ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the biographies of Sayyid Munir al-Din Badakhshani and Sayyid Haydar Shah Mubarakshahzada, public and religious figures active in Badakhshan during the first decades of the 20th century, whose roles and legacies have been largely ignored by historians and experts of religion. In Soviet Badakhshan, the Panjebhai groups spread during the early 1920s and their introduction coincided, or was associated, with the visit of the high-profile Ismaili emissary from Bombay, Pir Sabzali Ramzan Ali in 1923. Panjebhai voluntary associations initially spread among the Ismailis of South Asia in the second half of the 19th century. Unlike the local sources, Tajddin highlights the episodes that are related mostly to Sayyid Munir's missionary work. Sayyid Munir compiled a book, Guldasta-i Falsafa, which was published posthumously in 1958 in Karachi. There are scant sources available on Sayyid Haydar Shah's life and those that do exist are intermixed with various myths and tales.
