At the beginning of the thirteenth century, South Asia saw one of its most significant social and historical developments with the emergence of the Delhi Sultanate. Arriving at the scene at the same time were the “founders,” Mu'in al-Din Chishti (536–633/1141–1236) and Baha' al-Din Zakariya' (578–661/1182 or 83–1262), of what would become two of the most important Sufi polities of South Asia, the Chishtiyya and Suhravardiyya. It is no coincidence that Islamic political power was accompanied by the establishment of religious authority. Royal courts played a major role in the institutionalization of Sufi communities through patronage, and conversely, Sufi shaykhs reciprocated power by conferring legitimacy on the authority of sultans. At the same time that Islamic religious centers and Muslim royal courts were being established in the fresh context of South Asia, new Islamic literatures were being created in order to shape perspectives on the expansion and growth of Islamic empire. One was the birth of an Indo-Persian historiographical tradition (tarikh) which established the legitimacy of the sultans of Delhi, and the other was the creation of a novel religious biographical literature (malfuzat/majalis) which formulated the contours of sacred authority. This paper reexamines ideas about the origins of the Chishtiyya and Suhravardiyya Sufi movements in 13th and 14th century South Asia through revisiting the religious biographical literature of the period. The primary texts that serve as the focus of this study are the Fava'id al-fu'ad of Amir Hasan Sijzi (655–737/1257–1336), the Khayr al-majalis of Hamid Qalandar (fl. 754/1353), and the Siyar al-awliya of Amir Khvurd (fl. 752–90/1351–82). Through these texts I explore a series of core conceptual questions related to the social, political, and cultural impact of Sufi communities. What does it mean to refer to the “institutionalization” and “establishment” of Sufism during this period? Does it refer to the charismatic authority emanating from a single spiritual leader or the development of institutional structures over time? What role did Sufi shaykhs play in establishing Islamic hegemony? How did Muslim rulers contribute to the institutionalization of Sufi orders? In attempting to answer these questions this paper offers new methods in the interpretation of literary genres that aid in examining the complex relationships between religious and political power as they developed over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.