India, Dec. 9 -- They are bearing long scraggy beards. They are dressed in turbans, and long kurtas. Their necks are loaded with chains of colourful stones. Their fingers are decked with rings. They form a crowd, but each of them appears to be immersed in his own private world, as if he were utterly alone.

These are fakeers. Tonight, they are packed into a tiny courtyard. The courtyard is part of a Sufi shrine. The shrine is barely known in the city.

Even so, this dargah in Old Delhi, hidden away in a corner, along the stone walls of Jama Masjid, is among the city's most rare Sufi shrines. For it is devoted to a woman. Only two other Sufi shrines in the capital are centered around women. One is of Bibi Fatima Sam's in Kaka Nagar, near K...