He had dedicated his early life to the mastery of the subtle intricacies of classical Indian music under the tutelege of his grandfather Moula Baksh, a musical giant who had integrated the Hindustani and Karnatic musical traditions of Northern and Southern India. While barely in his twenties, Inayat Khan received the highest recognition and honors for his artistic accomplishments.

Brief samples of his singing can be heard here and here.

He was initiated by Shaykh al-Masha’ikh Sayyid Muhammad Abu Hashim Madani in the four main Sufi lineages in India, though his primary connection was with the Chishti Order.

On September 13, 1910 he began an odyssey which would encompass three continents and transform thousands of lives. He traveled continually in Europe and the United States, first learning about Western culture and mentality, and then conveying the traditional Sufi teachings in a more and more universel form. He eventually settled in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris, where he held annual summer schools. During only sixteen years in the West, he created a school of spiritual training based upon the traditional teachings of the Chishtiyya and infused with a revolutionary vision of the unity of religious ideals and the coming awakening of the human spirit to its inherent divinity.
 
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, was his father’s sucessor and during his fifty years as head of the Sufi Order International became an internationally-recognized spiritual teacher and master of meditation. He was an avid student of many religious and spiritual traditions and incorporated the rich mystical heritage of East and West into his teachings, adding to it the scholarship of the West in music, science, and psychology. He initiated dozens of international interreligious conferences as well as convening spiritual and scientific leaders for public dialogues. He founded the Abode of the Message, a spiritual community in the Berkshires for over thirty years, and Omega Institute, a flourishing learning center.

He published many books on aspects of meditation and realization. His last book, In Search of the Hidden Treasure (2003), is an imagined congress of classic Sufi mystics commenting on contemporary and universal themes.

Pir Vilayat died on June 17, 2004.
 

Pir Zia Inayat-Khan is the son and successor of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and president of the Sufi Order International. In addition to the interfaith mystical training he has received from his father, Pir Zia has studied Buddhism under the auspices of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Sufism in the classical Indian tradition of the Chishtiyya. Pir Zia is editor of A Pearl in Wine: Essays on the Life, Music, and Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan (Omega Publications, 2001). He holds a doctorate in Religion from Duke University.