Abdullah Shah Ghazi

Inside the shrine of the Abdullah Shah Ghazi

Sohail Lari suggests (in his book, A History of Sindh) that Shah Ghazi was an Arab merchant who had come to Sindh with the first wave of Arab invaders. However, another noted historian, M. Daudpota, suggests that Ghazi arrived in the area from Iraq as a commander, who along with Muhammed Bin Qasim, fought Sindh's Hindu ruler, Raja Dahir, in the eighth century.[2] Abdullah Shah Ghazi was said to have been killed in a forest in the interior Sindh by his enemies. His devotees buried his body on top of a hill at the coastal area, where he had earlier arrived on an Arab ship. This area now lies in the vicinity of Clifton and Sea View in Karachi.[2]

The shrine is situated next to what will be Pakistan's tallest skyscraper.

The tomb is built on a high platform, though the body is kept in a subterranean crypt. The shrine is made of a high, square chamber and a green-and-white striped dome, decorated with Sindhi tilework, flags and buntings. Devotees to the shrine caress the silver railing around the burial place and drape it with garlands of flowers. The shrine is highly regarded and respected by people of all ethnicities and religions.[3][4]

Until the early twentieth century, the shrine was a small hut on top of a sandy hill in Clifton. The shrine was built and expanded by Murshid Nadir Ali Shah, a Sufi saint of Qalandariyya Sufi Order and the then custodian of the shrine.[5][6][7] The iconic building of the shrine, its stairs, mosque, Langar Khana, Qawwali Hall and pilgrim lodge were built under his supervision.[7] The shrine became a centre of attraction for people belonging to different sects, ethnicities and sections of society.[4] Free meals and the devotional poetry such as Qawwali became the essential features of the shrine[1] The shrine was always devotionally connected to Nadir Ali Shah's dervish lodge, called Pathan Kafi in Sehwan Sharif and for a long time the arrangements of the shrine and langar continued under his supervision.[6][8] In 1962, the Auqāf department took its administrative control. The twice a day free meal started by Nadir Ali Shah continued under the management of his followers.[1][7] In 2011, the shrine was handed over to a Pakistani construction giant, Bahria Town, who renovated the exterior of the shrine.[9] This received a mixed response from the residents of Karachi.[10]

The Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine was attacked in 2010 by militants who detonated two suicide bombs at the shrine, killing 10 and injuring 50.[3]

• List of mausoleums and shrines in Pakistan
• Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, descendant of Imam Hasan ibn Ali
• Nadir Ali Shah
• Gazi Pir