Urs of Shah Rukn-e-Alam

The urs at Multan's great Tughluq tomb, the octagonal brick mausoleum of Shah Rukn-e-Alam on the edge of Multan Fort.

Shah Rukn-e-Alam, the 14th-century Suhrawardi saint and grandson of Bahauddin Zakariya, lies in one of the most impressive tombs in South Asia, at the north-western edge of Multan Fort. His three-day urs draws more than 100,000 pilgrims each year.

Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam
Earliest Tughluq architecture
Multan Fort

When to plan: The urs follows the Islamic calendar, so it moves about eleven days earlier each year: the 706th was held on 1 to 3 January 2020, the 712th in late October 2025. Confirm the dates with the Punjab Auqaf department.
Getting there: The tomb stands on the Multan Fort mound in the centre of the city, a short walk from Bahauddin Zakariya's shrine.
Where: Multan guide →Punjab guide →

The tomb

Built between 1320 and 1324 by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq while he was governor of Dipalpur, probably as his own tomb, it is the earliest example of Tughluq architecture, older than the Tughluq monuments of Delhi. Muhammad bin Tughluq gave it to the saint's descendants, who moved his remains here in 1330. It rises in three tiers: an octagon 15 metres across with walls four feet thick, bound with bands of timber and buttressed by tapering towers at its corners, then a second octagon and a great dome, all in brick faced with glazed tiles.