Shaykh ʿAlāʾī b. Ḥasan (d. 957/1550) was a prominent leader of the North Indian Mahdawiyya movement. ʿAlāʾī accepted the claim of Sayyid Muḥammad Jawnpūrī (d. 910/1504) as Mahdī, through the teachings of Sayyid Muḥammad's disciple Shaykh ʿAbdallāh Niyāzī, and established a hospice (dāʾira) in Bayāna around 955/1548. Moving beyond the quietist Mahdism of his shaykh , ʿAlāʾī converted large numbers of Indian Afghans and challenged the legitimacy of the Sūrīd state. Islām Shāh (r. 952-61/1545-54) summoned him to court to account for his actions