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Karachi has many shrines, the foremost of them being Abdullah Shah Ghazi's in Clifton. If you are near the Jehangir Kothari Parade the mausoleum will easily be in view. A vast compound whose base is strung together with flower shops along a pathway leading to a long hight of steps that take you to the sepulchral chamber, topped by a prominent green cupola. It is a well known Karachi landmark and is much older than the city itself. The place is visited by hundreds of thousands of men, women and children all year round, particularly on Thursdays when the number of visitors increases exponentially.

So the original mausoleum was replaced by a giant square building with a green dome on top in the 19th century. The shrine is the burial place of Abdullah Shah Ghazi who is one of the most revered and venerated Sufis of the province of Sindh. Abdullah Shah Ghazi was born in 109 Hijra. In 1938 he came to Karachi during the Ummayad Dynasty's rule. It is said the Ummayads viewed him as a threat to their reign. This prompted them to persecute and martyr him in 151 Hijra. His devotees and disciples chose the hillock along the coast of Karachi as his burial ground. There are other versions of the saint's arrival in the region and his background.

The architecture of the shrine is not one that could be easily categorised. It is nothing like what it used to be when the mausoleum was first made. It is pretty much what normally all shrines in the subcontinent look like. Yes, the building's elevation makes it rather distinctly different from the rest of the structures in Clifton.

[Source: Karachi Legacies of Empires by Peerzada Salman]

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