Hazrat Mian Mir

Hazrat Mian Mir was a Sufi saint of the Qadiri order who lived in Lahore, a contemporary of Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Hargobind. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism gives his years as about 1550 to 1635 and says he was born in Sindh, studied in Lahore and, after a brief stay in Sirhind, lived out his life there, honoured by rulers and commoners. Emperor Jahangir praised his piety in his memoirs, and the Mughal prince Dara Shukoh was among his disciples.

Key moments

• 1588, in tradition: Sikh tradition says Guru Arjan had Mian Mir lay the foundation stone of the Harimandar at Amritsar. The Encyclopaedia reports this as tradition. Wikipedia notes that it appears in Bute Shah's Tawarikh-i-Punjab (1848) and other later chronicles, not in early Sikh literature, and that it is absent from Sakinat al-Auliya, the 17th-century life of Mian Mir compiled by Dara Shukoh, so it treats the claim as doubtful.
• 1606: the Encyclopaedia says he could not save Guru Arjan from Jahangir. Sikh accounts such as SikhNet's say he visited the Guru in custody in Lahore and offered to pay the fine, which the Guru refused.
• Later: he helped secure Guru Hargobind's release from Gwalior Fort, according to the Encyclopaedia.
• August 1635: he died in Lahore. Sources give 11 or 22 August; Wikipedia says Dara Shukoh read the funeral oration. His mausoleum gave the Mian Mir locality its name, and Wikipedia says Sikhs and Muslims visit it and that an annual urs is held there.

Remembered for: a friendship across faiths that Sikhs and Muslims in Lahore still honour at his tomb, and a link between the Gurus and the Sufi tradition of the Punjab.