agree on the date and place of his birth. Some “facts” about his life were compiled from his own writings. Other “truths” seem to have been transmitted through oral tradition.
Bulleh Shah practiced the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets such as Shah Hussain (1538-1599), Sultan Bahu (1629-1691), and Shah Sharaf (1640-1724).
Bulleh Shah lived at the same time as the famous Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai (1689-1752).
His life is also known by the famous Punjabi poet Waris Shah (1722 – 1798), the famous Heer Ranjha and the famous poet Sindhi Sufi Abdul Wahad (1739 – 1829), better known by the pseudonym Sachal Sarmast (“Search for Truth”). Bulleh Shah, one of the Urdu poets, lived 400 miles from Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810) in Agra.
He died in 1758 and his tomb is in Kasur, Pakistan.
