ʿUbaidallāh Ibn-Maḥmūd Aḥrār

Nāṣir ad-Dīn ʿUbaydullāh ibn Maḥmūd ibn Shihāb ad-Dīn more popularly known as Khwaja Ahrar was a member of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Sufi spiritual order of Central Asia. He was born in Samarkand, a city in Central Asia, to a Muslim family. He was born to Khwaja Mehmood Shashi bin Khwaja Shihabuddin. His forefathers had migrated from Baghdad, and his lineage was connected to Abu Bakr Siddique from his paternal side and Umar Farooq from the maternal side. Khwaja Ahrar was deeply involved in the social, political and economics activities of Transoxania. He was born into a relatively poor yet highly spiritual family and, at the age of maturity, he was probably the richest person in the kingdom. He was a close associate of all the leading dervishes of the time. Maulana Abdur Rahman Jami was a disciple of his. He learned and practiced the secrets of spirituality under his father and later under Khwaja Yaqub Charkhi.