Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

The Shamsi Ismailis in Punjab, the followers of Pir Shams (d. 1356), mostly practiced the Ismaili faith in solitude in the garb of the Hindus, and became known as the gupti (secretive). These gupti Ismailis mostly resided in 73 different villages in Punjab. Most of them revealed themselves from the Hindu culture, and emerged in public and assumed the Islamic names soon after the orders of Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah in 1910. The Imam is reported to have issued his next orders in 1912, 1914 and 1916 to cut down the old customs of Hindu customs and become practicing Muslims.