Said-ul-Ajaib: Home to a 14th century Tughlaq chamberlain is now a cafe and boutique hub | Research News,The Indian Express
If Mehrauli was a mandi and a place for blue-collar workers, Said-ul-Ajaib emerged as a space for business and art. The early cafes and experimental artists’ studios were attracted to the area for its bohemian appeal reminiscent of the lofts and attics of the western world.
One of the Delhi’s greatest poets, “Khuda-e-Sukhan” Mir Taqi Mir, wrote: “Dilli ke na the kuuche auraaq-e-musavvar the jo shakl nazar aayi tasveer nazar aayi (These are not Delhi by-lanes, these are an artist’s canvas. Every sight I see looks like a painting.)”
Just like art is free of forms and formats and appeals to each person differently, the city of Delhi also has meant different things to its inhabitants through the ages. It is a political centre, heritage site, artists’ retreat, nightlife capital, farmland, startup capital, and much more. As we bring to you the last part of our series on Delhi’s urban villages, we explore Said-ul-Ajaib’s topsy-turvy journey towards urbanisation in a rapidly globalising city.
While strolling down the famous Champa Gali in Said-ul-Ajaib village, one seldom notices the addresses of boho cafes and gourmet restaurants. The addresses of these places still carry a khasra number as opposed to a plot or a house number. The khasra number is a remnant of Said-ul-Ajaib’s rural past — these were allotted to agricultural lands for revenue purposes. The wheat and sugarcane farms are long gone and have been replaced with hand-tossed pizzas and low calorie sugarcane juices. But urban transformation is rarely linear, places urbanise over decades and generations, creating a haphazard but beautiful mosaic of lifestyles. One small turn from its “Insta-worthy” spots , and Said-ul-Ajaib throws up men smoking hookahs, women in purdah, conflict over village shrine, havelis and sacred trees.
Though the official name of the village is “Said-ul-Ajaib”, it is colloquially pronounced Saidlajab, perhaps due to the slightly difficult phonetics of the name. It is one of the smallest urban villages of Delhi, located in the shadows of the grand Qutub Complex to its west and the upscale Saket colony to its north. The current name of the village is, however, a corruption of the name of a 14th century chamberlain in the court of Feroz Shah Tughlaq, Sayyid al-Hujjab.
Historian Sunil Kumar, in his book The Present in Delhi’s Past, writes the Sayyid would have resided closer to the royal court in Firozabad but also maintained a residence on the outskirts of the capital, where he was eventually buried. His saintly qualities were known widely beyond the court which earned him the title “Maaruf” (an extremely devout person respected for his piety) by none other than the great sufi saint of Delhi, Nizamuddin Auliya. His title also reflected his distinction of having performed the Hajj.
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