Journal of Asian Civilizations Vol. 40, No. 1, July 2017 141 Silencing of Women in Chishti Hagiographical Tradition in South Asia: A Study of Siyar al-awliyā Adeela Ghazanfar Abstract Hagiography/tadhkira is a sufi biographical compendium It is a conscious remembrance of sufis’ lives along with the concerned cultural residue and reconstructions. It has also been termed as memorative communication. The Chishti hagiographies also stand for remembering the lineage, sufis of the Silsilah, their teachings and dealings, past heritage. They remember most of the sufis in the Silsilah, Chishti practices, khānqāh life, prayers and most importantly, social affairs of the time. The present study will deal with the very first hagiography in Indian and Chishti history, Siyar al-awliyā. Written around 1350 by Amīr Khurd, who was a close disciple of Shaykh Nizam al-Dīn Awliyā (d. 1325). Its in-depth study explicit an operative gender ideology and a masculine coding that shapes the writer’s narrative. In his work, women have been commemorated as briefly as the writer could. They are only observed as pious mothers, sisters and wives. Women in the hagiographical tradition of South Asia had no other roles to play except cooking and cleaning, which depicts that there is an underlying idea of denying the spiritual equality, importance of woman generally in society and particularly in the Silsilah. The reader never comes across a woman who could be attributed as sufi in this tadhkira. The study suggests that it has silenced the women’s role not only in the sufi circles but in the medieval Indian legacy too, through this communicative remembrance. Men who surrender unto Allah, And women who surrender, And men who believe, And women who believe,