SHIʿISM IN KASHMIR

Islamic South Asia Series

Series Editor Ruby Lal, Emory University

Advisory Board
Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell University
Stephen F. Dale, Ohio State University
Rukhsana David, Kinnaird College for Women
Michael Fisher, Oberlin College
Marcus Fraser, Fitzwilliam Museum
Ebba Koch, University of Vienna
David Lewis, London School of Economics
Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London
Ron Sela, Indiana University Bloomington
Willem van Schendel, University of Amsterdam

Titles

Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Muslim World: History, Law and Vernacular
Knowledge, Vanja Hamzic
The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late
Medieval India, Pushkar Sohoni
Sufi Shrines and the Pakistani State: The End of Religious Pluralism, Umber Bin Ibad
The Hindu Sufis of South Asia: Partition, Shrine Culture and the Sindhis in India,
Michel Boivin
Islamic Sermons and Public Piety in Bangladesh: The Poetics of Popular Preaching,
Max Stille
The Mosques of Colonial South Asia: A Social and Legal History of Muslim Worship,
Sana Haroon
The Language of the Taj Mahal: Islam, Prayer and the Religion of Shah Jahan,
Michael D. Calabria
Muslims under Sikh Rule in the Nineteenth Century, Robina Yasmin
Shiʿism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shiʿi Rivalry and Reconciliation,
Sameer Hamdani
 SHIʿISM IN KASHMIR

A History of Sunni-Shiʿi Rivalry and

Reconciliation

Hakim Sameer Hamdani

 I.B. TAURIS
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To my daughter, Parirou, and the children of Kashmir,
may your world be full of nūr, omid, and khūshī
O Friend of the Believers, only guide to their salvation,
Muslims and Hindus, both your worshippers, your creation.
O One without a partner, our only sovereign, no sect could keep you
to itself;
confined to a temple, limited to a sacred mosque.
Mullā Ḥakim ʿAbdullah (d. 1887, approx.),
Kashmiri marṣiya: Valī al- Mūminin (Friend of the Believers)
 CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Conventions xiii

INTRODUCTION 1
The Long Nineteenth Century 5
Sources and Structure 8

Chapter 1
NOT QUITE TAQIYYA: KASHMIRI SHIʿI AT THE START OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY 11
The Fear of Rāfz 13
The Claim of Being First Muslims 17
Two Saints, Two Sects 20
Chaks: The Pādshāhs of Kashmir 27

Chapter 2
MAPPING EXISTENCE: IN SEARCH OF PATRONAGE AND PROTECTION 37
Navigating Shiʿiness under the Afghans 37
Tājiran-i Iran: Iranian Shawl Merchants in Kashmir 41
In the Court of Awadh Kings 48
Loss of Muslim Sovereignty 53

Chapter 3
SHIʿI IDENTITY, SUNNI SPACE, AND NON-MUSLIM RULE 59
Vocalizing a Community: Mourning and Marṣiya 59
The Ashura Procession and the Riots of 1830 66
The City Elders and a Shahr-ashūb 70
The Royal Physician and the Well-Wishing Merchant 77

Chapter 4
DISSENSIONS WITHIN THE MŪMININ: CHALLENGING THE ELITE 89
Controlling the Muharram Ceremonies 89
The Issue of Khums 93
The Last Riot: 1289 ah/1872 ce 97
Rival Families, Rival Grouping 107
viii Contents

Chapter 5
MOVING TOWARD A UNIFIED MUSLIM IDENTITY 119
At the Start of a New Century 119
Phyīr Circuit, the Annual Trade Journey to the Plains 126
Chaat-i haal, Papier-Maché, and a New Class of Shiʿi Merchants 132
Challenges of Modernity: Missionaries and Education 138
The Anjuman, A Murder Case and Call to Reform 141
Memorandum of the Kashmiri Mussalmans and a Muslim Ashura 151
Kashmiri Shiʿi and the Recent Past: Overview 156

Appendix I: Letter of Ḥakim ʿAẕim, written to Moulvi Sayyid Rajab

ʿAli Shāh 161
Appendix II: Groans of the Muslims of Kashmir 164
Notes 167
Bibliography 203
Index 213
 FIGURES
1 General map (courtesy: Hakim Ali Reza) xiv
1.1 Mʿārak, imāmbāda at Zadibal prior to its dismantling, Srinagar, 2004
(courtesy: Mubashir Mir) 12
1.2 Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm, SPS Museum collection, Srinagar, 2022
(author) 21
1.3 Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm shrine-precinct, Srinagar, 2019 (courtesy:
Mukhtar Ahmad) 35
2.1 Wall hanging commissioned for Imām Ḥusayn shrine (courtesy: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) 47
2.2 Ruins of Mughal Mosque at Hasanabad, early twentieth century
(courtesy: ASI, India) 56
3.1 Kashmiri marṣiya biyāz dated 1143 ah (1730 ce), Research Library,
Srinagar (author) 61
3.2 Performance of marṣiya at a majlis at Mʿārak, Srinagar, 2015 (courtesy:
Imran Ali) 63
3.3 Srinagar city, nineteenth century with location of major sites and Shiʿi
neighborhoods (author) 68
3.4 Calligraphy written by Shāh Niyaẕ for William Moorcroft (courtesy:
British Library) 76
3.5 Epistle of Ḥakim ʿAẕim to Moulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli (author) 79
3.6 Muharram procession in contemporary Kashmir, Srinagar, 2018
(courtesy: Hammad Ali) 85
4.1 Shrine of Sayyid Muhammad Madnī, Srinagar, 2019 (courtesy: Zubair
Ahmad) 100
4.2 Kashmir, location of major towns and Shiʿi-inhabited areas (author) 110
4.3 Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī with the royal physician, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli,
early twentieth century, Srinagar (courtesy: Hakim Athar Hussain) 111
4.4 Imāmbāda Hasanabad, twentieth-century reconstruction, Srinagar,
2015 (author) 114
4.5 Members of the Mullā family, Srinagar, late 1890s (courtesy:
Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani) 115
5.1 Divān of Ḥafiẓ Shirazī, copied by Mullā Muhammad Qāsim Hamdanī,
1796 (courtesy: Walter Art Museum, Maryland) 122
5.2 Quran codex, copied by Munshi Abū’l Ḥasan, 1851 (courtesy: Yasmin
Ali) 123
5.3 Muharram procession in the interiors of Dal Lake, Srinagar, 2021
(courtesy: Sayed Shahriyar) 127
x Figures

5.4 A papier-mâché chaat-i haal in nineteenth-century Srinagar (courtesy:

British Library) 133
5.5 Āgā Sayyid Muhammad, early twentieth-century Budgam (courtesy:
Zulfikar Ali) 141
5.6 Masjid-i Ḥājjī ʿAidī at Zadibal (courtesy: Zulfikar Ali) 144
5.7 A meeting of Anjuman-i Imāmmia presided by Nawab Fateh ʿAli Khān,
Srinagar, 1922 (courtesy: Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani) 155
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Most, if not all, of the draft of this book was finalized during my fellowship with
Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture (AKPIA) at MIT. Thanks are due to
Nasser Rabbat for supporting my academic pursuits at the program. I would also
like to thank all my colleagues at MIT, especially Nur Sobers-Khan and Matt Saba
for their help in sourcing the vast collection of Aga Khan Documentation Center
(AKDC). Also at Cambridge, I would like to thank Wheeler Thackston for his
help with the translation of some of the dense Persian texts. Thanks are also due to
Navina Haidar at the Met Museum, New York, Zahoor Ahmad Asmi at Research
Library, Srinagar, Stephan Poop at the Institute for Iranian Studies, Austria, and
Hakim Ali Reza at Politecnio di Milano.
I would like to acknowledge the help I received from Sayyid Mohsin Kashmiri
and Moulvi Hakim Sajad with some of the Persian texts. Mohsin as one of the
founding members of Markaz Ihya-i Asar-i Bar-i Saghir (MAAB) is at the forefront
of mapping and documenting the cultural heritage of South Asian Shiʿi and has
been kind enough to source and share some significant manuscripts related to
the events recorded in this book. A special thanks is owed to a dear friend and
colleague, Mehran Qureshi. Despite the time difference between Cambridge and
Srinagar, he has always been there, helping in reading and translating passages
which at times seemed undecipherable. The writing of this book has been enriched
by his shared thoughts and, also, the initial editing.
At Srinagar, I would also like to thank Aga Sayyid Baqir, Amjad Ansari, Hakim
Imtiyaz Hussein, Sheikh Muhammad Shafi, Saleem Beg, Imdad Saqi, Maqbool
Sajid, Faizaan Bhat and Zulfikar Ali and all those who shared their memories of
the past and hope for the future.
Working with I.B. Tauris has been a pleasure, and I would like to thank my
editors Sophie Rudland and Yasmin Garcha for their patience and bearing with me
despite all the delays on my part.
Lastly to my family, for all your unconditional support and patience, shukriya.

Cambridge, MA
2022
xii
 CONVENTIONS
Arabic and Persian transliterations follow a modified system based on the
standard of the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES). Kashmiri
transliterations are largely based on the same convention. The use of diacritical
mark for non-English words has been kept to a minimum and reserved for cases
when no common transliteration in English language text is available. Also, for
some names I have avoided the use of diacritical marks like Muhammad and not
Muḥammad, Mahdi instead of Mahdī. Similar convention has been followed for
public figures in the post-1947 period. The use of diacritical marks for name of
places has been avoided.
This work includes translation of primary sources from Persian, Urdu, and
Kashmiri. While I have taken some freedom with the translation, it has been my
attempt throughout to remain true to the original context of the translated texts.
Translations in the book which are sourced are acknowledged in the endnotes.
Fig 1 General map (courtesy: Hakim Ali Reza).
 INTRODUCTION

In the vernacular traditions of Kashmir expressed primarily through oral

narrations, we find that a report about an individual, society, or a historical
event is often prefixed with a singular introductory word, dapān—it is said. In
the dapān tradition, the narrator never claims to be the witness to the actual
event, he is only vocalizing something that has been witnessed. Dapān not only
absolves the narrator from the charge of fabrication, but it also seeks to satisfy the
listener’s demand for authenticity by indicating the presence of unnamed chain
of narrators. Acting as a self-legitimizing, self-authenticating leitmotif, dapān
maneuvers through the world of rumors, myths, and fables into a manufactured
reality. And, while the dapān tradition originates in the realm of folklore, it can and
does authenticate myths and legends that constitute both the memory of the past
and often its remembered history. In the dapān traditions that originate within
Kashmiri Sunni circles, it is said that in a forgotten past, the Kashmiri Shiʿi used
to seek a Sunni youth, prick his body with the yandir-i sitzhen (tip of spindle),1
draw blood, and kill. A similar claim about another such gory encounter between
the Shiʿi and Sunnis of Kashmir finds mention in the travelogue of a European
traveler, GT Vigne, who visited Kashmir in 1835:

I was informed, they compelled a boy of the Suni persuasion to eat salt; then
tantalized him with water; and when he was about to drink, they shot him to
death with arrows, so that he might die like Husyn, in the desert of thirst. When
Abdullah Khan heard of this, he ordered an attack to be made upon the Shiʿihs;
their property was plundered, and their houses burned; and, collecting about
one hundred and fifty (for there are very few in the city), he ordered their noses
to be pierced, passed one string through them all, and thus linked together, he
made them perambulate the bazaars.2

The testimony in Vigne’s text relates to the Shiʿi-Sunni riots of 1216 ah/1801 ce,
when the principal places of Shiʿi worship in Kashmir were destroyed on Ashura,
one of the most revered days in the Shiʿi liturgical calendar. In Vigne’s account of
the riots, we see how a dapān tradition superimposes on the actual historical event
to erase the lived reality of the past, in this case, the Shiʿi suffering at the hands of
the rioters and the Sunni ruler, the Afghan ṣubedar (governor) ʿAbdullah Khān
(1796–1805 ce).
2 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Half a century earlier, Khwāja Muhammad Aʿẕam Dīdahmarī (d. 1179 ah/1765
ce) wrote his Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr,3 which can be argued to represent the summa
of Kashmiri Sunni historiography, combining the narratives of a tārīkh (history)
and a taẕkira (hagiography). Borrowing liberally from the polemical traditions
found in earlier taẕkiras, especially those emanating from the circle of anti-Shiʿi
Suhrawardī master, Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm (d. 984 ah/1576 ce), Dedhmarī’s
text imagines a Sunni spiritual state which commences with the establishment
of Muslim Sultanate (1320–1586) in this mountainous Himalayan land. For
Dedhmarī, the original Muslim inhabitants of Kashmir are Sunnis, it is the Sunni
awliyā (saints), mashāʾikh (religious scholars), and salātin (rulers), who transform
Kashmir into a Muslim land; the arrival of the Shiʿi is seen as a later development,
a betrayal of the pure faith of Islam as represented by the Sunnis.
For future generations of Kashmiri Sunni historians, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr
establishes the normative strictures relating to the origin and development of
Muslim society in Kashmir. In foregrounding his discourse in a contested sectarian
milieu, Dedhmarī portrays the Shiʿis as outsiders who harmed the political and
spiritual unity of the Muslim community. Though the contours of Dedhmarī’s text
are steeped in a Shiʿi-Sunni rivalry, his own cultural background is more diverse.
Hailing from the capital city of Srinagar, Dedhmarī was trained under leading
Naqshbandī shaykhs of the city. The rise of the fortunes of the Naqshbandīs in
Kashmir broadly coincides with the heydays of the Mughal rule (1586–1752) in
the region. As a Sufi order, Naqshbandī influence was generated from scholarly
circles in Srinagar, who during the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth century
helped in establishing its reputation in the capital as a major Sufi order.4 Though
favored by Mughal emperors and their ṣubedars in Kashmir, the Naqshbandīs
imbibed a narrow worldview which contrasted, and at times contested with
the idea of Mughal cosmopolis in which people across ethnicities and religious
persuasions who shared the Mughal sense of aesthetics were celebrated.
Dedhmarī’s own training, though, is reflective of this cosmopolitan character of
the city, under the Mughals. His adab (literature) training happened in the circles of
the Shiʿi poet, Mulla ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm Sāṭiḥ (d. 1143 ah/1730 ce). The chronogram
on the death of Sāṭiḥ compiled by Dedhmarī5 is reflective of the fondness and
respect that the historian must have felt for his old teacher and transcends the
barriers of sectarian worldview that is so entrenched in the historiography of
Vaqʿāt.
Muslim presence in Kashmir dates from the thirteenth century, though the
twelfth-century Sanskrit historian Kalhānā indicates that the first interaction
between the court of Hindu kings of Kashmir and Muslim soldiers of hire
might have taken place as early as the eleventh century during the rule of King
Harsadeva (r. 1089–1101 ce).6 Located in the northernmost part of South Asia at
the intersection of transregional routes, Kashmir had historically forged cultural
and political links through its northeastern border into Ladakh, Tibet, and China
and on its west into Central Asia through present-day Afghanistan and down
south into the Indian plains. While during the Ghaznavid invasion of North India
(1001–27), Kashmir had briefly sealed the borders leading into the Indian plains,
 Introduction 3

these restrictions were relaxed by the time of Harsadeva’s rule.7 In medieval Arabic
sources, Muslim presence in Kashmir is indicated in the Shiʿi ḥadīth corpus of
Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī (864–941 ce), who reports a meeting in
Baghdad between the twelfth Shiʿi imam, al-Mahdī and Abū Said Hindī, a
Kashmiri, who reportedly arrived in the city sometime after 264 ah/877 ce.8 Also,
in the semi-legendary accounts of Kitāb ʿAjāib al Hind (the Book of the Marvels of
India),9 the author Buzurg b. Shahriyar (d. 399 ah/1009 ce) describes the arrival
in Kashmir of an Iraqi poet, sent from Baghdad at the request of the Hindu king
of Kashmir. The poet provides the king with a translation of Islamic laws he had
requested and secretly converts him to Islam.10
The earliest material evidence of Muslim presence in Kashmir is to be found
in a series of Buddhist temples located in Alchi, Ladakh. These temples which are
dated from the tenth to twelfth century represent Kashmiri craftsmanship in both
the wooden ornamentation and the murals painted on the walls. Barry Flood in
his seminal work on early cross cultural encounters between Hindu-Muslim in
South Asia provides an insightful reading of the depiction of a male and a female
figure in the Alchi temple murals wearing a specific kind of a dress matching in its
style and design with qaba—a dress form common to Muslims of Central Asia and
Eastern Iran11. Clearly, the paintings are indicative of a significant Muslim presence
in Kashmir, which was responsible for carrying out this impressive program of
iconography. The establishment of the Shāhmīrī Sultanate (1339–1561) marks the
stabilization of Muslim rule in Kashmir which saw the development of a unique
cultural synthesis incorporating elements from Sanskrit and Persianate worlds
within an aesthetic grammar peculiar to Kashmir’s geography. It was under the
Shāhmīrīs that various Sufi orders originating in the Persianate world, Kubrawī,
Naqshbandī, Nūrbakhshī, and Suhrawardī, were introduced into the socioreligious
life of Kashmir. Representatives of an orthodox interpretation of Islam and
proud of their Persianate origins, these Sufi orders established themselves in the
capital city Srinagar and from their urban proximity to the court carried out their
missionary activities. With their close ties to power, it was only natural that the
Sufis would also get drawn into political conflict, as and when they happened, and
would also seek political support in issues of religious contestations. In reaction
to the cultural predilection of these non-native Sufi silsilas (order), around the
first quarter of the fifteenth century, a local Kashmiri mystic order of the Reshīs
evolved, which represented an assertion of Muslim-ness rooted in Kashmir’s
own experience of Islam, and predates the formal arrival of Sufi orders and their
khānaqāhs.
In Kashmir, the Shiʿi-Sunni dispute originates within the politics of khānaqāh
and the court and would result in production of texts under the patronage of these
Sufis that not only seek to establish the spiritual supremacy of a faction but also
obscure the other as a heresy. The transfer of political authority from Shāhmīrīs
(1339–1561), a Sunni dynasty, to the Chaks (1561–86) who adhered to the Shiʿi
faith added to the play of tension and rivalry between competing Sufi orders,
in which the Nūrbakhshīs came to represent the Shiʿi while the Kubrawīs and
especially the Suhrawardīs represented the Sunnis.
4 Shiʿism in Kashmir

By the time we arrive in the nineteenth century, works such as Dedhmarī’s,

Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr, had effectively compartmentalized the Kashmiri Shiʿi and
Sunni as two distinct societies with an antagonistic past. At the start of the
nineteenth century, it was from Dedhmarī’s historiography that Kashmiri Sunni
society inherited a textual understanding of who they were and how a Kashmiri
Muslim society came into formation. While in his portrayal of Shiʿi,
Dedhmarī assumes a stringent polemical approach, Abu’l Qāsim Muhammad
Aslam a near contemporary, who wrote a brief history of Kashmir under
the title Gowhar-i ʿĀlam (c.1776) adopts a more nuanced and conciliatory
tone toward the Shiʿi, while adhering to the underlying narrative of Sunni
persecution under the Chak Sultans. Aslam address the Shiʿi sect as
Firqa-i Imāmmia (and Firqa Ahl-i Bayt)12 unlike Dedhmarī who prefers the
pejorative term: rāfizī13. Coming from the same socio-cultural milieu, can we
posit this shift on a humanistic perspective that governed Aslam’s vision of
the past and his approach to sectarian diversity within the Muslim society
of Kashmir as compared to Dedhmarī? Or was Aslams attachment with the
court of the Shiʿi nawab of Awadh the mitigating reason behind this change
is hard to decipher. Still, for the Kashmiri Sunni society it was the Dedhmarī’s
tārīkh that framed the historical vision into the past. In comparison, Aslam’s
work given the lack of attention it attracted remained confined to obscurity,
and is little known even today14. And in curating a narrative from the dapān
traditions, Dedhmarī’s achieved a construct of communities based on their
sectarian associations, a construct in which the Shiʿis remain a demonized
people. In excluding the Shiʿi from the body of Muslim society, Dedhmarī
equates the experience of Kashmiri Sunnis with a manifestation of Islam.
Like most medieval historians, Dedhmarī is not concerned with the people
per se, his narrative is about the rulers, the courtiers, the religious scholars,
saints, and occasionally the poets. In placing the Shiʿi and Sunni ruling and
religious class against each, and presenting the struggle as a sectarian issue, he
manages to advance his narrative of a sectarian identity in which the good and
righteousness is appropriated to the Sunni cause.
But then the question remains about the Shiʿi, how did they perceive
themselves? While the Sunni sectarian identity finds expression in tārīkhs and
taẕkiras, Shiʿi expressions of self-identity can only be traced in the literary genre
of marṣiya, elegiac poems on the martyrdom of the third Shiʿi imām, Ḥusayn b.
ʿAli (d. 680). In these marṣiya’s, a vast majority of which date from late eighteenth
century onwards, and are written in the local vernacular Kashmiri, as opposed to
the court language, Persian, the poets address the Shiʿi community of mourners
as mūminin, the term used in Quran for believers. Simultaneously, the mūmin
is presented as belonging to an oppressed community, the unnamed oppressor
in the text being the Sunni. Much like what we see in Dedhmarī’s narrative, the
Shiʿi’ marṣiya khwān (elegy writer) also premises the Shiʿi’ identity on faith and
a negative portrayal of the Sunnis as a rival community. The only significant
departure in this imagination of the self lies in the Shiʿi’ acceptance of the Sunni
community as belonging to the body of Muslim society, something we fail to see
 Introduction 5

in Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr.15 Nevertheless, in both instances, we see that a Shiʿi and a

Sunni identity is articulated in opposition to one another, rather than on the basis
of similarities within each group. Both the Shiʿi and Sunni narratives establish a
larger imaginary in which both the societies saw each other as a monolith other.
In its approach to the past, this work borrows heavily on the term “sectarian,”
which could be argued to be alien to the development of Muslim societies.16 In
Kashmir, there is no equivalence in the vernacular for sectarian. Even the use of
tʿaṣubī (lit. prejudiced), though part of the common speech, is itself a borrowed
word via Persian and Urdu language and cannot be called a close parallel, as it is
indicative of a sect-based prejudice against the others. The gradual increase in the
use of firqa-varanah (interchangeably used for both sectarian and sectarianism)
represents a modern usage, worked with great efficacy in news reporting and
political commentaries. Regarding the usage of sectarian in the book, I have
used it interchangeably, avoiding the modern tendency to fit in within a rigor of
consistency of a particular meaning.17 In sidestepping a categorical definitiveness
which would preclude a fluidity of meaning, this study uses sectarian to negotiate
the intersection of sect-centric groupism and sect-based religious identity, not
sect-driven prejudices and othering.
A further observation needs to be added: while the contours of Shiʿiism in
medieval Kashmir, especially during the Sultanate period, are still not sufficiently
explained,18 in nineteenth-century Kashmir they were firmly located within
the Twelver school—the Ithnā ʿAsharīyya. Simultaneously, outside Kashmir, in
the regions of Purig, Skardu-Baltistan communities of Nizārī Ismāʿīlīs and the
Nūrbakhshīya’s continued to have adherents along with the Twelvers.

The Long Nineteenth Century

By the time we approach the nineteenth century, Kashmir marks a long period
of divisions, contestations, and accord within its Muslim society as the region
transitioned from precolonial era to a subsequent period of colonial intervention.
Significantly in nineteenth-century Kashmir, Muslims are a demographic
majority, with the Shiʿi as a small minority.19 Within the Muslim society being
a Shiʿi or a Sunni was an important birth identity marker especially in the main
urban center, Srinagar, where confessional identity was reflective of the way in
which the city was organized and functioned. This period also marks the end of
more than five hundred years of Muslim rule in Kashmir and the setting up of
a non-native, non-Muslim rulership in the region first under the Lahore darbār
(court) of the Sikh rulers (1820–46) and then under Hindu Dogra kings (1846–
1947). Historically, by the time we arrive at the end of Muslim rule in Kashmir,
Kashmiri Sunnis saw themselves as the “governing majority.” As such this study
covers a time period which essentially marks Kashmir’s transition not only from
Muslim political authority but also from a premodern, semifeudal society to
modernity.
6 Shiʿism in Kashmir

My study focuses on the reemergence and re-articulation of the Kashmiri

Shiʿi’ identity at the beginning of the nineteenth century and its development
through and in the years and decades leading up to the early twentieth century. As
a continually evolving process, I discuss the main characters, events, and spaces
that led to the consolidation of this process in the background of an ever-changing
dynamic of political and social history—and the resultant responses ranging from
antagonism to accommodation and acceptance from the Sunni society.
The book builds an objective and factual inquiry into the dynamic—often
contested but sometimes conflated—nature of intercommunity relations in
nineteenth-century Kashmir which was then ruled by Sikh and later on by Dogra
rulers on one hand and largely dominated by the Sunni religious orthodoxy on the
other. In providing a detailed overview of the development of a Shiʿi’ identity in
this period and its operation within a Sunni-majority society, the book evaluates
the enablers of this sectarian identity and examines the changing dynamics of
intercommunity relationship within the Kashmiri Muslim community in the
backdrop of a non-Muslim rulership and advancing days of European colonialism.
Based on five chapters, the book avoids a narrow chronological format as it
discusses the emergence of symbols of Kashmiri Shiʿiness which translated into
formulation of a Shiʿi society, distinct and independent of the majority Sunni
society. This book is not a chronological study of events during nineteenth-century
Kashmir, but rather focuses on the representation of symbols, rituals, and practices
that articulated the Shiʿi’ identity of Kashmiri Shiʿi society, and the perception and
engagement of the native Sunni population with them.
The book begins with an overview of how, from being the last sovereign rulers
of an independent Kashmir, Shiʿi were progressively disenfranchised under
non-native rule of the Dūranī kings. It follows by situating the experiences and
tribulations of a Kashmiri Shiʿi society in the early part of the nineteenth century
under an increasingly restrictive rule of the Dūranī kings of Kabul, often resulting
in open persecution of the Shiʿi. The closing down of Muharram mourning
ceremonies—a defining commemorative practice celebrating the community’s
Shiʿi-ness—and the burning down of two major imāmbādas in Srinagar city at
Zadibal and Hasanabad are examined to analyze how the Shiʿi viewed and were
viewed by the court of Dūranī and the elite within the native Sunni society.
I then go on to explain how the prevailing political environment in the early
part of the nineteenth century resulted in transformation of Shiʿi society, which
increasingly became reluctant to express their beliefs and practices in the public
spaces largely managed by the Sunni intelligentsia and political class.
The sectarian divide within the Muslim community was also reflected in the
narratives and historiographic traditions related to the history of Muslim origins in
Kashmir as reported by the Sunnis. In examining these historiographical traditions
inherited by Kashmiri Muslims in the nineteenth century, I demonstrate how these
entrenched sectarian narratives defining the boundaries of a divided community
are at variance with a common political ancestry shared by the two communities.
The book explains how the otherness that was targeting the Shiʿi’s helped them in
reimagining themselves as a “community of persecuted,” distinct and apart from
 Introduction 7

the Sunnis. The adverse political conditions at home under the Dūranī’s resulted in
the establishment of a substantial Shiʿi Diaspora, outside Kashmir in the plains of
South Asia—a Diaspora of not only artisans and merchants but also the religious
class: the ulema, and the poets, who helped in establishing the credentials of
Kashmiri Shiʿi scholarship in North India, especially in the Shiʿi-ruled state of
Awadh. Maintaining their links with Kashmir, the Shiʿi Diaspora also helped in
perpetuating the narrative of distinct-ness linked with Shiʿi society.
The collapse of Dūranī rule in 1820 and the transfer of authority to a Sikh and
afterward Hindu rulers marked the end of Muslim rule in Kashmir. Coeval to
the commencement of Dogra rule was the emergence of British colonial influence
and thereafter interference in the affairs of the newly established princely state
of Jammu and Kashmir. Responding to the need of the British power in South
Asia to come across as impartial and unbiased toward various religious and
sectarian groupings, the erstwhile Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir adopted a
policy of non-interference within the body politic of Kashmiri Muslims which was
characterized by a long history of differences and disagreements between Shiʿi and
Sunnis. Significantly, the darbār (court) of the Dogra rulers employed a number
of Shiʿi, who used their position of influence to both guide the affairs of the Shiʿi
community and safeguard their interests. The emerging public interface of a
Shiʿi identity was challenged by the Sunni majority in two instances of riots that
happened in the nineteenth century. The reconstruction of Mʿārak: the principal
Shiʿi imāmbāda of Kashmir, after the riots of 1872, under semi-state patronage
and the commencement of public mourning ceremonies there is contextualized as
the community project which helped in giving visible shape to the Shiʿi aspirations
for a separate and distinct identity celebrating their Shiʿi-ness. By examining the
rebuilding of Mʿārak, the book explores the role of these courtiers comprising
royal physicians, merchants, poets, and calligraphers as enablers of a Shiʿi
identity. Co-opting the Shiʿi ulema in this process of identity formulation, the
book demonstrates and explains the contours and the dynamics of the emergence
of a grouping of community elites who through their patronage of community
activities extended their own political and social leadership. I posit that the riots
of 1872 and the coming of Dogra darbār to the aid of the Shiʿi community were
watershed moments in the history of Shiʿi-Sunni relationship, which resulted in a
significant downplay of polemical works targeting each other. Though this did not
result in giving shape to an ecumenical movement between the two communities,
it nevertheless helped in creating two distinct spheres of Muslim-ness in Kashmir
operating in the same space yet in isolation from one another.
Continuing with the theme of patronage and community leadership, I explain
how in the later part of the nineteenth century the Shiʿi religious leadership trained
in the religious seminaries of Iraq had established themselves as leading community
heads of Kashmiri Shiʿi. The consolidation of religious leadership of the ulema
was followed by a conflict within the leadership body of Kashmiri Shiʿi. The split
within the Shiʿi clergy, who in these dissensions and debates, also increasingly drew
upon their transnational connections in Iraq, is studied as the main contributing
factor to the emerging split within the community. The divisions and splits also got
8 Shiʿism in Kashmir

translated into an urban-rural and rich-poor divide, with the business families of
Kashmir associating with a particular section of clergy and the poor craftsmen who
worked for these businesses siding with the rival clerical party.
The approach of the twentieth century marks the gradual emergence of nationalistic
concerns and the absorption of Kashmir into the anticolonial discourse emerging
from mainland South Asia. In Kashmir, this also marked the emergence of a Muslim
political consciousness against the ruling Hindu king. This is a subject which has
drawn much interest in recent years, particularly following Chitralekha Zutshi and
Mridu Rai’s seminal work, which deals with the modern history of Kashmir with
respect to the issues of Muslim religious identity and culture.20 My study, however,
engages with the dynamics of cultural and the spiritual identity of Kashmiri Shiʿi
within the regional space occupied by the Dogra sovereignty and Sunni orthodoxy,
something which remains untouched so far. Articulated by the community elites, I
show how this “freedom” struggle against the Hindu rulers marks the emergence of a
Shiʿi-Sunni ecumenical movement. Basically, political in its aspirations, this coming
together of the Shiʿi and Sunnis does nevertheless mark a pattern which would
continue through a greater part of the century. Sectarian conflicts and polemics
targeting each other would be managed and attempts made to see that public spaces
would function in a non-sectarian basis. These attempts, nevertheless, only succeeded
to relegate differences to the realms of private interactions, not dismantle them.

Sources and Structure

Within the body of studies dedicated to Islam, works related to Shiʿi political
history or material culture generally tend to be limited. Given the continued
preoccupation and interest in events and changes happening in the Middle East,
the historic heartland of Islam, studies on Shiʿism still broadly focus on the Arab
and Iranian Muslims. And, when researchers do investigate Shiʿi history of South
Asia, the bulk of focus tends to be on Shiʿism in the plains of North India. If,
as Simon Wolfgang Fuchs in his formidable scholarship on Pakistani Shiʿi says,
“Pakistani Punjab formed a veritable Shiʿi ‘periphery,’”21 Kashmiri Shiʿism remains
a distant and obscure event, little explored or understood. This is in spite of the
fact that one of the most consequential figures in contemporary Shiʿism, Ayatollah
Ruhallah Khomeini (d. 1989), traced his ancestral roots to Kashmir.22
The book is primarily based on Persian, Kashmiri, and Urdu sources,
unpublished manuscripts as well as published books, consisting of tārīkh, taẕkira,
marṣiya literature, legal records, polemical tracts, pamphlets, newspapers,
and archival sources from the local darbār as well as British colonial sources
comprising government records and travelogues. Personal and family archives in
the shape of letters and manuscripts have been accessed to frame an understanding
of individuals who played an enabling role in events that are described in this
book. The study also borrows from marginalia which serve as assembled bodies of
family texts, especially in manuscripts preserved within family libraries for several
generations till present day. The research also draws on the materiality linked with
 Introduction 9

Kashmiri Shiʿi to provide an insight into the cultural landscape linked with Shiʿi
presence and aspirations. Exploring the linkages that connect the present with
the recent past, this study also includes both oral traditions maintained within
families who figure in this book, as well as the recollections of research informants.
The cross-examining of the responses, which were collected through a series of
nonstructured interviews, considers that personal recollections are also partially
conditioned by a sense of nostalgia about the past. Though not an alternative
to history, these collective memories are nevertheless used in charting out how
Kashmiri Shiʿi view their immediate past.
This work does not seek to provide an exhaustive account of each event in the
community of Kashmiri Shiʿi in the nineteenth century, but by engaging in an
interlinked narrative it seeks to connect textual, literary, and oral history with
material culture to describe the lived history of the community. Significantly, this
study does reflect a preponderance of narratives and events originating from the
capital city of Srinagar, reflecting the primacy of the city’s mediatory presence
in dictating not only the pulse but also the shifting contours of Shiʿi-Sunni
engagements across the broader geography of Kashmir.
The first chapter traces the outline of Shiʿi history in Kashmir by revisiting
available historiographical evidence and in doing so analyzes the differing textual
accounts related to the inception of Islam in Kashmir. The chapter examines how
at the start of the nineteenth century, Shiʿi and Sunni communities in Kashmir
viewed their past in a contested narrative related not only to their point of origin
in Kashmir but also to their memory of the Muslim rule in the region. In doing so,
the chapter introduces us to the Persianate texts originating from Sunni sources,
mostly serving as repositories of elite and mostly urban communities and how
they sought to represent the Kashmiri Shiʿi as others.
The second chapter further develops the theme of Shiʿi identity in Kashmir
by investigating the circumstances of Dūranī’s rule in Kashmir and the resulting
dichotomous relationship between the Shiʿi and the Sunni resulting in targeted
violence against the Shiʿi. In addition to Persian texts which highlight the state
of uncertainty facing the Shiʿi, I introduce the marṣiya as a source of vernacular
literature located in everyday life experience of the Shiʿi to highlight how the
disorienting influences of these encounters helped in reinforcing their notion of a
unique Shiʿi identity. I highlight the tentative attempts made by the Kashmiri Shiʿi
community at re-articulating and expressing their spiritual and cultural identity,
in a regional space largely controlled by Sunni orthodoxy. The chapter also focuses
on the networks of trade and knowledge linking Kashmiri Shiʿi with the Iranian
shawl merchants and the royal court at Awadh as a source of patronage while also
exploring the material culture linked with this transfer.
Exploring the theme of a resurgent sectarian identity, Chapter 3 posits
that integral to the articulation of a Shiʿi identity in Kashmir was the entire
paraphernalia of various affective and performative practices associated with the
commemoration of the martyrdom of Imām Ḥusayn and his family in Karbala.
In addition, the materiality, not only associated with mourning Karbala but also
linked to other practices and rituals of Islam, created a distinct habitus of Kashmiri
10 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Shiʿi Islam. This distinct set of spiritual and cultural practices was eventually
mobilized by the intelligentsia of Kashmiri Shiʿi Muslims for political ends as
well. The most visible manifestation of this identity—a sectarian identity—was
the reconstruction of Mʿārak, the historic imāmbāda of Kashmir Shiʿi. The fate
of this construction, its patronage, and the ensuing Shiʿi-Sunni riot resulting in
its destruction form the central theme of this chapter. The process was further
strengthened and intensified with the transfer of political authority to a Hindu
Dogra dynasty by the British colonial administration in the middle of the
nineteenth century. This chapter illustrates how the prevailing attitude on part of
the powers that be naturally provided a space for the Shiʿi Muslims to establish for
themselves a spiritual and cultural identity distinct from the Sunnis. The Jammu
and Kashmir of the nineteenth century and onward was a regional space where
this identity was negotiated vis-à-vis the Hindu Dogra rule.
As the Shiʿi of Kashmir saw the consolidation of their identity in the middle of
the nineteenth century, it was soon followed by the emergence of divisions and rifts
within the community. Primarily, the divisions were introduced via differences
related to the control and maintenance of Mʿārak and the mourning assemblies
held there. Gradually, the differences expanded into all major functioning of the
community activities, especially with regard to the collection and distribution
of community monies. Chapter 4 looks at how the issue of dispensing of khums
(religious tithe amounting fifth of the yearly savings) money led to a divide within
the religious class. The chapter explores these dissensions within the Shiʿi society
and explores how these differences affected the worldview of the community to
both Shiʿi-Sunni relationship and responses to advancing European influences in
Kashmiri society, especially in the field of education.
The onset of the twentieth century witnessed a birth of political consciousness
in the Muslims of Kashmir. This was in response to the centuries of economic and
political exploitation that the Kashmiri Muslims were subjected to by the likes of
Afghan, Sikh, and eventually Dogra rulers. The chapter explores the nature of the
Kashmiri Shiʿi society at the start of the twentieth century, examining the factors
and the individuals who served as the enablers of community identity. It examines
the role of Christian missionaries in introducing modern education in the region
and the responses from both the Sunni and Shiʿi society. The chapter engages
with the events and the individuals who were responsible for a coming together
of Shiʿi and Sunni Muslims of Kashmir, overlooking their mutual differences and
disagreements in favor of working toward a unified Muslim identity vis-à-vis the
Hindu rule. Consequently, the Shiʿi of Kashmir, in seeking redressal to their century’s
long disenfranchisement, had joined hands with the Sunnis. Chapter 5 investigates
the emergence of this ecumenical Muslim outlook, essentially political in its aims
yet also seeking accommodation of sectarian differences. At the end of the chapter,
I offer an overview of where Shiʿi-Sunni relations in Kashmir stand today, as both
communities find themselves drawn into transnational debates and divisions
that originate outside of Kashmir. It concludes with how both the communities
are navigating between strife and accommodation: originating from a sectarian
outlook while trying to maintain an image of Muslim unity.
 Chapter 1

NOT QUITE TAQIYYA

KASHMIRI SHIʿI AT THE START OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

In the summer of 1928, Ṣughrā Hemayun Mīrzā (d. 1958)1 along with her husband,
Barrister Sayyid Hemayun Mīrzā, arrived in Kashmir. The Mīrzās were traveling
from Hyderabad, the princely state located in southern India, which much like the
state of Jammu and Kashmir—though nominally not a part of the British colonial
empire—was nevertheless a part of British political and colonial overreach. The
visit to Kashmir was dictated by Sayyid Hemayun’s illness, with a stay in the
temperate Himalayan valley of Kashmir being advised by his doctor.2
After a stay of around four months in Kashmir, Ṣughrā Hemayun on returning
to Hyderabad started writing her safar nāma—a travelogue about Kashmir in
Urdu. Published two years after the visit, under the title of Rahbar-i Kashmir
(Guide to Kashmir), this safar nāma provides the readers with not only an account
of the Mīrzās’ travel to Kashmir but also a brief historical description of some of
the prominent monuments and landmarks in Kashmir. While we have multiple
travelogues written about Kashmir by European visitors in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries,3 Rahbar happens to be the only safar nāma that we know of,
written about Kashmir by a Muslim women of South Asian origin in the early
twentieth century. In her description of the land, Ṣughrā also fills in with small
but insightful details about her interactions with the natives, limited though these
may be mostly to her social exchanges with the elite from the city of Srinagar. Still
in their engagements with the Kashmiris, the Mīrzās form a link of commonality
of being similar, which is missing from related meetings that are recorded in the
European writings about Kashmir.4
An interesting description in the safar nāma relates to a visit of the Mīrzās’
to the ḥavelī of a prominent Shiʿi jāgīrdār (landlord), Sayyid Ḥusayn Shāh Jalālī
(d. 1950) and their joint participation in the majlis-i Chihlum (The Assembly
of the Fortieth) held at the Imāmbāda Zadibal. The narrative assumes a certain
ekphrastic quality in its elaborate description of both the imāmbāda and the
mourning performance taking place inside the building:

In Srinagar there is a moḥala Zadibal where many Muslims live, and there are
many Shiʿi in this moḥala. The majlis happens here. Sayyid Shāh Jalālī is a big
jāgirdār and zamindār and the father-in law5 of his son is trader of pearls [. . .].
12 Shiʿism in Kashmir

All of us went to Jalālī Ṣahibs place [. . .]. After lunch we went to the imāmbāda
which is near his house. The majlis starts at six in the morning and continues till
six in the evening. The majlis is read in Kashmiri language and the imāmbāda
is very large. There are buildings on all four sides, in the middle there is a lower
ceiling supported on thirty-five columns, under which the majlis takes place
[. . .]. The buildings on the four sides are two storied, the upper floor is in wood
and has delicate wooden jālīs (screens). It is here (behind the jālīs) that women
sit and listen to the majlis. The lower and the central floor is used by men. From
morning till evening whoever desires, may come and be a part of the majlis.
When men enter the majlis they remove their coats and turbans. All the men
in the congregations were bareheaded. The marṣiya khwānī adopted here is
distinct from that in the entire world [. . .]. In the end, Moulvi Imdād ʿAli Ṣahib
of Lahore did marṣiya khwānī (recitation of elegies commemorating Ḥusayn b.
Ali’s martyrdom). He stood up and said that today, I will recite a marṣiya in
Urdu, because Sayyid Hemayun Mīrzā Ṣahib who has arrived in Kashmir from
Hyderabad is present with us in majlis.6

While the text regarding the majlis at Zadibal Imāmbāda is detailed and helps us in
reimagining the entire environment—spatial as well as performative—of the event

Figure 1.1 Mʿārak, imāmbāda at Zadibal prior to its dismantling, Srinagar, 2004 (courtesy:
Mubashir Mir).
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 13

as practiced in the early twentieth century, it does nevertheless on the surface

present the majlis as a common manifestation in the community life of Kashmiri
Muslims, albeit Shiʿi Muslims. The majlis is important and the scale impressive,
but in the safar nāma it stands situated in commonplace occurrences linked
with the expression of faith in early twentieth-century Srinagar.7 Additionally,
measuring 22.86 m x 22.86m the imāmbāda in terms of its sheer size was the third
largest monument within the sacred Muslim landscape of the city constructed
in the native architectural idiom,8 only outsized by the Jamia Masjid (117 m x
115.7 m) and ʿĀlī Masjid (61.2 m x 20.5 m). The scale of the building fits in with
the desire of the author to engage with leading monuments in the city in a text
whose primary appeal is as a guidebook for visitors.
Yet, the Zadibal Imāmbāda (Figure 1.1) more commonly referred to by its
vernacular name, Mʿārak,9 had a singularly chequered history, and the majlis
witnessed by Mīrzā in the imāmbāda was of a much recent origin—dating from
the second half of the nineteenth century. The affluence of the Shiʿi jāgirdār, Sayyid
Husayn Shāh, and the prosperous conditions of the imāmbāda mark a gradual
shift in the fortunes of the Kashmiri Shiʿi society that took place over the long and
tempestuous nineteenth century. Significantly, both the imāmbāda and the ḥavelī,
visited by the Mīrzās’, embodied memories of a recent destruction resulting from
the Shiʿi-Sunni riot that engulfed the city in 1872.10

The Fear of Rāfz

At the start of the nineteenth century, Kashmir formed a part of the kingdom
of Dūranīs, who under Aḥmad Shāh Abdalī (r. 1747–72) had started an empire-
building process from Kandahar before advancing over most of modern-day
Afghanistan and then down into Mughal territories of South Asia. The Afghan
conquest of Kashmir occurred in 1752, in the wake of Aḥmad Shāh’s invasion of
the Mughal territories and for most parts, Afghan rule (1752–1820) in Kashmir
under Aḥmad Shāh and his successors failed to provide the level of prosperity that
Kashmir had witnessed under the Mughals. Writing somewhere in the 1880s, Pīr
Ḥasan Shāh Kuihāmī (d. 1898), a native historian, would make us understand that
the acquisition of Kashmir by the Afghans was as much a result of unravelling of
Mughal authority as due to local intrigues. In this play for personal power two
Kashmiri Sunnis, Mīr Muqim Kanth and Khwāja Zahir Dedhmarī, who were a
part of the court of the Mughal ṣubedars (governor), played a prominent part.11
The participation of Kashmiri elite in a political enterprise that resulted in a
change in the political fortune of the land is a phenomenon that can be traced back
toward the ending days of Mughal rule in Kashmir. It was a process in which the
Kashmiri elite, especially those in Srinagar emerged as important power players
with their ability to organize mobs and riots in the city for or against a contending
ṣubedar or his naīb (deputy).
And it was this new dynamic of power play, with its measurable role of local
actors, in which successive Afghan officials operated in Kashmir, while at times
14 Shiʿism in Kashmir

turning hostile to the royal Afghan court at Kabul. And when a ṣubedar was served
with a dismissal, he more than often refused to quit. It was in 1783, during the
governorship of Āzād Khān (1783–5), that a European, George Forster, visited
Kashmir and left us with the earliest impressions of life under Afghan rule. In
his account, he provides us with information on foreign merchants (including
Georgians) visiting Kashmir, where despite the oppressive nature of the court, they
“were respected and even indulged.”12 The respect was also partially conditioned
by the lucrative Kashmiri shawl trade which was a major source of income for
the Afghans ruling Kashmir. According to Forster’s informant, the total tax
revenue generated from Kashmir amounted to twenty and thirty lakh rupees.13
Yet, the overall condition of the people remained dismal, as can be seen in Forster’s
description:

During my refidence {residence} in Kafhmire {Kashmir}, I often witneffed

{witnessed} the harfh {harsh} treatment which the common people received at
the hands of their mafters{masters}.14

About Azad’s father, the previous ṣubedar, Hājjī Karīm Dād Khān (1777–83), he
writes:

was notorious for his wanton cruelties and insatiable avarice; often for trivial
offences, throwing inhabitants, tyed {tied} by back in pairs, into the river,
plundering their properties, and forcing their women of every defcription
{description}.15

Sometime after Forster’s visit, in 1786, Mīr Hazār Khān (1786–8) was appointed
as the ṣubedar of Kashmir and embarked on a series of restrictive measures
targeting the Shiʿis as well as the Pandits. In his Kafiyat-i Intizām-i Mūlk-i Kashmir
(Conditions of Arrangement of the Country of Kashmir), Pandit Ram Joo Dhar
makes a brief reference to the some of the outrages committed by the ṣubedar.
Written in 1882–3, this small work was composed when rulership in Kashmir had
transferred to Hindu rulers, and as a member of the Hindu court, Ram Joo’s text
reflects Hindu sensibilities.16 About Hazar Khān’s rule he writes:

After the latter (Raḥmat al Lah Khān) was transferred in the year 1207 of
Hijrah, Mīr Hazār Khān al Kouzī was appointed as the ruler of Kashmir. He
kept company of one Khwāja ʿĪsā, a rich Muslim noble of the time, and on
his behest and advice, became prejudiced towards Hindus and Shiʿites, and
interfered in their religious practice. Many Hindus were therefore not allowed
to tie sacred threads (zunnār) and apply tilak marks on their forehead. As a
result, it became convenient for the Muslims to kill Hindus. False allegations
were made against many well-known elites from Hindus and Shiʿites [. . .] Many
of whom were consequentially drowned in the river Jehlum. The prejudice was
so high in this time that a jizya17 of rupees thousand was extracted from the
Hindus.18
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 15

The events surrounding Mīr Hazar’s rule are reflective of a degree of hostility
that characterized the attitude of the Sunni religious elite, operating mostly
from their urban base in Srinagar city, toward the Shiʿi. An elite which after
the collapse of Mughal rule, rooted as it was in an imperial cosmopolitan
character, came increasingly to reflect narrow provincial outlook, orthodox, and
at times with an activist thrust—targeting the others; Pandit and Shiʿi. Though
the major preoccupation of a majority of Afghan ṣubedars in Kashmir was to
maintain their rule and extract the greatest possible amount of revenue from
the land, yet we find instances where individual ṣubedars got involved in a
fanatical zeal to suppress any beliefs system other than that of the Sunnis. Of
particular relevance are two separate incidents that took place in the early part
of Afghan rule in Kashmir, which showcase how the Sunni elite viewed Shiʿi
or Shiʿi-inspired public performances. During the rule of Lʿal Muhammad
Khān (1765), a Sunni preacher, Ḥāfiz ʿAbdullah (d. 1765), who used to deliver
sermons in the main mosque of the city, Jamia Masjid, was accused of being a
rāfizī (rejectionist)—a claim that would indicate a certain degree of affinity with
the Shiʿi belief. Consequently, ʿAbdullah was summoned for a confrontation of
his heretical beliefs in the Khānaqāh-i Naqshbandīya, by the leading shaykh of
the order, Khwāja Kamāl-al Dīn Naqshbandī (d. 1775). During the discussions,
an enraged Khwāja stuck the unrepentant Ḥāfiz repeatedly on the head with his
cane, resulting in death.19 As an influential Sufi order, operating mostly within the
folds of the educated religious elite of the city, the Naqshbandīs had emerged as a
powerful voice of Sunni orthodoxy with marked anti-Shiʿi coloring. Significantly
the first Shiʿi-Sunni riot in Srinagar during the Mughal rule of Kashmir (1586–
1753) saw an active participation of Khwāja Khawand Maḥmūd (1563–1642),
the Sufi shaykh who established the order in the city during the seventeenth
century.20
Similarly, during the rule of Mīr Dad Khān (1786–8), another Sunni
waʿiẕ of the city, Ḥāfiz Kamāl was accused of being a rāfizī and executed. The
nineteenth-century Sunni historian Pīr Ghulām Ḥasan Shāh Khuihāmī relates the
circumstances of Kamāl’s execution in these words:

A preacher in the city, Ḥāfiz Kamāl used to live in Malaratta area. During the
time of Hājjī Karim Dad, as a result of giving sermons filled with rāfz, he was
barred from preaching, (and) would at times offer sermons at his home. He
would forbid people from visiting graves of saints (awliyā-i Allah) and giving
offerings (nazar-o niyaz) at their shrines. Gradually he started abusing the
Companions (of the Prophet). On the complaint of some pious individuals,
Qāzī Ḥabib al Lah, based on the witness of countless persons proved his crime
of cursing and disassociation from the Companions (sabb o tabarrā). He was
mounted on a horse, paraded through the city and then smitten by a sword at
Haft Chinar.21

Interestingly in both instances we find prominent Sunni preachers of the city stand
accused of bearing Shiʿi tendencies, before being executed on a similar and highly
16 Shiʿism in Kashmir

contentious charge of abusing the Companions of the Prophet. The account related
to the execution, derived as they are from Sunni sources, maintain the authenticity
of the accusations. Unfortunately, we do not have a Shiʿi version of the events, only
a saying in the local vernacular, Kashmiri, which commemorates Ḥāfiz Kamāl as
a martyr, who spoke the truth while also alluding to a more gruesome death than
what is recorded by Kuihāmī.22

Ḥāfizan wanuv poz, tes kadik aech

Transl: Ḥāfiz told the truth, they took out his eyes.

Much more than execution of individuals on motivated charges of blasphemy, it

was the possibility of a full-blown Shiʿi-Sunni riot that governed how the Kashmiri
Shiʿi society could express their religious and sectarian identity. An earlier riot had
taken place during the ṣubedarī of Būland Khān (1762–4 ce), when the Shiʿi of
Zadibal were accused of using indecent language against Khwāja Ḥabib al Lah
Nowsherī, a sixteenth-century Sunni Sufi. Consequently, the moḥala of Zadibal
was burned, and many of its Shiʿi residents were killed while among the survivors
some had their ear and nose chopped and fines imposed on them by Būland
Khān.23 But to categorize the entirety of Afghan rule in Kashmir as a period of
intercommunal and sectarian prejudices would be a wrong historical construct.
Kashmir had witnessed the rule of the Shiʿi Qizalbash, Amīr Khān Jawān Sher
(1770–7), and an even longer rule of a ṣubedar of Hindu origin, Rajā Sūkh Jiwan
Mal (1753–62). Both Amīr Khān and Sūkh Jiwan made an unsuccessful attempt
at gaining independence from the court at Kabul. In the case of Amīr Khān, the
final stand against the royal forces of Taimūr Shāh (r. 1772–93) resulted in betrayal
by his most trusted officials—a consequence of the ṣubedar’s Shiʿi beliefs. The
memory of Amīr Khān’s rule and the reasons for dissensions in his rank must have
been still fresh when some six years later Forster recorded them from his native
sources:

Amir Khan, a Perfian {Persian}, one of the late governors of Kafhmire {Kashmir},
[. . .] is sfill fpoken {still spoken} of in terms of affection and regret; [. . .]. But
in the hour of need, he was abandoned by the pufillanimous {pusillanimous}
fickle Kafhmirians {Kashmirians}, who reconciled their conduct to the Perfian
{Perisan}, by urging, that if he had remained in Kafhmire {Kashmir}, he would
have converted them all to the faith of Ali and cut them off from the hope of
salvation.24

Almost a century later, the Sunni historian Kuihāmī would paint Amīr Khān as
a religious fanatic responsible for killing numerous Sunnis. This, according to
Kuihāmī, was the reason behind a delegation of Sunni elders from the city under
the leadership of Mullā Mājid approaching the Afghan king Taimūr Shāh at Kabul
and requesting him to depose the Shiʿi ṣubedar.25 Much more than the ṣubedar,
it was this leadership of the city, comprising religious and business elders who
governed the nature of Shiʿi-Sunni relationship and its public manifestations. At
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 17

the start of the nineteenth century, these relations were strained to the extent that
they resulted in execution and riots in the city. As a co-religionist, the Afghan
court at Srinagar simply dispensed with the role of acting as an impartial arbitrator
in these conflicts. And, under the patronage of the court, the Sunni elements of the
city ensured strenuously that any public manifestation of Shiʿiness—rāfz in the
words of Kuihāmī—would be erased.

The Claim of Being First Muslims

In the contested textual fabric of medieval tazkirā and tārīkhs through which
Muslim writers in Kashmir have constructed their past, we find the mention of
a Sufi, Bulbul Shāh (d. 1327), who is perceived as the saintly figure responsible
for inaugurating Muslim faith in Kashmir. The earliest mention of Bulbul Shāh is
to be found in an anonymous seventeenth-century political history of Kashmir,
Bahāristān-i Shāhī (c. 1614), where the Sufi is introduced as a reticent mendicant
living in Srinagar. A chance meeting between the Sufi and the Buddhist king of
Kashmir, Rīnchanā (1320–3) convinces the latter to convert to Islam, thus marking
a peaceful transition to Muslim rule in this northern Himalayan region. The event
is remembered by the Shiʿi author of Bahāristān-i Shāhī in these words:

The dervish told him that his name was Bulbul Qalandar, that his religion was
Islam and that his community was that of Muslims. He disclosed to him that he
was a member of the sect of Shāh Ne’matullah Walī. He mentioned some of the
miracles performed by the prophet, the virtues and superior qualities of ʿAli,
the imam, [. . .]. Now he subjected himself to the teachings of the religion of
Mustafa (prophet), and the right principles of the truthful path of Murtaza (Ali)
and embraced Islamic religion with sincerity and conviction.26

Following the author of Bahāristān-i Shāhī another seventeenth-century Shiʿi

writer, Malik Ḥaidar, in his history Tārīkh-i Kashmir (c. 1620), also records the
circumstances related to Rīnchanā’s conversion, though the sectarian identification
of Bulbul Shāh is not touched upon. While Bulbul Shāh figures prominently in
later accounts, especially those written after the seventeenth century, we find no
mention of him in earlier Sanskrit sources or even the oldest surviving Persian
history of Sayyid ʿAli, Tārīkh-i Kashmir (c. 1579). In the highly Sunni-centric text
of Sayyid ʿAli neither Bulbul Shāh, Rīnchanā nor even early Shāhmirī sultans find
a reference.27
In their imagination of the past, Kashmir’s Muslim historians have shown a
marked predilection toward a narrative which links them to a singular moment
in history, a moment which is then celebrated as the origin of Islam in the
region. The conversion of Rīnchanā captures this moment. And in consecrating
what is historically a highly ambiguous event in a specific sectarian milieu, later
historiographic texts help in intertwining the narrative of arrival with that of
sectarian identification, pride, and contestations.
18 Shiʿism in Kashmir

In 1159 ah/1746 ce when Khwājā ʿAẕam Dedhmarī completed his Tārīkh-i

Kashmir; the earlier works of Malik and Bahāristān-i Shāhī provide the textual
links for him to posit his narrative of a Muslim beginning in Kashmir. A
beginning in which Bulbul Shāh is remembered as “Chief of the Gnostics, Leader
of the Saints, Promoter of Islam, Destroyer of the Idols, Heedful of the Truth.”28
Significantly, while the author of Bahāristān-i Shāhī makes repeated references
to ʿAli, the first Shiʿi imām, in his narration of the encounter between Bulbul
Shāh and Rīnchanā, Dedhmarī carefully avoids any such mention, limiting
himself to quoting the initial part of the original text about the “miracles of the
Prophet.”29 By doing away with any hint of Shiʿi-ness in visiting the beginning
of Muslim rule in Kashmir, Dedhmarī systematically frames the foundation of
Muslim rule in Kashmir as a Sunni enterprise. Later in the text, when he does
visit the origin of Shiʿism in Kashmir he links it to intrigue and deceit. The
historiography of Tārīkh-i Kashmir alternates between a chronology of events
and a polemical worldview, weaving a narrative of how the body of Kashmiri
Muslim society was laid open to dissensions by a charlatan and fabricators
linked to Shiʿism.
For Dedhmarī, the disruption in the body politics of Kashmiri Muslims starts
with the arrival of the Nūrbakhshī shaykh, Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIrakī (d. 1525),30
in the court of Sultan Ḥasan Shāh (r. 1472–84). ʿIrakī arrived in Kashmir as the
emissary of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (1470–1507 ce), the Timurid ruler of Herat.
In the medieval Persianate world, the Nūrbakhshī’s had emerged as a messianic
offshoot of the older Kubrawī order, with a distinct Shiʿi coloring.31 In Kashmir,
the foundation of the Kubrawī order was coeval with the arrival of Mīr Sayyid
ʿAli Hamdanī (d. 1384)—the first major transnational Sufi figure to visit Kashmir.
Though the visit of Mīr Sayyid ʿAli proved inconsequential in its immediate
aftermath, his son, Mīr Sayyid Muhammad Hamdanī (1372–1450), who retraced
his father’s footsteps into Kashmir, helped in consolidating both the image of
the order and that of his father as enabler of Kashmir’s Muslim identity. Sayyid
ʿAli’s Tārīkh-i Kashmir commences with a brief description of events leading up
to Mīr Sayyid ʿAli Hamdanī’s arrival in Kashmir. The contribution of Mīr Sayyid
ʿAli to the conversion process is exemplified in the text by referring to him as the
“founder of Islam.”32 For the historian, the benefits of Sayyid ʿAli Hamdanī’s arrival
in Kashmir are clear:

In this country Islam advanced so much, that within the heart of its inhabitants
no trace (scent) of infidelity or heresy remained. Due to his (Sayyid ʿAli
Hamdanī) auspiciousness and abundant presence, this country became an
unrivalled paradise.33

Coming back to Dedhmarī, we find that in a work which is broadly dedicated to

honoring the memory of Muslim religious figures as pious, ascetic, and deeply
spiritual individuals, events related to ʿIrakī—given his Shiʿi identity—are
presented as political machinations devoid of any spiritual grace. Dedhmarī not
only questions ʿIrakī’s link to the Nūrbakhshīya order but also refrains in his entire
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 19

text from calling ʿIrakī by his full given name, Shams-al Dīn: The Sun of the Faith.34
The full extent of Dedhmarī’s hostility to ʿIrakī can be observed in these passages:

It is a manifest truth that during Fateh Shāh and Malik Mūsā’s rule, of the many
strange and difficult events that took place, one was the arrival of Mīr Shams
ʿIrakī [. . .].Shams ʿIrakī made spiritual connection with Bābā ʿAli Najār and
slowly ever so slowly he was successful in entrapping ʿAli Najar in the glass
of his misguided faith. [. . .]. Shams ʿIrakī had propagated his link to Sayyid
Muhammad Nūrbaksh in order to deceive people. [. . .]ʿIrakī associated himself
with him [Nūrbaksh], this is just a lie.
He made relations with the officials of the Sultan and made people to propagate
his “miracles”. In this way many simple-minded people became a victim of his
fraud [. . .].
Malik Mūsā due to circumstances of fate became a disciple of Shams ʿIrakī, his
[ʿIrakī’s] shop became quite famous. [. . .] In this way Shiʿism spread widely and
reached till Tibet.35

ʿIrakī’s arrival in Kashmir coincides with emerging transformations in the

Kashmiri Muslim society, in which Srinagar the main urban center represents an
advancement of scripturalist orthodoxy operating from a network of Sufi operated
khānaqāhs. The early Muslim rule in Kashmir was characterized by cultural
experience rooted in syncretism. The arrival of the Kubrawī, especially under Mīr
Muhammad Hamdanī had challenged this native Muslim culture both at the court
and in the society at large. This had also resulted in an initial period of iconoclastic
activities targeting the native non-Muslim population under Sultan Sikander
(r.1389-1413). Nevertheless, by the time of ʿIrakī’s arrival we find that customs and
rituals rooted in a cultural fusion of older Buddhist and Hindu societies and the
expanding Muslim community, continued to be a part of both the court culture
linked with the Muslim sultans as well as the Muslim society at large. While
Persian eclipsed Sanskrit as the court language and Persianate cultural influence
became increasingly more visible, Kashmiri Muslim society continued to operate
as an overlap of multiple practices, influences and outlook.
Most of the textual information that we have of this period, pertains to the upper
classes linked to, and operating around the court. This results in a textual bias in
which the information available to us centres on events and anecdotes related to
the saints and preachers linked with the Sufi khānaqāhs. These khānaqāhs operated
as institutions of orthodoxy, and as most of them were introduced from regions
of Persianate influence. They also served as disseminator’s of Persian culture.
Consequently, we find that most of the tārīkh navis and tazkirā nigārs who are
providing us with information about medieval Muslim Kashmir are themselves
intimately linked with these khānaqāhs.36 Aside from the khānaqāh-based Sufis,
we also find the presence of a loosely grouped order of native Muslim saints—
the Reshīs. The Reshīs of Kashmir operate away from both court patronage and
court culture and are representative of a folk tradition—a significant majority of
20 Shiʿism in Kashmir

the Reshīs were not only vegetarian but also celibate, linking them ideologically
to pre-Muslim practices of Buddhist Bikshus and Hindu Reshīs. Additionally, the
Reshīs adopted customs and the language that belonged to the common people—
the local vernacular, not the Persianized customs and the Persian language that
was being introduced at the court. In the verses of Shaykh Nūr-al Dīn (d. 1415 or
1438), the patron saint of the order, survive the earliest, extant critique of this new
transformation being introduced into Kashmiri society in the name of Islam by the
Sufis of the khānaqāh. For the most part, the Reshīs operated in a wider folk tradition
of Islam linked with the Sunni population of Kashmir. Given the distance from court
and court patronage, the Reshīs do not figure in the hagiographic accounts linked
with Nūrbakhshīyas. As Shiʿi concentration in the medieval period was city-centric,
an area studiously avoided by the Reshīs, it is safe to posit that during the period of
Nūrbakhshīya’s ascendancy as the leading Sufi order of Kashmir, the path of the two
did not cross. Both operated in self-contained zones, with minimal interactions.37

Two Saints, Two Sects

In an anecdote popular in Sunni circles and said to have taken place somewhere
during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, a Shiʿi ʿālim, a certain
unnamed Āgā meets his Sunni counterpart, the Muftī Āzam (Chief Mufti). After
exchange of pleasantries, the two engage in what seems to be on the surface a
polite conversation, though laced with hostile innuendos. The Shiʿi Āgā who is
portrayed as the antagonist in the episode commences the dialogue by seeking the
religious opinion of the Muftī38:

Āgā: It is known amongst us, that the pul-i sirāt (bridge of hereafter), which
every individual has to cross on the Day of Judgement is extremely narrow,
narrower than a thread and sharper than a sword. Do the Sunni’s also hold
a similar view?
Muftī: Yes, it is mentioned so in the books of Ḥadīth.
Āgā: Given the physical difficulty of the crossing, how would a lame (lūngh)
pass over the bridge?
Muftī: By riding on the back of a mule (tateh).

What would appear to contemporary observers, even many Kashmiris, to be

a farcical exchange between the two men of religion, reflects a case of lingering
sectarian hostility that fashioned how the Shiʿi and Sunni viewed the past.
The subtle reference to a lame and a mule marks a disrespectful allusion to two
tradition-enabling figures among the Sunni and Shiʿi society of Kashmir: Shaykh
Ḥamza Makhdūm (d. 984 ah/1576 ce) and Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIrakī. Where ʿIrakī
is seen as the seminal figure who bought Kashmiri Shiʿi from the margins into the
center of power and patronage, Shaykh Ḥamza would emerge as the inspirational
figurehead of Sunni opposition to both the Nūrbakhshīya order and the rule of Shiʿi
Chak sultans (Figure 1.2). Historically, Ḥamza emerges on Kashmir’s political and
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 21

Figure 1.2 Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm, SPS Museum collection, Srinagar, 2022 (author).

spiritual landscape at a much later date after ʿIrakī’s death, yet in folk traditions
linked with both Shiʿi and Sunni societies, the two are seen as contemporaries
with deep animus against each other. The disapproval which the two evoke in the
memory of the other community is reflected in the scornful epithet we encountered
in the conversation between the Muftī and the Āgā: lame for the Shaykh and mule
for the Mīr. Though never explicitly consigned to a text, the offensive nature of
these appellations of which the other community was aware, was enough to keep
the Shiʿi and the Sunnis locked into an antagonist relation—sometimes taking the
shape of riots and sometimes resulting in pithy exchanges as recorded at the start.
Of the various Sufis who arrived in Kashmir during the medieval period, ʿIrakī’s
marks the most successful career.39 Arriving as a political emissary he, during the
course of his two visits, achieved an unrivalled ascendancy in the court. The success
was a gradual process with many setbacks on the way, including a brief exile to
the inhospitable borderlands of Ladakh, yet a steely determination and a fanatical
association to the Nūrbakhshīya order, paved his path to success. And on the way
while he succeeded in converting many among Kashmiri Sunnis, especially the
Kubrawī’s to his order through persuasion, there was also a strong push back from
Sunni religious elite. Initially ʿIrakī succeeded in winning over both Baba ʿAli
Najār40 and Shaykh Ismāʿīl (d. 1510),41 the two main Kubrawī shayks in the city.
Later on during ʿIrakī’s second visit to Kashmir, feeling slighted Ismāʿīl distanced
22 Shiʿism in Kashmir

himself from ʿIrakī. Ismāʿīl’s son, Shaykh Fateh-al Lah, maintained a grudge
against ʿIrakī and was the prime instigator for getting ʿIrakī’s son, Shaykh Dāniyāl,
executed at a later date.42 Still within a short time after his second arrival in Kashmir,
ʿIrakī success at the court resulted in the initiation of some of the powerful clan of
nobles, Dangars, Rainas, Maliks of Chadurah, and the Chaks, into Shiʿi faith. While
ʿIrakī passed away before the Chaks ascended to the throne as sultans of Kashmir,
yet in his own lifetime he received full patronage of the vizier Malik Mūsā Raina
(1501–10)43 with whose help he constructed a two-storied khānaqāh for himself at
Zadibal. ʿAli reflects on ʿIrakī’s success at the court in these words:

Shams ʿIrakī saw a temple, which was properly oriented towards the qibla and
had a door made on its eastern side, converting it into a mosque. Travellers
used to offer nimāz in it. [. . .] He (ʿIrakī) made it his seat and made a vow to
undertake a chilla (solitary penance) in it. Bābā ʿAli also came there (to visit
ʿIrakī). After that Malik Ghazī Chak also came and officials of the court also
started visiting. When the general public came to know that officials of the state
are going there, in their greed of this world they too started to go there. This
news reached the Shaykh (Ismāʿīl). During those days he was ill, and passed
away. And the world became devoid of such people. People now started to turn
towards him (ʿIrakī). Though the son of the Shaykh, Bābā Fateh-ul Lah was a
learned man and presided over a khānaqāh, but few people would approach him
and most of the people would go to Shams ʿIrakī.[. . .] People from Hanjihal
used to always be in difficulties due to non-payment of taxes, etc., that were due
to them. Therefore (ʿIrakī) started making recommendations on their behalf,
also endorsing soldiers seeking employment.44

Additionally, ʿIrakī also revived the iconoclastic program in the region which had
achieved a marked success during Sultan Sikandar’s reign under the Kubrawī shaykh,
Mīr Muhammad Hamdanī. The disdain that ʿIrakī felt for the prevailing cultural
practices of Kashmiri Muslims can be assessed in these words of his biographer:

Such atheistic and idolatrous practices continue to be observed in the houses

of scholars, theologians and leading personalities of this land (Kashmir). They
observe all the festivals and feasts of infidels and polytheists. The family members
of the elders and leading persons of this land, especially their womenfolk, do not
do anything without the permission of the infidels and permission of astrologers.
In fact, in all activities of daily life like eating, drinking, sleeping, rising from
sleep, travel and rest, astronomers and polytheists have a role to play.45

In another instance ʿIrakī’s biographer elaborates on one such “sinful practice”, a

practice which also helps us understand the syncretic nature of Muslim cultural
practices in fifteenth-century Kashmir:

On the occasion of the wedding feast, the Qadiís daughter, adorned as bride, was
carried from the house of the Shaykh according to the customs [. . .] prevalent
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 23

in this land from the ancient times. At Shaykh Shihab’s house, the bridegroom
mounted a horse [. . .] and moved towards the river flowing through the city in
the town [. . .].

The bride and the bridegroom, along with some women, dismounted their
horses on the bank of the river [. . .] took a tumbler in his hand and filled it with
water [. . .] lifted the tumbler poured water into the river from some height. After
some time, the bridegroom took a sword in his hand and sliced the water from
some height. The bride followed suit.46

The extent of ʿIrakī’s proselytizing undertakings targeting the non-Muslims has

been recorded by the sixteenth-century Sanskrit scholar Pandit Shūkā in his
continuation of the Rajatarangini. Referring to ʿIrakī by a Sanskritized version of
his name, Merashesha, he writes:

Merashesha, the pupil of Shāhkāsima, was born in the country of Irāka; he knew
all the sciences [. . .] According to Merashesha advice, Somachandra arrested
men belonging to temples, confiscated lands of the Brahmanas and gave them to
Merashesha’s servants and thus pleased him.47

Though ʿIrakī comes across in both Shiʿi and Sunni accounts as an individual
possessing a significant measure of charisma yet he was also a man of particular
idiosyncrasies—a benevolent benefactor for his disciples, and also destitute
people at large (as was the case with the residents of Hanjihal), he could also come
across as an indifferent person especially in his dealing with non-Muslims. Well-
read, and deeply welded to his Persianate culture, he both in his utterances and
mannerism displayed a particular disdain for anything Kashmiri. Presiding over
a newly introduced Sufi order, ʿIrakī showed a remarkable lack of restrain in his
dealing with the older established Sunni religious classes at the court.48 The depth
of ʿIrakī’s dedication to the Nūrbakhshīya cause and the harshness of his conduct in
dealing with rival Sufi orders is best exemplified by an incident involving a visiting
Naqshbandī, Mullā Farhī. The mullā had in his possession a manuscript of Silsilat
al-Zahab49 the work of the famous Persian poet and Naqshbandī Sufi, Maulanā
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 1492). Given the adverse relations between Jāmī and his
own shaykh, Shāh Qāsim Nūrbaksh, ʿIrakī had the entire volume consigned to
flames in his kitchen much to the chagrin of Farhī, who also happened to be Jāmī’s
disciple50.
More significantly, ʿIrakī showed none of the humility in his public dealings
expected of a Sufi shaykh. In fact a study of Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb shows how in his
dealing he embraced customs and mannerism that are associated with royalty. It
is worthwhile to note that among ʿIrakī’s dedicated adherents, we find a majority
of families and tribes such as the Chaks whose conversion from a nomadic to
sedentary urban lifestyle was quite recent.
The man who would represent Sunni resentment and resistance to Shiʿism
in Kashmir, Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm, was born in 1491 (or 1494), in a village
24 Shiʿism in Kashmir

of Tujar at a time when ʿIrakī was dominating the court life. During the course
of his preaching, Makhdūm would attract some of the most preeminent Sunni
ulema and preachers to his cause. And, they in their turn would propagate the
life and legend of Shaykh Makhdūm Ḥamza through a series of hagiographic
works; acting as his publicist within the circles of well-read classes in the city.
These taẕkira’s51, the largest in this genre dealing with any Kashmiri Muslim
religious figure, would help in enshrining the image of Makhdūm as a miracle-
performing, epoch-making figure who revived Sunnism in the region. While
the image of ʿIrakī in the work of his biographer and partisans is of a shaykh
well versed in all the rational and religious sciences, Makhdūm life as recorded
by his devotees resembles a kaleidoscope of miracles—dazzling and audacious
in their spiritual reach. In Dastur-al Salikin and Virid-al Muridīn, Bābā Dawud
Khākī (1521–85), the principal khalifā of Makhdūm, records numerous such
miracles, some to which he bears a witness, some of which he registers on the
authority of Makhdūm. At various places in the text, we find that Makhdūm
frequently obtained guidance from saintly figures, including through physical
meetings with Jesus, Khizr, and Solomon. Living according to his biographers in
a sectarian milieu, Makhdūm finds his guidance from the Prophet Muhammad
himself. He is advised on the righteousness of the Sunni path by the Khilāfah
ar-Rāšidah, the four Rightly Guided Caliphs. In one telling instance, we find
an insight into how deep the Shiʿi-Sunni fissure ran in circles associated with
Makhdūm. One day Makhdūm is sitting with his circle of disciples when a
seemingly pious person passed by. Makhdūm then informs the gathering that
this man is a rāfizī. On being asked by Khākī how he came to know this, the
shaykh replies that when I looked at his face, I found his resemblance to a pig.52
The analogy of the unnamed Shiʿi with a ritually unclean animal (najs) not only
manifests the portrayal of a negative stereotype but also seeks to dehumanize
the community, which then becomes ingrained in Sunni historiography of the
succeeding generations.
In the taẕkira’s of Khākī, and another of Makhdūm’s disciple, Bābā Ḥaidar
Tūlmūlī (d. c. 1590),53 the awakening of Makhdūm is illustrated through
illuminating spiritual experiences drawing the shaykh deeper and deeper into
the folds of a Sunni identity, expressed in an anti-Shia rhetoric while seemingly
grounded in a spiritual awakening.
Despite the acceptance Makhdūm found within the Sunni society, there was
also a degree of hostility directed toward him, partly originating from the Shiʿi
circles, to which he and his immediate disciples were deeply conscious and
sensitive. In Hidayat-al Mukhlisin, Tūlmūlī writes:

one day an individual remembered the pure name of Ḥazrat Makhdūm, at his
home with contempt and loathing. (Hearing this) Ḥazrat Makhdūm’s pure heart
became disturbed (blurred). Instantly, from the sacred court of Allah the Most
High, Ḥazrat Makhdūm received an order, “O! Makhdūm, how should I treat
this opponent of yours?” Ḥazrat Makhdūm replied “As his punishment decrees”.
Immediately that person was dispatched to hell.54
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 25

Similarly, in Tūlmūlī’s account, through his spiritual prowess and on the

requests of his disciple, Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm effects the death of more than
5,000 individuals who contest his spiritual station—the religious or sectarian
denomination of these condemned by the Makhdūm is not defined.55 This would
indicate that the aura of respectability and acceptance that the hagiographers
from Makhdūm’s circle want to impress upon their audience was not entirely
widespread, even among contemporary Sunni society. In Qārī’s taẕkira we find
instances where the text alternates between a desire to present a homogenizing
account of the saint’s spiritual status and popularity among the Sunni society,
and events which highlight the opposition that Makhdūm faced from both the
Sunni religious classes as well as laity56.
An overview of the various hagiographic accounts emanating from the circle
of Makhdūm’s disciples portrays early sixteenth-century Kashmir as a tumultuous
society deeply invested in faith conversion. It is a society in which Shaykh Ḥamza
Makhdūm emerges as a person of an immense moral and spiritual character
singularly reviving the Sunni faith. It also portrays, the Kashmiri Sunnis as a
marginalized community living under an oppressive Shiʿi rule, a narrative that
was then picked up by a later generation of Sunni historians in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. Instances of this victimhood, include the narrative of
Makhdūm being exiled from Srinagar by the first Shiʿi sultan of Kashmir, Ghāzī
Shāh (r. 1561–3) and an event said to have taken place during the reign of the second
sultan in this dynasty, Ḥusayn Shāh (r. 1563–70), who tested the spirituality of the
shaykh in what can be termed as a demeaning manner. Yet conversely, Tūlmūlī also
argues that two of the leading wives of Ḥusayn Shāh were not only Sunnis but also
mūrids of Sayyid Muhammad Zelālī, himself a disciple of Makhdūm. Again, while
initially Tūlmūlī argues that Ḥusayn Shāh’s misbehavior toward Makhdūm resulted
in the sultan’s immediate death, a bit later in the text he would lead us to believe that
a chastised Ḥusayn Shāh repented, recovered and changed his behavior.57
In a strange paradox while we find numerous references to ʿIrakī, even
though extremely hostile, in medieval texts authored by Sunni writers, not a
single mention of Makhdūm is to be found in any Shiʿi work, whether a tārīkh
or a tazkirā. Surprisingly a similar absence of a textual reference can also be
observed in the work of a staunch Sunni historian like ʿAli, who would have
been a senior contemporary of Makhdūm. ʿAli’s work ends at Ḥusayn Shāh’s
reign, during which period, based on the work of Khākī and Tūlmūlī, the fame of
Makhdūm was firmly established across Kashmir. Similarly, we find no mention
of Makhdūm in any contemporary Sanskrit history. The historian Shūkā while
mentioning about various Muslim religious figures is silent about Makhdūm.
Posit the inconspicuous presence of Makhdūm in this early textual evidence
against this description of the shaykh offered by Khākī, and we get an interesting
dichotomy:

Many dignitaries, nobles, officials would visit the Honorable Sultan-al ʿArifīn
(King of those with Knowledge of God), but leave aside standing (in greeting) for
anyone he would not bestow them with the least bit of favor or respect.
26 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Wherever Ḥazrat Makhdūm (May God’s Mercy be on him) would take his
presence, jinns would shake like the branches of willow and flee.58

Do then the works of Khākī and Tūlmūlī reveal a reworking of a historical figure?
It is especially intriguing given that many of Makhdūm’s disciples, including
Khākī, were involved in negotiations with the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556–
1605), which finally resulted in the annexation of Kashmir and removal of the
Chak sultans. Additionally, it is in Khākī’s text that we come across the use of
the honorific title Sultan-al ʿArifīn59 for the Makhdūm. By establishing a claim
to the rulership of a spiritual realm, the circle of Makhdūm effectively sought to
challenge and circumvent the territorial sovereignty of the Shiʿi sultans. And, in his
disdain for political classes, as reflected in Khākī’s passage, Makhdūm dramatically
contrasts his own ascetic, spiritual life with what is projected in these texts as the
worldly, corrupt, and tyrannical court of the sultans. A court which for Khākī and
Tūlmūlī is in a perpetual conflict with their shaykh, replicating the eternal drama
of struggle between good and evil.60 Aside from its core narrative of projecting
an emblematic personality of Makhdūm through a series of mystical visions and
miraculous occurrences, both the texts, that of Khākī and Tūlmūlī firmly locate
this conflict between the shaykh and the sultans in a sectarian Shiʿi-Sunni milieu61.
This dispute is not between any worldly court and the spiritual darbār of a shaykh,
but between the explicit Shiʿi and Sunniness of these two spaces.
The semantics of these texts provide the basis for some of the most abiding
prejudices marking Shiʿi-Sunni antagonism in Kashmir. These have in turn given
rise to many colorful folklores projecting ʿIrakī and Makhdūm as arch-rivals,
engaged in feats of spiritual contestations. It is safe to posit, given the level of
emotions involved in these narratives, for Kashmiri Muslim society ʿIrakī and
Makhdūm serve as markers of sectarian identification. Any attempt to construe
a Muslim past in Kashmir involves self-positioning itself around how the two are
viewed.62 How entrenched these views had become as we arrive in the nineteenth
century can be seen in the versified history of Kashmir, Bāgh-i Suleimān (c. 1294
ah /1877 ce) written by Mīr Saʿad ul-Lah Shāhabādī:

In that age Mīr Shams of ʿIrak,

came to Kashmir and established here the ways of hypocrisy
He strengthened the citadel of Shiʿite creed,
and created cracks in the faith of Sunnis.63

In the biographical works surrounding Makhdūm, his death in 984ah/

1576ce comes across as a particularly inconspicuous event64. The text related
to Makhdūms death, unlike what is written about his life, is strangely devoid
of any display of miracles marking the event extraordinaire. Rather it is the
congregational funeral, which is presented as a unique occasion, drawing a vast
crowd comprising both scholars as well as the laity, the ruling classes, and the
commoners in a popular homage to an exceptionally remarkable man. For his
disciples, this display of popular vernation for the dead saint firmly establishes
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 27

the historicity of the cult centered around Makhdūm65. Yet, as it happens where
people contest, there is the actual event and then there are versions of the event
more appealing to imagination especially when tailored to highlight competing
visions. And it is again in the genre of the dapan tradition, that we find a colourful
fable linked with Makhdūms death originating from the Shiʿi circle, which use the
occasion to stereotype both the dead shaykh’s animus toward the Shiʿi, as well as
to showcase it as an event of divine retribution establishing the righteousness of
the Shiʿi faith. In this legend, Makhdūm, driven by his hate against Iraki, decides
to eliminate the Shiʿi neighbourhood of Zadibal by securing the help of jinns.
He conjures a plan to transport the hillock of Koh-i Maran and have it dropped
on the khānaqāh of ʿIraki at Zadibal eliminating both his rival and the Shiʿi
community. ʿIraki gets to know of this plan and devises a scheme which seeks
to disrupt the threat, involving an elderly Shiʿi couple who decide to confront
the mechanization of Makhdūm and his jinns. The couple proceed to Koh-i
Maran and succeed in their mission, and the hill while about to be transported
falls on the jinn and Makhdūm resulting in their death. In its treatment of the
subject this oral legend mirrors contemporary textual traditions linked with the
genre of taẕkiras, locating itself in the fantastical and miracle happening world.
Significantly, where Makhdūms disciple such as Tulmulī weave the narrative of
a retributive death for the shaykhs Shiʿi opponents, the Shiʿi not only created a
rival matching tradition, one grounded in Makhdūms own death but through it
also sought to uncover the speciousness of the miracles claimed by Makhdūms
disciples.
To a large extent these contrasting narratives capture the attitude of a majority
of medieval native historians and hagiographers toward not only the ʿIrakī-
Makhdūm tussle but also the rule of Chaks, and Kashmir’s subsequent loss of
sovereignty as an independent regional Sultanate.

Chaks: The Pādshāhs of Kashmir

Some five years after Akbar ascended the throne as emperor of Hindustan, in
the court of Shāhmīrī sultans of Kashmir, ʿAli Khān Chak removed the crown
from the head of his nephew and the titular sultan, Ḥabib Shāh (r. 1557–61)66 and
placed it on his brother, Ghāzī Chak.67 The act marks the end of more than two
centuries of Shāhmīrī rule (1339–1561) in Kashmir and their replacement by the
short-lived Chak Sultanate (1561–86). Significantly, it also marks the transfer of
authority from a dynasty adhering to the Sunni faith to one located within the
Shiʿi belief system.68 In his Tārīkh, ʿAli laments this transfer as a loss of Sunni
temporal authority:

After the passage of two hundred years the rule of (this) country passed from
the hands of the offspring of Sultan Shams-al Dīn into the hands of the children
of Langar Chak. ʿAhl-i Tashiʿ (Shiʿi) again became custom (or came into
prominence).69
28 Shiʿism in Kashmir

This apparent Sunni-ness of the Shāhmīrī sultans is effectively posited against the
Shiʿi-ness of the Chak rule. In the words of Dedhmarī:

From the inauguration of Sultan Shams-al Dīn till the sultanate of Nazūk Shāh
fourteen or fifteen pious stars sat in the lap of sultanate. They propagated and
promulgated the religion of Ahl-i Sunnat wal Jamat. [. . .] In this way the family
of Chaks gradually, who were the servants and foster brothers of this dynasty
(i.e, the Shāhmīrī’s), attained power and domination. Due to which the affairs of
government (sultanat) and religion (dīn) and nation (millat) were interrupted.70

The portrayal of Chaks as servants of the Shāhmīrī, who usurped power from
their former masters resonates with Sunni historians down the centuries—a late
example is to be found in the tārīkh of Pīr Ḥasan Shāh Khuihāmī. This work, which
was written in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, marks the culmination of
Persian historiography in Kashmir, which significantly expands on the narrative of
earlier historians. A narrative which again highlights the assumed lowly origin of
the Chaks and then posits it with both their assumption of power and their faith:
their Shiʿi identity.
By identifying the Shāhmīrī and Chaks with political fortunes of Kashmiri
Sunni and Shiʿi society, the authors of these texts are also presupposing a
fractured Muslim society in which the struggle for political power is transformed
into a sectarian project. Yet, the details provided in these texts would lead us to
a contrary reading. Also, as we saw in the writing of Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb the lived
history of sixteenth-century Kashmir is not as conscious of religion as writers in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would make us believe.
The rise of Chaks, rather than a sectarian venture as later generation of
historiography would imply, is primarily a case of how a nomadic non-native group
emerges from Kashmir’s borderland and then over a period of century navigates
itself into power, which is operating from an urban courtly setting. While there is
no reason to question the sincerity of their conversion to Shiʿiism under ʿIrakī,
yet the conversion must not be seen as a lone moment. Both ʿIrakī and Chaks
struggled to achieve a position of preeminence in the court. As outsiders, both faced
a certain disadvantage in the face of older established power centers: the politico-
religious elite. The opposition ʿIrakī faced from the Bayhaqī Sayyids, Māgreys, and
other nobles71 at the court as well as from sections of Kubrawī order and the court
mullā72 is indicative of the level of this animosity. By allying themselves spiritually
with ʿIrakī, the Chaks increased their visibility at the court through a charismatic
though contentious Sufi shaykh who nonetheless commanded great attention. In
a sole reference to the Chaks, ʿIrakī’s biographer clearly mentions that the dynasty
owed their property in the city to ʿIrakī’s munificence.73 For ʿIrakī, Chaks could
not be the only mean of advancing his own goal—primarily at achieving wider
circle of discipleship and court patronage. So more importantly, in addition to
Chaks, he was also able to win Malik Mūsā Raina (d. 916 ah/1510 ce), a member
of the old court elite predating Sultanate rule, who on assuming the office of vazir
would offer the official patronage that ʿIrakī sought. Much more than the Chaks,
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 29

it is Mūsā Raina who during his nine years of rule became the instrument of
Nūrbakhshī shaykh’s success74 and also figures prominently in ʿIrakī’s biography:

The first amongst the nobles and rulers of the land of Kashmir to win Araki’s
special favour was Malik Mūsā Raina.75

Gradually through examples of personnel valor and marshaling of their resources,

the Chaks were able to able to gain new adherents. While we have no idea of their
actual number, most texts indicate that the initial progression of the Chaks was
more of a tribe united under a compelling leader rather than that of an individual
family. The advancement of the Chaks at the court also corresponds with a steady
decline in both the power and the prestige of the Shāhmīrī sultans following the
death of Sultan Ḥasan Shāh in 1472. With rival claimants76 to the throne betting
their chances on the support they could generate and more importantly sustain
among the competing amīrs, the court politics of late fifteenth to early sixteenth-
century Kashmir represents a quicksand of hopes realized and dreams quashed.
And in this quest for power, it took little for former allies to turn into deadly
opponents, where blood relations mattered as little as sectarian denominations of
the participants. Additionally, it is from this period that we find Delhi’s increasing
interest in the affairs of Kashmir as the various constitutive parts of the Kashmiri
court politics presented themselves at the Delhi court with a cry for support
or refuge. Luckily, at the moment when Kashmir was at its weakest, the Lodhi
sultans (1452–1526) of Delhi were more interested in expanding their territories
southward into Jaunpur and Bihar than getting bogged down in a Himalayan
region.
In the struggle for throne between Muhammad Shāh and his uncle Fateh
Shāh, we see Shiʿi amīrs attaching themselves to their political fortunes rather
than forming sectarian groupings to advance the fortunes of faith. A similar
political wisdom can be observed among Sunni amīrs, and in securing their
personal fortunes both Shiʿi and Sunni amīrs would form mutual alliances,
enter into matrimonial relations, and yet betray whosoever stood in their path
of power. And it was within this ever-changing orbit of high stakes that Kājī
Chak (d. 1544) emerged as a formidable warrior and a major player during Fateh
Shāh’s stint (1515–17) as sultan of Kashmir. Soon, Kājī attained the coveted post
of vazir, under Muhammad Shāh, and continued in the post from 1517 to 1527,
a long though tumultuous period. Much more than any other competing noble,
Kājī exemplified a certain sense of “Kashmiri-ness”—a tie to the land. When the
Mughal troops dispatched by Emperor Babur (r. 1526–30) invaded Kashmir, Kājī
though dismissed and in exile, raised his forces and defeated the Mughal troops.
However, this was not to be either Kashmir’s or Kājī’s last encounter with
the Mughals. After being forced out of the post of vazir once again due to
court intrigue, we find Kājī returning from exile to lead Kashmiri troops in
their fight against the Mughals who had occupied the city of Srinagar during
1531. The Chak ascendancy was however checked, when another Mughal army
under Emperor Hemayun’s (r. 1530–40, 1555–6) uncle, Mīrzā Ḥaidar Dughlat
30 Shiʿism in Kashmir

(d. 1551), invaded Kashmir first in the name of Sultan Sa’id Khān in 1533, and
then again in 1540 on behalf of Hemayun. While Dughlat’s first offensive was
marked by a quick retreat, the second attempt was marked by success The second
half of Dughlat’s (1540–51) ten-year rule in Kashmir, is marked by a determined
effort to define the land by its confessional identity—as a Sunni land governed
by Ḥanafī mazhab.77 In his autobiography Tārīkh-i Rashidī, which was partly
written in Kashmir, Dughlat provides us with an understanding of his resolve on
this issue, writing:

At the present time in Kashmir, the Sufis have legitimatised so many heresies,
that they know nothing of what is lawful or unlawful. They consider that
piety and purity consist in night-watching and abstinence in food; [. . .]. They
blame and detest science and men of learning; consider the Holy Law second
in importance to the True “Way,” [. . .]. Thanks be to God that, at the present
time, no one in Kashmir dares openly profess this faith; but all deny it, and
give them-selves out as good Sunnis. They are aware of my severity towards
them, and know that if any one of the sect appears, he will not escape the
punishment of death.78

Similarly ʿAli who along with his father was a partisan of Dughlat writes:

Mīrzā Haider spread the tradition of Ahl-i Sunnat wal Jamā’t everywhere and
wiped out Ahl-i Rāfizī and disloyal (people). He got Khānaqāh -i Shams ʿIrakī
burnt and had his remains dug out of the grave and burnt.79

While briefly mentioning some of the atrocities linked to Dughlat’s reign, including
the gruesome details of his execution of a Shiʿi reshī, Shanghlī Reshī, Dedhmarī
also praises Dughlat for his promotion of Islam or rather the Sunni understanding
and practice of Islam:

He spread knowledge, trained ulema and honoured Islam and the people of
Islam with great beneficence.80

In addition to seeing off the Chak threat to his rule and destroying the khānaqāh-
shrine complex of ʿIrakī at Zadibal, Dughlat was also responsible for and executing
the Nūrbakhshī shaykh’s son, Shaykh Dāniyāl. Not only was the Nūrbakhshīyā
order banned, but Dughlat also indulged in killing of prominent elders associated
with it. ʿAli would have us believe that all those targeted were Shiʿi, the author of
Bahāristān contests this by naming Sufis outside the Nūrbakhshī order, especially
within the Kubrawī’s, as well Sunni ulema belonging to the Shafī school who were
either exiled or killed. In spite of his championing of the Ḥanafī orthodoxy, we
know that at least one of the disciples of the Shaykh Ḥamza, Maulana Shams Pāl,
engaged in debates with the Dughlat and his associates.81
Dughlat’s fall and his death were a result of Kashmiri nobles uniting once again,
in face of his growing atrocities and more importantly his inability to assimilate
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 31

within the native cultural ethos. It is again left to Dedhmarī to paint the demise of
Dughlat in a sectarian milieu, writing:

The news of this untimely death of Mīrzā (sounded) glad tiding of victory for his
enemies. Especially the ʿAhl-i Tashiʿ whom he had awarded just (qarar-i waqeyi)
punishment, became very happy.82

Ten years after Dughlat’s death, Ghāzī Chak (r. 1561–3) ascended the throne of
Kashmir with virtually no opposition from the nobles, Shiʿi or Sunni. A brief
mutiny from within the Chak clan was easily quashed without much of a fight,
again showing how the nature of conflicts was political rather than sectarian.83
Prior to ascending the throne, as vizier, Ghāzī had been responsible for defeating
a Mughal army sent by Akbar in 1561 to occupy Kashmir.
While ʿAli dismisses Ghāzī’s reign in a little less than a line, Khwāja Isḥāq Qarī,
another of Makhdūm’s disciple, records a lengthy incident to show Ghāzī’s apparent
hostility to Sunnis, an enmity personified by his behavior toward Shaykh Ḥamza
Makhdūm.84 Whereas the sultan’s father, Kazī Chak had been deeply involved in
conversion process, there is no evidence to suggest that Ghāzī Chak also followed
a similar religious policy. Most of the sultan’s time was spent in consolidating the
outer territories of Kashmir, many of which had attained a semi-independent status
and resisting the Mughals. Himself a soldier and an able administrator under the
Mughal emperor Jahāngīr (r. 1605–27), the Kashmiri Shiʿi noble Malik Ḥaidar
notes Ghāzī’s accomplishments and contributions to Kashmir in these words:

During his region [sic], he conquered the whole of Khuistān-i Hind and brought
Pakhlī and Bhimber under his control. [. . .] the type of victory achieved by
Ghāzī Khān was never achieved by any of the great rulers (Khawāqīn) of the
world.85

Though brave and well learned, Ghāzī Chak possessed an uncompromising

nature—harsh to the extreme, combined with and a deep sense of justice. When
his son and heir apparent, Ḥaidar Khān murdered his uncle, the sultan had
Ḥaidar hanged in retaliation at ʿĪdgāh, the main maidan of the city. Bought up
in a tumultuous world of war, conflict, and intrigue, Ghāzī Chak governed with a
strong hand, but with a marked lack of benevolence or sympathy. Where Dughlat
had turned to confessional conformity to consolidate his rule, Ghāzī cultivated
order and justice as the foundational basis of his Sultanate; but the sultan’s
retributive justice was devoid of mercy. The Shiʿi author of Bahāristān while
acknowledging Ghāzī’s struggle at preserving Kashmir territorial sovereignty
against repeated Mughal incursions of Akbar, castigates the sultan as a tyrant who
relished in meting out harsh punishments. The Sanskrit historian Shūkā provides
an interesting assessment of the first Chak sultan in these words:

the great leader, the life of the world, the giver of good to the humble, the
accomplished [. . .] the one versed in literature and the benefactor of the people
32 Shiʿism in Kashmir

[. . .]. The king robbed even the neighbors of those who committed a fault and
he killed one hundred men every day. He imposed heavy fines for slight offences,
and he robbed villages for the fault of one. He gave nothing to worthy men but
bestowed his gifts on the unworthy.86

After abdicating the throne due to an advancing case of leprosy, Ghāzī Chak was
succeeded by his brother Sultan Ḥusayn Shāh (1563–70). Among the rulers of the
Chak dynasty, Ḥusayn Shāh is remembered as a just and cultured ruler; epitomized
as Khusraw-i ʿAādil.87 But unlike his brothers, Ḥusayn Shāh had to face revolts from
his own family, favorites, and the wider circle of nobles. The nature of these conflicts
was again political and not sectarian in nature. In, addition, Ḥusayn had to compete
against renewed Mughal interest in the affairs of Kashmir. Having shaken off the
restrains of both his regent, Bairam Khān (1556–60), as well the pull of the harem, a
confident and increasingly independent-minded Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) was
overseeing a campaign of consolidating and expanding the Mughal territories. It was
in the background of these events that the court of Ḥusayn Shāh became involved in
an event, severely testing the court as well as the sultan. It also set a pattern where a
section of the Sunni religious elite who had profited under the patronage of Dughlat
start viewing the Chak rule as one rooted in Shiʿiism—dangerous for the survival
and stability of the community of Ahl-i Sunnat wal Jamat. The hagiographers from
Shaykh Makhdūm Ḥamza’s circle celebrate this argument for a sectarian milieu.88
On the surface, the incident revolves around a confrontation between the
Sunni khatīb (preacher: who reads khutba or sermon) of Srinagar’s Jami Masjid,
Qāzī Ḥabīb, and a nondescript Shiʿi soldier, Yūsuf Inder. Yūsuf was practicing
his swordship outside the Jamai Masjid, when the qāzī arrived at the scene. An
acrimonious exchange between the two resulted in Ḥabīb abusing the Shiʿi faith
and Yūsuf retaliating against the qāzī. We may well visualize how this exchange
between an ordinary soldier and the preacher at the main mosque of the city must
have infuriated the qāzī who had in the past presided in the court of Dughlat
overseeing a severe restrictive campaign against the Shiʿi. Enraged Ḥabīb stuck
a blow at Yūsuf with his whip, but was in for another, more nasty surprise. The
soldier in what the author of Bahāristān terms as “somewhat recklessly” stuck back
at the qāzī with his sword, wounding him. Matters soon reached the court, where
the vazīr, ʿAli Kokā got the sultans permission to hold a trial under a council of
Ḥanafī ulema presided over by Qāzī Mūsā, Mullā Fīrūz, and Mullā Yūsuf. The three
unanimously issued a death decree against Yūsuf Inder who was swiftly executed.
The injured party, Qāzī Ḥabīb, himself argued against the severity of the decision,
as the death decree went against the principle of ḳiṣāṣ.89 Of all medieval authors,
only Bahāristān records the gruesome details of Yūsuf execution:

The flesh of his body was cut into pieces which people carried as gift for their
womenfolk, and many people drank his blood as sharbat.90

This particular extract, aside from the historical veracity of the details linked with
the execution, does nevertheless suggest the level of public emotions involved in
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 33

the incident, especially within the city. Unfortunately for the sultans the sentiments
involved with the incident refused to die down. Questioning the justice and
legitimacy of the death decree, Yūsuf ’s family along with some Shiʿi and apparently
Sunni elite at the court made submission for a review of the entire case. As a result,
both Mullā Fīrūz and Mullā Yūsuf were sentenced to death in accordance with
the Shāfī law, the death decree being issued by a Shāfī’ite Qāzī Zain-al Dīn and a
Ḥanafī jurist Qāzī ʿAbdul Ghafūr. The debate surrounding the case was presided
over by Akbar’s envoy to the Kashmiri court, Mīrzā Muqim,91 and attended by
“a large number of learned and scholarly men, dignitaries, theologians and the
elite of the city.”92 While Qāzī Mūsā escaped death by fleeing from the city both
Mullā Fīrūz and Mullā Yūsuf were executed. The judicial basis for the execution is
summarized in Bahāristān in these words:

It is said that the ruler of this domain, the sitting Qādī, and the executed person,
all professed the creed of Imām Shāfiˈi. The mullās of sunnat and the jamā’at
were shown the letters with royal signets and they declared the decree sound.
The decree pronounced that both the mullās on account of having issued false
judgement and unjustifiable order [of execution] regarding the shedding of an
innocent person’s blood, should suffer retribution.93

The entire event, the execution of Yūsuf and the two mullās, shows a marked
lack of political pragmatism on part of Ḥusayn Shāh. By staying away from the
deliberations, and handing over the issue to committees, the sultan may have
thought he could impress his sincerity in a charged trail, but this was not to be so.
ʿAli Kokā, the vazir, was looking to secure his own position at the expense of the
sultan. His siding with the Qāzī in the initial trial may not have been based on any
religious considerations, of helping a fellow Sunni, but the bungled nature of the
trail and the ensuing tension between the court and a section of the Sunni ulema
was to his help.
Ḥusayn Shāh neither stopped Yūsuf ’s execution initially nor that of the two
mullās who in spite of their juridical indiscretion must have enjoyed support
from both fellow Sunni ulema and the urban population of the city. The author of
Bahāristān mentions that in the aftermath, many of the mullās migrated to Lahore
and other parts of India, some returning back to Kashmir and office only after the
intercession of their patrons at the court.94 Coeval with the trials, the sultan’s son
passed away, and before long the sultan suffered from a stroke of paralysis. The
trouble with his brother ʿAli Shāh resulted in a power struggle with competing
groups of nobles supporting the sultan and his brother. Finally, Ḥusayn Shāh was
deposed and his brother ʿAli Shāh (r. 1570–8) ascended the throne. After Ghāzī
Chak’s harsh and somber rule, Kashmir showed a revival of cultural undertakings
under Ḥusayn and ʿAli Shāh. Poets and literary men from the wider Persianate
world located to Kashmir’s west arrived in Srinagar and were afforded court
patronage. Poets like Mīr ʿAli, Mullā Nāmī, Bābā Ṭālib Isfhānī, and Mīrzā ʿAli
originally hailing from Iran found court patronage and were well received by
the sultans. We also find textual references to renewed building activities by the
34 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Chaks, though barring a few ruins nothing survives from this period. A hospice,
Khānaqāh-i Naū, constructed under the Chaks, for a leading Shiʿi divine of the
time, Bābā Khalil-al Lah (d. 1591), at Nawa Kadal shows a significant departure
from the traditional Kashmiri style of wooden architecture.95 Surviving masonry
at the site indicated that the building was based on Timurid architectural style,
which had initially been introduced in the region during the mid-fifteenth century
under Sultan Zain-al Ābidīn (r. 1420–70). The tradition of historiography, which
forms a basis of our understanding of medieval Kashmir, is linked directly with
the Chak period, the men who wrote them grew under the Chaks. The leading
Indian calligrapher at the court of Akbar, Muhammad Ḥusayn Kashmirī, whose
work was favorably compared with Mīr ʿAli Ḥarvī, had risen in the court of Chak
sultans. On ʿAli Shāh’s death, his son Yūsuf Shāh (r. 1579, 1580–6) ascended the
throne, marking a break with the Chak tradition where the ruler was succeeded by
his surviving brother and not son. This resulted in an open conflict between Yūsuf
and his uncle Abdāl Chak, resulting in the latter’s death. In the face of advancing
Mughal aggression against Kashmir, Yūsuf proved to be a pragmatic, realizing early
on that resistance against the Mughal Empire was futile. The sultan had inherited
none of the fighting spirit that marked his ancestors’ rise to power and throne.
Immersed in the company of singers and women, he neither exhibited statecraft
nor an understanding of how to marshal his resources when need arose. Given his
mis-governance, Yūsuf Shāh was deposed within two months of becoming sultan
and replaced by Sayyid Mubārak (r. 1850), a Sunni noble who had ensured Yūsuf ’s
ascent to the throne on the death of ʿAli Shāh. Fortune, however, favored Yūsuf and
he soon regained the throne, returning back in 1581 to a warm public welcome in
the capital, Srinagar. Bābā Dawud Khākī celebrated Yūsuf Shāh’s return in an ode,
Qasideh-i Ghusuliya Yūsuf Shāh’:

The Sultan of truth and glory, once again

was bestowed with throne and destiny and crown and rich dominion
God favored him, and in his share, he received
a life and physical features harmonized by good character and beauty
He is the friend of the Prophet and his family and companions
He follows the righteous creed, this sultan of noble intentions96

Khākī’s qasideh presents an intriguing text, with its complimentary praise of Yūsuf
Shāh, given that in his tazkira, he paints the Chaks as opponents of Sunni faith.
How do we then place the qasideh in the shifting complex dynamic of sixteenth-
century Kashmir? What exactly does “righteous creed” (mazhab-i maqbūl) mean
in Khākī’s worldview? In most Sunni accounts, Khākī is said to have disassociated
from court culture early on after joining the circle of Makhdūm. This aura of a
worldly recluse does not fit in with the writing of a panegyric ode for a ruler.
Can we then posit that Khākī was not as disinclined toward the court and court
patronage as we are generally led to believe? Importantly, at the SPS Museum
(Srinagar), we find a vāthiqa-nāma (legal document) pertaining to the shrine of
Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm in the city. Written in Sharda (Sanskrit script) on birch
 1. Not Quite Taqiyya 35

bark, the vāthiqa-nāma is believed to have been issued by Yūsuf Shāh in favor of
the shrine, implying court patronage of a shrine-complex which at least in the texts
was highly inimical of both Chak rule and their Shiʿi belief. Unlike his tazkira’s,
the qasideh of Khākī does not seek to enshrine the memory of “noble ruler” for
some future generations—rather it seeks the ruler’s audience, which “demands”
the fulfillment of a worldly requirement and a worldly reward. The reward does
not necessarily have to be for the writer himself, it can in Khākī’s case be for the
fraternity of mūridīn who saw him as their spiritual pīr or the shrine-complex of
his shaykh.
Aside from his patronage of Makhdūm’s shrine (Figure 1.3), Yūsuf Shāh was
also responsible for abolishing the jaziyā tax on Kashmiri Pandits that had been
imposed by Gāzī Chak. Liberal and cultured, the fickle-minded sultan betrayed
his land when it needed him most. Rather than resisting Akbar, as his nobles and
more importantly the people would have him, Yūsuf Shāh fled from Kashmir
joining the Mughal camp in 1586. In the absence of their ruler, the Kashmiri
nobles enthroned Yūsuf ’s son Yʿaqūb Shāh (r. 1586). The new sultan had earlier
escaped from Akbar’s court where he had been sent by his father as an envoy.
Brave and strong-willed, Yʿaqūb Shāh fought the Mughal forces as the last sultan
of Kashmir, continuing his struggle even after the Mughals had captured the
capital, before finally submitting to Akbar on his visit to Kashmir in 1588. While
the incorporation of Kashmir within the Mughal Empire was inevitable, given the
vastly superior resources commanded by the latter, Yʿaqūb through his political
indiscretion hastened this collapse. At a time when his mūlk was wavering under
repeated Mughal attacks, the sultan opened an old quarrel with the Sunni preacher
of the Jamia Masjid, Qāzī Musā. The qāzī who had escaped punishment in the

Figure 1.3 Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm shrine-precinct, Srinagar, 2019 (courtesy: Mukhtar
Ahmad).
36 Shiʿism in Kashmir

case of Yūsuf Inder had earned himself public goodwill due to his completion of
the reconstruction of Jamia Masjid. The mosque’s reconstruction had been left
unattended by both the sultan and the various amīrs, engaged as they were in their
political maneuvering. The qāzī must also not have forgotten his near execution
at the hands of the Chaks. Retaining his animosity against the dynasty, we find
Mūsā constantly working against the interests of sultan and mūlk, both during the
reign of Yūsuf Shāh and Yʿaqūb. On the advice of his Shiʿi vizier, Mullā Aswad,
Yʿaqūb ordered the qāzī to recite the name of the first Shiʿi imām, ʿAli b. Abī
Ṭālib (d. 661), in the khuṭba (Friday sermon). This the qāzī refused to do. Based
on his refusal and earlier acts Yʿaqūb had the qāzī executed for disobedience, in
spite of being advised against this by both Shiʿi and Sunni councilors. The Sunni
religious elite hailed the dead qāzī as a (shahid) martyr, and it is as such he is
remembered among Kashmiri Sunnis today: Qāzī Mūsā Shahid. In the aftermath
of the execution, a delegation of the city’s leading Sunni religious scholars under
Bābā Dawud Khākī and Shaykh Yʿaqūb Sarfī proceeded to Delhi imploring Akbar
to free them from the tyranny of the Shiʿi sultans. The execution of the qāzī was
presented as an undeniable proof of Chak intolerance and bigotry.
While Yʿaqūb left the city to fight the invading Mughal army, a section of
Kashmiri Sunni amīrs under the leadership of Zaffar Chak revolted against the
sultan, and with a large body of soldiers and mob attacked Shiʿi majority areas of
the city, killing many and burning the shrine of Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIrakī.97 This is
the first known instance of a Shiʿi-Sunni riot in the city. With dissensions in his
ranks, Yʿaqūb engaged in a series of battles against the invading imperial Mughal
army guided by Shaykh Yʿaqūb Ṣarfī (d. 1595), the leading Sunni scholar of
Kashmir, who had negotiated Kashmir’s incorporation within the Mughal Empire
with the emperor, Akbar.98 Finally, the imperial Mughal army managed to enter
Srinagar on October 14, 1586. The ceremonial khuṭba was read in the name of
Akbar at Srinagar’s principal mosque, Jamia Masjid, marking the end of both Chak
rule and Kashmir’s independence. The date of the Mughal conquest is derived
from two conflicting Persian chronograms: khush āmdīd (welcome) and zulm-i
beḥad (unlimited tyranny), reflecting the contentious views embedded in the texts
disseminating from the community of educated elite of both the Sunni and Shiʿi
society. For Dedhmarī, the fall of the Chaks marks a sign of divine benevolence
for an oppressed Sunni community.99 a narrative which is uniformly echoed and
“welcomed” by other Sunni historians. The end of the Chak Sultanate is seen as
the vindication of the righteousness of Sunni faith. For their part, the Shiʿi would
symbolize loss with the betrayal of qaūm, mūlk, and sultanat.
 Chapter 2

MAPPING EXISTENCE
IN SEARCH OF PATRONAGE AND PROTECTION

Muslim rule in Kashmir ended in 1820 when the ṣubah (province) of Kashmir
was annexed by the Sikhs under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The event marked the
end of five centuries of Muslim rule in Kashmir, marking a watershed moment
in the life of the inhabitants, Muslims and Hindus alike. This event also provided
a space for the Shiʿi Muslims to establish for themselves a spiritual and cultural
identity distinct from the Sunnis. But the process was long drawn and contentious.
The second chapter further develops the theme of Shiʿi identity in Kashmir by
investigating the political, intellectual, and social activity within the Kashmiri Shiʿi
society at the beginning of the nineteenth century leading up to the Sikh conquest.
In exploring the period, I access the collective community memory embodied
in literary genre that became specifically associated with the Shiʿi society, the
marṣiya. This chapter illustrates how due to the prevailing attitude on part of
the Afghan rulers, many Kashmiri scholars migrated toward the Shiʿi kingdom
of Awadh for patronage and security and in the process helped in establishing
and mediating a transregional Shiʿi space of interaction based on the exchange of
scholarly knowledge and financial patronage. Continuing with its focus on these
transregional, transnational linkages the chapter also explores the connections
and contributions of Iranian merchants based in Kashmir to the material culture
of native Shiʿi society.

Navigating Shiʿiness under the Afghans

In his letter written to Khān Bahadur Moulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli Khān,1 - a Shiʿi man
of letters working with the British colonial administration in India, Mullā Ḥakim
Muhammad ʿAẕim (d. 1269 ah/1852 ce), reminiscences about the restrictive
environment in which Kashmiri Shiʿi found themselves during the Afghan rule of
Kashmir in these words:

In the era of SardārʿAbdullah Khān Afghan, who had sparked a fire in Zadibal
from utmost hatred, fanatism and enmity for keeping up the anger, which ruined
38 Shiʿism in Kashmir

the believers daily in the publication from the mourning rites. They altered them
every night clandestinely. And more so in the era of ʿAbdullah Khān Afghan, in
which ʿAbdullah’s mouth said more and more that in his days the remembrance
of the Lord of Martyrs, peace be upon him, and the faith of the mourners, should
be cancelled from the minds. Strangers prohibited crying when remembering
Husain. It has gone so far now that we have to cry very much.2

Written around the middle of the nineteenth century, while serving as chief
physician3 of Maharaja Gulab Singh (r. 1846–57), the founder of the Hindu Dogra
dynasty in Kashmir, ʿAẕim’s letter specifically mentions the restriction imposed
on the enactment of the Muharram rituals in Kashmir. It highlights the acts of the
Afghan subadar, ʿAbdullah Khān, in suppressing these ceremonies.4 Interestingly,
ʿAẕim father, Mullā Ḥakim Muhammad Javad (d. around 1220 ah/1805 ce), had
served as the personal physician of ʿAbdullah Khān and would be accused by a
later generation of Sunni historians of not only having worked against the Afghan
ṣubedar but also harmed the Sunni population of the city due to his sectarian
prejudice.5
The younger ḥakim’s letter, on the other hand, was a remembrance of the
events surrounding the Muharram of 1216 ah/1801 ce, when on the orders of
the ʿAbdullah Khān a medley of Afghan soldiers and city mob burned Ma’rak, the
historical imāmbāda in the capital Srinagar. In the aftermath of the desecration, the
frenzied mob spread out in the surrounding Shiʿi-dominated moḥala of Zadibal
engaging in acts of rape, loot, and a general massacre.6 Kuihāmī in his description
of ten major tārāj (massacres) against the Shiʿi of Kashmir has listed the event
as the tārāj hashtam—the eighth massacre.7 The immediate provocation for the
tārāj was an attempt by the Shiʿi to open the closed gates of Ma’rak and engage
in marṣiya khwānī8—the recital of elegies on the martyrdom of Ḥusayn b. ʿAli,
which had been prohibited under successive Afghan subadars as also indicated in
ʿAẕim s letter. In describing the event, Kuihāmī posits the causes of riots on Shiʿi
intemperance:

The cause of the incident is that on the day of Ashura, the Shiʿi clerics openly
used abusive language against the Companions of the Prophet, and also showed
blasphemy during chanting marṣiya. The news spread and caused commotion
in the city. The Khāns of Kabul got enraged and they motivated the mischief
monger and hooligans of the city to loot the Shiʿis. Eventually, within no time
a devastating fire of revenge devastated the community. Their property was
ruined, and their modesty was ravaged without any scruple.9

For Kuihāmī, every Shiʿi-Sunni riot is an unfortunate event. But, then, the
argument if not the justification for Sunni excesses lies in the Shiʿi intransigence—
provocations testing Sunni sensibilities, invariably resulting in “the anger of the
Sunnis breaks out after every thirty or forty years [. . .].”10
Another contemporary historian of Kuihāmī, Mullā Khalil Marjānpūrī, while
also blaming the Shiʿi of Zadibal, adds the moḥala of Hasanabad to the list of
 2. Mapping Existence 39

Shiʿi-dominated areas in the city that were devastated and burned down in the
riots.11 An earlier attempt at reopening the doors of Zadibal Imāmbāda in 1203
ah/1788 ce during the rule of ṣubedar Juʿma Khān Alkozī had resulted in a severe
backlash from the Afghans who ordered the demolition of both the imāmbādas.12
The determination of the Kashmiri Shiʿi to make the imāmbāda at Zadibal
functional can be seen as a community attempt at reengaging with revered rituals
in an equally revered public space carried out in the backdrop of perceived Shiʿi’s
strength at the ṣubedar’s court: the ṣubedar’s personal ḥakim, Mullā Javad, and
his peshkār, Mīrzā Razā.13 But, in reality, both the Shiʿi courtiers operated in a
hostile court environment where their Shiʿiness was both manifest and a source
of complaints against them. The degree of hostility can also be observed in
the historiographies of Kuihāmī and Marjānpūrī, who perfunctorily blame the
Shiʿi courtiers for the ṣubedar’s debauchery and incompetence.14 Nevertheless,
the dichotomizing nature of Afghan rule as seen in the presence of Mullā
Javad and Mīrzā Razā at the court is a clear indication that even in the case
of what the Kashmiri Shiʿi perceived as a prejudiced ṣubedar,15 pathways to
royal service were not entirely closed for Shiʿi. Individual Afghan ṣubedars did
certainly manage a court of sectarian elites, at times imposing a narrow-minded
version of Sunnism, but this was primarily targeted against any manifestation
of Shiʿiness in the public sphere—also, at times to extort money from wealthy
Shiʿis as well as Hindus. The near-complete erasure of any performance of
Muharram ceremonies during Afghan rule is a clear outcome of this sectarian
prejudice.
Writing four years after the riots of 1801, a native poet, Ustād Muhammad
Ja’far, in one of his marṣiya bemoans the condition of the Shiʿi community in these
words:

O! Men, four years have passed, since we crossed the threshold of Mʿārak,
come let us pray for atonement, this phase might pass by,
tell the mourners, the elegist, where can we cry?
Alas! Where can we shed tears for Imām Ḥusayn?
For should we but utter his name,
death and mayhem become our fate.16

In a similar vein, a contemporary of Ustād, Khwāja Ḥassī Bhat also laments

the difficulties and the danger that the Shiʿi community of Kashmir faced in
commemorating the Muharram rituals:
Who can bemoan the martyrdom of Imām Ḥusayn here?
Alas! Those who dared are gone,
their houses and mātam sarāi (imāmbāda) burnt.17

The verses of Khwāja Ḥassī and Ustād Ja’far serve as a graphical reminder of the
destruction that took place during the rule of ʿAbdullah Khān and its continuing
effects on the community. Given the restrictive political conditions, members of
the community practiced mourning in secrecy but never gave up the observance
40 Shiʿism in Kashmir

of the ritual. This transformed the performance of the entire ritual from a
public into a private commemoration, limited within the immediate families.
Wherever possible, Shiʿi took to the construction of tah-khāna (basements) in
their private houses, where they could discreetly recite marṣiyas during the month
of Muharram, in the hope that any wailing sound made would escape notice.18
Within Zadibal, a few old houses still survive, which retain the tah-khāna and the
memory associated with them. The prevailing narrative for the Shiʿi community
during the Afghan rule remains of silent mourning, best exemplified by another
marṣiya writer in these verses:

Those whose eyes cried in the path of religion (dīn nich wa’tey)
tell them, may my life be your ransom,
tell them to cry silently, for fear of discovery,
O! Men for crying is followed here by mayhem.19

It is also noteworthy that the poet would compare mourning for Ḥusayn with
acts performed in the path of religion: dīn nich wa’tey. Khwāja Ḥassī in one of
his marṣiya has similarly epitomized grieving over Karbala with the khānaqāh
of salvation.20 Deliverance through the mourning of Ḥusayn remains a recurring
theme in many of the marṣiyas from this period. In the marṣiya of Khwāja
Muhammad Fazil, remembrance of the events of Karbala is presented as an assured
path to deliverance in the afterlife.21 An examination of the numerous surviving
marṣiyas written during Afghan rule in Kashmir reveals how in accessing this
commemorative text, the poets and through them the Shiʿi society of Kashmir
were able to access the past and then select and summarize a worldview for the
believers, of a suffering community which like the martyrs of Karbala had to
endure.
Overall, the majority of marṣiyas written during the Afghan rule convey the
feelings of impermanence of the human world, the greed, and the tyranny, emotions
that mark the everlasting human conflict of good and evil. Yet the background for
the poetic canvas remains the idea of the Ahl-i Bayt (Prophet’s family) serving as
the saviors of humanity, through their act of sacrifice. Given the importance of the
sacrifice offered by the martyrs at Karbala, it also translates into a promise of “the
other worldly reward” for acts of piety and faith. If the marṣiyas are evaluated within
the prevailing sociopolitical conditions, one would see in them an assurance to the
historically aggrieved and powerless Shiʿi community that their sufferings are a
reflection of those at Karbala and the reward of faith lies in the hereafter. Within
the cycle of sectarian violence targeted at the Shiʿi community under the Afghans,
this otherworldly assurance also provided the audience with a reason on the basis
of which to navigate within the turbulent world of death and destruction, so as not
to lose hope. Consequently, in Kashmiri marṣiyas there is no celebration of the
battle, no representation of heroic acts of valor but a personalized representation
of grief and sorrow over the loss of a son, brother, husband, or companion and
grief over indignities and sufferings that the women of Ḥusayn’s household had to
face after the battle. Once established, this theme would continue to resonate even
 2. Mapping Existence 41

when the Shiʿi society found the circumstances more favorable and secure, under
the Sikh and Dogra rule.
While the riot of 1801 effectively ended any Shiʿi attempt at publicly
rehabilitating the Muharram ceremonies even within Shiʿi majority areas, we do
find a few isolated examples of patronage of community symbols even though on
a much smaller scale. Though the Shiʿi ḥakim of the ṣubedar, Mullā Javad could
not save the community from the enraged Afghan mobs, he did in the aftermath of
the riot construct a smaller mosque and hammam at Hasanabad, within the wider
precinct of the burned out imāmbāda. Nevertheless, such attempts were limited.
More than Kashmiri Shiʿis, it was the influence of non-native Shiʿi merchants,
notably those belonging to Iran, whose presence in Kashmir served as the source
of patronage and political support for the Shiʿi society of Kashmir.
In his account of the riots of 1801, the historian Marjānpūrī makes a reference
to an earlier episode of Shiʿi-Sunni disturbance, linked to a Kashmiri Sunni
notable, Khwāja ʿĪsā, and an Iranian merchant, Āqā Rahīm.22

Tājiran-i Iran: Iranian Shawl Merchants in Kashmir

In his description of Kashmir under the Afghan rule, Forster remarks about the
remarkable set of merchants from different nationalities based in Srinagar and
engaged in transnational trade across the Himalayas in these words:

In Kafhmire (Kashmir) are feen (seen) merchants and commercial agents of

moft (most) of the principal cities of northern India, alfo (also) of Tartary, Perfia
(Persia) and Turkey, who at the fame (same) time advance their fortunes, and
enjoy the pleafures (pleasures) of a fine climate and the country.23

Based on accounts of visitors to Kashmir in the early part of the nineteenth

century, mostly European (including that of Forster), the understanding that the
Kashmiri shawl “trade was controlled by Iranian or Central Asian merchants”24
seems correct. While Kashmir had witnessed a steady arrival of Sufis, preachers,
artisans, and poets from Persianate land from the fifteenth century, it is only during
the Afghan period we find textual as well as material evidence of merchants from
Iran stationed in Kashmir.25 Most, if not all, of these merchants were engaged in
the highly lucrative shawl trade and would operate from the capital city, Srinagar.
Forster also informs us that a part of the Afghan revenue collection in Kashmir
was realized in shawls. Given the importance attached to the shawl trade and the
revenue raised, foreign merchants involved in the shawl trade were well regarded
and afforded a degree of immunity by the ṣubedars, irrespective of their communal
or sectarian affiliations. And, once stationed in Srinagar, the Iranian traders did
also engage with the local Shiʿi community at large. Vigne informs us that a colony
of “Persian merchants, of whom there were two or three hundred,” used to reside
in Srinagar till the early 1830s.26
42 Shiʿism in Kashmir

While we do not have the exact figure of the Shiʿi population in Kashmir at the
start of the nineteenth century, the presence of the community was predominantly
located in the city of Srinagar. And, while they monopolized the papier-mâché
craft, many Kashmiri Shiʿi were also engaged in the shawl trade, as both kār-
khāndars (manufacturers) and artisans: weavers and embroiders.
How deeply the fate of these non-native Iranian merchants was intertwined in
the community life of Kashmir Shiʿi can be understood in Marjānpūrī’s narrative
related to events surrounding Khwāja ʿĪsā Dewanī and Āqā Rahīm. The account
is given considerable space in Marjānpūrī’s account.
The event is centered on Khwāja ʿĪsā Dewanī, a Kashmiri acting as the agent
for the Afghan ṣubedars. He seemed to have been particularly intimate with
the ṣubedar, Mīr Hazār Khān (r. 1792–3) whose brief rule was extremely harsh
on both Shiʿi and the Hindu population of Kashmir.27 From multiple accounts,
including Marjānpūrī, we get an idea of ʿĪsā operating as a shady agent of Mīr
Hazār Khān, forwarding the ṣubedar with names of prominent figures within the
Kashmiri Shiʿi and Pandit community.28 These then became a special target of the
ṣubedar for financial extortion. While many supplicated Mīr Hazar with bribes,
many more were killed including the pandit Dilā Ram Qulī who had served as
diwān under previous Afghan ṣubedars.29 For reasons which remain unrecorded,
ʿIssā played a pivotal role in the execution of a Shiʿi merchant, Muhammad Taqī.30
The removal of Mīr Hazar removed the main source of ʿĪsā power and gave rise to
a very bizarre incident in the city.
In the reports of Kashmiri Sunni sources, somewhere around 1208 ah/1793 ce,
Āqā Rahīm invited ʿĪsā over lunch at his ḥavelī, located at Qāzī Kadal (Qʿadh Kadal)
in the heart of the city.31 Marjānpūrī refers to Rahīm as sar-i halqah-i tājirān-i
nāmdār (head of the circle of famous merchants) and bisyār sahib-i aitbar (man of
great trust). As the meet proceeds, the merchant leaves ʿĪsā alone in the hammam,
which he then asks his servants to heat up, the intention being apparently to
suffocate ʿĪsā to death, or in the words of Marjānpūrī burn him to death. In these
dire circumstances, ʿĪsā somehow not only manages to set himself free, breaking
the glass panes of the window but then also succeeds to attract a huge mob, who in
turn burn down the ḥaveli of the Āqā Rahīm. Marjānpūrī then proceeds from an
anecdotal narrative to a personnel account of an unnamed witness. This witness
forms the source for the remaining narration: about how after affecting his rescue,
ʿĪsā is paraded in a palanquin by a large attendant mob all the way to the city edge
at ʿĪdgāh. This vast open field also borders the nearby Shiʿi moḥala of Zadibal,
which bore the brunt of the mob’s violence.32 Located at the edge of the historic
Srinagar and separated from the main populated areas of the city by Khushalsar
Lake and the open fields of ʿĪdgāh, Zadibal would remain the principal Shiʿi
majority quarter of the city. While there were small pockets of Shiʿi population
within the city, a majority of Srinagar’s Shiʿi population resided in Zadibal and in
Hasanabad another Shiʿi-dominated moḥala also separated from the main city by
the vast public cemetery, Malkha. Outside Srinagar, Shiʿi presence was virtually
absent in any of the major towns of Kashmir, while a significant population was
dispersed across the rural landscape of central and adjoining northern Kashmir.
 2. Mapping Existence 43

The historian intersects the story of ʿĪsā at the very end with an amusing report
about how the witness on being mistaken for a Shiʿi was saved from abuse and
harm by an acquaintance.33
Regarding Āqā Rahīm, almost nothing is known about his origin, still it is
safe to posit that he was part of a merchant Diaspora of Iranian descent, based in
Kashmir.34 The Persian-origin prefix “Āqā” found limited favor among Kashmiri
Shiʿi, we find its use only in the early twentieth century that too among certain
Sayyid families. A wide network of Iranian merchants engaged in the Kashmiri
shawl trade operated from Srinagar, till mid-nineteenth century. They remained
an important part of the transregional trade network not only connecting Kashmir
with the wider geography of South Asia but also drawing merchants into Yarkand,
Kasghar, Persia, Turkey, and other cities of Central Asia.
Overall, the entire account of Marjānpūrī reflects a lack of sectarian bias or
any sympathy for ʿĪsā, or the mob behavior. Aside from the actual circumstances
of the event, is the intriguing case of how a Shiʿi merchant could imagine such
an audacious move, even if his intent was to arrest ʿĪsā and not actually murder
him.35 The merchant’s wealth cannot be the only reason—wealthy Shiʿi and Hindus
had been widely prosecuted by ʿĪsā. While ʿĪsā may have lost the patronage of
a ṣubedar who was personally invested in a sectarian conflict like Mīr Hazār,
his standing at the ṣubedars’ court was unchanged. This brings up the idea of
Āqā Rahīm’s origin. Did the merchant’s non-Kashmiri origin provide him with
a degree of impunity, which, combined with his standing as one of the leading
merchants based in Kashmir allowed him the space to maneuver and undertake
such a misplaced step? While Rahīm’s ḥavelī was burned in the incident, no report
mentions that he or his family came to any physical harm in the entire drama;
unlike countless native Shiʿi who suffered in the riot. Also, it is worthwhile to
note that Khwāja Īsā’s rescue was due to an enraged city mob—not due to any
effort of the Afghan soldiery. With connections in the local court and drawing on
his privilege as member of a neighboring empire, it is possible that Rahīm used
his influence to intervene in a situation which his Kashmiri co-religionist would
have considered suicidal. Still, the protection offered by the court could not offset
the sense of rage that this act of indiscretion provoked among the rioting Sunni
mobs.36
The influence that transnational shawl merchants such as Rahīm wielded at the
local court can also be understood in the backdrop of how significant the shawl
trade was to Kashmiri economy. Though variously estimated, the figure of forty
lakh rupees as the annual collection of revenue from Kashmir to the Kabul court
seems fairly accurate37—a part of this revenue was realized in the shape of shawls.38
Interestingly, the value of shawls produced in Kashmir during Afghan rule was
estimated at thirty-five lakh rupees.39 The reason behind the privileges that these
foreign merchants enjoyed at the ṣubedars court in Kashmir has also been alluded
to by Forster:

In treating of the government of Kafhmire {Kashmir}, I omitted to mention,

that it had not hitherto extended its apprehenfion {apprehension} to merchants,
44 Shiʿism in Kashmir

who, from the wealth which they introduced into the province, were refpetted
{respected} and even indulged.40

In his letters, French traveler Victor Jacquemont, who arrived in Kashmir in 1831,
reflects on both the presence of Iranian merchants in Kashmir and their network
of travel and trade in these words:

Merchants, it is true, go almost everywhere, from Cashmere to Tehran, and even

to Meshed, they go through Lahore, Delhi, Bombay, Bushire, Shiraz, &c. &c..41

While the shawl itself was manufactured in Kashmir, the raw material used in it
pashm (or pashmina) was (and still is) sourced from the high mountain plateau
of Changthang in Tibet. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Iranian
merchants played an important role in the pashmina trade between Kashmir and
Tibet, with Jacquemont opining that the trade was controlled by the Iranians.42 An
earlier explorer and self-styled British diplomat, Willam Moorcroft also remarks
about the transnational nature of merchants involved in the Kashmiri shawl trade
during Afghan rule, including Iranian merchants:

Kashmir was formerly resorted to for shawl goods by merchants from Turkey,
both in Asia and Europe, by Armenians, Persians, Afghans, Uzbeks, and by
traders from Hindustan and from Chinese Turkistan.43

In his work on Iranian tujjārs, Willem Floor writes about two Iranian brothers,
“Mohammad Javad of Shiraz resided in Kashmir where he traded in Kashmir
shawls, and Hajji Mohammad Hosayn, his brother, did the same in Baghdad.”44 He
also mentions about another Iranian merchant, Ḥājjī ʿAli Rezā Tājir Dehdashtī,
who was apparently well known in Kashmir as “for many years he lived in Kashmir
and traded in Kashmir shawls.”45 At Hasanabad and Baba Mazar, two prominent
Shiʿi cemeteries of Srinagar city, even today we can trace out inscriptions on
isolated tombstones dating from Afghan rule in Kashmir establishing the Iranian
connections of the deceased. These include a number of individuals from two
Iranian cities, Isfahan and Mashad: Āqā Muhammad Taqī Isfahānī (d. 1188
ah/1755 ce), Ḥājjī Mīr Ṣāliḥ Isfahānī (d. 1188 ah/1755 ce), Āqā ‘Adil b. Ṣadiq
Isfahānī (d. 1181 ah/1767 ce), and Muhammad Qulī b. Imām Qulī Mashadī (d.
1193 ah/1779 ce), and Malik Ḥasan b. Muhammad Qulī Mashadī (d. 1213
ah/1794 ce).
These Iranian merchants, predominantly Shiʿi, were in a position to influence
the affairs of the Shiʿi community of Kashmir both through their wealth and
visible political role as witnessed in the case of Āqā Rahīm. Also, the ripple effects
of their patronage could be felt across kār-khānas within the city, among local Shiʿi
traders and artisans commissioned by the Iranians for sourcing shawls and other
related products of decorative art practiced in Kashmir.
A fine example of this wider patronage and engagement between Iranian
Shiʿi merchant community and Kashmiri Shiʿi society can be seen in a codex of
 2. Mapping Existence 45

Quran copied in Kashmir in 1246 ah/1831 ce. While Kashmiri calligraphers had
risen to prominence at Mughal court from the time of Akbar, this art form had
experienced substantial expansion as we come nearer to the nineteenth century.
In addition to a steady market for manuscripts of both religious and more secular
nature that was to be found within Kashmir, we find that numerous nineteenth-
century manuscripts of richly illuminated Quran from Kashmir dispersed across
mainland India. Jacquemont in his letters speaks about Kashmir as a big center
of production of manuscripts, with seven to eight hundred copyists in the region,
primarily residing in the city of Srinagar.
The copyist of the 1831 codex has signed his name as Muhammad Ḥusayn.
Interestingly the richly decorated cover of the codex names the patron of this work
of art as, Muhammad Ismāʿīl tājir-i Isfahan (merchant of Isfahan). The Shiʿi origin
of the codex and the patron can also be seen in the illuminated front piece of the
manuscript where within two beautifully executed paisley motifs, the scribe has
recorded the Shiʿi articles of faith and a ḥadīth on the authority of the fifth Shiʿi
imām, Jaʿfar al Ṣādiq (d 765). One can safely posit that Ismāʿīl, the merchant from
Isfahan, was a part of that large network of Iranian merchants based in Srinagar,
involved in the shawl trade while also providing patronage to other professionals
within the community, in this case, the copyist and the writer of the glosses as well
the naqāsh—the artist who was responsible for some if not all of the illumination
of the codex, ʿAziz Mughal. Like the copyist, ʿAziz has also signed his name, on
the cover as ‘amal-i ʿAziz Mughalū (the hand of ʿAziz Mughal). The illumination
or naqāshi (papier-mâché as it is known now) of the cover is an art form that
has historically been associated with the Kashmiri Shiʿi community. The surname
Mughal is still retained by a Shiʿi family of Srinagar, whose members have been
historically practicing papier-mâché, though today the practice has almost died
down in this family.46
In Jacquemont’s letters, the Iranian merchants in Kashmir find a mention as
belonging to a community of “small number of very rich and respectable Iranian
merchants, mostly hajjis.”47 Referencing the merchants by the honorific title of
ḥājjī for having made the ḥājj pilgrimage would indicate that these Iranian tūjjārs
operated in a deeply religious milieu. This is something that has been documented
by Floor in his work on the merchants of nineteenth-century Qajjar Iran, writing:

More ever the merchants were very religiously minded. Many of them had made
the pilgrimage to Mecca, which is shown by the frequent honorific “ḥājjī”. In
1883, thirty of forty-three merchants in Tehran were ḥājjīs. In Shiraz almost
every one of twenty-six merchants had made the pilgrimage, while in Isfahan we
find the same phenomenon.48

The religiosity of these Iranian merchants was not only conditioned to expressions
of personal piety—such as performance of the ḥājj ritual—but also manifested
in engagements with the native Shiʿi community in Kashmir. While available
archival material indicates that these arrangements were primarily conditioned
to business transactions, involving patronage of Shiʿi owned and operated kār-
46 Shiʿism in Kashmir

khānas and kārīgars, we do see that in the post-Afghan period they also resulted in
the establishment of matrimonial relations between the merchant families of Iran
and elite Shiʿi families of Kashmir. This resulted in funding and patronage of Shiʿi
symbols by the Iranian merchants, especially in the city of Srinagar. The Iranian
presence in Kashmir came about because of a lucrative trade opportunity: the
Kashmiri shawl. Protracted residence in the Kashmir helped in deepening these
ties further cemented by Persianate cultural values that were deeply ingrained
in the urban center of Srinagar, especially among the Shiʿi society. Still, though
the relation between the Iranian tujjars and the Kashmiri Shiʿis came about due
to shared sectarian identities, they were not exclusionary. The Iranians operated
under the watchful eyes of the Afghan ṣubedar, whose court was dominated by
Kashmiri Sunni elites represented by the elders in both the religious and merchant
community. The stability of their business demanded that the Iranian merchants
engage with the Sunnis, especially the native Sunni merchants. The episode
surrounding Āqā Rahīm does highlight the ephemeral nature of the immunity
enjoyed by the Iranian merchants, in spite of their financial importance for the
Afghan court.
The fluidity in relation between the Afghan court and any expression linked with
Shiʿi imagery or symbolism can also be witnessed in the commissioning of a wall
hanging for the shrine of Imām Ḥusayn at Karbala, by the Afghan ṣubedar, ʿAẕim
Khān (1813–16). Besides serving as the ṣubedar of Kashmir, ʿAẕim belonged to
the clan of the Barakzai’s who at this time were becoming heavily involved in court
politics, following the death of Taimur Shāh, the second Amīr of Afghanistan. The
work commissioned by ʿAẕim Khān comprises a wall hanging in pashmina—the
craft for which Kashmir was renowned. Presently located in the Metropolitan Art
Museum, New York (Figure 2.1), the catalogue of the museum describes this work
of art in these words:

Of the vast and varied textile production of Kashmir, one of the finest, least
common types of textile is the hanging with a design of an arch or niche. This
example was woven using the typical kani shawl technique, which involved three
different weaving structures: twill, tapestry, and double-interlocked weft. [. . .].
The millefleurs decoration on this pashmina hanging immediately brings to
mind the shape of a mihrab niche, and the hanging may have been placed on a
wall to indicate the direction of Mecca.49

The name of the ṣubedar and the dedication to Ḥusayn can be found in a golden
cartouche in the upper section of the hanging with the legend, ‘O Husain, Ordered
by the most noble governor, Muhammad “Azim Khan,” while in the bottom,
virtually indistinguishable from the surroundings is the phrase “Blessing, O King
of Najaf (Shah-i Najaf),”50 invoking the blessing of first Shiʿi’ imām, ‘Ali, whose
shrine is located in Najaf, Iraq.
The commissioning happened at a time when ʿAẕim Khān was involved in
a struggle with both domestic opponents and the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh.
While invoking Imām ʿAli can be seen as representative of a wider sentiment,
 2. Mapping Existence 47

Figure 2.1 Wall hanging commissioned for Imām Ḥusayn shrine (courtesy: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

of veneration for the imām as a charismatic warrior, that was prevalent across
sectarian boundaries in nineteenth-century North India, the public demonstration
of devotion to Imām Ḥusayn, the martyr of Karbala appeals to the sentiments
which are more rooted in Shiʿi memory and dedicatory practices. So, what could
have been the reason for ʿAẕim’s action? While one can see certainly link the wall
hanging to the desire of the ṣubedar for conveying his dedication and loyalty to
religious personages who figure prominently in the Sunni list of revered figures,
yet the political and cultural context of the production suggests otherwise. This
becomes all the more visible when we juxtapose the commissioning of the wall
hanging with previous decrees of Afghan ṣubedars, banning commemorative
mourning ceremonies linked with Imām Ḥusayn. With his commissioning of
the wall hanging for the shrine of Ḥusayn, ʿAẕim Khān was in fact appealing to
Shiʿi sensibilities of the Qizalbash contingent at his court, and not the Kashmiri
Shiʿi. The Persian-origin Qizalbash had served the Dūranī kingdom in prominent
positions both in the administration as secretaries and in the army. In his rise to the
throne of Amir of Afghanistan, Dūst Muhammed (r. 1826–39, 1843–63), ʿAẕim’s
stepbrother, would be supported by the Qizalbash contingent of the Afghan army.51
The twin riots of 1793 and 1801 though rooted in Shiʿi persecution also present
us with two cases of Shiʿi assertiveness during Afghan rule. The assertiveness was,
48 Shiʿism in Kashmir

however, tempered by both the excesses of Afghan ṣubedars and more importantly
the Sunni mob of the city—the shawlbafs (shawl weavers) of Marjānpūrī’s account.
The demise of Afghan authority in 1821 to the advancing Sikh troops of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh removed the harassment of the state, now the Shiʿi’ had only to
contend with the Sunni population of Kashmir, for the first time in five centuries,
and under a non-Muslim rule.

In the Court of Awadh Kings

In 1805, while Kashmir was still under the Afghans and Iranian merchants were
still arriving in Srinagar, an Iranian scholar, Āqā Aḥmad Bihbahānī arrived in
India. Well trained in leading Shiʿi seminaries of Iran and Iraq, Aḥmad Bihbahānī
belonged to a prominent Shiʿi ulema family with roots both in the Isfahan and
the Shiʿi shrine city of Karbala.52 For a period of four years, Bihbahānī traveled
across India from Bombay to Calcutta and then into North India. In his memoirs,
Mir’at al-Ahwal-i Jahān Nūmā, he writes extensively about these travels and the
people he came across. Arriving in Lucknow in 1222 ah/1807 ce, Bihbahānī
while recording details about scholars and nobles residing in the city also writes
about a Kashmiri ‘alim in the city:

The exalted and high-titled Mullā Mohammad Muqim Kashmirī, who because
of the oppression of his opponents, having fled from Kashmir has settled down
in this city. He is an eminent scholar, very well-mannered and meek, and lives
ensconced in his house.53

The “oppression of his opponents” is an oblique reference in the text to Shiʿi

persecution in Kashmir. Family records maintain that Mullā Muqim (d. 1235
ah/1819 ah)54 left Kashmir sometime after the riots of 1801, a riot in which his
family library was also burned down.55 Muqim was accompanied in his journey
by his grandson and student, Sayyid Ṣafdar Shāh (d. 1255 ah/1839 ce). Tracing
his descent from the Razvī Sayyids of Ahmadpora, in north Kashmir, the family
of Sayyid Ṣafdar would help in substantially expanding the Shiʿi character of
Awadh, especially through the work of Ṣafdar’s eldest son, Sayyid ʿAli Shāh (d.
1269 ah/1852 ce). ʿAli Shāh was born in Lucknow in 1217 ah/1802 ce and
spent more than twelve years in the hawza ʿilmiya (territory of learning) at the
shrine cities of Iraq under leading Shiʿi mujtahids (source of religious emulation)
including Shaykh Murtaza Ansarī (d. 1281 ah/1864 ce), Shaykh Ḥasan Kāshf
al-Ghiṭā’ (d. 1848), and Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Tabataba’i (1742–96). While
some early Kashmiri Shiʿi scholars at Awadh, including Mullā Muqim, were
accused of adherence to the conservative Akhbārī school of Shiʿi jurisprudence,56
the nineteenth century marks the revival of the Usulī school in the Shiʿi world—
including in South Asia. Having learned under leading Usulī scholars of Iraq,
Sayyid ʿAli on his return to Farukhabad would be instrumental in the spread of
 2. Mapping Existence 49

Usulī school in Awadh, complementing the work of Awadh’s own native Shiʿi’
scholar, the mujtahid Sayyid Dildār ʿAli (d. 1820).57
The migration of Muqim and the Rizvī marks a steady arrival of Kashmiri
Shiʿi in the Shiʿi kingdom of Awadh, both to escape religious persecution at home
and to secure courtly patronage at a wealthy, munificent, and welcoming court.
This migration happened in the backdrop of the loss of Imperial Mughal prestige
and authority across the empire through the eighteenth century, resulting in two
diametrically opposed possibilities for Kashmiri Shiʿi: a constrained existence in
Kashmir under the Afghans or the possibility of migration to a nearby Shiʿi court
where their scholarship would not only be welcomed but also promoted. In its
immediate geography, the nearest possibility for Kashmiri Shiʿi was the Awadh
and its twin cities of Faizabad and Lucknow.
Among the Kashmiri Shiʿi relocating to Awadh, we find a significantly large
presence of individuals belonging to religious classes and the poets, the ulema,
and marṣiya khwāns. The role of emigrant Kashmiri Shiʿi scholarship in advancing
the Shiʿi faith within the boundaries of Awadh state can be discerned from
two hagiographical accounts originating from Awadh: Najūm al Samā (c. 1286
ah/1869 ce) and Taẕkira-i Beybahā (c. 1931). The Shiʿi scholars of Kashmir were
accorded great respect in Awadh, most available contemporary sources are replete
with references to their erudite scholarship, simplicity of behavior, and in more
than one instance their status as enablers of miracles: mʿujiza numā.58
In his travelogue, Bihbahānī writes about another Kashmiri Shiʿi ulema family,
that of Mullā ʿAli Padshāh (d. 1221 ah/1806 ce approx.), which had relocated to
the capital city of Faizabad much earlier and played a pivotal role in the religious
life of the Awadh kingdom. Bihbahānī speaks of Padshāh in highly laudatory
words, writing:

There also lived a number of literary men and scholars in that city. Among
them, mention may be made of the exalted (a’ali hazrat), repository of learning
(fawazil’ul iktesab) and highly distinguished Akhund Mullā Muhammad Javad,
the eldest son of the sanctuary of divine bliss and forgiveness (marhamat-
wa-ghufran-panah) the most learned and discerner of subtleties, Mullā ʿAli
Badshāh Kashmiri, the founder of the Friday congregational prayer in the town
of Faizabad.59

While Padshāh’s arrival in Awadh is said to have taken place during the reign of
Nawab Asaf-al Dawlah (r. 1775–97), Kashmiri Shiʿi’s presence in the region is
almost coeval with the foundation of Awadh state. In 1744, the Mughal emperor
Muhammad Shāh (r. 1719–48) appointed Abu’l Mansur Ṣafdar Jung (d. 1754) the
second nawab vizier of Awadh as the ṣubedar of Kashmir, replacing Abū Barkat
Khān, whose rule had seen widespread mis-governance and an insurgency that
engulfed the city. Ṣadfar Jung deputed Jān Nisar Khān Sher Jung as his naib
(deputy) to the region to restore order, especially in Srinagar which had seen the
worst cases of rioting and looting targeting the Shiʿi population of Zadibal. After
spending six months in Kashmir, Jān Nisar left the valley accompanied by many
50 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Kashmiri Shiʿis who in turn enlisted in Ṣafdar Jung’s army. Those Kashmiri Shiʿi
who joined Ṣadfar Jung’s army mostly belonged to the moḥala of Zadibal, adopted
Mughal costumes and Persian language, and many settled down in Awadh.60 In
1808, at the instance of Col. John Baille, a British Resident at Lucknow, Sayyid
Ghūlam ʿAli Khān wrote his ‘Imād-al Sadāt (c. 1808), in which he provides us with
an account of the Nawabs of Awadh and the Shiʿi contingent in his army.61
Interestingly, while some Kashmiri scholars preferred to lead a quietist and
retired public life in Awadh, most not only sought proximity to the court but also
actively engaged in projects that sought to publicly demonstrate the Shiʿi identity
of the Awadh state. Mullā ʿAli Padshāh, whom Bihbahānī calls “the founder of
the Friday congregational prayer,” virtually single-handedly forced the issue of
observance of Friday congregational prayers on Chief Minister Ḥasan Razā Khān
and the emerging local religious leader Sayyid Dildār ʿAli.62 Padshāh’s arrival in
Awadh had taken place in the aftermath of a severe bout of the targeted persecution
of Shiʿi’s in Kashmir, under the Afghan ṣubedar Hājjī Karīm Dād Khān (1776–83).
The ṣubedar confiscated many Shiʿi properties, including the jāgīr of one of the
oldest families of Kashmiri nobility: the Maliks of Chadurah dislocating them from
their hereditary seat at Chadurah.63 Arriving in the safety of Awadh, Kashmiri
scholars such as Padshāh helped in disseminating and popularizing practices and
rituals which in Kashmir remained forbidden, to a degree that even “the Sunni
Raja of Nanpara kept Shiʿi ulama, many of them from Kashmir, at his provincial
seat to read elegies for the Imam Husayn.”64
During Mughal rule, especially in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century,
Kashmir had seen a broad arrival of poets (and scholars) from Iran, seeking
patronage at the Mughal court. Given the Mughal fascination with Kashmir, many
of these scholars and literati either visited the land regularly or even settled down
in Srinagar. Marking this scholarly exchange, we find two of the malik-al shu’arās
(poet laureate) in Mughal court buried in the Mazār-i Shu’arā (Cemetery of the
Poets) in Srinagar: Ḥājjī Jān Muhammad Qudsī (d. 1646) and Abū Ṭālib Kalim
Kashānī (d. 1651). This had not only resulted in widening the Persianate cultural
influences in Kashmir, especially in the urban center of Srinagar, but also affected a
scholarly exchange between Kashmiri Shiʿi ulema and their Iranian counterparts.
The Shiʿi Mughal noble Nawab Ibrahim Khān, (d. 1709) who served as ṣubedar of
Kashmir in four stints (1662–3, 1679–84, 1701–5, 1709), had set a committee of
Shiʿi scholars to write an encyclopedic polemic in defense of Shiʿi faith: Al-Biyāz
Ibrahimī. This work, which was compiled and drafted in Srinagar, involved both
native Kashmiri scholars and those who were invited by the ṣubedar from Iran.
The work not only seeks to defend the Shiʿi position on issues of succession to
the Prophet Muhammad but is also censorious of revered Sunni figures. While
it seems that Biyāz Ibrahimī was never widely disseminated to the public, yet the
memory of the work was enshrined in the memory of Kashmiri Shiʿi scholars who
would refer to it even as late as the nineteenth century. A major figure instrumental
in getting this polemical work composed was Ibrahim Khān’s Iranian teacher Āqā
ʿAli Rizā Tajallī (d. 1674), who arrived in India during the reign of Emperor Shāh
Jahān (r. 1628–58).65
 2. Mapping Existence 51

The transnational links formed due to these scholarly exchanges between

Kashmiri Shiʿi scholars and the Iranian religious elites helped in preparing a
significant body of Kashmiris, who had trained and received ijāza (permission
to transmit) from mujtahids of Iran (and Iraq) and, in turn, training aspiring
scholars at home. Examples of these Kashmiri Shiʿi scholars studying under major
Shiʿi ulema outside South Asia in the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century
include, but are not limited to, Mullā Muhammad Murad b. Muhammad Ṣadiq (d.
1689 approx.) who received his ijāza from Shaykh Hūr ‘Aāmlī (d. 1692), the author
of Vasail-i Shiʿi, Mullā ‘Abd al-Ghanī b. Ṭālib Hamdanī (d. 1755), best known
for Jāmia al-Rizvī (c. 1748), Persian translation of Abu’l Qāsim Najm-al Dīn
Ḥillī’s (d. 1277) major work on jurisprudence: Sharah-al Islam, from Mullā Ṣalih
Māzandarānī, Mullā Muhammad Jaʿfar (d. 1737 approx.) from Mīrzā Muhammad
b. Ḥusayn Shirvanī (d. 1686); Sayyid Ḥusayn Mūsāvī (d. 1757) who got his ijāza
from Shaykh Yūsuf Bahranī (d. 1772), and Ismāʿīl b. Ḥusayn Māzandranī (d.
1759).66 Additionally, there were scholars trained in Kashmir itself or those who
studied under Iranian scholars who had settled down in the plains of South Asia
such as Akhund Abu’l Qāsim Kashmirī (d. 1779), who studied under Shaykh
Ḥasan the grandson of Shaykh Zain-al Dīn famous in the Shiʿi world as Shahid-i
Sanī. Continuing these familial links of scholarly transmission between families in
Kashmir and their Iranian teachers, we find Mullā ʿAbdūl Ḥakim Sāṭiḥ (d. 1730),
the cousin of the author of Jāmia al-Rizvī, studied under Mullā Muhammad Saʿid
Ashraf Māzandarānī (d. 1704–5), son of Ṣalih Mazandarānī. Outside Kashmir we
find, in the imperial capital Delhi, Ḥakim Mīrzā Muhammad Kāmil Kashmirī (d.
1820), whose ancestors were from Kashmir, engaged in polemical exchanges with
leading Sunni ulema, including the Shāh ʿAbd al-ʿ Aziz Dehlavī (d. 1824), whose
Tuhfa-i Isnā ʿAshariyya had gained wide renown among Sunni circles of North
India. Among Shiʿi circles, it is believed Kāmil was poisoned to death after he
wrote Nuzha-i Isnā ʿAshariyya in refutation of the Dehlavi’s Tuhfa.67 Similarly, it
is believed that Mullā Muqim also studied with Shaykh Hūr ‘Aāmlī, though given
the contradiction in the dates advanced for Muqim’s death, this is not established.
Members of the Majalisī-Mazandarānī-Beyhbanī family who visited or settled in
India, during the eighteenth century, specially feature in the chain of transmission
of many Kashmiri scholars, highlighting the connections forged between religious
families in Kashmir and their Shiʿi teachers from Iran.
In the Kashmiri Shiʿi context it is important to remember that this scholarship
emerged in absence of any institutionalized infrastructure in Kashmir to undertake
religious studies: a darsgāh, maktab, and madrasah. Teaching was limited to home
learning that too within a narrow network of mostly family-based associations. In
such strained circumstances, the success of the Kashmiri religious elite to produce
in continuity a significant body of scholars who also critically engaged in the areas
of legal learning, ḥadīth sciences, and commentarial (sharāh) productions is all the
more noteworthy. A scholarship which met a growing demand in the emerging
Shiʿi state of Awadh, where it is only after the return of Sayyid Dildar Nasirābadī
(popularly known as Ghufrān Maʿāb) that we find a traffic of aspiring Awadhī
students toward the shrine cities of Iraq, seeking training in the hawzas.68 In turn,
52 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Sayyid Dildar would emerge as the progenitor of what would be termed among
North Indian Shiʿi as the “khandan-i ijtihad”—an honorific title bestowed on his
household, where many members in succeeding generations would emerge not
only as respected ulemas but also certified mujtahids.69
Coming back to Kashmiri Shiʿi participation at Awadh, we find that two
individuals of Kashmiri lineage also figured prominently in the administration,
the viziers: Maulana Tafazul Ḥusayn Khān (d. 1800) and Ḥakim Mahdi Khān
(d. 1837). Ḥakim Mahdi’s rise in the Awadh court commenced with the reign of
Nawab Saʿadat ʿAli Khān II (r. 1798–1814) who made him his vizir, from 1830
to 1832 and again in 1837. In his Tārīkh-i Awadh, Ḥakim Muhammad Najmūl
Ghanī credits Ḥakim Mahdi with improving administrative affairs, reducing the
extravagant court expenditure, establishing judiciary and police system across
the state, and cultivating kār-khāna’s.70 A man of considerable personal wealth,
Ḥakim Mahdi was also deeply involved in the welfare of Kashmiri Shiʿis. After
a severe case of an earthquake in Kashmir in 1828, Mahdi provided financial
aid for the reconstruction of devastated moḥallas of the city.71 Similarly, he was
responsible for rehabilitating Kashmiri Shiʿis in Awadh after the Shiʿi-Sunni riots
of 1830. The vizier’s partiality to individuals from Kashmir can also be observed
in his patronage of Vasi ʿAli Khān, who also traced his roots to Kashmir and was
appointed as dārōghah of the Dīvān Khānā by Mahdi.72
Despite his administrative reforms, the vizier faced stiff opposition from the
very beginning from the British Resident at Lucknow. In 1824, when the bishop
of Calcutta, Reginald Herber visited Lucknow as a part of his travels across
North India he also visited Mahdi who had recently lost his job, primarily due to
opposition from the resident and was living a retired life at his ḥavelī in Fatehgar.
In spite of a colonial disdain for the oriental “character” which colors the bishop’s
narrative, Herber’s opinion about the former vizier is complimentary:

Hakeeme Mendee, a man of considerable talents, great hereditary opulence and

influence, and to the full as honest and respectable in his public and private
conduct as any Eastern Vizier can usually be expected to.[. . .] he now lives in
great splendor at Futtehgur.73

On the other hand, we find Bihbahānī dismissive of the vizier, Maulana Tafazul
Ḥusayn, who on account of his scholarly learning is still remembered as Khan
ʿAllāma in South Asian Shiʿi circles. Tafazul served as the vizier to Nawab Asif-al
Daula (r. 1775–97), and along with another scholar of Kashmiri descent, Moulvi
ʿAbdūl Ḥakim also officiated as tutor to Asif-al Daula’s eventual successor,
Saʿadat ʿAli Khān II. Ghanī credits Saʿadat’s accession to the throne to ḥusn-i
tadbir (beautiful stratagem) of Tafazul Ḥusayn.74 Aside from his involvement in
court politics, Tafazul also undertook translation of various Latin works on logic,
mathematics, and philosophy, while also imparting lessons on both Imāmī and
Hanafī fiqah to students during his brief exile to Calcutta city.75 Still Bihbahānī,
while questioning the vizier’s loyalty to the royal family, in one instance also
belittles Tafazul’s Kashmiri origin in these words:
 2. Mapping Existence 53

The (Nawab) Wazir76 glanced at the gathering [. . .] While giving his mind to the
proposal, he thought with himself that Tafazzul Husain Khan being a Kashmiri
was a mine of frauds and deceits.77

Unlike Mahdi, we find no information regarding Tafazul’s possible engagement

with Kashmiri Shiʿi. This may partly be due to the fact that the vizier’s family had
migrated from Kashmir at an earlier date, settling down in Punjab. Though many
Kashmiris, including a few families who became part of the Mughal administration
in Delhi and Punjab, retained their links to Kashmir, it is important to remember
that Tafazul’s family was of Sunni origin. It is only after migrating from Kashmir
that the family converted to Shiʿism. The vizier’s link to Kashmiri Shiʿi if any
would have been conditioned by their presence in the Awadh court, rather than
based on older family links and connections dating back to Kashmir.
While Kashmiri Shiʿi continued to arrive in Awadh, back home Afghan rule
in Kashmir was bought to an abrupt end in 1819, when the forces of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh (r. 1801–39), defeated the forces of Afghan ṣubedar, Jabbār Khān78 at
Shopian—the first major town on the erstwhile Mughal Road connecting Kashmir
to Lahore and further on Delhi. Arriving in Srinagar unopposed, the Sikh army
raised their standards, including the saffron-colored nishān of the Khālsa in the
city. This singular event marks the end of not only Afghan rule in Kashmir but also
of Muslim authority and while a ṣubedar, Motī Ram was appointed for the newly
conquered land, the political capital shifted to Lahore—the seat of the Punjab-
based Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh.

Loss of Muslim Sovereignty

Somewhere in between 1831 and 1834, a Kashmiri Pandit, Mohan Lal (d. 1855)
accompanied the British explorer and diplomat, Sir Alexander Burnes, in his
travels across Afghanistan-Turkistan-Iran, under the assumed name of Āgā Ḥasan
Jān (or, Mīrzā Qulī Kashmirī). In the Holy city of Mashad, Mohan met the Qajar
crown prince, ʿAbbas Mīrzā (d. 1833), who was at that time involved in military
enterprise against the Turkomans. The meeting between the two took place on
the occasion of ʿĪd. Given the Persian prince’s interest in military affairs, the
conversation revolved around Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s military prowess. Mohan
Lal in “all frankness” apprised the prince about the superiority of the troops under
Sher-i Panjab, as well as the grandeur of Ranjit’s court, to which the prince to cover
“his ground” replied rather amicably:

but, if Ali, the Lion of God, favours us, we will yet plant our standard in Kashmir,
and dress all our soldiers(??) in shawl pantaloons.79

The oblique reference to Kashmiri shawls by the ʿAbbas Mīrzā was occasioned by
Lal’s description of the opulence of Ranjit’s court, where the “darbār tent was made
of Kashmir shawl, and even the floor was composed of the same costly material.”80
54 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Interestingly, the lavishness of the Sikh darbār, especially the shawl tents, had also
made a favorable impression on Lal’s employer, Burnes, who in his memoirs also
writes about one such tent which was provided to him by Ranjit Singh during his
stay at Lahore:

On taking leave of his Highness, we proceeded to our tents, which were a distinct
suite from that we had yesterday occupied. They were made of Cashmeer shawls,
and about fourteen feet square. Two of these were connected by tent walls of the
same superb materials; while the intervening space was shaded by a lofty screen,
supported on four massy poles, adorned with silver. The shawls of one tent were
red; of the other, white. In each of them stood a camp bed, with curtains of
Cashmeer shawls, which gave one an impression of a fairy abode more than an
encampment in the jungles of the Punjab.81

In the nineteenth century, North India, in face of the ever-expanding power of the
East India Company, Maharaja Ranjit Singh emerges as “the final independent
indigenous sovereign.”82 Invested as Maharaja of Punjab in April 1801, by Bābā
Sāhib Singh Bedī, a revered descendant of Guru Nanak (d. 1539), the first Sikh
Guru, Ranjit’s kingdom would embody the Sarkār-i Khālsa jī (Governance of
Khālsa) a concept of sovereignty where Khālsa can be seen as “the body of Sikh
collective or an individual member of the Khālsa,” such as the maharaja himself.83
Ranjit’s capture of Lahore, which during the heyday of Mughal rule had also at
times served as the capital for both the ṣubah of Punjab and Kashmir, was followed
by expansion of his territories in the south, as well up north where he defeated
various Pathan principalities before conquering Peshawar in 1818. The conquest
of Kashmir a year later not only consolidated his territorial hold over the vast and
fertile region between the Indus and Sutlej but also limited any Afghan involvement
to the northerly frontier areas, away from Punjab, the heartland of Ranjit’s empire.
The Sikh milieu would in many ways be fashioned by older cultural traditions
of the Mughals juxtaposed with the peculiarities of Sikh religion.84 As a substantial
territory with a significant Muslim majority, which had witnessed uninterrupted
Muslim rule from the early fourteenth century, Kashmir’s incorporation in the
Sarkār-i Khālsa evoked strong reactions among native Muslim historiographers,
a reaction that is offset by the warm welcome afforded to Sikh conquest by the
native Hindu society. In Majmu’at ut-Tawārikh (c. 1846), Pandit Birbal Kāchru85
invokes the memory of Afghan ṣubedars as communal bigoted and unjust rulers
who were replaced by a just mode of governance under the Sikhs. Birbal was
himself connected to the Afghan court and his father, Pandit Daya Ram Kāchru
spent a great deal of his time in Kabul where he served as the munshi of the vizier
Wafādār Khan in the court of the third Durrānī king, Zamān Shāh (r. 1793–1801).
A witness to the transfer of rule from the Afghans to the Sikhs, Kāchru reflects on
what was assuredly a momentous change of his times, in these words:

when due to the tyranny of Afghans there was much frenzy and evil [and]
Kashmiris would moan and lament daily. [. . .] The Almighty opened on the
 2. Mapping Existence 55

inhabitants [of this land] his doors of mercy. The sarishta [constitution] of
authority was removed from the hands of Afghans and given in the grip of
Sikhs.86

For Kāchru the Sikh rule symbolizes a just, even if absolutist, mode of governance,
which was also sympathetic to the Pandit grievances against previous Muslim rule.
As opposed to Kāchru’s rendition of events, Mullā Ḥamid-al Lah Shāhabādī (d.
1848) would see the Sikh rule as a continuation of evil that had chanced upon
Kashmir under the Afghans, writing:

As the evil of our deeds began to close in on us,

The nation of Sikhs descended upon Kashmir.87

Interestingly, in introducing the shifting political fortunes of their time, both

Kāchru and Shāhabādī are invoking the narrative of evil deeds: but for two
opposing players. Meanwhile, for Ranjit Singh the acquisition of Kashmir added
to the varied population of his domain, with the overwhelming Muslim character
of Kashmir. Also, as a former Mughal and then Afghan ṣubah, the conquest also
reflected the conqueror’s glory, much more than a conquest of any other major
town or city such as Multan or Peshawar. Yet, in spite of the cosmopolitan character
of Ranjit’s darbār at Lahore, Sikh rule in Kashmir commenced on a marked
communal time. This is also reflected in the Persian chronogram of victory coined
by the Sikh conquerors of Srinagar:

Wah-i Gūrūjī ka Khālsa,

Wah-i Gūrūjī kī Fathah
(transl: Hail the Khālsa who belongs to the Lord God!
Hail the Lord God to whom belongs the victory)

We can well imagine how grim the victory slogan might have sounded to the
Muslim population of Kashmir, but far more disturbing was the decision of the
Sikh rulers to ban azān, the Muslim call to prayers; close the main congregational
mosque of Srinagar, Jamia Masjid and a threat to blow up one of the most revered
monuments in the sacred geography of Muslim Kashmir—the Khānaqāh-i
Mʿaulā.88 Prominent mosques in the city constructed by the Mughals, Masjid-i
Naū (Pather Masjid) and the Mullā Shāh Masjid were converted into granaries,
while the open ground of the ʿĪdgāh was also confiscated. Similarly, a Shiʿi mosque
at Hasanabad constructed during the Mughal period which had been badly
damaged was vandalized for the construction of a ghat at Basant Bagh near the
royal citadel, Sherghari (Figure 2.2). This antagonistic relation between the Lahore
darbār and the Muslim society of Kashmir would become a constant feature of
Sikh rule in Kashmir. Unlike Hinduism, where killing a cow was seen as a mortal
sin, the Sikhs did not have any prescribed notion of sacredness associated with
the cow, yet in their dietary customs both beef and pork were avoided. Among
Kashmir Muslims, especially in rural communities, beef consumption was
56 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Figure 2.2 Ruins of Mughal Mosque at Hasanabad, early twentieth century (courtesy: ASI,
India).

prevalent, especially on major festive occasions such as a wedding, while in the

urban setting of the capital city, Srinagar, this was generally avoided. But the Sikhs
not only banned consumption of beef but also made killing of a cow a capital
crime, and offenders were publicly hanged. In certain cases, the offenders were
burned, or the bodies of the deceased were dragged and paraded in the narrow
lanes of the city.89
The old jāgīrdār Muslim families, some of them still retaining their jāgīrs from
the Mughal era, had their lands confiscated, effectively ending the remaining
sections of Muslim landed elites in Kashmir. Even the merchant class, which was
engaged in the lucrative shawl trade, from which the Lahore darbār got most of its
Kashmir-based revenue, was not safe from the communal character of the court.
During the governorship of Diwān Chunī Lāl (1825–7), the fourth Sikh ṣubedar of
Kashmir, members of a reputed merchant family of the city, Kawūsa, were publicly
hanged and their corpses dragged in the city on charge of cow killing.90 The event
must have left a deep and scarring imprint on the minds of the urban Muslim
aristocracy, and acted as a reminder of how past privileges of belonging to the
governing majority had come to an end.
The banning of cow slaughter, and the threat to destroy a revered khānaqāh in
the belief that it was built upon the ruins of an older Hindu temple, also highlights
how Sikh rule in Kashmir came to identify not only with a plan for expanding
the territorial might of the Khālsa but also with rectifying past Muslim “excesses”
against the Kashmiri Hindus. Similarly, one can posit that in reviving the old, pre-
Muslim name of the capital city, Srinagar, the Sikh rulers also made a symbolic
 2. Mapping Existence 57

gesture at undoing the Muslim past of the city—a past, in which the city had been
simply known as Shehar-i Kashmir (The city of Kashmir).
Consequently, in Kashmir, during most part of the Sikh rule, we fail to see
a glimpse of that nuanced, negotiated pragmatic tolerance and communal
coexistence which had characterized Ranjit’s own earlier conquest and subsequent
rule in Lahore. But then in popular Sikh and Hindu narratives, the martyrdom of
the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahādur (d. 1675), is seen as the fallout of the guru’s
decision to confront the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) for his
persecution of Kashmiri Pandits. Did the memory of a past event linked with a
revered memory also exacerbate the situation, thus defining the contours of power
dynamics under the Sikhs in a communal milieu? One can only venture a guess.
Significantly, in seeking to secure the security and control of the land, the Sikhs
tapped into the administrative and fiscal knowledge of the Kashmiri Pandits. A
few Kashmiri Pandits had been intimately connected with the Afghan court: the
Dhars, Bamzais, Kachrus, and so on, some even rising to the position of power
in the Dūranī court at Kabul. Ranjit’s conquest of Kashmir was facilitated by Raja
Birbal Dhar, who in face of Ranjit’s apparent reluctance to march into Kashmir,
impressed upon the king the precarious situation of the Afghans in Kashmir.91
The steady advancement of Pandits at the court would remain a constant feature
throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and would in turn give rise to a
relationship of mistrust, resentment, and protecting privileges between the Hindu
and Muslim sections of Kashmiri society. And, in these early years of Sikh rule
where the Sunni majority was being and feeling disenfranchised, the Shiʿi could
not be blamed for sensing an opportunity in imagining they could break away
from the chokehold of Sunni majoritarianism. Or, so they thought.
58
 Chapter 3

SHIʿI IDENTITY, SUNNI SPACE, AND NON-MUSLIM RULE

This chapter looks at the tentative attempts made by the Kashmiri Shiʿi at
re-articulating and expressing their spiritual and cultural identity in a regional
space largely controlled by Sunni orthodoxy following the establishment of Sikh
rule. In addition, the materiality, not only associated with mourning Karbala but
also related to other practices and rituals of Islam, created a distinct habitus of
Kashmiri Shiʿi Islam. Expanding on the theme of this resurgent sectarian identity,
the chapter posits that integral to the articulation of a Shiʿi identity in Kashmir was
the entire paraphernalia of various affective and performative practices associated
with the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imām Ḥusayn and his family
in Karbala. This distinct set of spiritual and cultural practices was eventually
mobilized by the intelligentsia of Kashmiri Shiʿi Muslims for political ends as well.
The most visible manifestation of this sectarian identity was the performance of the
marṣiya and the reconstruction of Mʿārak, the historic imāmbāda of Kashmir. The
fate of this construction, its patronage, and the ensuing Shiʿi-Sunni riot resulting
in its destruction form the central theme of this chapter. The emergence of Mʿārak
as a space for commencement of public mourning ceremonies in the mid-part of
the nineteenth century is contextualized as the community project which helped
in giving visible shape to the Shiʿi aspirations for a separate and distinct identity
celebrating their Shiʿi-ness.

Vocalizing a Community: Mourning and Marṣiya

The nineteenth century marks a flourishing manuscript culture in Kashmir, whose

consumption was limited not only to non-native collectors but also in demand with
a local market, albeit a limited market. This calligraphic outpouring was majorly
responsible for the production of Quranic codices—like the one commissioned
earlier by the Isfahanī merchants mentioned earlier. Additionally, works on
literature, history, religion, sciences, and other prevailing knowledge traditions
were also produced, mostly for the local market.
A greater part of this manuscript production is located in the Srinagar Research
Library, comprising texts written in Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit as well as the local
vernacular, Kashmiri. Within the collection, a large number of the manuscripts
60 Shiʿism in Kashmir

belong to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including three biyāz (literally
plain white paper): a collection of Kashmiri marṣiyas.
Written on fine glossy burnished paper: kashur kākaz (Kashmiri paper), for
which Kashmir was famous, the manuscripts themselves are mostly devoid of any
ornamentation or decoration, aside from the leather covers which are occasionally
embossed. This is in sharp contrast to the Quranic codices produced in the same
period, with floral and geometrical decorations in multiple colors representing
a high point of the Kashmiri style of book illumination. Also, while many of the
biyāz come from a single scribe, numerous biyāz are assembled copies, comprising
multiple authorships bound within a single cover at a much later date. More
importantly, a marṣiya biyāz in Kashmir is never dedicated to the work of a
single poet, rather it exists as a collection of works in the genre, which are either
popular among the public or which appeal to the sensibilities of the patron who
commissioned the production. This is also a reason why many copyists fail to
record the name of the poet, whose marṣiya forms a part of the collection.
Aside from these three biyāz composed in eighteenth-century Kashmir, more
than a hundred handwritten manuscripts from the nineteenth century have so
far been identified in private collections within the Kashmiri Shiʿi society.1 The
production of such a large number of manuscripts, unparalleled in any other
genre of Kashmiri literature, religious or secular, is indicative of the widespread
popularity of the marṣiya tradition within the Shiʿi of Kashmir.
Of the three mentioned manuscripts in possession of the Research Library,
two were completed before the start of the nineteenth century (Figure 3.1). In
contrast, outside the marṣiya genre, the oldest extant manuscript of any Kashmiri
poetical work can be dated only up to the mid-nineteenth century. This includes
the collection of Bābā Kamāl (c. 1251 ah/1836ce), recording of the verses of
Shaykh Nūr-al Dīn (d. 1415 ce or 1438 ce), the founder of the Reshī order of Sufis
in Kashmir.
The oldest of the three biyāz dates from the latter part of Mughal rule in Kashmir
and was compiled in stages, with the last date recorded as 1161 ah/1748 ce.
This manuscript is also signed by the scribe Sayyid Mustafa Shāh at two different
places.2 In its entirety, the biyāz comprises two sections, an early part dating to the
first decade of the eighteenth century, which was then added upon by Mustafa.
Spread over 231 folios (28 x 11.5 cm) the portion of the biyāz written by Mustafa
was compiled in a period of twenty-three years. In his section, Mustafa marks the
biyāz at different places with the year marks: 1138 ah/1725 ce, 1143 ah/1730
ce, 1146 ah/1733 ce, 1148 ah/1735 ce, 1149 ah/1736 ce, 1157 ah/1744 ce,
and the last dated year 1161 ah/1748 ce, three years before Kashmir passed into
Afghan control.
More importantly, Mustafa also mentions many of the poets whose work he
has copied in the biyāz. Given the absence of any other manuscript on Kashmiri
literature predating this biyāz, Mustafa’s brief notes on the poets assume an added
significance in so far as they inform us about the people who were associated
with composing in the vernacular Kashmiri, rather than the language of the court
and the elites, Persian. Interestingly, in giving the nisbat of many of these poets,
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 61

Figure 3.1 Kashmiri marṣiya biyāz dated 1143 ah (1730 ce), Research Library, Srinagar
(author).

Mustafa also reveals the non-Kashmiri origin of some of the individuals involved
with this literary genre. A majority of the poets who find a mention in the biyāz,
including Mullā Aḥmad Neshapurī (Neshapur, Iran), Āqā Mahmūd Ardebelī
(Ardebil, Iran), Khwāja Muhammad ʿAli Tabrezī (Tabriz, Iran), Mirzā Aḥmad ʿAli
Tusī (Tuss, Iran), Mīr Saif, son of Mullā Khalil Niynī (Niyan, Iran), are directly
linked by the scribe through their nisbat to Iran. Though none of the surnames
mentioned by Mustafa survive in contemporary Kashmiri Shiʿi society, it is safe to
posit that these poets were descendants of those numerous men of letters arriving
from Iran seeking the patronage of the Mughal court, especially in the seventeenth
century. Many of the émigré poets settled down in Kashmir, making it their home
and in turn became indigenized, some it seems only in a generation, given the
names Mustafa has recorded in his biyaz.
The second biyāz written by Sayyid ʿAbbas Shāh broadly follows the same
physical dimensions as of Mustafa comprising 227 folios (28.5 x 14.5 cm). The
manuscript was still under compilation in the year 1209 ah/1794 ce,3 we do not
know when it was finally completed. As opposed to Mustafa, ʿAbbas Shāh is very
sparse on biographical notes regarding the poets whose works he collected and in
the entire biyāz we come across just three names: Sayyid Ṣaliḥ (of Ahmadpora),
62 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Mullā Raḥman, and Ḥassī Bhat. The third biyāz was also composed during the
Afghan rule by an unknown scribe, and the years 1183 ah/1769 ce and 1188
ah/1774 ce are mentioned on the margins. More importantly, it mentions some
poets who were alive at the time of the compiling of the biyāz. These include Mīr
Muhammad ʿAbbas, Mirzā Jaza-al Lah, Qāzī Aḥmad ʿAli, Ustād Raḥman, Mīr
Sharif-al Dīn Rizvī, and Mullā Muhammad Askrī; latter’s Persian marṣiya is the
first work that finds mention in the biyāz. The scribe also lists elegies of two other
poets, Ḥassī Bhat and Mīr Sharif-al Dīn Rizvī, both of whom were dead when the
biyāz was composed.
Another biyāz from a slightly later date, written in the last years of Afghan rule
in Kashmir, was compiled in 1235 ah/1819 ce and is part of a private collection.4
Taken all together, these manuscripts of Kashmiri marṣiya from the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries highlight the centrality of marṣiya as both a literary
genre and a normative practice through which Kashmiri Shiʿi’s sought to protect
and promote their confessional identity. The decision of the various Afghan
ṣubedars to ban this practice and the resolve of the Kashmiri Shiʿi society to
engage in it, in spite of the threats and dangers associated, mark the importance of
this practice. Interestingly, the form of the marṣiya, both its textual written base as
seen in the biyaz manuscript and its vocalization in communal gatherings (majlis),
seeks to resemble and replicate the phenomenon of recitation and memorization
which were at the foundation of Muslim pedagogy, in both literal and general
methodological senses.
An examination of the Kashmiri marṣiya also indicates that after a prolonged
hiatus in its development, this genre took on a new form in the early part of the
nineteenth century, coeval with the establishment of Sikh rule. Unlike the short
marṣiyas that were in vogue during the eighteenth century, the marṣiyas from Sikh
rule are significantly longer. The Kashmiri marṣiya as it evolved in this period can
be seen as a poetic rendition of an elaborate, highly scholastic prose comprising
hundred or more verses, which unfortunately loses almost all of its poetic spirit in
any attempt at translation.
A major innovation that took place in the Kashmiri marṣiya under the Sikh
rule was fixing four basic maqām (station) in the structure of the marṣiya and
linking them to a central unifying theme which would serve as the unwān (title)
under which a poet would compose his work. The maqāms include three stations
of praise: of Allah (hamd), Prophet Muhammad (n’aat), Imām Ali (madah), and a
final maqām of dard (grief) which is the elegy proper. Given the introduction of
maqām and the corresponding increase in its volume, the marṣiya was no longer
limited by the basic elegiac format of its origin, simply to bemoan a loss. This
extended format gave the poets plenty of opportunities to source the vast corpus
of Shiʿi religious literature and simultaneously contextualize it in their work so as
to educate the community about their heritage, both in terms of the faith and its
related history. By the mid-part of the nineteenth century, Kashmiri marṣiya would
evolve into an unrivaled medium of sermonizing and with the wide audiences it
attracted; it became one of the widest dissimulators of religious teachings. As the
appeal of marṣiya was primarily located in its performance, a collective recitation
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 63

Figure 3.2 Performance of marṣiya at a majlis at Mʿārak, Srinagar, 2015 (courtesy: Imran
Ali).

by the assembled congregation, managed by the vocalization of the text by the

principal reciter, the ẕākir, and his troupe of assistants, the pashkhawan, and the
use of the local vernacular, Kashmiri, made it easier for the audience to commit to
memory (Figure 3.2). The importance of the reciter, the ẕākir, for the performance
of the marṣiya, as well as the success of the majlis in the imāmbāda, is established
in these verses:

Zākir: candle of this assembly,

and mourners: light of the Mʿārak;
his existence on fire, wick of a candle,
and the diffused smell of camphor.
His breath: smoke, sigh of a burnt heart
and yet, the mourners circle him like moths;
he, thoughtless of being consumed,
annihilate, smear yourself with ashes, O Zākir.5

The man who would provide the initial impetus for this literary innovation was
a Sunni convert to Shiʿism, Qāzī Aḥmad ʿAli (alive in 1774). In eighteenth-
century Kashmir, the post of qāzī was limited to Sunni. But like other similar
titles of religious office—mufti, mullā, moulvi, or akhund—qāzī was mostly
used as a surname rather than necessarily signifying a man who was issuing a
religious decree (fatwa). Not much has been recorded in Shiʿi sources about Qāzī
64 Shiʿism in Kashmir

ʿAli, but we know that another marṣiya writer from the eighteenth century, Qāzī
Aḥmad Dīn, also converted to Shiʿiism. Shiʿi sources maintain that Aḥmad Dīn
was the serving Sunni qāzī of Varmul (Baramulla), a small but significant town
in north Kashmir, devoid of any Shiʿi presence. After his conversion, Aḥmad Dīn
migrated from Varmul to Ahmadpora, a settlement in north Kashmir which had
sustained itself as a center for Shiʿi scholarship in the eighteenth century under
the Rizvī Sayyids. As a member of the Sunni religious community, Aḥmad Dīn’s
conversion would not have been favorably seen by the Sunnis of Varmul, making
the migration a necessity rather than a choice. We know that Aḥmad Dīn was
actively writing marṣiyas around 1780s, so we may speculate that his conversion
must have also happened during the Afghan rule. Interestingly, like Aḥmad Dīn,
Qāzī ʿAli also hailed from Varmul, before migrating to Gund Khwaja Qāsim, a
village some 13 kilometers to the west of Srinagar. This village was established in
mid-eighteenth century by Khwāja Qāsim, a ẕākir, whose family would emerge
as one of the leading ẕākir dynasty of Kashmir. Was there any relation between
the conversion of the two qāzī, both hailing from the same area, Varmul, we
have no way of assessing. But it is intriguing that even in a period when Shiʿi
existed as a marginalized community, we find reports of conversion to Shiʿism
of individuals hailing from Sunni religious elite class. Similarly, the conversion of
another marṣiya writer, Ḥassī Bhat, who was born in a Hindu family in the moḥala
of Rainawari in the capital, Srinagar, underlies how even under adverse social and
political conditions of the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century, conversion
to Shiʿiism was taking place. Coming to the eighteenth century we find another
prominent marṣiya writer, Khwāja Muhammad Dāim (1766–1838 approx.), who
also converted from Sunnism. Significantly, these processes of conversion were
not backed by a proselytizing campaign orchestrated by members of the Shiʿi
society, but in most cases were conditioned by an individual’s predisposition,
which in Shiʿi traditions is seen as a mark of divine intervention and blessing.6
In these oral traditions maintained among Kashmiri Shiʿi, Dāim’s7 conversion
mirrors an experience from the Prophet Muhammad’s own life in which the
angels split his chest, which is metaphorically understood as a sign of spiritual
purification. Among Kashmiri marṣiya nighārs, Dāim is equally celebrated for his
Kashmiri manqabat (devotional poem) in praise of Imām ʿAli. While the tradition
of composing manqabat in the vernacular was well established among Kashmiri
Sunni,8 especially within the Sufi circles, Dāim’s work is the earliest extant example
in this literary genre associated with the Shiʿi of Kashmir. In this instance we
also see how Dāim’s Sunni background helps in introducing an established Sunni
literary genre to a Shiʿi audience. The manqabat despite its simplicity remains an
integral part of many majlis recitals in contemporary Kashmir, a popularity which
is largely based on its melodious refrain: ʿAli ḥal-i mūshkil, ʿAli bū ʿAli (ʿAli, the
disperser of difficulties, ʿAli say ʿAli):

Read the praise of the Almighty, eulogize ʿAli

ʿAli, the disperser of difficulties, ʿAli say ʿAli.
The friend of Allah, ʿAli say ʿAli,
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 65

the Prophet’s legate, ʿAli say ʿAli.

Neither was heaven or the throne, nor the pen or the tablet,
neither the foundation of the Universe, nor Adam- yet absent;
ʿAli is the beginning, His manifest desire,
ʿAli, the disperser of difficulties, ʿAli say ʿAli.9

In the immediate aftermath of Dāim’s composition, we also find the reappropriation

of a popular nashid (devotional chant): Ḥasbī Rabbī Jalla-llāh (Sufficient is for
me my Rabb; Allah is Great) in Shiʿi folk culture of Kashmir. In this nineteenth-
century reworking of the nashid, the original Arabo-Persian text was expanded in
the colloquial to incorporate verses highlighting Shiʿi devotion to the Prophet and
the twelve Imāms:

Sufficient is for me my Rabb; Allah is Great,

there is none in my heart besides Allah;
and, the light of Mohammed, peace be upon him,
Truly, there is no God but Allah.
At the gate of heaven, stands the tree of Ṭūbā,10
with a single root and branches twelve.11
The first branch: Ḥazrat Shāh,12
I seek the intercession of that Pādshāh;
Nourish all, Yā Allah.13

Coming back to the Shiʿi accounts of these marṣiya nighārs, we see how the
narrative of their conversion is posited as the main motivational reason behind
their composition of marṣiyas, in turn sustaining the popular legend which looks
upon this literary genre as being divinely inspired.14 While Kashmiri Sunni taẕkiras
originating from Sufi circles are replete with instances of miracles and supernatural
experiences (kramāt) of the saints, it is only in folk traditions linked with the life
of marṣiya writers in the nineteenth and twentieth century that we find a similar
manifestation. Gradually these legends would expand into a miracle narrative
surrounding not only the lives of marṣiya nighār but also prominent ulema, ẕākirs,
before expanding into elaborate stories of communal miracle manifestation linked
with the Muharram assemblies.
As a performative practice, for most of the Afghan rule it was in the small,
isolated Shiʿi settlements of rural Kashmir, such as Gund Hassi Bhat, Ahmadpora,
Gund Khwaja Qāsim, Magam, that the practice and tradition of Kashmiri marṣiya
was kept alive by the marṣiya nigars (poets), the ẕākirs (reciters), and their limited
audience. The development and possibly the first enactment of the new maqām-
based marṣiya took place in these Shiʿi villages of north Kashmir. A contemporary
of Qāzī Aḥmad ʿAli, Khwāja Ḥusayn Mīr (d. 1820s approx.) expanded on the
initial experiment of Qāzī Aḥmad and also introduced it to the Shiʿi audience of
the city. And it was in the city Srinagar that this new form of marṣiya was publicly
witnessed and performed by the assembled mourners in the Muharram of 1246
ah/1830 ce.
66 Shiʿism in Kashmir

The Ashura Procession and the Riots of 1830

While compilation of a marṣiya was an internal Shiʿi process, any public

congregation was sure to test sectarian sensibilities and limitations as had been
defined under the Afghans. The resolve to test these boundaries and the ensuing
Sunni backlash resulted in the infamous Shiʿi-Sunni riot of 1830, an event which
happened nearly a decade into the Sikh rule. The historian Marjānpūrī records the
details of the riots, which occurred on Ashura, the tenth of Muharram, in these
words:

On the Day of Ashura, the Shiʿi undertook two-three unusual (acts), kept on
doing marṣiya khawani and sina-kubī (beating of chest). And along with them
were Shiʿi’s of Punjab and Hindustan, who were employees of the nāzims
(governors) jargha (assembly). They with great boldness paraded a tābūt (coffin)
from Zadibal to Hasanabad. And the writer of these lines saw it with his own
eyes near the gates of Shaykh Baha-al Dīn Ganj Baksh, and for some time
remained standing there, and the Sunni with envy and grief saw this beating
chest (the procession) proceeded from there. And the writer of these lines had
not yet reached his home that people in group upon group started attacking
the Shiʿi [. . .] That day many people (Sunnis) had assembled at Ziarat-i Ḥazrat
Makhdūm, first they beat the bearers (of the tābūt) and (those) standing by, then
they invaded the moḥala and houses of Shiʿi and started burning them down,
dishonored women, till no one was left safe from this attack, and on such great
day (Ashura), they attacked the Shiʿi and in some houses small, small, children
were killed and burnt in fire and at many places the Holy Quran was burnt,
and so many people were killed, that it is a cause for torment in the world and
hereafter. And on this day the Shiʿi’s were scattered as dust, and during this
attack the nāzim remained a mere spectator and could not do anything.15

Marjānpūrī’s account is the first reference that we have of Kashmiri Shiʿi’s taking
out a mourning procession on the occasion of Ashura. Though some twentieth-
century Shiʿi writers assume that this tradition must have been originated under
the Chaks, yet we have no record of such an occurrence.16
Unlike Marjānpūrī, the historian Kuihāmī provides an altogether different
reason for the riots. In his account of the event which he refers to as the tārāj-i
nayum (the ninth desolation), Khuihāmī sees a Shiʿi community, emboldened by
the transfer of authority to the Sikhs, transgressing on past practices related to the
distribution of pezh (candlewick of the bulrushes), which was used traditionally
in Kashmir for weaving mats. The best pezh, used to grow in Khusal Sar, a lake
near Zadibal and from traditions dating back to eighteenth century, the produce
would be equally divided between the Sunni Jamia Masjid of the city and the Shiʿi
imāmbāda at Zadibal. As the lake was located near the imāmbāda, the responsibility
for collecting the pezh was with the Shiʿi custodian of the imāmbāda. In Kuihāmī’s
account, the Shiʿi kept delaying in the matter, in the hope of usurping the share of
the masjid. Consequently, in the days leading up to Ashura, the elders of the Sunni
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 67

community after mutual discussion approached the governor, who authorized

the Sunnis to enter the imāmbāda and remove their share. While proceeding to
do this on the Day of Ashura, the Sunnis were assailed by the Shiʿi, who abused
them. Significantly, without naming the Sunni audience of this event, Kuihāmī
asserts that the Shiʿis were involved in mourning, parading the tābūt, and reviling
revered Sunni figures. On their return to the Jamia Masjid, the Sunni delegation
narrated the whole event to the assembled audience, which resulted in the enraged
Sunni mobs despoiling the wealth and honor of the Shiʿi. In Kuihāmī’s account
the Shiʿi mourning ceremonies though a contributing factor, are nevertheless not
the main reason for the riots. Rather it is the Shiʿi refusal to honor a past practice,
which is the main cause. An examination of both Marjānpūrī and Kuihāmī’s
account brings to the fore how both the authors perceive the Shiʿi indiscretion
as being representative of the change in the political landscape of the land, as an
opportunity to assert their presence. Primarily, the opportunity is pivoted on a
Shiʿi understanding of Sikh rule as emblematic of the Sunni loss of power and
authority. While the Shiʿi version of the events, based on oral tradition would be
given a textual form at a much later date, they don’t question the main sequence
of events, only the intentions. The Sunni insistence on distributing the pezh, on
Ashura, the most revered and solemn occasion in the Shi’a religious calendar is
seen as a deliberate provocation; intended to do harm. In both Marjānpūrī and
Kuihāmī’s version, we again see how the entire event unfolds within the city;
this is true of most if not all Shiʿi-Sunni riots in Kashmir which originate from
the capital, Srinagar. Sometimes, though not often, events in the city had their
ripple effects in the countryside but given the physical distance between the two
communities in rural Kashmir, and the time involved in the spread of the news,
such occurrences were rare.
Regarding the actual chronology of the events as narrated by the two Sunni
writers, unfortunately it is hard to establish whether the mourning procession
precedes the confrontation at the imāmbāda or did it take place later. Also, the
setting of the event is of particular importance, while the imāmbāda at Zadibal
is a part of the Shiʿi sacred space located in a Shiʿi-dominated moḥala, the area
in and around the shrine of Shaykh Baha-al Dīn is a part of the Sunni geography
of the city. The area forms the physical as well as a visual gateway to the shrine
of Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm, and a Shiʿi procession right at its doorsteps would
certainly be seen by the Sunnis as an affront to their Sunni identity, represented
as it was in the cult of Makhdūm (Figure 3.3). Where in Kuihāmī’s account it is
the intransigence of Kashmiri Shiʿi which bears the responsibility for the clash,
Marjānpūrī indicates toward the nonlocal factors: the presence of Punjabis
and Hindustani Shiʿi courtiers. In Marjānpūrī’s account, we again see how the
local Shiʿi society seeks and is supported by members of a non-Kashmiri Shiʿi
community with a powerful presence at the court. Unfortunately, in his works,
Marjānpūrī identifies only one of these nonlocal Shiʿi players, slightly later in the
text, unrelated to the riots.17
The riots also find a mention in the memoirs of Vigne who visited Kashmir
in 1835, some five years after the event. Based on reports, which are partial to
68 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Figure 3.3 Srinagar city, nineteenth century with location of major sites and Shiʿi
neighborhoods (author).

the Sunnis in terms of both the historical differences between the two sects and
the actual reason for the riot, it is safe to summarize that Vigne’s informants were
Sunnis. As such, much more than Kuihāmī’s report written as it was in the last of
the nineteenth century, Vigne’s account is closer to how the Sunnis viewed the
event immediately in the following years. Vigne writes:

In the time of the governor Bama Singh, the Shiʿis again attempted to celebrate
the Moharem. Mukudum Saheb, a Sunni, who lived four hundred years ago, was
always followed by a great number of disciples. Amongst them was a Persian
Shiʿih, Syud Shams-ud Dyn (the sun of faith), who disguised his real faith, and
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 69

whilst he always paid marked respect to his master, he employed his time and
abilities in making secret converts to the Shiʿih tenets. In consequence of this,
his name is much celebrated by the Shiʿihs, who, in celebrating the Moharem,
purposely spat in the direction of Mukudum Shah’s tomb. The enraged Sunni fell
on them and killed fifteen of them, plundered their property; and the Persian
merchants, of whom there were two or three hundred, retreated from Kashmir,
and have never since then resided there.18

In addition to the reason for the riots, Vigne’s description also provides us with
an interesting glimpse into nineteenth-century Sunni worldview. In this Sunni
understanding of the past, the Shiʿi-Sunni dispute is firmly established in the
narrative of the Makhdūm-ʿIrakī confrontation. For the Sunni community, the
two are the central protagonist of a historical dispute. This narrative is not situated
in a historical understanding of the past but is based on legends which are passed
on to Vigne’s by his informants. In this reworking of the past, ʿIrakī is made a
disciple of Makhdūm, whom he nevertheless cheats. Also, an examination of the
story, indicates, that at least in the minds of Vigne’s storytellers, Persian origin is
equated with being a Shiʿi. This is a major departure from texts surviving from
the seventeenth century, where Persian ethnicity and Shiʿi’ness are never defined
as being identical to one another and reflects upon a contemporary nineteenth-
century worldview reflecting on the preponderance of Shiʿi Iranian merchants in
the city19.
Coming back to the riots, the reason as recorded by Vigne, is broadly in
conformity with Marjānpūrī’s eyewitness account. And, while the insult to
Makhdūm, real or imagined, seems to be an addition of Vigne’s witnesses, the
clash in both the descriptions takes place near the open ground leading to the
shrine of Makhdūm. By holding congregational majlis and engaging in marṣiya at
the recently reconstructed Zadibal Imāmbāda, the Shiʿi of Srinagar were breaking
away with a past tradition, of secret assemblies limited to the immediate family.
But an attempt to take out a daytime mourning procession from Zadibal to
Hasanbad, and in doing so seek passage through one of the most contested sites in
the city linked to Shiʿi-Sunni division, the Shi’a were asserting their ownership on
an important public space of the city. This was not simply an act of transformation
seeking a fair share of the way the city operated, benign in its origin, but a radical
challenge to how these spaces had operated during the Afghan rule, and their
Sunni ownership. While the Ashura procession can be seen as an attempt by
the Shiʿis to physically connect two significant Shiʿi-dominated suburbs of the
city through a public display of mourning; in doing so, the city’s spatial layout
demanded that this passage could only happen through the Sunni heart of the city.
Significantly, prior to the riots of 1830, we see a steady movement of Shiʿi scholarly
families, from far-off and isolated villages in rural Kashmir into the city, who in
turn helped in enriching the intellectual life of the city, and though newcomers
were rapidly observed in the Shiʿi social hierarchy of the city. For this migrant
community, the establishment of Sikh rule, with its disinterest in any Shiʿi-Sunni
conflict was the impetus for this sedentariness and urban culture. Was the Shiʿi
70 Shiʿism in Kashmir

assertiveness in the city also linked to the presence of the newcomers who had yet
to understand the sectarian undercurrents of the city life, seems plausible but is
difficult to establish in the absence of any supporting narrative. Also, it is possible
that the Shiʿi’s attempted to duplicate a similar Sunni event, the annual procession
from Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā in Srinagar to Char-i Sharif in central Kashmir. This
procession, covering a total distance of around 32 kilometers, would take place
over a period of two days,20 and connected two Sufi orders: the Persianate origin
Kubrawīs with their base in Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā in the heart of Srinagar and the
shrine of Shaykh Nūr-al Dīn, the founder of Kashmiri Sufi order of the Reshī’s
located at Char. Though we have no record of when or how this annual procession
started, but by the nineteenth century it seems to have been a well-established
tradition in the city’s religious cycle of celebrations and festivities.
The violent Sunni reaction was a response to Shiʿi attempt at seeking an
equal partnership in the functioning of city, rather than targeted against any
perceived Shiʿi act of irreverence toward a saintly Sunni figure. Both Marjānpūrī
and Kuihāmī are aware of this crucial factor, and in their narratives, they do link
the riots with what they perceive as misguided Shiʿi understanding of changed
political circumstances. Following the disturbances in the city, it is again in the
genre of marṣiya that the Shiʿi feeling of helplessness gets registered:

O Master21! you are our guardian

fortify our souls,
for our wings are clipped, flights aborted.
…..
Secure us under your wings,
we are devoted to you, do not abandon us
O you with a phoenix wing.

We are caught in the talons of a tyrant,

like an innocent dove in a hawk's,
there's no refuge for us except you,
redeem us, O Master!22

The City Elders and a Shahr-ashūb

But then, how real was this loss of Sunni power that Marjānpūrī and Kuihāmī allude
to? The closing of Jamia Masjid, the threat to Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā, and the ban on
the azan23 clearly point to how the prominent Sunni symbols of religious identity
were targeted at the street level and in the day-to-day functioning of the city at
the commencement of Sikh rule. The brutal execution of Khwāja Madin Kawūsa
and his family, and the inability of the Sunni elders to intervene in the matter,
points to this loss of power.24 When Marjānpūrī begins his narrative of Sikh rule
in Kashmir, he equally makes a point about how under the Sikhs, jāgīrs of Muslim
landowners were confiscated under “a single stroke of the pen.”25 The loss of estates
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 71

must have certainly affected the Sunni landed elites and those who depended
upon them. Marjānpūrī writes about the family of Khwāja Isḥāq Diwānī which
had fallen upon bad times,26 but the economic dispossession of the Sunni elites
was not a uniform occurrence. Two earlier European contemporaries of Vigne,
who visited Kashmir during the Sikh rule, William Moorcroft (arrived: 1822, d.
1825) and Victor Jacquemont (arrived 1831, d. 1832) while speaking about the
miserable condition of the Muslim working classes, also write about Sunni elites
who were not only well established but also well respected in the Sikh court. A
branch of the Naqshbandī family, who had at one time served as hereditary rulers
of Tashkent, migrated to Mughal Empire, before settling down in Kashmir, during
the Afghan rule. At the time of Moorcroft’s visit, the family was headed by Khwāja
Shāh Niyaẕ Naqshbandī (d.1829), a recognized shaykh in the Naqshbandī Sufi
order, with extensive trade and spiritual connections across Central Asia. Shāh
Niyaẕ, represented a transnational Kashmiri link based on trade and in certain
cases faith, in which Kashmiri Sunni merchants could be found in cities not only
in the mainland India but also in geographical and cultural locations as diverse as
Leh, Iskardu, Lhasa, Yarkand, Bokhara, Kabul, and Kasghar.
Since the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Naqshbandī Sufis had played
a prominent role in the governance, trade, and administration of alti-Shahr: the
six cities of Kashgar.27 It would be safe to speculate upon the faith and trade-based
connections of Naqshbandīs of Kashmir with the Naqshbandīs of nineteenth-
century Kasghar and Bukhara. These connections worked in favor of individual
Sufi-merchants such as Shāh Niyaẕ and mostly remained undisturbed even after
the conquest of Kashmir by the Sikhs.
At the start of Sikh rule, Khwāja Shāh Niyaẕ Naqshbandī like the rest of
Kashmiri Sunni jāgīrdars had also lost his vast estates in Kashmir. Consequently,
he migrated to Ladakh, where he was well received by the khalun, the chief
minister at the Leh court. It was at Leh that he met Moorcroft and befriended
him at the court and “deployed his regional influence to negotiate safe passage
and living arrangements from Kashgar to Khoqand and Bukhara for the Company
mission.”28 The overwhelming faith and reverence among the Sunnis of Central
Asia for the Naqshbandī order,29 both among the rulers and common masses,
made the task easier.
And, in return, Shāh Niyaẕ asked and received help from Moorcroft30 in
restoring his jāgīr in Kashmir.31 Continuing with the tradition of assisting
European visitors to Kashmir, members of Shāh Niyaẕ’s family remained in high
standing with the court at Srinagar, besides exercising their immense spiritual
and economical connections across Central Asia. And it was these individuals,
Sunni elders in Srinagar, who acted as informants to visitors such as Vigne about
contemporary events in Kashmir, including the riots of 1830.
It was also during the Sikh rule that a native Kashmiri who is seen as one of
the last great Persian poets of Kashmir, Mullā Mahdi Mujrim (d. 1273 ah/1857
ce), wrote his shahar-ashūb “the cities misfortune.” Shahar-ashūb is defined “as a
cry of lament on the decay of a city” and emerged as a poetic form that attained
a certain popularity with the decline of Imperial Mughal prestige in India. One
72 Shiʿism in Kashmir

could call it a South Asian specialty, a unique genre in Urdu poetry, but then it
is neither limited to Urdu or South Asia.32 According to Hammad Rind, shahr-
ashūb originally meant “someone who brings ruin to a city (usually, owing to their
extraordinary beauty)” and a genre of poetry in praise of such a beauty in Persian
literature.33
An acclaimed court panegyric who served both under the Sikh and later Dogras,
Mujrim’s life is an interesting example of how a poet maneuvered his way around
the shifting political landscape of nineteenth-century Kashmir for patronage.
Born and raised a Shiʿi, Kuihāmī in his work on the poets of Kashmir mentions
that Mujrim converted to Sunnism and married his daughters in prominent Sunni
families. Though later Shiʿi writers would contest the story of Mujrim’s conversion,
in the poet’s surviving diwān no trace of a Shiʿi-inspired subject, or imagery is to
be found.34 Yet, the diwān does include verses in praise of both Sunni and Hindu
subjects, indicating that Mujrim was conscious about his audience, those whom
he actively sought to appease.
The immediate context of the shahar-ashūb is the mutiny by Sikh soldiers
against the ṣubedar Behma Singh Ardelī in 1831. Thus, the composition of this
work which happened a year after the riots marks a period of decay in the urban
fabric of the city—a decay that started under the Afghan rule. About the recent
riots, Mujrim ominously chooses to remain silent. The shahar-ashūb itself starts
on a note of complaint:

The corrupt of this city trade in pleasant appearances

The traders of the age trade in damages and penalties
All the merchants that I see in this town
Know of only one profit in this market: loss!35

Aside from the cry of pain and anguish, the shahar-ashūb also names some of the
leading elites of the city, both Sunnis and Hindus, albeit for some of the individuals,
Mujrim adopts a slightly derisive tone. While the Hindus mentioned by Mujrim
were courtiers in the employment of Sikh court, the Sunni nobility comprises of
the business community—the merchants and the traders of the city36. This shift
from the older aristocracy of the landowners (jāgīrdārs) is itself reflective of a
long-drawn process starting in the eighteenth century, during the closing years
of Mughal rule in Kashmir, when community leadership of the Kashmiri Sunnis
became located in the business class. With the lackadaisical Afghan interest in the
patronage of community works, aside from repair or renovation of a select few
Sunni religious sites, it was the wealth of these traders and merchants which was
the source of community projects, patronage, and power projection.37
Coming back to the issue of the limits of Sunni dominance of the city life,
Kuihāmī’s account does indicate that the Jamia Masjid was in use. It simply
serves no practical purpose in preparing mats for furnishing a mosque which is
closed. Likewise, the decision of the Sunni elite to approach the Sikh ṣubedar for
release of their share for the mats again supports the contention that the Jamia
was in use, and earlier restrictions had been relaxed if not totally removed.38
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 73

Significantly, the riots of 1830 is the first Shiʿi-Sunni conflict in which the rioters
could not count upon any support from the court. In the absence of official
backing, the mob would have put its faith in the community elders for supporting
them. As we have seen, in the past communal or sectarian confrontations, it was
invariably members of the Sunni community leadership who were responsible
for inflaming the passions of the masses in such episodes while also co-opting
the administration.
The tragic loss in the riots must certainly have tempered any Shiʿi hope
of asserting their identity in the public space. In Shiʿi accounts more than 800
members of the community, men and women alike, were killed during the riot, a
number which Vigne’s Sunni informants reduce considerably.39 The ṣubedar, Sardar
Bhima Singh Ardalī (1830–1) remained mostly unresponsive to the happenings in
the city.40 In the face of the indifference of the Sikh rulers, Ḥakim Mahdi Khān,
the vizier at Awadh, provided the Shiʿi of Kashmir with financial relief for the
reconstruction of the burned imāmbāda at Zadibal.41 The event also resulted in a
renewed Shiʿi migration to Awadh, with a few settling down in Amritsar in Punjab.
At Faizabad, the capital of Awadh, Ḥakim Mahdi set up a weaving factory for Shiʿi
shawl weavers who had fled from Kashmir, but unlike Amritsar, this factory does
not seem to have made much progress. Mahdi got himself not only involved in
the financial rehabilitation of the migrant Shiʿi’ but also set up special schools for
the Kashmiris, with a fixed stipend for the students. Often, the vizier would visit
these schools and sit with the students, examining their progress, and maintaining
a healthy interest in the progress of the émigré community.42 These enclaves of
Kashmiri Diaspora in the Awadh and Punjab maintained their cultural links with
Kashmir, a major institution that sustained these links was that of majlis and the
recital of Kashmiri marṣiya. Until the third quarter of the nineteenth century we
find biyāz of Kashmiri marṣiya being produced in Faizabad, Lucknow, Lahore,
Amritsar, Peshawar, and even far off Calcutta. Simultaneously, the poets also
assigned the right of recital to different zakirs among the Diaspora community.43
In the case of Awadh with its cosmopolitan nawabi culture we find that in addition
to Shiʿi, Kashmiri Pandits living in Lucknow also participated in the Muharram
majlis. The ancestors of the Kunzrū-Mushran family had migrated from Kashmir
to Awadh somewhere in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century fleeing the
Afghan oppression of Hindus in Kashmir. During their escape some children of the
family are said to have been killed by the Afghans. In Lucknow the family settled
down in Kashmiri Moḥala—a predominantly Kashmiri Hindu neighborhood
which also housed some Kashmiri Shiʿi after their relocation to Awadh.44 Besides
holding Muharram majalis in their havelis at Kashmiri Moḥala and Rani Katra, the
member of the Kunzrū-Mushran clan would also recite an Urdu nūḥa (lament) said
to be written by an ancestor. This nūḥa which recalls the pain of Bībī Rabāb,45 wife
of Imām Ḥusayn, on the killing of her infant son at Karbala, is said to additionally
echo the loss of Hindu children in Kashmir:

With an arrow has been killed the of child of Rabāb,

the child who was a fragment of the heart of Rabāb.46
74 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Coming back to Mahdi’s shahar-ashūb, intriguingly it does not mention a single

Shiʿi, which would lead one to assume that the Shiʿi lacked any such presence
among the city elders. This view finds some support in Marjānpūrī’s narrative,
which pointedly speaks about non-Kashmiri presence as an enabling factor in
the Ashura procession. Though the Shiʿi community both in the city and in the
countryside was dispersed and decentralized into self-contained moḥala, yet
individual Shi’a traders were as much a part of the city’s functioning and wealth as
their Sunni counterparts.
Moorcroft, who sought and received help from Shāh Niyaẕ47 at Leh, was
accompanied by Mīrzā Najaf ʿAli48 in his journey, and Najaf like Moorcroft has
left us with his own impressions of their travels across Punjab, Ladakh, Kashmir,
and Central Asia. Speaking about Ladakh, the starting point of the Kashmiri shawl
industry,49 Mīrzā Najaf writes:

The saudagars (merchants) of Kashmir residing in Ladakh like Khwāja Muhsin

ʿAli50, and Muhammad Razā Shāwl, are the companion and confidant to the
khalun, and have bought land (in Leh) [. . .] and are of Shiʿi faith, and Mīr
Akbar Shāh and Rasul Joo and Naqī Joo and Khwāja Yūsuf ʿAli are all Shiʿi.
And Aḥmad Joo and Ghafar Joo are Sunnis, and Imam Muhammad Heratī is
of Shiʿi faith.51

Najaf ʿAli’s information is a proof of the cultural, commercial, and political

capabilities that the Kashmiri Shiʿi merchants enjoyed in protecting, promoting,
and organizing their business at the start of the eighteenth century. This ability to
position themselves in a transnational arena of operation outside the boundaries of
Kashmir is a testament to the overall Kashmir spirit of enterprise and endurance,
which was not limited to any sect. The strength of this Trans-Himalayan trade
both in the east and west of Kashmir can be understood by the fact that during the
early part of the nineteenth century there were 150 Kashmiris based in Lhasa and
around 300 in Yarkand. When, in the summer of 1823,52 Moorcroft left Srinagar
for the purpose of visiting Bukhara, the collection of people and ethnicities in the
city must have presented a sunny colorful spectacle, which Moorcroft captures in
these words:

the greatest variety of nations that ever marched together, enrolling English,
Hindustanis, Gorkhas, Tibetans, Persians, Kashmiris, Kurds and Turks, in its
ranks.53

The influence of Kashmiri traders can be understood by the fact that they managed
to frustrate Moorcroft’s plan to visit Yarkand, while also putting him in a tough
situation at Leh. According to Moorcroft, in his audience with the khalun at Leh,
the Ladakhi minister told him:

the Kashmiris had endeavored to prejudice him against us, and to prevail upon
him to prevent our coming to Le.54
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 75

Though Moorcroft seems unaware about Shiʿi origin of Naqī Joo as well as that
of his other opponents in the Kashmiri merchant community at Leh, we do get
a sense of sectarian disquiet at the Leh court, with its origin in the divisions in
Kashmir. When Moorcroft approached Shāh Niyaẕ for help, he was told by the
shaykh:

that the persons most adverse to our reception were the Kashmir traders, who
apprehended we should interfere with their shawl wool traffic, and would,
therefore, oppose every possible impediment to our journey: he had incurred
great disgrace with them, he said, on our account, as they accused him of having
invited us to Ladakh: he had been consulted by the Khalun.55

The possibility that a revered Sufi shaykh such as Shāh Niyaẕ could find himself
accused of misconduct, by merchants from Kashmir can only be understood in
the Shiʿi origin of these business elders. For them, Shāh Niyaẕ’s eminence as a
Naqshbandī shaykh was a reason for distrust, rather than reverence. This is especially
true, when we see how some of the major Shiʿi-Sunni riots in Srinagar during the
seventeenth and eighteenth century, involved active participation of Naqshbandī
elders.56 Of the major Sunni Sufi orders operating in nineteenth-century Kashmir,
the Kubrawī, Suhrawardī, Qādrī; the Naqshbandīs were marked by a strong sharia-
mindedness, framing a religious outlook in which the Shiʿis were seen as heretics,
outside the boundaries of Muslim faith and community. Also, as we come nearer
to the nineteenth century, we find that most of the educated religious classes of the
city were either members of the order or had trained under shaykhs belonging to
this order, thus imbibing a sharp sectarian outlook linked with the Naqshbandīs.57
Still, even in his self-imposed exile at Leh, the influence of Shāh Niyaẕ across the
Central Asian region would have made active opposition to him detrimental to
the business interests of the Shiʿi merchants. So, from their position of power, the
merchants rather choose to attack Shāh Niyaẕ for advocating the interests of a
European seen as the agent of British colonial influence (Figure 3.4). Much more
than the Naqshbandī shaykh,58 it was the Kashmiri merchants who proved more
astute in their reading of the changing political circumstances, especially about the
advancing colonial threat across South Asia. They rightly perceived Moorcroft as
an agent of the East India Company, whose main aim was furthering the British
political and financial interest, rather than being simply an interested visitor.
A perturbed khalun in his interview with the munshi59 of Moorcroft voiced the
concerns raised by the Kashmiris:

he had been told it was the practice of the English to appear at first in the guise
of merchants, merely to gain a footing in the country, and that, having affected
this, they speedily brought it under their authority.60

This awareness was also a result of their wider interest of Kashmiri merchants in
happenings in mainland India, as opposed to Shāh Niyaẕ whose attention was
fixed in happening in Central Asia.61
76 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Figure 3.4 Calligraphy written by Shāh Niyaẕ for William Moorcroft (courtesy: British
Library).

In their opposition to Moorcroft, the Shiʿi merchants at Leh also managed to

seek and elicit the support of Kashmiri Sunni merchants at Yarkand. The coming
together of the Kashmiri merchants, outside of the boundaries of their native land,
highlights how the merchant community acted to protect their shared “Kashmiri
interests” in the face of a real or perceived threat. Significantly, it also highlights
how binaries of division related to sectarian origin, could and were set aside, in
securing a common financial interest. In doing so the Shiʿi and Sunni merchants
were self-identifying with a broader Kashmiri identity transcending the barriers
and the limits of confessional identification linked to sectarian boundaries. At
Yarkand, according to Moorcroft’s informant, the Kashmiri, Naqī Joo represented
before a joint council of Chinese and native Yarkandi officials his opposition to
Moorcroft’s plan to visit the city.62 Moorcroft also provides us with interesting
information about the presence of “chief Kashmiri merchants at Yarkand,” who
were in correspondence with their Kashmiri counterparts in Leh.63 This group
of unidentified chief merchants would be found across cities in Central Asia and
Tibet, and in later writings, we find the reference to a Kashmiri trader serving as
Aksakal (Turkoman: white beard)64—a member of the high guild of merchants
at Yarkand as well as in other cities.65 Similarly, when he visited Yarkand, during
the early years of the twentieth century, the Hungarian-born British explorer and
archaeologist Auriel Stein66 (d. 1943) wrote about a significant Kashmiri presence
in the city built on earlier business contacts:
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 77

and a sprinkling of Muhammadan Kashmiris, of whom there is quite a settled

colony here. [. . .] The colonies of Kashmiris, Gilgitis, Badakhshanis, and people
from other parts of the Indian frontier regions are large.67

While the Moorcroft affair showcases the fluidity of identities created by an

intersection of mercantile power dynamics and outsider threats, it also serves as
a powerful indicator of Shiʿi presence in the power structure, albeit the financial
power. The episode also highlights how Shiʿi traders managed to straddle neutral
spaces, for furthering their interests and in doing so also engage in a working
relationship with their Sunni counterparts. What was still missing in the overall
picture was a substantial Shiʿi presence in the court which could help to protect
community interest in face of an adversity, such as the riots of 1830.

The Royal Physician and the Well-Wishing Merchant

Following the riots, the Shiʿi community proceeded to rebuild the imāmbāda
at Zadibal with funds made available by the Awadh vizier, Ḥakim Mahdi
Khān. We have no idea about when the work was completed; textual evidence
indicates that in 1841 the new building was already in need of repairs.68 The act of
reconstruction, following a devastating loss, can be seen as a part of a sustained
effort by the community elders to revive the institution of Mʿārak as a focal point
of Shi’a identity in Kashmir.69 After being closed during most of the Afghan rule,
the rehabilitation of Mʿārak coincides broadly with the Sikh rule in the region and
was a gradual process primarily dependent upon the collective community efforts
originating in the city. Such activities would also draw upon the links of patronage
connecting Kashmiri Shiʿi to both non-native Iranian traders based in the city
and Kashmiri Shiʿi Diaspora located at Leh, Awadh, Calcutta, and other parts of
South Asia. The vizier Ḥakim Mahdi was also regularly sending a sum of money
as khums to Kashmir, a part of which also percolated into community affairs such
as rebuilding and upkeep of the Mʿārak.70 The reconstruction of Mʿārak71 in 1830
was overseen by an Iranian merchant, Ḥājjī Baqir, who had married into the family
of the Mʿārakdars, the hereditary mutwalī (custodians) of Mʿārak.72
Though, as I have shown earlier, Kashmiri Shiʿi community retained a high level
of religious scholarship, yet the Mʿārak was used singularly for the performance of
Muharram ceremonies alone: the majalis, involving recital of marṣiyas. Performing
of nimaz (prayers) was limited to smaller moḥala mosques of which only a few
were to be found in the city, while entire Shiʿi villages lacked this facility. Also, in
most cases, the prayers would be offered individually and not in the congregation.
This was as much a reflection of prevailing societal tensions, especially in mixed
Shiʿi-Sunni areas as of the Shiʿi belief in suspending congregational prayers in the
absence (ghaibyat) of the twelfth imām, Muhammad al-Mahdi (b. 255 ah/879
ce).73 Sermonizing in public spaces such as Mʿārak or even the moḥala mosques
was unheard of; imparting religious education was done at the homes of religious
scholars: the mullās, the molvis, the sayyids, and the akhunds, and would draw a
78 Shiʿism in Kashmir

limited audience mostly derived from the affluent and religious circles.74 Though
the writer of Kūhal-al Jawahir (c. 1264 ah/1847 ce), Sayyid ʿAli ibn Razā,
mentions that his father, Sayyid Mīr Razā (d. 1830), was killed in the riots of 1830
while giving a sermon at Zadibal imāmbāda, the circumstances indicate that this
was an isolated event associated with this particular Muharram rather than a part
of established practice.75
It was during the governorship of Shaykh Ghūlam Mohyi-al Dīn (1841–5)76
that we find the first mention of an individual from the Kashmiri Shiʿi community,
rising to a position of prominence in the court. A Sunni Muslim from the plains of
Punjab, Mohyi-al Dīn and following him his son, Shaykh Imām-al Dīn (1845–6),
would serve as the last two governors of Kashmir for the Lahore darbār. A crucial
element of Mohyi-al Dīn’s tenure as ṣubedar of Kashmir was his reinstatement
of Kashmiri Muslims at the court, as well as resuming jāgīrs to them. In his
Ākhbārāt’s,77 written between 1847 and 1877, Mīrzā Saif-al Dīn writes about how
after the demise of Sikh rule in Kashmir in 1847, Maharaja Gulab Singh (r. 1847–
57), the Hindu ruler of Kashmir, sought to reorganize the sericulture industry in
his kingdom. Early on his reign, in a conversation with his trusted Kashmiri Hindu
adviser, Raj Kāk Dhar, the maharaja opined that the industry was better served if
it was overseen from Jammu. At this point, Dhar interjects to advise the maharaja
that it would be better if the production was handed over to the maharaja’s chief
physician, Ḥakim ʿAẕim. He then goes on to inform the maharaja78 about how
during Shaykh Mohyi-al Dīn’s rule, the ṣubedar had also selected the ḥakim for the
position, as he had found no one else as mʿūtabar (reliable), danā (prudent), and
fahmida (intelligent) as ʿAẕim.79 In another instance, Saif-al Dīn writes about the
complete faith vested in ʿAẕim by Mohyi-al Dīn who gave the ḥakim full authority
in matters of government, especially in the affairs of the newly conquered territory
of Gilgit.80 Based on Dhar’s advice, Gulab Singh appoints ʿAẕim to oversee the
industry,81 though in Saif-al Dīn’s account, the ḥakim tries his best to sidestep
from the responsibility but to no avail.82 Saif-al Dīn also writes that among the
Kashmiri jāgīrdārs serving the Sikh Empire, the names of Pandit Raj Kāk Dhar,
Khwājāghan-i Naqshbandī, Sayyid Yasin Shāh, Ḥakim ʿAẕim, Diwān Dina Nath,
and the descendants of Khwājā Munwar Shāh and Valī Joo were enlisted in a
special diwān at Lahore,83 and when Gulab Singh assumed control of the country
in 1947, these individuals were allowed to retain their land.84 Son of Mullā Ḥakim
Javad, the court physician, whom we had encountered earlier in the account
of ṣubedar ʿAbdullah Khān, ʿAẕim’s progress at the Sikh and later Dogra court
was to prove highly consequential in negotiating the contours of Shiʿi identity
in Kashmir.85 He would also emerge as one of the prime movers and enabler of
emerging social hierarchies in nineteenth-century Kashmiri Shiʿi society. On his
death, Gulab Singh appointed ʿAẕim’s eldest son, Ḥakim ʿAbdul Raḥim as chief
physician and in charge for the sericulture industry, marking a continuation of the
family influence and presence in the court.86
The life of ʿAẕim, spanning a greater part of the nineteenth century, marks
a period of transformation in the life and behavior of the Shi’a community of
Kashmir. It represents a transition from an age of marked quietism under the
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 79

Afghan to that of gradual celebration of a sectarian identity under the Sikh and
Dogra kings. The ḥakim was also an eyewitness to the riots of 1830 and must
have been aware of lingering tensions, especially in the city. Starting his life under
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, ʿAẕim initially joined the royal court at Lahore rather than
attaching himself with the provincial court of the ṣubedar at Srinagar. While we
have no idea of when, and in what capacity he joined the Lahore darbār, but based
on a manuscript87 copied by ʿAẕim at Lahore in 1248 ah/1832 ce, it is certain
that at least in the aftermath of the 1830 riots, he was in the capital city of the Sikh
Empire.88 In his letter to Maulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli Naqvī, ʿAẕim alludes to how he
was using the literary genre of marṣiya to commemorate both the martyrdom of
Imām Ḥusayn and in doing so also consolidate the commemoration as a symbol of
Shiʿi identity (Figure 3.5). Written in highly ornate Persian prevalent across much
of nineteenth-century South Asia, this epistle, which we touched upon earlier also,
highlights the importance that ʿAẕim attached to the performance of the marṣiya
as a Shiʿi symbol of deliverance as well as his own standing as a man of letters in
these words:

Having sent that for such a long time at an adverse fate, I necessarily intended to
bring out the shining pearls of its sad contents, which I had spun together in new
ways, and arrange it on the lines of a Kashmiri marṣiya, so that your Lordship’s
beautiful grace receives a jewel tear, the price of which gives plenty of recompense

Figure 3.5 Epistle of Ḥakim ʿAẕim to Moulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli (author).
80 Shiʿism in Kashmir

to each of those who ask for help. With this precious pearl in the crown, (your)
glorious crest will be remembered in the plain of the Last Judgment. [. . .] and
they try to dishonour and reproach those who commemorate. But they know that
their sad predominance deserves an enormous price for their abovementioned
piety [. . .]. It has gone so far now that we have to cry very much.89

The ḥakim would be joined by two of his cousins, Munshi Shāh Muhammad (d.
1863) and Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf (1797–1884),90 in composing marṣiyas.
Both ʿAẕim and his cousins Shāh Muhammad and Muhammad Yūsuf would
be trained in this literary genre by the marṣiya khwān, Khwāja Ḥasan Mīr. A
modest farmer from the village of Habak, Ḥasan Mīr’s meeting with ʿAẕim is
represented in folklore as a serendipitous act; ʿAẕim’s participation in this genre
helped in furthering the literary quality and imagery of this genre.91 Aẕim’s oeuvre
which includes twenty-four marṣiya is also reflective of the efforts he made into
popularizing the high craft of maqām-based marṣiya for public recitation.92 And as
marṣiya khawani became the leitmotif of Shiʿi identity in Kashmir, we find that in
the next generations the family of ʿAẕim would produce thirteen marṣiya writers
who participated in this genre while continuing their association with the court
as physicians, calligraphers, teachers, and administrators.93 And, in contemporary
Kashmiri Shiʿi society, the memory of ʿAẕim for which he is remembered is that
of a marṣiya writer, not a courtier.
Simultaneously with the reopening of Mʿārak before the riots of 1830, the
ḥakim had also secured the consent of a learned Shiʿi scholar, Mullā Fazl ʿAli
Ansarī94 (d. 1263 ah/1846 ce) and had convinced him to relocate to the city from
his ancestral seat in the Tantraypora near Ahmadpora, in northwest Kashmir.95
During the eighteenth century we find that outside of Srinagar, Ahmadpora
had emerged as the nucleus of Shiʿi scholarship, primarily centered on the Rizvī
Sayyids.96 Where many Shiʿi scholars of the city97 had sought proximity and
patronage at the Mughal court as poets, artisans-calligraphers, and miniature
painters, the Rizvī Sayyids had remained singularly committed to religious studies,
and any poetical disposition was limited to writing religious elegies—the marṣiyas
for Imām Ḥusayn. Also, as we saw earlier many of the Rizvī scholars who migrated
to Awadh after the establishment of the Shiʿi kingdom, used their new court
connections to create lines of scholarly transmission as well as financial patronage
between Kashmiri Shiʿi society and the Awadh court.98
Some accounts link both Ḥakim ʿAẕim and Mullā Fazl to the madrassa
(school) of Mullā Muhammad Muqim which operated from Muqim’s residence at
Zadibal, offering training to a small select group, but this is by no means certain.99
Nonetheless, the relocation of Mullā Fazl to Nawa Kadal in the heart of the city
would be the first step in establishing the Ansarī family in the role of religious
leadership of Kashmiri Shiʿi. In Matlaʿ-i Anwār, Sayyid Murtazā Husayn refers to
Mullā Mahdi Khatāʿi, a student of Muqim, who had settled down in Lahore and
drew a significant circle of students in the city.100 The most prominent disciple of
Mahdi Khatāʿi,101 who would exert his influence on Shiʿi society of Punjab, was
Maulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli Naqvī (1806–69).102 We have already come across Maulvi
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 81

Rajab ʿAli, in the epistle written to him by Ḥakim ʿAẕim. A second-generation

student from the school of Mullā Muqim, Rajab ʿAli would be intimately linked
with ʿAẕim as well as Fazl, who as we have seen were a part of Muqim’s circle.
In the tumulus nineteenth-century South Asia, with a waning Mughal court at
Delhi, Rajab would remain loyal to the British during the Great Rebellion of 1857.
In return for his loyalty, he was richly rewarded by the British, with jāgīrs as well as
a lofty-sounding title of Aristūjāh (Aristotle of the Age). Rajab’s introduction to the
Kashmiri court occurred somewhere around 1847, during the proceedings leading
to the sale of Kashmir to the future Dogra Maharaja of Kashmir, Gulab Singh.103
Based in Punjab, as the confidant of Sir Henry Lawrence (d. 1857), architect of
the Kashmir sale, Rajab ʿAli had worked for a Shiʿi revival in Punjab, also setting
up a press at Ludhiana, Majmʿa-ul Bahrayn, which was instrumental in printing
lithograph editions of Shiʿi works.104 In his letter ʿAẕim expresses his gratitude to
Rajab for sending him a copy of a book, which had been circulated widely among
the Indian audience by Rajab ʿAli.
It was at Lahore that Rajab ʿAli along with the Nawab ʿAli Rizā Qizalbāsh (d.
1865) helped in laying the footprints of Shiʿi identity in the city.105 Under ʿAli
Rizā’s son, Nawab Nawazish ʿAli a distinct set of spiritual and cultural practices
associated with the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imām Ḥusayn and his
family in Karbala came into formation in the city of Lahore. In addition to native
Shiʿi population of the city, and the associates of the Qizalbāsh clan, Kashmiri
Shiʿi who had taken residence in the city in the aftermath of the 1830 riot also
participated in these rituals.106 Aside from their contribution in Punjab, we find
the Qizalbāsh nawabs taking an active interest in the affair of the Kashmiri Shiʿi
community. While we have no textual evidence to prove how this link came
into being, it is safe to posit Rajab ʿAli as a prime mover in the formation of this
transregional, sectarian links given his own standing with the Kashmiri Shiʿi
elite. Both ʿAli Rizā and Rajab ʿAli were a part of the entourage that accompanied
Henry Lawrence on his visit to Kashmir in 1846.107
Rajab’s association with ʿAẕim must have encouraged the ḥakim to explore
possibilities of a mirroring a similar Shiʿi revival in Kashmir. The invitation to
Mullā Fazl, a classmate from Muqim’s circle, to preside over the religious needs of
the Shiʿi society in the capital can be seen as a step in this direction. Pertinently,
Rajab ʿAli’s nephew also briefly studied under Mullā ʿAbdullah Ansarī (d. 1878),
Fazl ʿAli’s grandson, highlighting the continuing links of knowledge transmission
among Shiʿi scholarly families who owed their intellectual training directly or
through an intermediary link to the madrassa of Mullā Muqim. Likewise, we find
the family of Muqim’s grandson, Sayyid Ṣafdar Shāh, playing a central role in the
development of Shiʿi intellectual traditions in Awadh, highlighting the significance
of Muqims school in the revival of Shiʿi intellectual traditions not only in Kashmir
but also across major centers of North Indian Shiʿism, in Punjab and Awadh. This is
especially true of Ṣafdar’s son, the Iraq-trained mujtahid, Sayyid ʿAli Shāh (d. 1853),
and grandson Sayyid Abuʿl Hasan Abū Ṣāhib (1844–95) who laid the foundation
of Sultan al-Madāris (1894).108 Over the years Sultan al-Madāris would emerge as
the principal seat of Shiʿi learning not only in Awadh but across South Asia. The
82 Shiʿism in Kashmir

pressing desire to see the establishment of a Shiʿi seat of religious knowledge in

the city, for men like ʿAẕim, can also be observed from the text of a letter he wrote
to Fazl ʿAli’s grandson, Mullā Ṣādiq ʿAli (d. 1878).109 An accomplished cleric like
his grandfather, Ṣādiq was also the leading Shiʿi scholar of ʿilm al-Kalām (science
of discourse) in nineteenth-century Kashmir.110 In the letter ʿAẕim discusses the
obligations of a believer based on the famous Prophetic tradition, known as the
Ḥadīth Saʿah,111 which relates that an individual is free from a religious obligation,
of which he is unaware. Some other theological issues touched upon in the letter
include the principle of ihtiyāt (precaution), a practice that was common among
South Asian Shiʿi scholars in the nineteenth century, who would practice caution,
rather than opting for ijtihād (independent reasoning), “in acts whose legitimacy
remained unknown to the jurist due to lack of evidence.”112 Read in the context
of Kashmiri Shiʿi society, the letter expresses not only a deep concern for the
direction of the religious life of the community but also seeks to establish remedial
practices that would ensure observance of religious obligations in a manner that
was in conformity with the principles of jurisprudence. Given the geographical
distance between Kashmir and the hawza’s in Iran and Iraq, ʿAẕim saw the scholars
of the Ansari dynasty as the natural choice of circumventing the near-impossible
possibility of approaching the hawzas in the shrine cities for direction in the day-
to-day life of the community.
At Gulab Singh’s court, in addition to ʿAẕim, we see the presence of one of the
last Iranian shawl merchants in Kashmir, Ḥājjī ʿAbid. Not much is known about
ʿAbid’s origin, but in a document related to the custodianship of Mʿārak, his name
is mentioned as the person responsible for efforts at reestablishing Mʿārak in the
aftermath of the riots of 1830.113 Somewhere in between 1841–5, during the rule
of Mohyi-al Dīn, he carried out repairs and minor additions to the imāmbāda,
from his own funds.114 Arriving in Kashmir in the fall of 1850, Mrs. Harvey, a
European traveler, met Ḥājjī ʿAbid at his showroom in Srinagar and with a degree
of astonishment wrote about the merchant’s European connection:

His name is “Hājee Abid”. He is the best of his fraternity and receives orders from
the London house! [. . .] He is a great man, and wears the colour green, a token
of his sanctity and great position. He sits down on a chair in the presence of a
gentleman, as he is entitled to that privilege. When I went to see his shawls, he
insisted upon my drinking a cup of tea and eating some sweetmeats. The former
was served in small Yarkand cups, and the latter on China saucers.115

While Harvey indicates the Ḥājjī ʿAbid as a Kashmiri, referring to the merchant’s
house as “good for a Kashmirian one; the rooms he occupied were painted and
carpeted,”116 Saif-al Dīn clearly indicates ʿAbid’s non-native status by stating that
the merchant was presently stationed in Kashmir.117 Mahdah Shāh Deykah in his
Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir mentions ʿAbid as a native of Mashad118.
The author of the Ākhbārāt also writes about ʿAbid’s favored status in Gulab
Singh’s court. In one instance, Saif-al Dīn mentions an episode about a shawl
merchant, Muhammad Saudaghar who had been assigned a task in the department
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 83

of dagh-i shawl (stamp on shawl), which oversaw the stamping and collecting
of taxes on shawls. An inquiry in the functioning of the department revealed
Saudaghar’s embezzlement. This discovery led to Muhammad Saudaghar’s
imprisonment, while his duty was then transferred to ʿAbid, who executed the job
promptly.119 Far more consequential than Ḥājjī ʿAbid, in furthering the interests
of the Kashmiri Shiʿi society at court and in the city was the presence of a native
Shiʿi merchant, Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli, son of one of the leading merchants of
the city Mīrzā Rasūl.120 Like his Iranian contemporary, Ḥājjī ʿAbid, Muhammad
ʿAli had also participated in the repairs to the imāmbāda in Zadibal, somewhere
around 1857–8.121 For Muhammad ʿAli, the author of Ākhbārāt uses the epithet of
khairkhwah (well-wisher) in his text wherever he mentions the shawl merchant's
name.122 While the reason for the epithet is not mentioned in the text, it does
indicate the Shiʿi merchant’s privileged status at the court. Very early in Gulab
Singh’s reign, we find Muhammad ʿAli sharing the responsibility for organizing
the feast of Aukut with Ḥakim ʿAẕim. The festival of Aukut123 was introduced
by Gulab Singh, and in the very first mention of the celebrations linked with it
in the Ākhbārāt, the two Shiʿi’s at the court, the chief physician and the shawl
merchant, are asked to oversee the preparation to feast at Bagh-i Dilawar Khan,
for their Shiʿi co-religionist.124 The decision to allow two Shi’a courtiers to oversee
the arrangement for organizing the feast for their community was a mark of
favor by the maharaja, and this contrasts vividly with his decision to have similar
arrangements for the Sunnis to be overseen by a Hindu courtier.125 On another
occasion, Saif-al Dīn records that the Aukut arrangements for the Muslims were
supervised by a team of Sunni Muslims comprising Moulvi Mustafa ʿAli, Moulvi
Farzand ʿAli, Kummandan Amīr Khān, and the Shiʿi physician, ʿAẕim.126 As with
most nineteenth-century Kashmiri Sunni historians, Saif-al Dīn always uses the
terms Muslims and Sunnis interchangeably, yet in this instance the text speaks
of only a Hindu and a Muslim event, held on either side of the royal citadel,
Shergharī, indicating that Muslim as a category is used in its broadest sense to
include both the Shiʿi and Sunni. This is the first known instance in nineteenth-
century Kashmir, where in public space; the Shiʿi and Sunni are seen as comprising
a single religious grouping and seated together for a celebration. That this happens
under the direction of non-Muslim ruler is equally noteworthy, as is the fact that
this entire episode unfolds in a display essentially featuring a shared meal. The
breaking of a sectarian taboo; of sitting together in the same open space and
sharing food between communities who had rioted in the past could be seen as
marking a paradigm shift in intra-Muslim relations, but it was not so. Writing in
the early part of the 1890s when Gulab Singh’s grandson, Maharaja Pratap Singh
(1885–1925) was presiding over the event, the colonial administrator, Walter
Lawrence speaks about separate Shiʿi and Sunni gathering on Aukut.127
Still, the episode during Gulab Singh’s life is of particular interest as it not
only highlights the desire of the maharaja to appease the sensibilities of his
majority Sunni Muslim subjects—a gesture of goodwill on the occasion of state
celebrations—but also shows how for the Hindu ruler, the Shiʿi’s and Sunni’s were
essentialized as belonging to a single community: the Muslims. It was now left for
84 Shiʿism in Kashmir

the Sunni and Shiʿi elites to internalize this image of being one but that would still
take time.
While we have few details of Muhammad ʿAli’s connection outside Kashmir,
barring a reference to his kothi in Calcutta, there are indications that his mercantile
links were wider and operated in other princely courts. In a condolence letter
written by Munshi Tālib ʿAli (d. 1891), a Shiʿi scholar from Srinagar to the Shiʿi
Nawab of Khairpur, Mīr Murad ʿAli Khan (d. 1894) on the death of his two
children, there is a reference to Muhammad ʿAli acting as a messenger of Murad
ʿAli.128 Similarly, the author of Aftāb-i ʿAālam Tāb (c. 1873), a contemporary of
Muhammad ʿAli writes about how the Kashmiri merchant provided him with
details about leading Persian poets of Kashmir along with specimens of their
compositions.129
Coming back to the account of Saif-al Dīn, we find a crucial detail about the
role of Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli in establishing Shiʿi symbols in the city. Saif-al
Dīn writes about a request made to the Gulab Singh by Muhammad ʿAli during
the Muharram of 1850, a request to take out the Ashura procession in the city.
The maharaja however refused the permission, after consulting with Pandit Raj
Kāk Dhar, fearing that a Shiʿi procession in the city could lead to riots.130 For
the Kashmiri Shiʿi, especially those in the city, the desire to take out the Ashura
procession highlights the centrality of the Muharram commemoration and Mʿārak
in the defining their Shiʿi-ness, in this instance articulated through a request by
the maharaja’s khair khwah, at a time when the Dogra rule was hardly three years
old in the region. In Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir, we are told that every Thursday night,
Muhammad ʿAli would host majlis of marṣiya khwānī in his house, attended by
both the poor and the rich. The Sunni poet also remembers the merchant as the
one who kept the religion of Shiʿi alive through his patronage131.
In narrating the events of the Muharram of 1855, Saif-al Dīn informs us about
the vakīl (representative) of Rajā ʿAli Shāh, grandson of Rajā Aḥmad of Skardu,
arriving in the court to report about the Muharram ceremony that would take
place at the Zadibal imāmbāda on the first ten days of the month. Apprehending
the possibility of disturbances, the kotwal (chief police officer) of the city, Lala Bola
Nath, asks the Rajā to set up a quarter near the imāmbāda during the ceremonies.132
Saif-al Dīn’s text clearly indicates the continuing unease in the darbār about the
possible repercussions of Shiʿi commemoration on the peace of the city.
Years later, the exact date is not recorded; Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli would
eventually receive the permission to take out a small procession on Ashura from his
residence at Namchibal in the heart of Srinagar, to Mʿārak. This Ashura procession
would start at the break of dawn from Muhammad ʿAli’s house and culminate at
Mʿārak in the early morning, much before the city woke up. On the way, it would also
briefly stop in Kamangarpora, a Shiʿi-majority moḥala, located midway between
Namchibal and Zadibal. Unlike the Ashura of 1830, the somber and restrained
procession taken out by Muhammad ʿAli, accompanied as it was by a dozen or
so mourners, whispering the first part of the Muslim shahādah—testimony of
faith: lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu (There is no God but Allah); avoiding any distinct Shiʿi
symbol of mourning such as wailing, beating chest or reciting marṣiyas, found
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 85

Figure 3.6 Muharram procession in contemporary Kashmir, Srinagar, 2018 (courtesy:

Hammad Ali).

acceptance in the ritual landscape of the city.133 Given the obscurity surrounding
it, the procession while fulfilling a manifest Shi’a need to commemorate Ashura
also emerged as a nonevent for the Sunnis living along the route (Figure 3.6). The
hushed early morning procession: the absence of a Sunni audience viewing it also
blurred the reality of the experience—in what was not seen was not recognized and
what was not recognized did not exist. And, once the procession had reached its
designated space safely, for the Shiʿi’s it would be followed by a daylong elaborate
majilis at Mʿārak with the performance of marṣiyas. Additionally, at Mʿārak, the
predominantly male audience would be joined by women, who would watch and
participate in the ritual from the wooden screened galleries (dalān) of the first
floor, looking down into the main assembly below, participating yet remaining
unseen. In the spatial layout of Mʿārak, based as it was on a modification of the
plan of the Jamia Masjid at Srinagar, the stepped galleries on the side provided an
amphitheater perspective on the main central assembly located beneath a double-
height covered roof (pukhir) in what would otherwise be an open courtyard.134
The shared participation, even if visually and physically segregated, of men and
women mourners, nourished and testified to the image of a Shiʿi collective in a
Shiʿi space, commemorating a Shi memory, in one voice: the recital of a marṣiya.
This coming together of the genders and participating in a collective recital was a
singular Shi’a innovation in the nineteenth-century urbanized setting of Kashmir,
operating within the boundaries of gender segregation and pardah (women
veiling), especially in public spaces. It would also give birth to Sunni myths and
misrepresentation about the assembly, in which the Shiʿi’s are seen as participating
86 Shiʿism in Kashmir

in some unnamed depraved rituals during their majilis at Mʿārak, especially on

the night of Ashura, a particularly painful moment in Shiʿi remembrance of Imām
Ḥusyan’s martyrdom-the grief and loss of his household, especially women.
The practice of Ashura, once it got established in the 1850s, again highlights
how the Shiʿi society negotiated their presence in the ritual landscape of the city
by managing the event of Ashura in two ways, a scaled-down hurried movement
through the heart of a predominately Sunni city and an elaborate commemoration
within the Shiʿi space of Zadibal. While Sunni historians are silent about how the
Sunnis viewed this new introduction in the cycle of city life, narratives based on
anecdotes, dehumanizing both the event and the Shi’a as a people, made themselves
a part of popular Sunni folklore. Drawing blood of innocent Sunni children on
Ashura by the Shiʿi is a frequent trope in these Sunni folk traditions. Also, the
narrative that the Shi’a during their marṣiya, slander revered Sunni figures. Where
such stories repeated, elaborated, and embellished from one oral narrative to
the next, did manage to maintain the image of Shiʿis as being “others,” it is also
possible that the fabrication of these stories served a more practical and benign
purpose. These myths helped in maintaining a social distance between the two
communities, limiting interaction among the masses—interactions which
could turn hostile and lead to disputes and riots. Engagements between the two
communities were then left to the community elders, to be managed and negotiated
as they deemed fit, under the watchful eyes of a Hindu court.
The reputation of the main organizer behind the event, Mīrzā Muhammad
ʿAli, not only as a wealthy trader with connections to the court but as a respected
philanthropist helping the destitute of the city irrespective of their sectarian or
communal background, also tempered any possible backlash from the Sunni
elites.135 But the crucial element in the entire event was the authorization of
the procession by the maharaja who was deeply involved in both maintaining
his control over the country and ensuring its stability. And at a time when the
Sunni elite were reestablishing and repositioning themselves in the court, an
open defiance of the ruler would have proven detrimental to their personal
interests and to those of the Sunni community at large.
The organizing of the Ashura procession, the opening of the Mʿārak and
performance of marṣiya majilis, speaks about a successful realization of Srinagar-
centered Shiʿi project. This bold assertion of a sectarian identity after decades of
quietism is also reflected in some of the marṣiyas written during the Dogra rule. In
his marṣiya, Khamūshī (Silence), written somewhere around the late 1850s, Mullā
Ḥakim ʿAbdullah (d. 1887 approx.), the nephew of Ḥakim ʿAẕim, gives voice to
this newfound confidence in verses which contrasts vividly with what had been
written earlier by poets like Ustād Jaʿfar and Khwāja Ḥassī Bhat:

How can a muḥib136 ever choose to remain silent,

while remembering the immodesty of the Kufis.137

On the surface, the Shiʿi of the city realized a cherished dream enunciating a distinct
Shiʿi identity in public spaces and navigating it successfully against any antagonism
 3. Shiʿi Identity, Sunni Space, and Non-Muslim Rule 87

from the Sunnis. While at the start of the nineteenth century, it was the experience
of religious persecution and vulnerability which had provided the Shiʿi society
with strong group cohesion, the same was replaced now by community members
acting as participants in performances transforming once proscribed rituals into a
normative practice. In the process, the community elite, the courtiers, the traders,
and the religious scholars had managed to foreground a sense of Shiʿi identity in
the religious imagery centered on Muharram, marṣiya, and Mʿārak. In nineteenth-
century preindustrial Kashmiri society, where a majority of people both Shiʿi and
Sunnis were illiterate and survived as artisans, craftsmen, or agriculturalist, the
consolidation of a sectarian identity under a feudal-mercantile elite also helped
this small, select, and literate group to secure the sectarian loyalties of the common
masses, toiling in the workshops and on the lands of their Shi’a employees. The elite
saw and projected themselves as the benefactors and protectors of the community.
But as the hope of secure existence became a reality, the unity of the Shiʿi society
started unraveling in the face of internal dissensions and divisions related to the
dynamics of class, power, and exploitation. For the Shiʿi, the challenge was now
from within, who represented them and what that representation meant for the
different sections of the Kashmiri Shiʿi society.
88
 Chapter 4

DISSENSIONS WITHIN THE MŪMININ

CHALLENGING THE ELITE

As the Shiʿi of Kashmir saw the consolidation of their identity in the middle of the
nineteenth century, it was soon followed by the emergence of divisions and rifts
within the community. Primarily, the divisions were introduced via differences
related to the control and maintenance of Mʿārak and the mourning assemblies
held there. Gradually the differences expanded into all major functioning of the
community activities, especially with regard to the collection and distribution of
community monies. The chapter looks at how the issue of dispensing of khums
money led to a divide within the religious class. By the later part of the nineteenth
century, the religious leadership trained in the seminaries of Iraq had established
themselves as community heads. The disagreement within the Shiʿi clergy, who
in these dissensions and debates, increasingly drew upon their transnational
connections in Iraq, is studied as the main contributing factor to the emerging
split within the community. The divisions and splits got primarily translated into
an urban-rural and rich-poor divide, with the merchant families of Kashmir
associating with a particular section of clergy and the poor craftsmen that worked
for these businesses siding with a rival clerical party. The chapter explores these
dissensions within the Shiʿi society and explores how these differences affected the
worldview of the community. The chapter also explores the circumstances behind
the riot of 1872, the last major Shiʿi-Sunni conflagration in the nineteenth century,
locating the reason in personal resentments and competition among merchants
acting as community benefactors.

Controlling the Muharram Ceremonies

In the letter of ḤakimʿAẕim to Moulvi Rajab which we addressed before, there is

an interesting reference to Sayyid Ibrahim Qazwinī,1 an Iranian religious scholar
who arrived in Kashmir in 1850.2 While during the seventeenth century, under
the Mughals, Kashmir had remained a favored land for Iranian scholars arriving
in the Indian sub-continent, such scholarly links had ceased once the Mughal
Empire started unraveling in the eighteenth century. The last time Kashmiri Shiʿi
90 Shi’ism in Kashmir

had hosted a prominent Shiʿi scholar from Iran was when Mullā Muhammad
Said Ashraf (d. 1704),3 son of the renowned Safavid Shiʿi’ alim, Mullā Ṣāliḥ
Mazandaranī (d.1704), arrived in Kashmir in the seventeenth century during the
reign of Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707). Though during the first half of the
nineteenth century some educated Iranians did seek employment as munshis in
British expeditions and embassies traveling into Central Asia, originating from
British India and passing through Kashmir, such ventures would not interest a
religious scholar.4
The only sustained Iranian presence we see in the nineteenth century is that of
the shawl merchants. The association of the Iranian merchant, Ḥājjī ʿAbid with
the Kashmiri court, is indicative of this lingering Iranian presence in Kashmir.
Wealthy Shiʿi merchants and traders would enlist the help of a religious scholar
to help maintain and distribute the khums money to be taxed from their earnings.
For the Shiʿi, khums is an obligatory tax to be paid by the believer, calculated as
one-fifth of a person’s annual savings, and split equally into two shares; half to
be distributed among destitute sayyid families (saham-i sadat) and the other half
known as mal-i Imām (the Imām’s share) to be forwarded to a living mujtahid
which in nineteenth-century Kashmir would mean sending it to the shrine cities,
the ʿatabat-iʿaliyat (sublime thresholds) in Iraq; seat of principal mujtahids in the
Shiʿi world.5 In Kashmir, the issue of khums distribution had a complex history,
and in the past, there had been disputes involving the monies dispersal, disputes
which lingered on into nineteenth-century Kashmir.6
The arrival of Sayyid Ibrahim also finds a mention in the Akhbarat, where
Saif-al Dīn specifically mentions that the Iranian ʿalim accompanied Ḥājjī ʿAbid,
indicating that the introduction was done by the Iranian sudagar.7 In his entry for
September 1850, Saif-al Dīn refers to the ʿalim as, Mullā Ibrahim, a mujtahid (an
authoritative interpreter of law for the Shiʿi) of the community of Shiʿi and Rāfizī.8
The presentation of the scholar by a wealthy patron of the Kashmiri Shiʿis, who had
personally undertaken the repairs to Mʿārak, must have also helped in creating a
favorable reception for Sayyid Ibrahim among them. By enlisting an Iranian ʿalim,
ʿAbid was not only co-opting a compatriot for facilitating his financial outreach to
Kashmiri Shiʿis, but also strengthening the principal Shiʿi institution of Kashmir,
the Mʿārak. As I have shown earlier, the courtier Ḥakim ʿAẕim had also, with a
similar intention, initiated the relocation of Mullā Fazl Ansarī to the city. Until
Sayyid Ibrahim’s arrival the imāmbāda at Zadibal had remained a ritual space,
solely dedicated to the performance of marṣiya in Muharram. On his arrival, Sayyid
Ibrahim used Mʿārak not only for holding congregational prayers (nimaz-ijamat)
but also as a platform for preaching, by delivering sermons in the imāmbāda
after prayers. This was unheard of in the Shiʿi society of Kashmir. Undertaking
congregational prayers was still a highly contested topic for Shiʿi, especially those
living under a non-Muslim rule, and aside from one failed attempt to engage
in waʿiẕ khanī (sermonizing) in the Moharram of 1830, Kashmiri Shiʿi had not
participated in these practices. Even, Mullā Fazal Ansarī, though associated with
the functioning of the Mʿārak, had not openly preached in the imāmbāda. In the
accounts of Saif-al Dīn, Sayyid Ibrahim’s actions at the imāmbāda are termed
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 91

as khilāf-i ma’mūl-i qadim—against established old precedents. Saif-al Dīn then

goes on to add that the practices initiated by Ibrahim were taken up with great
fervor by the Shiʿi rabble of Zadibal, the shawlbaf (shawl weavers). He ends the
episode by detailing out how the maharaja, fearing a Shiʿi-Sunni unrest because
of Ibrahim’s action, initiated an inquiry which was conducted by Raj Kāk Dhar
and consequently Sayyid Ibrahim was banished from Srinagar to Lahore.9 The
text of Saif-al Dīn while laying the blame at Sayyid Ibrahim for breaking from
past traditions locates the reasons for his banishment in a fear of possible Shiʿi-
Sunni unrest. Yet nowhere in the text does he indicate that this misgiving, given
the circumstances, originated from the Sunni circles. Rather, the fear of trouble is
shown to emanate in the minds of the maharaja who then asks his confidante, the
Hindu vizier to investigate the matter. And the reason for the misapprehension is
posited on the popularity of Ibrahim with the poorest section of the Shiʿi society—
the underpaid, hard-worked shawl weavers. Given that the Shiʿi elite had been
steadfast in building up the symbols of their sectarian identity, why they were
not equally receptive of Ibrahim’s program remains unexplained. Writing in the
1970s, the author of Shiyan-i Kashmir, locates the reasons for Ibrahim’s exile in
the internal dynamics of Shiʿi society, and tries to mediate the role played by the
maharaja’s Shiʿi physician, Ḥakim ʿAẕim:

In his (Ḥakim ʿAẕim’s) time, an eminent Iranian religious scholar, Sayyid Ibrahim
arrived in Srinagar. He established himself at Zadibal and started imparting
religious education to the Shiʿi. He would establish daily congregational prayers
and deliver sermons. People would attend the prayers and his sermons in great
multitude. During those days the industry of shawl weaving was at its peak in
Srinagar. [. . .] Shiʿi weavers would leave the factories during the prayer time
for (attending) the sermons, causing disruption for the factory owners, but they
were helpless (to intervene). [. . .] Finally, they persuaded others to join them and
a Shiʿi delegation approached Ḥakim ʿAẕim and told him wrong and unfounded
tales about Sayyid Ibrahim. [. . .] They took an oath that the Sayyid’s preaching
went against the laws of Islam and if he is not made to leave the country, there is
fear of divisions and riots. Placing trust in their oath and statements, he [ʿAẕim]
had the Sayyid Ibrahim banished from Kashmir immediately.10

The extract in Shiyan-i Kashmir, based on oral and textual traditions preserved in
ʿAẕim’s family, provides the missing links in Saif-al Dīn’s account and highlights
how Ibrahim’s banishment was caused by internal Shiʿi dissensions in which the
agency of the royal court was involved through the maharaja’s trusted physician.
The event also provides a brief but tantalizing glimpse into how intra-community
conflict had started to emerge within the Kashmiri Shiʿi society, almost immediately
after the community had succeeded in reviving symbols of its sectarian identity.
Though the author of Shiyan-i Kashmir, whose description is sympathetic to Sayyid
Ibrahim, concludes by portraying ʿAẕim’s regret on becoming acquainted with
truth, there are other texts which depict a negative image of the Iranian alim.11
Even in his letter, which was written nearer to the actual event, ʿAẕim presents
92 Shi’ism in Kashmir

Ibrahim as the leader of a misguided group bent upon obscuring the memory of
Imām Ḥusayn and his martyrdom from Kashmir:

But they have given priority to a group (that is) all faults, the disciples of Sayyid
Ibrahim, who hides in confusion about religion, over all adversaries. They have
taken the ball of precedence from Āzar the Idol-maker. They have made the
market of remembering His Excellence the Lord of Martyrs, may he be lauded
and praised, a dead market for marsiyas, and spoiled the belief of the people.12

ʿAẕim’s letter clearly indicates that some of Sayyid Ibrahim’s utterances were critical
of religious practices prevalent among Kashmiri Shiʿi, specifically those related to
marṣiya khwānī. Ibrahim’s disappointment was reserved for what he felt was the
excessive fervor exhibited by the Kashmiri Shiʿi toward observance of marṣiya
khwānī, as opposed to more basic requirements of faith, like the enactment of
nimāz-i jamat (congregational prayers). On his departure from Kashmir, Sayyid
Ibrahim offered a severe rebuke of the Kashmiri Shiʿi by remarking:

Shii’yān-i Kashmīr Ḥusayn rā mī dānand magar khudā rā namī shināsad

(transl: The Shiʿi of Kashmir are aware of the name of Ḥusayn but not of God)13

While Sayyid Ibrahim’s departure resolved the immediate dispute, a year later
in 1851 we find ʿAẕim involved in another and more serious controversy—
involving the maintenance and custodian ship of Mʿārak. Historically, a branch
of Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIraki’s family, based in Zadibal, had served as the mutwalī14
(custodians) for both the shrine of ʿIraki as well as the imāmbāda, which were
located in close proximity of one other. The close relationship between the family
and Mʿārak was also reflected in their nisbat—Mʿārakdars, which had emerged as
the more popular surname for members of this family. In the immediate aftermath
of the fiasco surrounding Sayyid Ibrahim, an attempt was made to organize the
management of the Mʿārak in a manner, reflecting the opinion of the community
elite and dispossessing the Mʿārakdars of their hereditary role in the functioning
of the imāmbāda. While we have no understanding of the role the Mʿārakdar
family played in the earlier event surrounding Sayyid Ibrahim’s arrival in Kashmir,
His ability to pray and preach at Mʿārak could not have been possible without
the acquiescence of the mutwalī of the imāmbāda—the Mʿārakdars. Additionally,
through matrimonial ties, the Mʿārakdars were a linked to the circuit of Iranian
saudagars based in Srinagar, a circuit of which Ḥājjī ʿAbid was a prominent
member.
In his verdict on the issue of custodianship of Mʿārak, ḤakimʿAẕim supports
the contention of the Mʿārakdar family and their hereditary role as responsible for
undertaking various services in the imāmbāda, writing in his decree:

since old times, the Mʿārakdarī (looking after Mʿārak) of Mʿārak -i Zadibal
(the imāmbāda) from generation to generation has been the responsibility of
the descendants of the marhum-o magfur (the forgiven on him Allah’s mercy is
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 93

bestowed) Mīr Muhammad Razā, may he be forgiven, for carrying the service
of burning lights (chirag-i sozī), etc. In the said Mʿārak, the descendants of the
above mentioned have fulfilled their responsibility with competence. For the
moment, they are retained in their old authority [. . .] no one has the authority,
on his own without the permission of the descendants of the fore mentioned to
appoint someone else to this responsibility.15

Though on the surface, Azim’s verdict seems to be an unambiguous endorsement of

the authority of the Mʿārakdars, even figuratively linking the Mʿārak, Mʿārakdarī
and the Mʿārakdars, he avoids the use of a more legally binding term-mutwalī. The
role of Mʿārakdars is defined in their ability to carry out various services linked
with the imāmbāda, of which strangely the only one defined in the text is the task
of chirag-i sozī. But the authority of an mutwalī is more absolute.16 The position and
role of the mutwalī, clearly defined in sharia, includes appointing and dismissing
a prayer leader, authority for overseeing and managing religious ceremonies in the
imāmbāda including performance of marṣiya and waʿiẕ kahanī, and so on. And,
as a hereditary mutwalī, the Mʿārakdars would have enjoyed absolute freedom
in exercising their authority—but the verdict of ʿAẕim while recognizing their
right in the functioning of Mʿārak, sidesteps their role as mutwalī.17 Though in
his verdict, ʿAẕim managed to patch the emerging differences in the community,
the calm was to prove illusory, and with the royal physician’s death in 1852 would
erupt into a major rift splitting the Shiʿi of Kashmir into two opposing parties,
disrupting the image of a homogenous, essentialized community. Where the
tensions in the functioning of Mʿārak originated in the episode of Sayyid Ibrahim,
there was another underlying difference that positioned the Mʿārakdars against
the Shiʿi aristocracy of the city—the disposal of khums money.

The Issue of Khums

The Mʿārakdars as descendants of Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIraki, claimed descent from
the seventh Shiʿi imām, Mūsā al-Kazim (d. 799) and as such had a rightful claim
on the share of the Sayyids in the khums money. But, to do so they or any other
Sayyid family had to prove their genealogy as sahīh al-sanad sa’ādāts (Sayyids with
authentic attested geologies). Among Kashmir Shiʿi the two main groups within
Sayyid families are those claiming descent from the Imām Mūsā-al Kazim and his
son, Imām ʿAli b. Mūsā Razā (d. 818). The descendants of the seventh imām are
collectively known as Mūsāvī and those descending from Imām Razā are named
as Rizvī. In addition, there are families who trace their ancestry to the fourth Shiʿi
imām, Zain-al Ābidīn (d. 713), these include the Hamdanī,18 the Madnī,19 and the
Zaidī Sayyids, though their number is insignificant as compared to the first group.
Following the demise of Afghan rule in Kashmir, a significant amount of khums
money arrived in the region from Awadh bequeathed by Ḥakim Mahdi Khān. The
money was apparently sent on a yearly basis to be distributed among the Sayyid
families, the recipient for the distribution, a respected ʿalim from the Rizvī family,
94 Shi’ism in Kashmir

Sayyid Ṣafdar Shāh (d. 1255 ah/1839 ce). Ṣafdar Shāh had migrated from his
ancestral seat in Haigam to Srinagar to study with his maternal grandfather, Mullā
Muqim. When Muqim arrived in Awadh, Sayyid Ṣafdar accompanied him in his
travels and the links between the sayyid and the future vizier of the Awadh, Mahdi
Khān, date from this time. On Muqim’s death, Ṣafdar settled down at Nabdipora in
Zadibal succeeding his grandfather in the intellectual leadership of the community.
Meanwhile Ṣafdar’s son, Sayyid ʿAli20 after completing his religious education in
Iraq, settled down in Awadh becoming a part of the religious circle in the Shiʿi-
ruled kingdom. The author of Risala-i Saif al Ṣaram, a tract written in Kabul by
Sayyid Muhammad Bāqir about the state of Kashmiri Sayyids, extolls Ṣafdar as
“sultan-al sadat al fazil-i kamil-o kamail” (the sultan of Sayyids, the eminent,
the effective, and the perfect). Notwithstanding his stature as the leading Shiʿi
religious scholars of Kashmir, Ṣafdar’s distribution of the khums did alienate a
section of the Sayyid families in Kashmir, mostly belonging to the Mūsāvī branch.
The resentment they showed must have weighed heavily on the Sayyid, for he soon
stopped accepting any khums money for distribution in Kashmir. Ṣafdar’s
policy in distributing the money was based on his predilection to adopt iḥtiyaṭ
(precaution in religious affairs) in the matter, the distribution was seen by the
Mūsāvī Sayyids as an assault on their privileges by an individual belonging to the
Rizvī family. Aside from the financial loss, the controversy also socially stigmatized
the Mūsāvī Sayyids, as their claim to being Sayyid was seen as lacking authenticity.
In nineteenth-century Kashmiri society, where social hierarchies were primarily
based on an individual’s family decent, the Sayyids as descendants of the Prophet
(Āl-i Rasūl) occupied the highest of social standing. For the Mūsāvī sayyid,
the social loss far outweighed the financial loss. While in Shiʿi regions outside
Kashmir, such as Awadh, Sayyid families claiming a share from the khums “risked
their honor by claiming the ‘share of the Sayyids’ (sahm-i sādat) even though they
were not particularly indigent,”21 this was not the case in Kashmir, where at least in
the nineteenth century no stigma was associated with it.
Unintentionally, Ṣafdar’s action saw the Rizvī and Mūsāvī Sayyids, on opposite
sides of a bitter fight for distribution of the khums money. With the impasse over
the khums unresolved, the task of distributing the khums was taken up briefly by
Mullā Fazl Ansarī, before the money stopped arriving altogether due to Ḥakim
Mahdi’s death in 1837.
Soon after, Ṣafdar who was already in his old age, left for Lucknow to join his
son, and passed away far from home. The precedent established by Safdar in the
distribution of khums, resulting in the alienation of the Mūsāvī Sayyids was also
followed by Fazl ʿAli, though with some modifications. Nevertheless, it resulted
in a situation where the interests of Ansarī and the Rizvī family coincided, to
the disadvantage of the Mūsāvī Sayyids. And, as the principal Mūsāvī family in
Srinagar city, the Mʿārakdars found themselves increasingly alone, and on the
opposite side of this power dynamics, with their hold on Mʿārak being challenged.
Following Fazl ʿAli’s death in 1263 ah/1846 ce, his son Akhūnd Mullā Javad
(d. 1281 ah/1864 ce) had emerged as the leading Shiʿi alim in the city. Javad’s
succession to his father, also marks the first stage of a successful “transmission of
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 95

scholarly eminence,”22 within the Ansarīs after the family’s migration to the city. It
can be argued that the Shiʿi elite of the city in coalescing around the personality
of Mullā Fazl ʿAli had already laid the ground for marking the Ansarīs as the
preeminent religious family of the community, but this cannot be the only reason.
In his leadership role, Akhūnd Javad also benefitted from the assistance of his
nephew Mullā Muhammad Ṣādiq23 (d. 1296–98 ah/1878–80 ce), the fame of
whose scholarly contribution was acknowledged in Shiʿi religious circles of
Awadh. But more than his father or his other siblings,24 it was Akhūnd Javad,25
and the personal charisma linked with him, which sustained the imagination
and the loyalties of the Kashmiri Shiʿi. And, in turn, Javad would transfer and
institutionalize this charisma into the body of the Ansarī family. Writing about
Javad, the author of Shiyan-i Kashmir lists Akhūnd’s achievements and the
reverence people had for him in these words:

In knowledge and excellence, piety and austerity he was one of his age. He had
attained the highest stations of spirituality and knowledge of God (mʿarifat) [. . .].
The respect and esteem which people held for him can be gauged by the fact that
anyone who would invite him would prepare separate utensils for his eating and
drinking.26

As a leader of the community, Akhūnd Javad imbibed qualities that evoked all
those attributes which mark a charismatic leader, “a following deference, devotion
and awe toward himself as the source of authority. A leader who can have this effect
upon a group is charismatic for that group.”27 The relatively peaceful atmosphere
in the city, the consolidation of Shiʿi symbols in the city and their public display,
coupled with the presence of a powerful Shiʿi vizier in the court created a unique
convergence of opportunities and circumstances favoring around the akhūnd. In
addition, while financial patronage from Awadh and Iranian merchants had dried
down, the same was replaced by Kashmiri merchants like Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli,
which helped the ulema of the Ansarī family to expand their circuit of patronage
and community services. These circumstances not only contributed to the persona
of the akhūnd, but also consolidated the role of Ansarīs as the eminent clerical
family of Shiʿi Kashmir.
Coinciding with Akhūnd Javad’s role, we find several Rizvī families migrating
toward Srinagar city, settling down in Zadibal. A convergence of interest between
the procedure adopted by Akhūnd Javad in distributing the khums money and
the benefits that the Rizvīs derived from such a division, may have given an
impetus to this migration—a need to be closer to the source of their financial
munificence. It also made the two natural allies. And the Rizvī Sayyids with their
scholarly disposition and deep connections outside Kashmir at Awadh, Lahore,
and even further afield Kabul, helped in sustaining a sympathetic campaign for
the Ansarīs. The degree to which this issue occupied the minds of Kashmiri Shiʿi
can be understood by the fact that in the last decade of the nineteenth century,
four works; Risāla-i Sayf al Sāram, Al S’ādah fi Sayādat al S’ādāt, Dāfi ul Mughāltah
and Risālah i Hidāyat al Dhalīl ilā Siwā’ al Sabīl were compiled on the subject by
96 Shi’ism in Kashmir

members of Kashmiri Shiʿi Diaspora, of which the first three works were compiled
by Rizvī Sayyids in Kabul, Lahore, and Awadh. The geographical outreach of the
Rizvī Sayyids of Kashmir can also be seen in a letter written by Kashmiri pilgrim,
Sayyid Qāsim, who found himself in the shrine city of Mashad. In his letter to
the custodians of the shrine, dated Muharram of 1307 ah (1889 ce) the pilgrim
petitions for assistance from the shrine money:

This is the petition of one among the sa’ādāt, Ḥājjī Sayyid Qāsim Rizvī
Kashmiri, a scholar. In the blessed presence it is submitted that the petitioner
is from among the residents of vilayat of Kashmir and it has been year since he
offered salutations at the sanctified shrine of his blessed ancestor. It will take
me six months to travel back to Kashmir. I am a foreigner and of old age, and I
seek permission from my grandfather. My family awaits me. I am of the Sādaat
of Rizvī and a scholar; I request assistance from the blessed presence for travel
and other expenditure from my grandfather. So that with his prayers I hope to
be with my family once again.28

The letter also highlights how accessing the munificence of the shrine, was not
something that the Sayyid Qāsim felt would make him lose his face. He is equally
very forthcoming is his self-description as a scholar. The wording of the actual
request makes an interesting read, Qāsim as a descendant of Imām Razā is seeking
assistance from his “grandfather,” not a charity. This assertiveness was also felt in
Kashmir, in the demand of Rizvī and Mūsāvī sayyids, for getting their legal and
rightful share of the khums money.
Coming back to Mʿārak, we find that somewhere in the later part of the 1850s,
repairs to the imāmbāda were again undertaken by Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli. In
the repair and reconstruction work, Muhammad ʿAli was assisted by another
Kashmiri Shiʿi merchant residing in Zadibal, Ḥājjī Khwāja Ṣafdar Bābā (who
passed away in or before the early 1880s). Much more then Muhammad ʿAli, who
at times would display an independent position, Ṣafdar Bābā’s devotion to Javad
was unquestionable. And it was somewhere around the early 1850s, that Ṣafdar
Bābā sent a large amount of khums money to Akhūnd Javad for distribution.29
In Risāla-i Sayf al Sāram, the incident related to the khums of Safdar Bābā is
presented as a larger event in which in addition to Safdar Bābā; Mīrzā Muhammad
ʿAli, Mīrzā Rasul and other Kashmiri merchants participate. We also find mention
of Kashmiri merchants who at that time were residing outside Kashmir, in the city
of Peshawar. All the merchants allocate their khums for distribution to Akhūnd
Javad.30 The Peshawar connection is especially important, as many Kashmiris
had settled down in the city, which had emerged as a major entrepôt for trade on
the roads linking Kashmir to Kabul, Iran, and even Punjab. The Shiʿi presence
in the city dates to early nineteenth century when Peshawar came under Ranjit
Singh’s control, and oral traditions indicate that many of the traders in the Bāzar
i Abreshūn Farūsh (market of the Silk Sellers) were of Kashmiri Shiʿi origin.31
The author of Risāla-i Sayf al Sāram specifically mentions traders in Peshawar
who would send a part of their khums money to Srinagar for dispersal among
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 97

the Kashmiri Shiʿi, including Ḥājjī Ṭayyib Khān, Ḥājjī Malik Rehmān, Ḥājjī ʿAli
Akbar, Ḥājjī Karim, Ḥājjī Būzurg Āgā, and Ḥājjī ʿAidī. A large number of these
Kashmiri merchants in Peshwar, is indicative of their presence and prestige in the
Bāzar i Abreshūn Farūsh, which they are said to have regulated in the nineteenth
century.32 Returning to the issue of khums, we find that the merchants displayed
great caution about the proper disposal of the money; both Mīrzā Rasul and Ḥājjī
Ṭayyib Khān refused to give a share to their son-in-laws, and Malik Rehmān to his
brother-in-law, from the khums money.33
On receipt of the khums from the Kashmir traders, Javad adopted a unique
system of dispersal, dividing the share of the sayyids into two portions, a majority
share comprising two-thirds of the total money which he proceeded to distribute
among those deemed as sayyid-al sanad (Sayyids with established authentic
genealogy) and a remaining share dispersed among those considered as mashkook
sadat—Sayyid families who could not provide satisfying documents to support
their claim of ancestry.34 In a letter written by Akhūnd Javad in reply to objections
raised by a young Kashmiri seminarian, studying in Najaf, he explains the reason
for the practice and names three sayyid families who received a lesser share:
saadat-i khanqahi, saadat-i Bemina, saadat-i Amīr Shams-al Dīn. The seminarian,
Āgā Sayyid Mahdi (d. 1309 ah/1892 ce), himself a Mūsāvī Sayyid, in his reply
asserts the rights of his fellow sayyids to an equal share in the khums. This brief
exchange of letter between the two is indicative of a gradual entrenchment of
individuals, clerics, and families on the issue.35
From the viewpoint of Sayyid Mahdi, the practice formulated by Akhūnd
Javad resulted in a large part of the money getting dispersed among Rizvī families,
while a majority of the Mūsāvī families had to contend with a minority share. As
would be expected, the affected party—the Musvīs took issue with this system
of distribution, alienating them from the Ansarīs and those associated with
them. Despite this, the possibility of an immediate fissure in the community was
prevented by a series of unlinked events that shattered the peace in the city and the
Shiʿi sense of safety, making the community to see itself again as an endangered
minority.

The Last Riot: 1289 ah/1872 ce

Eight years after the death of Akhūnd Mullā Javad, far away from Kashmir in
continental Europe an act of war would set in motion a series of events which
would culminate in the last major Shiʿi-Sunni confrontation in Kashmir. Earlier in
1857, Maharaja Gulab Singh died and was succeeded by his son Ranbir Singh (r.
1857–85) as the ruler. At the same time, the sub-continent was shaken by the Great
Rebellion against the East India Company in 1857, which resulted in the British
crown directly taking over the governance of India after quelling the rebellion.
During the rebellion, Ranbir Singh remained loyal to the British, while the Shiʿi
kingdom of Awadh joined the cause of the rebels. Along with numerous other
families in Awadh, Kashmiri Shiʿi who had migrated to the region also perished in
98 Shi’ism in Kashmir

the conflict. In the aftermath of the revolt some of these Kashmiris fled to Punjab to
escape British persecution in Awadh.36 Punjab had a substantial colony of Kashmiris
residing in the cities of Lahore and Amritsar, who had migrated from Kashmir
during the early part of the nineteenth century to escape poverty and excessive
taxation under the Sikhs.37 This original immigrant community of Kashmiri
Diaspora in Punjab included members of the Shiʿi community, a majority of who
had left after the riot of 1830 and settled in the plains, mostly working as weavers.38
Back in Kashmir the mainstay of the urban economy, the shawl industry came
under severe stress in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. Arriving
in Kashmir in 1862, a few years after Ranbir’s accession to throne, Frederic Drew
who left his job in England to enter the services of Kashmir darbār describes the
importance of shawl industry to the life and economy of Srinagar:

A large proportion of the town inhabitants are shawl-weavers, whose handicraft

has made Kashmir to be familiarly known over the whole both of India and
Europe. [. . .] The other ornamental arts of Srinagar are silver-work and papier
maché paintings.39

And it was France that had been responsible for introducing the Kashmiri shawl
fashion to Europe, where

The Kashmiri shawl was a symbol of the French bourgeois status from the
Restoration (1815-48) through the Second Empire (1852-70).40

The loss of France in the war41 led to a decline in the French demand for the
shawls, but a reading of Akhbarat would indicate that the distress of the shawl
weavers in Kashmir had started much earlier, in the 1860s.42 The decline in the
market, combined with excessive tax demand from the court affected both the
shawl merchants and the weavers43 working in the kār-khānas of the merchants.
When Richard Temple, a colonial administrator, visited Kashmir in the spring of
1871, the maharaja voiced his concerns about how the war in Europe was affecting
the shawl trade:

lamenting the injury it had done to the shawl trade of Kashmir. He said he had
only prevented hundreds of shawl-makers and weavers from deserting the land
by giving them State assistance for their temporary support.44

Interestingly in Temple’s account, we find mention of some of the leading Sunni

merchants of the city, linked with the shawl trade, merchants who would play a
major role in the city life defining the contours of the Srinagar’s social and religious
landscape in the late nineteenth century.45 The person who figures prominently in
Temple’s journals was a man who would be held responsible for instigating the riot
of 1872, Khwāja Mohyi-al Dīn Gandrū of Srinagar. On an earlier visit to Kashmir
in 1859, Temple met Mohyi-al Dīn at his house near Khanyar,46 and describes his
visit in these words:
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 99

We went to see the house of Ghulam Muhayyu’d din, a Kashmiri merchant, who
had a house in Calcutta, and had recently come to visit his home. The principal
room was rather pretty, and he gave us a capital breakfast in the Kashmiri
fashion.47

Somewhere around the third quarter of the nineteenth century, Mohyi-al Dīn had
been responsible for the manufacture of a shawl map of the city at his kār-khāna
(workshop) in the heart of the city. The shawl was commissioned specially for
Maharaja Ranbir Singh, again showcasing the merchant’s closeness and familiarity
with the Dogra court.
In addition to Mohyi-al Dīn, Temple met some other city-based merchants–
all Sunnis, including, Khwāja Mukhtār Shāh ʿAshaʿi,48 Khwāja Saif-al Lah
and ʿAbdu’l Ghafār Shāh Naqshbandī49—a descendant of Shāh Niyaẕ, the
Naqshbandī shaykh. On the surface, Temple’s journal helps in establishing the
rising prominence of Sunni merchants in the commerce of the city witnessed
in their interactions with colonial administrators such as Temple, who at the
time of his visit to Kashmir was serving as the Foreign Secretary for the British
administration in India. It is from this period we also, see the presence of
merchants such as Mukhtār Shāh in the court. Deeply involved in the maintenance
and upkeep of leading Sunni shrines of the city, merchants such as Mukhtār
Shāh, Mohyi-al Dīn and members of the Naqshbandī family represented the
Sunni elite of the city along with other merchants such as Khwāja Sana-al Lah
Shawl50 about whom it is said that he had trade houses in Punjab, Calcutta and
Mumbai.51
Yet, the city still retained a significant number of the Shiʿi shawl merchants
whose kār-khānas included both Shiʿi and Sunni weavers. These include the kār-
khānas of Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli, Khwāja Ṣafdar Bābā, various members of the
Jalālī family,52 and other kār-khāndars, some of whom were recent migrants to
the city. The Gazetteer of Kashmir, written by a Charles Ellison Bates, a British
administrator on deputation to the Kashmir in 1873, provides some interesting
figures about the relative economic situation of the Shiʿi and Sunni communities.
Within the overall Muslim population of the city, Shiʿi comprised a meager
7 percent while their number in the entire Kashmir valley stood at less than 4
percent. Similarly, though Shiʿi merchants owned a great number of the shawl
kār-khānas in the city, of the thirty thousand weavers, Shiʿi numbered only a
thousand workers.53 The ascendancy of Shiʿi elite class in the city can also be seen
among the landed aristocracy, out of the five Muslim jāgīrdārs, three were from the
Shiʿi community.54 The relative prosperous condition of the Shiʿis is visited in the
Gazetteer, which speaks about the community as

found chiefly at Zadibal, about two koss to the north of Srinagar, at Nandapor
and Hassanabad, near to the city lake. Though so few in number, the men of
this sect form the most active, industrious, and well-to-do portion of the
Mohamedan community. The finest papier-mache workers and shawl makers in
Srinagar are Shiʿihs, and some of the wealthiest men in the city belong to sect.55
100 Shi’ism in Kashmir

The depression in the shawl market resulted in foreclosure of some the kār-
khānas, with many owners preferring to cut losses rather than sustain the poorly
paid weavers whose labor formed the foundation of their mercantile wealth. The
relation between Shiʿi owners and their Sunni workers was of recent origin, dating
from the 1840s, not an established tradition which joined the weavers and the
owners in a relation of trust. In the closing of the kār-khānas, the Sunni workers
saw the Shiʿi owners as not only representative of an exploitative kār-khāna system
but also belonging to a rival religious community. An economic depression,
leading to unemployment of the main worker force of the city gradually reopened
the old rifts in the Muslim society as tensions between the Shiʿi merchants and
the Sunni weavers mounted.56 The tension between the two groups came to head
in the riot which targeted Shiʿi merchants and kār-khāna owners, riots whose
principal instigator was a rival Sunni merchant, Khwāja Mohyi-al Dīn Gandrū.
The riot started on the occasion of the ʿurs at a prominent fifteenth-century
religious site, the mosque-shrine precinct of Madin Ṣāhab which was claimed
and revered by both the communities (Figure 4.1). This small complex was in a
predominantly Shiʿi moḥala, in close vicinity to the main Shiʿi center of Zadibal.
The Shiʿi had constructed a small mosque adjacent to the older, historical mosque
built by Sayyid Muhammad Madnī in 1444.57 The construction of the mosque and
offering prayers in the building was part of the ongoing process of revival and
reemergence of Shiʿi presence in the urban landscape of the city, removing the
visual and physical anonymization that had been characteristic of the community
life previously under the Afghan rule. The construction itself was overseen by
Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli. Hearing about this Shiʿi construction, Mohyi-al Dīn
objected to building on what he saw as a Sunni territory. Though a well-meaning

Figure 4.1 Shrine of Sayyid Muhammad Madnī, Srinagar, 2019 (courtesy: Zubair Ahmad).
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 101

philanthropist, Muhammad ʿAli’s personality was marked by a temperament

at times arrogant and disdainful of the consequences. The poet, Deykah, in his
description of Muhammad ʿAli’s father, Mīrzā Rasūl writes about the merchants’
considerable pride and arrogance, which was ostensibly famous in the city58.
Probably, the son had inherited not only his father’s immense wealth but also
some of his less seemly traits, which in this instance proved to be the doom of
the Kashmiri Shiʿi. Earlier, in the 1283 ah/1866 ce Muhammad ʿAli had broken
away from the company of fellow Shiʿi elites and constructed a rival imāmbāda
in the city at Hasanabad, simply because his request favoring a particular zakir at
Mʿārak had been turned down.59 In this instance too, Muhammad ʿAli not only
refused to pay any heed to Mohyi-al Dīn’s objection but also delayed his reply to the
Sunni merchant’s letter by twelve days. This inordinate delay was rightly perceived
by Mohyi-al Dīn as a personal insult- a breach of etiquette, showing Muhammad
ʿAli’s disdain for a newcomer who was projecting himself as the representative
of Sunni community. A day before the ʿurs, Mohyi-al Dīn visited the shrine and
asked the Shiʿi to stop the construction work on the mosque, also forcefully
forbidding them from performing marṣiya at the site. In doing so, Mohyi-al Dīn
was portraying a role far bigger than his mercantile wealth or patronage of Sunni
shrines afforded him—he was essentially acting as the arbitrator and enforcer of
the public spaces and the cultural boundaries in the city. The Shiʿi refusal was
similarly posited on their wealth and positioning in the city, especially in the court,
still substantial. Yet, the khwāja had the ability to enflame the Sunni masses and
incite a mob, and that he did.
On the day of the ʿurs, a large crowd of Sunnis, mostly the recently retrenched
shawlbafs assembled near the mosque and after a heated argument with the Shiʿi
razed the adjacent and yet to be completed Shiʿi structure to ground. On the
surface, the act marks the Sunni assertion of their ownership and control of the
mosque precinct, including the vast open land adjoining it, on which the Shiʿi
structure had come up. Overnight the news of the skirmish; of the existence of a
Shiʿi mosque and its destruction spread in the city and on the following day a large
Sunni mob assembled near the shrine of Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm. Mohyi-al
Dīn was seen near the crowd and left the shrine only after the assembled crowd
proceeded en masse toward the Shiʿi areas of the city.
The crowd first proceeded toward Rajouri Kadal—the seat of the Mīrwaʿiẕ-i
Kalān (the elder Mīrwaʿiẕ). The post of Mīrwaʿiẕ (chief preacher of Sunnis) was
institutionalized during the nineteenth century in the family of Ṣiddiq Bābā (d.
1155 ah/1742 ce), a respected Sunni cleric who had arrived in the city from
the Tral, a small town in south Kashmir.60 After their relocation to the city, the
family split into two rival branches in the mid-nineteenth century, the Mīrwaʿiẕ-i
Kalān with their seat at Jamia Masjid and the Mīrwaʿiẕ-i Hamdanīya, who
operated from Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā. The early twentieth-century Sunni historian
Mufti Muhammad Shāh Sʿaādat refers to Moulvi Yaḥya Shāh (1251 ah/1835
ce–1308 ah/1890 ce) of the Mīrwaʿiẕ-i Kalān as the Mīrwaʿiẕ-i Awilin—the
first mīrwaʿiẕ of Kashmir.61 Newcomers to the city, in their early years in the city,
the family of Mīrwaʿiẕ-i Kalān was imbibed with a parochial vision deeply laced
102 Shi’ism in Kashmir

with sectarianism. And as they presided over the religious life of the cities Sunni
majority, they failed to negotiate with the emerging ecumenical trends in the
Muslim society.
Returning back to the riots, we find the that on reaching Rajouri Kadal,
Rasūl Shāh (1271 ah/1854 ce–1327 ah/1909 ce) the young son of Mīrwaʿiẕ
Yaḥya, extolling the mob to attack the rāfizī- the Shiʿis. Rallying to the cry “dīn-i
Muhammad tchu barkarar, rafizan patichey kafiran laar” ([transl: The religion of
Muhammad is alive, after the rāfizī (Shiʿi) we will throw out the kāfirs [Hindus]),
the mob first ransacked the nearby locality of Kamangarpora which housed some
of the richest Shiʿi merchants of the city before fanning out toward Zadibal, Madin
Ṣāhab and other pockets of Shiʿi presence in the city. Meanwhile, the governor of
Kashmir, Vazir Pannu was made aware of the happenings in the city and marched
toward Cawdara with a light escort, hoping to intimidate the mob with official
presence and stop their march toward Zadibal. But, on reaching the site, the vazir
was surrounded by an incensed, impassioned crowd which overwhelmed his
guards, and in a moment of fear, Pannu told the mob “phounk dū”—a colloquial
expression in Urdu meaning “take them out.” This was taken by the assembled
crowd as an official sanction to loot, and they marched into Shiʿi moḥala of the city
burning Zadibal and Madin Ṣāhab. At Zadibal, the first target was again Mʿārak
the imāmbāda. While the destruction of Shiʿi properties was widespread and
indiscriminate, Shiʿi kār-khāna owners and merchants became a special target of
the rioters. In his autobiography, Munshi Muhammad Isḥāq (d. 1969), recollects
the loss his family suffered during the riots based on the writings of his father,
Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli (d. 1343 ah/1924 ce),62 in these words:

My ancestors were from Shaukpora (Zazbugh) in Budgam district [. . .] Due to

change of fortune they had to leave their village and settled down in the mohalla
of Nowpora (in the city)63. During those time the shawl industry was lucrative.
They too adopted this profession [. . .].

During the time of my great grandfather ʿAli Muhammad Karbalaī, a deadly

Shiʿi-Sunni conflict took place. In 187364 our ancestral residential houses and
shawl kār-khānas were burnt down, but due to the efforts of our Sunni Muslim
neighbors no loss of life took place.65

The Gazetteer published a year after the riot provides the perspective of a “impartial
European viewer” on the happenings in these words:

The disturbances then raged for more than a week, and for some time defied
the efforts of the governor who called in the aid of the troops, whole districts
were reduced to smouldering heaps of ruins; and business was for some time
entirely suspended, a great portion of the city being deserted. The Shiahs fled
in every direction, some seeking safety on the adjacent mountains, while others
remained in the city in secret lurking places. Many of the women and children
of the Shiahs found asylum from the hands of their infuriated co-religionists
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 103

in the houses of Hindu portion of the community. When order was at length
restored the ringleaders of the riot were seized and imprisoned, besides hundred
or thousands, it is said, of the poorer inhabitants.66

The construction of a mosque by the Shiʿi is represented as the immediate

provocation for the riot by Kuihāmī, who then goes to write how innocent Sunni
were caught up in the retribution, some jailed and some fined by the government,
including Mohyi-al Dīn. In Kuihāmī’s narrative Mohyi-al Dīn is presented as a
blameless bystander, wrongly framed in the riots and unjustly targeted by the
government. It is the Shiʿi in the court who use their money and influence to
get an unfair verdict against the Sunni merchant, who is consequently fined an
amount of fifty thousand rupees in lieu of imprisonment.67
Yet, in the testimonies presented in the court, Mohyi-al Dīn hardly comes across
as an innocent and uninvolved witness to the frenzy, rather he is the instigator and
the prime mover. Mohyi-al Dīn’s position as a benefactor of the Sunnis of the city
was based on his patronage of major Sunni religious symbols, involving repairs and
maintenance of shrines and mosques in the city, especially the shrine of Shaykh
Ḥamza.68 This was unlike other Sunni elders such as Khwāja Sana-al Lah Shawl
or Shaykh Muqim whose patronage was not limited to religious enterprises alone
but had also manifested into civic projects benefitting the residents of the city.
During a particularly bad case of famine Sana, al Lah and Muqim had operated
public kitchens (langars) across the city, benefitting the needy of all communities.69
The Shiʿi merchant, Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli also in addition to his support of Shiʿi
specific projects, was part of this ecumenically shaped munificence. From the
testimonies presented in the case, including Mohyi-al Dīn’s own, he emerges as
a man firmly grounded in Sunni sectarianism.70 As a pattern of this predilection
for sectarianism we find him intervening in a land dispute involving a Shiʿi cleric
of Hasanabad, Sayyid Zamān Shāh (d. 1887) and the plaintiff who happened to be
Sunni- essentially reshaping a personal property dispute into a broader sectarian
conflict.71 The riots of 1872, pervasively underpin how even under a non-Muslim
rule, individuals could maneuver a city into conflict based on their money, power,
and the influence among the masses.
The Shiʿi’ losses in the riots were heavy, Mʿārak was again burned down to
ground, and more than 600 houses destroyed in the city. In his marṣiya, ‘Musiqī’
(Music) written sometime after the riots, Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf captures the
pain and the anguish of the Shiʿi society and their sense of loss:

Oh! Death, my heart lies skewered over coals;

how those bookless (people) burnt down Quran72

Among those financially damaged on the Shiʿi side, the most prominent was Mīrzā
Muhammad ʿAli. The rioters had specifically targeted his kār-khānas and business
establishment in the city, including those in a bāgh he had created near Nowpora
on the famous Mar canal (Nallah Mar).73 Sometime soon after he left for Calcutta,
104 Shi’ism in Kashmir

before finally proceeding to Karbala. In his later years, spent in Karbala, Muhammad
ʿAli is remembered as distributing water and food to pilgrims in the shrine city free
of cost. His final act of charity, in the city associated with the most popular Shiʿi
imām, guaranteed that in Kashmir, his memory as a benefactor of Shiʿism would
endure for posterity. Kashmiri pilgrims returning from Iraq in the nineteenth
century, carried back reports of his continuing charity, and the narrative that on his
death Muhammad ʿAli was buried near the kashaf khāna (entrance portal for the
keeping the shoes) of the shrine itself. In these anecdotal accounts anyone visiting
the shrine of Imām Ḥusayn, on removing his shoes in the kashaf khāna and before
crossing the sacred threshold, would offer the first fathiya (prayer for the deceased)
at the grave of this Kashmiri shawl merchant. The Jalālī family, who also owned
major kar khānas were also targeted in the riots, and the haveli of Sayyid ʿAbdullah
Shāh Jalālī which was also located near the Madin Ṣāhab shrine burned. Given the
improvement in communication, the riots spread to neighboring Shiʿi populated
villages, targeting both the rich and the poor in the community.74
Once order was restored in the city, the aggrieved Shiʿi’ were given permission
by the court to seek, search and take back their property wherever they found it.
While the visuals of the order appear extremely arbitrary, for the poorer members
of the Shiʿi community, the artisans, and the laborers this was an opportunity
to reclaim what they had lost: a copper samovar, a heavy woolen blanket, and a
piece of silver jewelry. In addition to the fines imposed on Mohyi-al Dīn, Sunni
religious figures whose name figured in the riots were also punished; the young
Rasul Shāh was forbidden from delivering sermons in the city and Moulvi Nāṣir-al
Dīn (d. 1876) who was working in the darbār as qāzī dismissed from his job. The
maharaja’s government also awarded a compensation of three lakh rupees to the
Shiʿi, a part of the amount raised as fines from Sunnis.75 While the main culprits
in the riots escaped with fines or lighter punishment, it was the poor Sunnis,
the shawlbafs and the workers who faced the brunt of punishment. Bates in his
Gazetteer hints toward the arbitrary nature of the arrests, with the poor left to bear
the consequences:
The apprehensions appear to have been made in the most indiscriminate
fashion.76
While the suppression of the riots, was overseen by the administration of the
maharaja, the event did draw British attention, especially the native government’s
efforts at rehabilitation and the trial proceedings. In a letter written on September
15, 1872, by the Assistant Secretary, Government of Punjab, to his immediate
superior, the incident is reported as

on the 16th instant a serious riot occurred in the city, between the Sunni and Shiʿih
sects of Mahomedeans [. . .] pending the expected receipt of full details from
the local authorities, I regret however that whether from a jealous reluctance
to impart such particulars to me as alleged merely because the investigations
into the matter are still proceeding, these authorities have failed up to this date
to supply me with anything deserving to regarded as a detailed account of the
affair.77
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 105

The riots, first instance of a major large-scale public disorder in Kashmir after the
Dogras assumed control of this region, belied the image on which Dogra rule had
been built. For the British, the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir was to serve as
a dependable buffer protecting the interests of the empire in face of the Russian
advances in Central Asia. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Kashmir
was the staging ground for some of the British expeditions and embassies into
Central Asia, especially into Yarkand and Kasghar. These expeditions formed a
part of the “Gate Game,” the tussle for paramountcy in the vast Asia heartland
spread from Iran all the way to Kasghar. The “jealous reluctance” of the Kashmir
darbār to share information with the British political agent was as much governed
by a desire to hide the embarrassment of failing to maintain order in the capital
city as to protect symbols of authority of the native court. This projection of a stable
state, in control of the situation can also be seen in the interim report forwarded to
the Assistant Secretary by Bābū Nilambar Mukerjee78 who was serving as the city
judge for Srinagar:

The real cause of the riot is to be traced to the well-known religious ill feelings
between the two sects of Islam, which neither the advance of modern civilization
nor the strictest government in the world has succeeded in eradicating and
which bursts forth as on the last occasion and lead to the most inhuman acts of
fanaticism.79

By locating the reasons for the riots in “Muslim fanaticism,” Nilambar not only
absolves the administration of any serious lapse but also feeds on the British fear
and misgivings about the “uncivilized” Muslims instigators of the Great Rebellion
of 1857. The insular Muslims, Shiʿi and Sunni, bereft of the advantages of western
education and culture (unlike Nilambar) are to blame for their own ills. In a rather
perfunctory manner, Nilambar writes about the mutual transgression that the two
communities had engaged in:

both the sects having in spite of all precautionary measures adopted by the
authorities, brought themselves within the hearing of the abusive religious
expressions used by one sect against others while engaged in congregational
prayers to ward off the present cholera scrouge the Shiahs anathematizing Abu
Bakar, Omar and Osman and the Sunnis Ali.80

Again, while justifying the administration, Nilambar in addition to the Shiʿi also
blames Sunni for reviling a religious figure, ʿAli, who though highly considered
among as the Shiʿi as their first imām, is equally respected and revered in the
Sunni faith tradition as one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Khulafāʾar-Rāšidūn).
Did such an anathema really happen or was the city judge imagining it for a report
to be forwarded to the British authorities, is an open guess. The judges’ initial
findings, assigning blame to both the parties equally, manifest how native courts
were trying to appropriate the colonial narrative of “appearing impartial and just,”
in settling disputes. In his report, Nilambar also mentions that trials in the case
106 Shi’ism in Kashmir

have started, and he is being assisted by twelve individuals drawn from Hindu,
Sunni, and Shiʿi community.
Multiple accounts, native as well of Europeans, also speak about how the
beleaguered Shiʿi, especially in the city found refuge with their Hindu neighbors.
In a particular instance, the Hindu historian, Pandit Hargopal Kaul Khasta writes
about a pandit courtier, Mahanand Jeo Dhar whose house was burned by the
rioters, because he had given refuge to some Shiʿi families.81 The aid that the Shiʿi
received from the darbār and the Pandit community, the trial and conviction of
Sunni elders, and the ensuing disquiet among the Sunni elite of the city finds
expression in a satirical work, Shiʿi Nāma of Khwāja Sa’ad al-Dīn:

Flames took over their dwellings, as if the lightening set ablaze their houses
Every Shiʿi in those days was rendered homeless
………
Every hypocrite Pandit was friends with the Shiʿi
And the helpless true believer was the captive of these two serpents
………
Every helpless Shiʿi came after the Sunnis
Like a hunter’s hound ready to pounce on their neck
……..
If a brave Shiʿi ever got hold of a dagger, he raises his hand in mourning
For his hands can’t reach for anything82

For the Kashmiri Shiʿi, the rebuilding of destroyed homes, individual and
community lives became the immediate priority. Families who had fled returned
to the city. From the relief given by the government a substantial amount, twenty-
five thousand rupees was earmarked for the reconstruction of the imāmbāda
at Zadibal.83 A smaller amount of four thousand rupees was earmarked for
repairing the imāmbāda at Hasanabad,84 which had also been damaged in the riot.
Architecturally, the reconstructed Mʿārak with its forest of wooden columns was
an interesting synthesis of Kashmiri vernacular architecture, motifs, and features
inspired by Mughals to the region. Of particular significance was the rich papier-
mâché ceilings of the building, which represent the oldest extant example of this
decorative technique used in illuminating a building’s interior.85 The papier-mâché
craft was and is still largely monopolized by Shiʿi artisans. The work on the ceiling
was a manifestation of their dedication to the sacred site. While none of the names
of the artisans who worked on the ceiling have survived, oral traditions within
the Shiʿi community maintain that the artisans involved in project worked on a
voluntary basis. These traditions also speak about Shiʿi women, donating their
jewelry for the reconstruction. At a time when people must have been occupied
in building their own devastated homes and lives, the contribution of the artisans,
the women, and people at large, both from the city and outside, showcases how
deeply community emotions were invested in Mʿārak as the symbol of Kashmiri
Shiʿiness. Work on the reconstruction of Mʿārak was completed in 1289 ah/1872
ce. When the marṣiya writer Munshi Mustafa ʿAli (d. 1896) was asked to write
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 107

the chronogram for the new construction, he compiled a verse which captures the
hope for a city free of prejudice and hate:

This mourning house of the sorrowful martyr (Ḥusayn);

set ablaze by the rouge with the fire of hate.
First snuff out this toxic fire;
then ask for the auspicious date of building it anew.86

Rival Families, Rival Grouping

On Badun 8 in the year 1945 Bikrami of the Hindu calendar (corresponding to

September 8, 1888 ce), the court of Bābū Rishambar Mukerjee,87 the chief judge
of Kashmir, gave its final verdict in a dispute between two rival Shiʿi claimants,
Firqa-i Qadim (Old Group) and Firqa-i Jadid (New Group) involving the
ownership of Mʿārak.
Commenting about the rifts and groupism that emerged in the Kashmiri Shiʿi
society in the nineteenth century, the political activist and reformist, Munshi Isḥāq
writes:

During this time the leadership of Firqa-i Qadim was in the hands of Jalālī family
and the Mullā family of Babapora. Firqa-i Jadid was represented by the Dangar
family of Zadibal, the Khwāja family of Kamangarpora and my ancestor late
Muhammad ʿAli Karbalai.88

Following the destruction of Mʿārak in the riot of 1872, the Mʿārakdar family
had been sidelined in the reconstruction process. The work on the building was
initially overseen by Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli, aided by leading members of the
Shiʿi community living in Zadibal; Āqā Aḥmad ʿAli, Malik ʿAli (dead before
1303 ah/1885 ce) and Karim Khān.89 After Muhammed ʿAli left Kashmir,
two members of the Jalālī family, Sayyid ʿAbdullah Shāh (d. 1309 ah/1891 ce)
and Sayyid Ṣafdar Shāh took over the work of reconstruction of the imāmbāda
along with Malik ʿAli and Āqā Aḥmad. This involved completing the roof, which
had been left unfinished and constructing the main entrance portal (dīdh) to
the imāmbāda. In addition to local donations, the Kashmiri Shiʿi also received
financial aid from the wider South Asian Shiʿi community; a Bombay-based
merchant, Ḥājjī ʿAta-al Lah Bombaywalā donated nine hundred rupees for the
construction of the dīdh. Simultaneously, the people overseeing the construction;
Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli, Sayyid Abdullah Shāh, and Sayed Ṣafdar Shāh had the
right of the custodianship (mutawalli) transferred to themselves.90 Despite the
Mʿārakdars protestations against this takeover, the matter remained unresolved,
with both claimants operating from the same venue.
Meanwhile, the seminarian, Sayyid Mahdi who had contested the issue of khums
with Akhūnd Mullā Javad Ansarī earlier, returned to Kashmir in 1297 ah/1879
ce after completing his studies in Najaf, Iraq. Despite the recent riots, the Kashmir
108 Shi’ism in Kashmir

that Sayyid Mahdi returned was a much-changed place, in which as a community

the Shiʿi found themselves greatly empowered in their functioning and exchanges
with the Sunni majority, especially in Srinagar. And as we saw previously, an
elite urban plutocracy comprising the courtiers, merchants and the religious
classes had established themselves as both the representee and spokesman of the
community—the core of what would be retrospectively termed as the Firqa-i Qadim.
Acting as the benefactors of the community interest, they in their personal dealings
as jāgīrdārs and kār-khāndars were also enablers of an oppressive social and
caste system. Nineteenth-century Kashmiri Shiʿi society was divided into “sov”
(upper class) and pous (lower class),91 a class formation based on caste differences
rather than occupational stratification.92 Uniquely positioned as possessors of
knowledge, wealth, and access to court, members of the self-constituted upper
class also maintained their elite power through matrimonial alliance. Given the
relatively small size of the Shiʿi society, the boundaries between the two, though
not hermitically sealed, were nevertheless virtually unsurmountable for the vast
majority of what was termed as the pous.
As opposed to the existing elite structure prevailing in Kashmir, Sayyid Mahdi’s
own upbringing had been conditioned by personal struggle with hardship and
poverty. This could be one of the many reasons why he had engaged earlier in a
terse exchange of letters with a more senior cleric on the issue of khums.
Coming back to Srinagar, we find that on his return, Sayyid Mahdi was invited
by the Mʿārakdars to preside over the newly refurbished Mʿārak. This involved
the revival of the practice of congregational prayers and offering sermons—an
event which had taken place earlier during Sayyid Ibrahim’s brief stay in Kashmir.
Yet, Mahdi’s sermons drastically differed from those which had stepped Ibrahim
into trouble—he did not limit himself to theological issues alone but forcefully
questioned the existing power structure in Kashmiri society as being oppressive
and inhumane. In doing so Mahdi set himself on a collision course with those
who controlled the pulse of the Shiʿi society in Kashmir. The retribution was swift.
Sayyid Mahdi’s entry to Mʿārak was barred and when the Mʿārakdars tried to
intervene, their access to the imāmbāda was also restricted.93 The management of
the imāmbāda was taken over by Sayyid ʿAbdullah, assisted by his cousin Sayyid
Ṣafdar.94 Simultaneously, they contested with the Mʿārakdars over the management
of the shrine of Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIraki, the ancestor of the Mʿārakdar dynasty.
The lack of support for the Mʿārakdars within the Shiʿi elite on the two issues,
management of the Mʿārak and the custodianship of the ʿIraki shrine, highlights
how removed they were from the power center of Shiʿi community life in the city:
the Firqa-i Qadim.95
Meanwhile the new custodians of Mʿārak, approached Ḥakim Mahdi (d.
1309 ah/1891 ce) to seek Sayyid Mahdi’s banishment from Kashmir.96 Ḥakim
Mahdi was the nephew of Ḥakim ʿAzam, and as royal physician, quite close to
the ruler, Ranbir Singh. But, possibly remembering the fallout from the earlier
affair involving Sayyid Ibrahim, the ḥakim desisted from intervening in the case
of Sayyid Mahdi. Failing to enlist the royal physician to their cause, the custodians
approached the darbār directly, denouncing Mahdi as a spy for the British,
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 109

whose aim was to disrupt the affairs of Kashmir. The maharaja’s darbār in spite of
working under the overall suzerainty of the British colonial administration as the
paramount power in India was equally conscious of protecting the symbols and
privileges of the native court. Earlier in 1873, Ranbir Singh had rejected a British
proposal to appoint a British Resident at Srinagar. A Kashmiri subject accused
of working as a spy for the British government was a serious charge, sufficient to
ensure the accused’s banishment from Kashmir territories. As a result of these
maneuvers, Sayyid Mahdi was called before the darbār to explain the charges
before the maharaja himself. Oral traditions within the Shiʿi community maintain
that at the court, Sayyid Mahdi not only managed to dispel the accusations against
himself but also impressed the maharaja with his simplicity and strength of
character. The maharaja is said to have told his Shiʿi physician, Mahdi, “this man
cannot be a spy, he is a simple god-fearing person, he should be left alone.”97
The failure to get the court to censure Sayyid Mahdi did not deter his
adversaries from their opposition to the cleric. The resolve of Mahdi on the other
hand, not to bow down to the opposition and seek an amicable compromise,
marked him with the Shiʿi poor and working classes as their hero. And once
he had taken upon the mantle of acting as the spokesman of the powerless, the
message of Mahdi was as much dictated by his personal convictions as by the
aspirations of those he chose to represent. While the divide among Kashmiri
Sunnis during the same period, between the followers of Mīrwaʿiẕ-i Kalān and
Mīrwaʿiẕ -i Hamdanī had a theological underpinning,98 the conflict within the
Shiʿi community was a manifestation of class struggle. In this group contestation
Firqa-i Qadim, represented the Shiʿi elite and those associated with them, while
Firqa-i Jadid represented the followers of Sayyid Mahdi and the countless poor
in the city and across villages. The high-sounding title of Firqa-i Qadim neatly
obfuscates a very basic fact, that this firqa was not a very old entrenched grouping
as its supporters wanted to project, rather it came into formation around the mid-
nineteenth century, coeval with the establishment of Dogra rule. The elite of the
Firqa-i Qadim represented a coming together of individual and families based on
kinship, wealth, and social prestige. While the main enablers of the group were
organized in the limited geography of the city, it nevertheless claimed adherents
from a similar social class across major Shiʿi settlements and villages outside of
Srinagar (Figure 4.2).
Arriving in Kashmir soon after the riot of 1872, Sayyid Mahdi was deeply
impressed by the suffering and the devastation due to the Shiʿi- Sunni conflict,
from which the poor Shiʿis were yet to recover. The communal politics of the
city, and the conflicting interests of the elite, helped to perpetuate an atmosphere
of hate and antagonism, which no one had attempted to break: Shiʿi or Sunni.
The fragmented situation, both in the city and outside it, can be understood by
Lawrence’s observation on the deeply divided spatial practices of Kashmiri Muslim
society:

There is only one ziarat in Kashmir, that of Alam Sahib, in the Narwara Mohalla
of Srinagar, where Shiʿihs and Sunnis meet. Elsewhere their places of religion
110 Shi’ism in Kashmir

Figure 4.2 Kashmir, location of major towns and Shiʿi-inhabited areas (author).

are wholly distinct. Zadi Bal and Hassanabad in Srinagar, and Saidpura and
Ahmadpura in the Kamraj district, contain the chief shrines of the Shiahs, but
no Sunni would ever go to these places.99

In an attempt at bridging the sectarian divide in the city, Sayyid Mahdi sought to
navigate through the broken sacred landscape of Muslim Kashmir. He was the
first major Shiʿi cleric who offered his obeisance at two prominent Sunni shrines
of Kashmir, Dastgir Ṣāhab shrine at Khanyar, Srinagar, and the shrine of Shaykh
Nūr-al Dīn at Budgam. The image of a Shiʿi cleric all too easy to be recognized
based on his clothing, the black turban and an equally black cloak must have
made an interesting visual spectacle for a Sunni audience. How were these visits
received, is difficult to establish, especially as Sunni sources fail to register this
event. But, within the descendants of Sayyid Mahdi, these occasional visits are
viewed as enablers of a change in community relation, resulting in a softening of
sectarian boundaries between the Shiʿi and Sunnis.100
While Sayyid Mahdi may have charted the Shiʿi-Sunni divide with some
measure of success, within the Shiʿi society he came under increasing pressure.
Somewhere in early 1880s, Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī (d.1915), the nephew of
Akhūnd Mullā Javad Ansarī returned to Kashmir from Najaf following the death
of his uncle Mullā Ṣadiq Ansarī in 1880 ce (Figure 4.3). Like Sayyid Mahdi, Moulvi
Ḥaidar ʿAli had also studied in Najaf under leading mujtahids of the Shiʿi world,101
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 111

Figure 4.3 Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī with the royal physician, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli, early
twentieth century, Srinagar (courtesy: Hakim Athar Hussain).

especially Ayatollah Mīrzā Sayyid Muhammad al-Ḥasan Shirazī (d. 1895), the
Iranian mujtahid who played a leading role in the Tobacco Revolution of Iran.
The future Iranian marja, Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad Nainī (d. 1936) was a
contemporary of Ḥaidar, and in Najaf both attended the school of Shirazī. Nainī is
remembered for his support of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran and for his
attempts to bridge the gap between religion and European influenced, “modern
sciences.” Like Nainī, Moulvi Ḥaidar would also be supportive of integrating
European educational systems and traditional Muslim values.
It was on Shirazī’s advice, that Ḥaidar returned to Kashmir to guide the religious
affairs of Kashmiri Shiʿi, who had taken Shirazī as the marja-i taqlid (source of
religious emulation). On reaching Srinagar, Ḥaidar ʿAli was asked by the custodians
of Mʿārak to use the imāmbāda as his seat and offer sermons from there. Unlike
Sayyid Mahdi, Moulvi Ḥaidar did not seek to establish congregational prayers in
the imāmbāda. Nevertheless, he was the first cleric from the Ansarī family who on
various religious occasions offered sermons in the imāmbāda. In projecting Ḥaidar
as the legitimate, preeminent Shiʿi cleric of Kashmir, the constituents of Firqa-i
Qadim set the cleric on a path of confrontation with Sayyid Mahdi. The first break
between the two Najaf-trained clerics commenced on the issue of khums. A series
of letters exchanged between the two, published later as a tract by Ḥaidar, reveal
the level of divergence between their positions. Though on the surface both sides
maintain a level of respect and decency in addressing each other, it is glaring how
Ḥaidar in his replies restrains from addressing Mahdi as a Sayyid.102 Additionally,
112 Shi’ism in Kashmir

while in his reply Moulvi Ḥaidar goes to great length to describe his practice on
the issue of khums distribution, the spirit of his reply refuses to acknowledge the
seminary trainings of Mahdi as a fellow cleric. These two omissions become all
the more obvious when we observe how throughout the last ten years of his life, in
the 1880s, a series of books and tracts written outside Kashmir targeted both Sayyid
Mahdi’s claim to a religious scholarship, as an individual who had received an ijaza
as well his ancestry—of belonging to sayyid family with authentic genealogy. The
affair turned murkier, when Sayyid Mahdi was accused of having claimed to be a
mujtahid. In the transnational network linking Kashmiri ulema with their seniors
in Iraq, the role of the Kashmiri cleric had always been of a vakīl (representative),
who would seek guidance and also remit some of the khums money to the shrine
city. In assuming an independent position of a mujtahid, Sayyid Mahdi sought
to operate outside the established traditions governing this relationship, where
the Kashmiri ulema of nineteenth century always assumed a subservient role to
the mujtahids in the shrine cities of Iraq. In many of the tracts written during
this period by scholars sympathetic to the Ansarī’s, Sayyid Mahdis projection as
a mujtahid is met with great derision and often ridicule.103 Additionally, these
texts indicate that Mahdi’s supporters promoted his image as the first Kashmiri
mujtahid, and his rivals in their writings take great pain in establishing the line
of Kashmiri scholarship in preceding generations to refute this claim. The writer
of Majālis-al Abrar, Ḥājjī Sayyid Ḥasan Rizvī (d. 1928), himself a respected Shiʿi
cleric from Zadibal, without naming Mahdi, questions his scholarly claims and
decries how unaware Shiʿi are caught in the guile of a person who has taken to
wearing an ʿamāma (turban),104 and fashion a rosary in his hand.105 Historically,
aside from the acrimonious nature of these exchanges, the monographs, and tracts
written on the intra-Shiʿi divide in the last quarter of the nineteenth century have
helped in preserving the memory of many Kashmiri Shiʿi scholars, who would
otherwise have been lost to obscurity.
Much more than his contested genealogy, it was this scholarly claim which
provided the members of Firqa-i Qadim the propaganda material with which to
launch a campaign against Sayyid Mahdi, both inside Kashmir and outside the
valley. Presenting Sayyid Mahdi as a pretender who was a threat to community
interests, fatwas against him were obtained from leading Shiʿi mujtahids in Iraq,
including Ayatollah Mīrzā Ḥusayn Nūrī Tabrisī (d.1320).106 Some other issues
of jurisprudence in which Mahdi differed from Ḥaidar, include the conditions
for sighting of the crescent of moon as well as the stipulations for a person
who could officiate a marriage contract. Mahdi also targeted the rich backers
of Ḥaidar directly,107 pointing to their negligence in performing the Ḥājj ritual.
This argument also resonated with his own supporters, who saw those opposing
Mahdi as immersed in their worldly affairs, while exhibiting a marked laxity in
fulfilling the obligations of the religion. Much more than the financial expenses
of the journey, it was the rigors of a long journey which disheartened people
from embarking on the pilgrimage, and this was common to both Kashmiri Shiʿi
and Sunni Muslims.108 While the date is not known, but somewhere around the
same time, in mid-1880s, Mahdi led a qāfila (caravan) of Kashmiri Shiʿi on the
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 113

Ḥājj pilgrimage.109 This is the first known instance that I have come across, in the
nineteenth century of an organized pilgrimage to Arabia, and remained a regular
feature among the supporters of Firqa-i Qadim.
The rulings from senior mujtahids in Iraq against Sayyid Mahdi, though serving
the cause of Firqa-i Qadim failed to quell the popularity of Mahdi among his large
number of supporters, an overwhelming majority of whom were illiterate.110 To a
large extent the books, tracts, and the fatwas issued against Sayyid Mahdi, were
produced, and consumed by those who were opposed to him. In the end, this vast
textual production was an exercise in self-gratification and record-keeping alone,
which failed to sway those whose support for Mahdi was based on the egalitarian
and ecumenical nature of the cleric’s message. A prolific producer of texts himself,
some of Mahdi’s own writing which he wrote to establish his scholarly hold on a
diverse range of subjects from jurisprudence to societal issues further deepened
the dissensions within the community.111 Within his own lifetime, Mahdi came
to be referred by the exalted title of Sarkār Āgā Sayyid Mahdi. In native Kashmiri
Shiʿi society, the honorific sarkār, was not only a sign of respect, but also a title
generally reserved for mujtahids.
Despite being vilified by his opponents within and outside Kashmir, the social
forces at play- the mercantile wealth and the resentment among the underpaid
worker and peasant classes, galvanized a momentum for Mahdi, which he
purposefully channelized into creating public spaces and institutions for pro­
pagating his message. These included a network series of small-sized mosques,
easy to construct and operate. Based on the level of popular support, Mahdi felt
confident enough to take on his opponents and make a claim before the darbār
for custodianship of Mʿārak. Somewhere in the 1890s supporters of Mahdi were
able to physically restrain Sayyid ʿAbdullah Shāh Jalālī from organizing a majlis at
Ahmadpora, north of Srinagar. Despite his prestige as the leader of Firqa-i Qadim,
it was only through the agency of his son-in-law, the royal physician, Ḥakim Ḥasan
ʿAli that ʿAbdullah could proceed with the majlis with the help of soldiers deputed
by the court.112
The rift and the maneuvering to control community symbols, especially
Mʿārak, highlights how the community elite, those representing the Firqa-i Qadim,
through a network of matrimonial linkages evolved into a cohesive group, seeking
to maintain their shared interest and privileges. This involved three different
centers of power working in cohesion—the courtiers, the ulema, and the traders.
The importance of these relations and how they weighed on the collective
community life is also established through proceedings in Bābū Rishambar’s
court. In an earlier session held in the darbār, representatives of Āgā Sayyid Mahdi
had remained silent when Ranbir Singh advised that the matter should be resolved
through division of the two main imāmbādas in the city, Mʿārak and Imāmbāda
Hasanbad, between the two competing parties (Figure 4.4). As a part of this
proposal, the party of Sayyid Mahdi- Firqa-i Jadid is offered the relatively smaller
(and less historical) Imāmbāda at Hasanabad and asked to surrender their claim
to Mʿārak. While on the surface this seems a judicious offer for the newly formed
group, accepting it would have meant that the Mʿārakdars who were supporting
114 Shi’ism in Kashmir

Figure 4.4 Imāmbāda Hasanabad, twentieth-century reconstruction, Srinagar, 2015

(author).

Sayyid Mahdi would essentially surrender their traditional seat of operation. The
reluctance to accept this compromise makes the presiding judge, Rishambar,
question the representative of Firqa-i Jadid, Sayyid Najaf Shāh Mʿārakdaar. In
his reply, Najaf Shāh excuses himself by detailing out the circumstance in the
darbār, where the maharaja was accompanied by his physician, Ḥakim Mahdi.
Najaf asserts that his silence was conditioned by the fear that the physician would
convince the maharaja against the position of Firqa-i Jadid in case they entered a
discussion.
The royal physician, Mahdi, belonged to the Mullā family (Figure 4.5), of
which Isḥāq speaks in his description of Firqa-i Qadim. Mahdi’s third wife was the
daughter of Mullā ʿAbdullah Ansarī (d. 1887), another renowned Shiʿi cleric from
the Ansarī family. ʿAbdullah’ s other son-in-laws included his nephew, Moulvi
Ḥaidar ʿAli, Sayyid Javad Shāh Rizvī, and a cousin of Mahdi, Ḥakim Nur-al Lah.
Besides intermarriage within the two branches of the Mullā family, the Ḥakim and
the Munshi, the family would also enter marriage alliances with the Waʿiẕ family
and Munshi family of Chinkral Moḥala and the Sayyids of Shamswari.113
The main participants in the dispute between the two firqas, the Jalālī family also
built upon their marriage alliances to consolidate their position. Sayyid ʿAbdullah
Shāh popularly known as Ablī Pādshāh (ʿAbdullah the great king) on account of
his immense wealth, and Ṣafdar Shāh were both grandsons of Sayyid Valī Shāh
Jalālī, who is remembered in Jalālī family traditions as a pious religious scholar.114
The house of Sayyid Valī at Madin Ṣāhab was also burned during the riots of
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 115

Figure 4.5 Members of the Mullā family, Srinagar, late 1890s (courtesy: Hakim Shaukat
Ali Hamdani).

1872. Subsequently, one of his sons, Sayyid Najaf Shāh, migrated to Doonipora
in Zadibal. Najaf ’s son, Sayyid Ṣafdar was married to Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli’s
daughter, and followed his father-in-law’s footstep as a shawl merchant, marking
a break from the family tradition of scholarly engagement.115 He also benefitted
from the prestige of his father-in-law as a community elder and benefactor.
Safdar’s cousin, ʿAbdullah Shāh had also married into the family of a prominent
merchant family from Srinagar whose other surviving daughter was married to
Ḥakim Bāqir, cousin of the royal physician, Ḥakim Mahdi. Sayyid ʿAbdullah’s
eldest daughter in turn was married Mahdi’s son, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli, who after
his father’s death would rise to the position of influence in the court as the royal
physician to Maharaja Pratap Singh.116
The convergence of matrimonial linkages can also be found in the case of Ḥājjī
Ṣafdar Bābā, who was married to the sister of Malik ʿAli. Malik ʿAli traced his
origins to the Malikan-i Chadura, a family of old Kashmiri nobility, who had lost
all of their landed property during the Afghan rule. After marrying into the family,
Ṣafdar Bābā convinced ʿAli and his brother to relocate to Srinagar, where they
joined him in the lucrative shawl business. Malik ʿAli is also mentioned by the
Firqa-i Qadim in the court documents relating to Mʿārak as one of the custodians
who figured in its reconstruction. Continuing with the interlinkages formed
through matrimonial alliances we find that Malik ʿAli’s daughter was in turn
married to Ṣafdar’s son, Qāsim Bābā. On Javad’s death she would remarry into
the Mullā family. Qāsim’s son, Javad Bābā would be adopted by another member
of the Malik family, Malik Asad-ul Lah (d. early 1920’s)—a leading merchant who
116 Shi’ism in Kashmir

patronized many community projects in the twentieth century. Another branch of

the Malik family entered marriage links with the Jalālī family, the Rizvī family of
Kathi Maidan, and the Rizvīs of Naulor, a small village outside Srinagar.117
Similarly, among Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli’s children we find that in addition
to Sayyid Ṣafdar, his other son-in-laws included Sayyid Naqī Rizvī, a prominent
shawl merchant with business house in Calcutta, while another of his daughter is
said to be married into the Ansarī family, though the exact details are not clear.
Sayyid Naqī’s daughter in turn would be married to Āgā Sayyid Ḥusayn Rizvī,
who would become the first Kashmiri Muslim minister in the Dogra court.
Early in his childhood, Sayyid Ḥusayn was adopted by his maternal family, the
Qizalbash.118 The Qizalbash family was a relative newcomer to Kashmir, the first
member of the family to settle down in Kashmir, Āgā Rahīm. The family’s formal
association with the Dogra court starts in the ending years of Gulab Singh’s rule,
when in 1856, Āgā Ḥakim Bāqir who was accompanying a British officer from
Punjab, was introduced to the maharaja.119 During Ranbir Singh’s reign, Bāqir was
entrusted with the job of translating books on medicine from Latin and Arabic
into Persian and Dogrī and rose to the post of Chief Physician. The Qizalbash also
used his familial connections with the head of Qizalbash clan in Lahore, Nawab
Nawazish ʿAli Khān (d. 1898)120 for the benefit of Kashmiri Shiʿi. During the riots
of 1872, Āgā Bāqir along with Ḥakim Mahdi had been successful in securing
the aid of the darbār for helping the besieged Shiʿi community. Bāqir was able
to secure additional financial aid from Nawazish ʿAli which was then distributed
through the agency of Ansarī family.121 In Kashmir, the first native family to enter
in matrimonial relation with Qazilbash were the Jalālī’s, both Bāqir and his son
Ḥakim ʿAli Naqī married in the Jalālī family.
Similarly, in the Ansarī family, the patriarch of the family in the late nineteenth
century, Moulvi ḤaidarʿAli had nine children, two of the daughters were married
in the Mullā family, while a daughter was married into the Mīrzā family of
Daulatabad and the Munshi’s of Chinkral Moḥala. Among his sons, we find two
were married into the Qizalbash family, while another was married into a branch
of the Mullā family, the Munshis. The family line would continue with Moulvi
Javad whose first wife was from the Qizalbash family, while he later married into
the Ghāzī family of Namchibal.122
One major disadvantage that the elders in the Firqa-i Jadid faced was the inability
to replicate this network of marriage alliances. Till the beginning of the twentieth
century, the Mʿārakdars would only marry within their own family.123 The absence
of any major marriage alliance severely hampered their ability to maneuver for
community leadership—and this inability also served as a contributing factor in
their loss of control over Mʿārak. Similar was the case in the family of Āgā Sayyid
Mahdi, where till the twentieth century the family would intermarry within their
own cousins.124 While there are many reasons for marrying within the family,
including a Prophetic injunction to do so, as well as the notion of preserving a
Sayyid bloodline; a major reason behind the practice related to inheritance and
disposition of family property. In marrying within the family, the Mʿārakdars and
many other families which followed this custom sought to prevent the daughters’’
 4. Dissensions within the Mūminin 117

share from leaving the family. Importantly, among Kashmiri Shiʿi families,
especially in the city, family inheritance was generally guided by sharia, allowing
daughters to inherit a third in the property as the legal share. As opposed to it,
most Sunni families followed “urf ” the customary law, in which the daughter’s
share in land was retained by the family.125
Though by the end of the nineteenth century the membership in Firqa-i
Jadid would match, if not outnumber their rival group, yet through their control
of Mʿārak, members of Firqa-i Qadim were seen as the representatives of the
community. It was in 1315 ah/1897 ce that Āgā Sayyid Muhammad, Sayyid
Mahdi’s son and successor would construct a major imāmbāda outside Srinagar,
at Budgam in central Kashmir. Soon in the mid-part of the twentieth century
they would take a rival Ashura procession in Srinagar, expanding their power and
influence on the city, marking rival territories of operation within the splintered
Shiʿi space of the city.
118
 Chapter 5

MOVING TOWARD A UNIFIED MUSLIM IDENTITY

The long-drawn nineteenth century represents a unique moment in the history

of Kashmiri Shiʿi society, when Shiʿi identity served as a tool for promoting
individual and collective group interest as well as the mobilization of the people
around shared rituals and sacred performative spaces and paths. On the surface
the Shiʿi, especially in the capital city Srinagar, had realized a cherished dream:
Mʿārak, the locus of the community’s collective memory was rebuilt, marṣiya
were publicly performed and for the first time Muharram procession was observed
through routes which were predominantly Sunni. In enunciating a distinct Shiʿi
identity publicly and negotiating it successfully against any antagonism from
the Sunnis, the Shiʿi eschewed restrain in favor of public commemoration. The
management of this public commemoration in turn gave impetus to the evolution
of a community leadership, which as we saw gradually erupted into inter-Shiʿi
factionalism.
The onset of the twentieth century witnessed a rising awareness of the challenges
posed by British colonialism and allied Christian missionaries’ activities, primarily
through the introduction of modern education and health services. The state of
Kashmiri Shiʿi society at the dawn of the new century and its responses to issues of
modern education, social justice, and political empowerment are the key themes
explored in this chapter.
The chapter also explores the birth of political consciousness in the Muslims
of Kashmir and how early twentieth century witnessed a coming together of
Shiʿi and Sunni Muslims of Kashmir, overlooking their mutual differences
and disagreements in favor of working toward a unified Muslim identity vis-à-
vis the Hindu rule. But the process of a Muslim collective while representing a
momentous change could not override ingrained inter-sectarian prejudices. The
chapter examines the processes through which the celebration of a collective
identification and political mobilization took place.

At the Start of a New Century

In Kashmir following the establishment of the Hindu Dogra kingdom, the

position of Kashmiri Shiʿi showed a marked improvement and as I detailed out
120 Shiʿism in Kashmir

in the previous chapter manifested into a discernible social, cultural, and visual
image of the community, exemplified by the reestablishment of Mʿārak and the
performance of marṣiya khwānī. The marked improvement of the affairs of the
community is also noted by Lawrence, who speaks about the Shiʿi’ as

a most respectable community, and in Srinagar many of them are men of good
position. They are true to one another, and are kind and helpful to poor members.
[. . .] In the city the Shiahs are chiefly shawl-weavers, and they practically
monopolize the papier-mache industry. The Shiahs are famous physicians. A
little experience enables one to tell a Shiah at once. They tie their turbans in a
peculiar way, and trim their whiskers differently from the Sunnis.1

The early Dogra maharajas had inherited appreciation for an urbane Persianate
culture from the Lahore darbār of Ranjit Singh. In Srinagar they patronized not
only Kashmiri Pandits but also members of the Muslim gentry. This included
not only the ḥakim but also the poets, calligraphers, and teachers. Both Gulab
Singh and his successor, Ranbir Singh, offered patronage to Persian poets, some of
whom were also Shiʿi. The poets Mīrzā Lāmʿih (d. around 1850s) and Mullā Mahdi
(d. 1895) were associated with the court and respected by the courtiers. In Gulab
Singh’s court, Lāmʿih also occasionally aided his distant cousin Ḥakim ʿAbdu’l
Raḥmān, the eldest son of Ḥakim ʿAẕim, in administrative affairs.2 Mahdi had also
served as the tutor to Pratap Singh, the last Dogra ruler of Kashmir, who received
some Persian education.3 Similarly, when the Bengali Bābū Nilambar Mukerjee4
was recruited as Chief Judge of Kashmir on the advice of the Chief Minister Divan
Kripa Ram, Ḥakim Ḥabib-al Lah (d. 1904) was officiated to teach him Persian.5
The Shiʿi influence in the court was primarily governed by the presence of
ḥakim, the physicians. The first family to represent this courtly presence was
the Mullās of Babapora, they were soon joined at the court by the Qizalbash family
and later by a family of ḥakims hailing from Nandpora,6 an isolated ward located
on the outskirts of the city, near the Nigeen Lake. Significantly also during the last
quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, two
Shiʿi royal physicians, Ḥakim Naqī Qizalbash7 (d.1914) and Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli (d.
1334 ah/1914 ce), died under mysterious circumstances in the court, leading
to the rumor that both had been murdered because of their political affiliations
with the rival factions within the court.8 Following Ranbir Singh’s death, the royal
court was deeply divided between Maharaja Pratap Singh (r. 1885–1925) and his
ambitious brother, Raja Amar Singh (d. 1909).9 Pratap Singh’s powers were to
be greatly curtailed due to the maneuvering of his brother, and after his forced
abdication in 1889, shifted to a ruling council in which the British Resident and
Amar Singh played a leading rule.10 In the troubled relation between Pratap Singh
and his brother, Ḥasan ʿAli and before him his father, Ḥakim Mahdi, had acted as
partisans of Amar Singh. In a family diary11 written by Mahdi’s grandson, Ḥakim
ʿAli Razā, on Pratap Singh’s accession to the throne, Mahdi is said to have been
removed from his job as the royal physician.12 The death of two royal physicians,
in questionable circumstances within a year of one another, does lend a certain
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 121

credence to the theory of political murder, as recalled in their family traditions.

Did the Shiʿi hakims act in unison at the court as partisans of Amar Singh which
resulted in their death or were the causes located somewhere else, in personal
rivalries among courtiers, is hard to establish in the absence of any direct evidence.
Still, given the contours of the court, and its Hindu character, the actual role of a
non-Hindu, non-Dogra courtier in any political maneuvering would have been
limited.13
In addition to the poets and the ḥakims, some of the leading calligraphers in
the city also hailed from the Shiʿi society. One of the oldest calligraphic families in
the city belonged to the Akhūnds of Zadibal, and it was in the nineteenth century
that one of the members from the family Akhūnd Muhammad ʿAli migrated to
Bombay and achieved some fame in the city as a calligrapher.14 Aside from the
Akhūnds, the Munshis of Babapora and Chinkral Moḥala also produced many
renowned calligraphers, some of whom were patronized by the Dogra darbār.
The oldest surviving work from a member of the Munshi family is an illuminated
divān of Ḥafiẓ Shirazī, copied by Mullā Muhammad Qāsim Hamdanī in 1201
ah/1796 ce (Figure 5.1). The manuscript which includes forty-eight paintings is an
important source for understanding the development of Kashmiri painting under
the Afghans.15 A poet who also wrote on religious subjects, Qāsim was a part of
the scholarly migration from Kashmir to Awadh but returned back to Kashmir
somewhere in the nineteenth century.16 Aside from Qāsim, another major figure
from the munshi family who would enjoy a great acclaim as a calligrapher, poet,
and teacher of Persian, Munshi Mustafa ʿAli (d. 1896), would train some of the
leading calligraphers of nineteenth-century Kashmir. Apart from his own son,
Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli, Mullā Mahdi, Munshi Aḥmad ʿAli Ghazī, Munshi Ṭalib,
Munshi Ḥaidar, Ḥakim Ḥabib-al Lah, Moulvi Mustafa, Mīrzā Ṭālib, and Mīrzā
Ḥaidar, also took classes with Mustafa, in poetry as well in the art of calligraphy.
A renowned marṣiya writer, who also taught Persian in the State School, Mustafa’s
students also included some leading Pandit courtiers including those from the Dhar
family.17 Mustafa’s son, Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli (d. 1933) would succeed his father as the
Head Persian teacher at the State School, which had been set up in the heart of the
city at Bāgh-i Dilāwar Khān.18 An accomplished calligrapher like his father, Ḥasan
would design the Persian inscription on the medal19 which was distributed among
native Indian chiefs and rajas to mark the Delhi Darbār of 1903.20 Aḥmad ʿAli Ghazī
was another Shiʿi calligrapher who acquired wide acclaim for his penmanship and
briefly relocated to Lahore, where he also taught a small circle of students.21 It was
during his sojourns in the plains of the sub-continent, that he joined a publishing
house, and calligraphed the first lithographic edition of Maulana Altāf Ḥusayn
Halī’s (d.1914) epic, Mūsāddasi-Madd o-Jazri-Islam (The Ebb and Tide of Islam) in
1879. Though Ghazī returned to Kashmir, many Shiʿi calligraphers from Kashmir
would permanently settle down in the plains, especially under the Shiʿi nawabs
of Rampur, and tālukdars such as Raja of Mahmudabad, finding employment as
calligraphers copying manuscripts on literature, religious works or Quran codex.22
While there was a limited local market for consumption of handwritten manuscripts
in Kashmir, the arrival of meticulously prepared large-sized lithographed books
122 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Figure 5.1 Divān of Ḥafiẓ Shirazī, copied by Mullā Muhammad Qāsim Hamdanī, 1796
(courtesy: Walter Art Museum, Maryland).

served as a novelty that adversely impacted the craft of calligraphers. A survey

of some of the leading private libraries among Kashmiri Shiʿi families highlights
this transformation,23 with most of the handwritten manuscripts from the second
half of the nineteenth century limited to works of Kashmiri marṣiyas, the biyaz, or
Quran codex. With shrinking local market, many calligraphers ventured outside,
some like Ghazī, also finding employment as a copyist with publishing houses.
Other prominent calligraphers who achieved fame in the nineteenth century
include Munshi Abū’l Ḥasan and his sons Munshi Muhammad Taqī and Muhamad
ʿAli of Chinkral Moḥala. In 1278 ah/1851 ce, Abū’l Ḥasan finalized a codex of
Quran commissioned by the courtier, Ḥakim ʿAẕim.24 Completed in two years’
time (Figure 5.2), this illuminated manuscript is one the finest example of art of
book illumination associated with Kashmir and recalls some of main the decorative
features of the codex commissioned by Muhammad Ismāʿīl, the Isfahanī merchant
in 1831. Outside Srinagar we find several calligraphers engaged in the production
of manuscripts dealing with religious sciences or particularly the marṣiya biyaz.
These include Sayyid Ḥusayn Rizvī, Sayyid Ibrahim Rizvī, Sayyid Mahdi Rizvī,
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 123

Figure 5.2 Quran codex, copied by Munshi Abū’l Ḥasan, 1851 (courtesy: Yasmin Ali).

Sayyid Rasūl Shāh, Sayyid ʿAbbas Shāh, Zakir Khwāja Aḥmad ʿAli, Asad Mīr, and
Akhund Ṣafdar Mīr.25
While the art of calligraphy could be picked by studying with an accomplished
master, the necessary lessons in penmanship along with elementary schooling
were usually undertaken at the moḥala maktab. Traditional education in the
city remained operational on two scales, a basic maktab level knowledge made
available by the akhunds and the pirs, and a high knowledge which remained the
preserve of a few scholarly families in the city. In the maktab an individual would,
in addition to Quran and the ritual knowledge of the faith, also be trained in basics
of mathematics. In certain instance these introductory classes included lessons
from the Persian poet Shaykh Sʿadī’s (d. 1292), Gulistān, Būstān and Pand Nāma
popularly known as Karimā. This basic learning provided in a moḥala maktab
or at home by a tutor constituted the essential of education for the Shiʿi gentry
both in the city and in villages. Depending on an individual’s interest, taste, and
understanding the maktab education could be curated to delve into a deeper
appreciation of Persian literature. Somewhere in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, the cleric, Ḥājjī Sayyid Ḥasan Rizvī wrote the Manzūm-Usūl-i Dīn in
Kashmiri, which describes the basic, essentials of the faith. This work, in addition
to Uṣūl al-Dīn (principles of religion), Furūʿ al-Dīn (ancillaries of religion) also
124 Shiʿism in Kashmir

included a section on Shikāyat-i namaz (doubts relating to prayers), in an easy-to-

memorize prose, enjoying great popularity among maktab going students.
The high knowledge, however, remained confined within a few families in the
city, the Mullās, Ansarīs, Shaykhs (from the Mullā Muqim family), and many of
the scholarly Sayyid families. In rural Kashmir, it broadly remained the preserve of
the Rizvī and Mūsāvī families, aside from the family of the elegy writer Mīrzā Abu’l
Qāsim26 (d. in the second quarter of the nineteenth century) and his maternal
uncle, Khwāja Muhammad Bāqir Gundī. The high knowledge was based on the
historical, literary, religious, and medical traditions of the Persianate world, and
manuscripts surviving in the libraries of the families mentioned include medicinal
works of Avicenna, work on grammar by Saʿad al-Dīn al Taftāzanī, Sullam
al-ʿUlūm a major work on logic written by Muḥib Allah al-Biharī (d. 1707),27 and
religious works including those of Shaykh Ṭūsī, ʿAllāma Ḥillī, Mullā Majlisī, works
of Shiʿi philosophers including Mīr Bāqir Dāmād, Mullā Muḥsin Kāshānī, Mullā
Ṣadrā, and other similar works. In most cases, home doubled as the school, lessons
were studied with father, uncle, or a grandfather. Though in the eighteenth and
early nineteenth century, transnational scholarly exchanges had strongly featured
among Kashmiri Shiʿi scholarly families linking them with leading scholars of
Iran and Iraq, we find that relatively few families participated in this scholarly
exchange as we approach toward the end of the nineteenth century. The most
notable exception being the Ansarī family, and the descendants of Mullā Muqim
commonly known as the Shaykh family. A possible reason for this could be the
large-scale migration of ulema families from Kashmir toward Awadh in the early
to mid-nineteenth century who then became a part of the discourse and cultural
life of South Asian mainland, though many retained a degree of association with
Kashmir till early twentieth century. The relocation of a branch of Jalālī and Rizvī
family from Kashmir to the shrine cities of Iraq in the early nineteenth century
is representative of this phenomenon.28 Simultaneously, we also find evidence of
individuals, studying with Sunni teachers, outside of Kashmir, especially those
who were teaching in colleges that had been set up by the British in Lahore. The
royal physician and marṣiya writer, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli in a letter to Nawab Fateḥ
ʿAli Qizalbash Khān (d. 1923) of Lahore,29 mentions his intention to participate
in private classes on a reading of Mullā Ṣadrā, and logic with the renowned Sunni
teacher (and later Principal of the Oriental College, Lahore), Mufti ʿAbdullah
Tonki (d. 1920).30 Earlier Ḥasan’s cousin, the poet Ḥakim Ḥabib-al Lah would
during his stay at Lahore take lessons with Sunni teachers of adab (literature).
Still, such cross-sectarian scholarly exchanges were limited in terms of both
their occurrence to a narrow audience and the settings of geographies outside of
Kashmir. A similar occurrence within Kashmir during the nineteenth century or
even early twentieth century is unheard of. Curiously, we know of Hindus who
studied under Shiʿi teachers, receiving their training in Persian adab with the
poet-calligrapher Munshi Mustafa ʿAli and his son Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli.31
Within Kashmir, the maktab of the nineteenth century, in both the urban and
the rural setting, remained a highly gendered space, with no access for any girl
students. Acquiring and perpetuating knowledge was a male privilege, women
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 125

remained confined to household activities, their public appearance conditioned

by observance of the pardah. Shāhzada Begam (d.1983) belonged to the Munshi
family of Bābapora, her father and grandfather were both Head Persian teachers at
the State School, yet she remained illiterate.32 In her travelogue, Ṣughrā Hemayun
Mīrzā, similarly points out that the wife of the jāgīrdār and community elder,
Sayyid Ḥusayn Shāh Jalālī is illiterate.33 In rare instances of women literacy, we
find education was limited to acquiring a reading knowledge of Quran. The only
exception with some material evidence, is of Fatima Begam, Mullā Muqim’s
daughter who is reported as not only being educated, but a scholar. In the Shakyh
family library, a complete codex of Quran exits which is assumed to be copied by
her somewhere in the nineteenth century.34
During my study, I came across numerous instances where people would
recollect how in their childhood, entire tāngah (horse-drawn carriage) would be
draped in white cloth for maintaining the pardah of women in travel. Though
such observances were mostly limited to the elite, in the city as well as the
villages, it does reflect on the level of gender stratification in the society and the
concern for privacy. Similarly at home, the male space for meeting, gathering,
and discussions, the divan khāna, would be off bound for women of the house
limiting them to the knowledge of cooking, childcare, and household chores. It
is only during the twentieth century that we find basic education being provided
to women. In many instances these literate women would later serve as the first
teachers in their families, teaching the letters and basic rituals of the faith, wazu,
nimaz, and roza to children. Rarely do we find instances when a woman would
teach to the wider community. The only recorded case of a women teaching in
the nineteenth century is of again of Fatima Begam, who used to offer lessons to
girls. In the twentieth century, there are more reports of women teaching Quran
and rituals of players. Fizā Begam, wife of Sayyid Ḥaidar Rizvī of Kathmaidan,
Zadibal used to offer limited lessons to the girls in the area, mostly drawn from
her extended family. Among the Ansarīs, Sakina Begam, daughter of Moulvi
Ḥaidar ʿAli, taught the young children in the family. Similarly, Farzana Begam,
wife of the revered ʿalim, Ḥājjī Sayyid Ḥasan Rizvī is said to have taught at home
to girls from her immediate family, but this is by no means established.35 The only
known case of a maktab for girls, was that of Sughra Begam, daughter of Ḥakim
ʿAbdullah, who some years after her marriage to Malik Ghulām Ḥasan of Zadibal
started teaching girl students.36 It is possible that many such stories were repeated
across the geographical spread of Kashmiri Shiʿi society in the early twentieth
century, but they remain uncharted and unmapped37. Significantly, all the women
mentioned earlier operated in an exceptional family circumstance: Fizā Begam
was a widow, Sughra Begam and Farzana Begam were both issueless, while Sakina
Begam had separated from her husband. The disruption in their matrimonial
life can be posited as a possible reason, for providing them with the prospect to
operate within a scholarly space that was otherwise the privilege of men.
Coming to the Dogra rule we find that in the nineteenth century, various
members of the Ansarī family including, Mullā Ṣadiq I, Akund Mullā Javad, Moulvi
ʿAbdullah II, Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli, Mullā Ṣadiq II, and Mullā Muhammad ʿAbbās
126 Shiʿism in Kashmir

would offer classes, but these were limited to the elite of the city. The operation of
the Christian missionaries in the city during Ranbir Singh’s rule, with its focus on
western education was a severe challenge to the traditional and limited means of
educating, both among the Shiʿi and Sunni community. The challenges and the
responses marked the transition of Kashmiri Muslim society to modern times.
Much more than the religious scholars it was the pirs, who would maintain a
daily contact with the community. The pirs, a majority of who belonged to Sayyid
families, a few of whom were religious scholars of some standing, were the one
that men and women would approach for a tāwīz (amulets), used for protection, to
ward off an evil eye, for health, wealth, for a marriage, or any material or spiritual
need that would arise. They would be also the first recourse for seeking remedy
from an ailment, reciting Quranic verses over the ill. It was the pirs would also
officiate on ceremonies related to marriage and death, especially in rural Kashmir.

Phyīr Circuit, the Annual Trade Journey to the Plains

Away from the court, it was the merchants who not only financed community
projects but employed many in the Shiʿi society. Unlike the Sunnis, the Shiʿi
society was highly urbanized, half the Shiʿi population was in Srinagar alone.38
Given the non-agrarian base of the city’s economy and the widespread illiteracy,
the major source of employment in the city was in the craft sector. For reasons
that remain largely unexplained, the Shiʿi community had not been able to
develop a community of tāifdar-those engaged in trades which would have
offered employment in an urban setting, these include jobs such as butcher,
baker, carpenter, and milkman. Similarly, in the craft sector the Shiʿi presence
was limited to shawl and papier-mâché, Shiʿi engagement as, silver or goldsmith,
ironsmith, paper makers, lapidarist is unheard of. The argument that is generally
posited for the lack of Shiʿi presence in many of these trades is the absence of a
secure environment in which to engage in a commercial activity on a day-to-day
basis.39 The sectarian conflicts in the city, which erupted periodically lend strong
support to this hypothesis, but it is difficult to posit when the Shiʿi isolation from
the bazar life became a permanent feature of the city life. The bazar—its market
economy—was driven by processes of interaction. After facing repeated riots, the
mood among the Shiʿi was to minimize any interaction with the Sunni majority.
In the aftermath of the riots of 1830, many Shiʿis living in the moḥalas of Malkah-
Shampora, Hasanabad, and Zadibal fled into the interiors of the Dal Lake, self-
isolating themselves from the city at large and evolving a unique lifestyle centered
on the waters of the lake (Figure 5.3). This forced movement away from the city
also resulted in a loss of skills available to the community at large.
In 1873, out of the nearly 30,000 shawl weavers, a thousand were Shiʿi, yet
these thousand weavers constituted around 6.5 percent of the total estimated Shiʿi
population of Kashmir,40 and 14 percent of the urban population of Kashmiri
Shiʿi. Most of the shawl kār-khāna were in Srinagar, or in south Kashmir which
had a negligible Shiʿi presence. Discounting the negligible presence of rural Shiʿi
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 127

Figure 5.3 Muharram procession in the interiors of Dal Lake, Srinagar, 2021 (courtesy:
Sayed Shahriyar).

population in the shawl trade, we could approximate that nearly fifteen percent of
the Shiʿi in the city were employed as weavers. Yet for the most part, the shawlbafs
existed as semi-free workers, dependent on the mercy of the kār-khāna owners
and squeezed by the excessive taxation of the darbār.41 In many of the European
accounts of the region, written during the Dogra rule, we find repeated mention of
the impoverished state of the Kashmiri shawlbafs:

The shawl-weavers get miserable wages, and are allowed neither to leave Kashmir
nor change their employment, so that they are nearly in the position of slave.42

In 1865, the shawlbafs of Srinagar had taken to the streets, protesting against the
Maharaja’s in charge for the shawl department (dārōghah-i daag shawl), Raj Kāk
Dhar. The protestors were charged by the soldiers and in the ensuing stampede,
twenty-eight weavers were killed, the first major causality of a confrontation
between the Hindu rulers and his Muslim majority subjects. While the industry
had survived, the riots of 1871 and the effects of the Franco-German war had
adversely affected the Shiʿi kār-khānadars.
Within the traditional Shiʿi merchant families, after Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli, no
one from the community of Shiʿi shawl merchants and kār-khānadars achieved a
similar position of intimacy at the court. Following Muhammad ʿAli’s departure
from Kashmir, his family’s fortunes diminished considerably. While the big Shiʿi
kār-khāna owners belonging to the Jalālī, Bābā, and Malik families continued to
128 Shiʿism in Kashmir

operate, by the end of the nineteenth century they were no longer major players
on the shawl circuit, which was increasingly being dominated by Sunni merchants.
Before the riots of 1870 we find that aside from the traditional kār-khāna
owners, trading in shawls had given rise to a new group of prosperous traders in
the city, many of them recent arrivals to the city. Somewhere in the 1860s, Ḥājjī
Sayyid Naqī Shāh (d. 1926) belonging to a family of religious scholars, left his
hereditary profession, and started to trade in Shiʿi villages, peddling in cotton,
linen, and silken pūzh (women headscarves). The family had arrived in Srinagar
in the early 1840s, settling down in Zadibal, before constructing a house in
the area in 1848.43 The Sikh rule as I have shown earlier marks the first major
movement of Shiʿi families from rural centers of Shiʿi population to the capital city
of Srinagar during the nineteenth century. Most families such as the Rizvīs
settled down in Zadibal, some, albeit very few, including the Ansarīs preferred to
establish themselves in the heart of the city in areas of mixed population, which
in addition to Sunnis also had considerable Hindu presence44. Returning to Sayyid
Naqī, we find him diversifying into the more profitable shawl business, somewhere
during the 1860s. While, not a kār-khāna owner himself, Naqī represented the
increasing class of traders who would act as the middleman in the shawl business,
working with kār-khāna owners as well as artisans—the embroiders, without a
formal establishment of their own. With an expanding business, Naqī was joined
by his nephew, Ḥājjī Sayyid Aḥmad Shāh (d. 1949) who on the advice of his uncle
settled down in Zadibal. Among Naqī’s son, while the eldest Sayyid Ḥasan was
educated in religious sciences by Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī, another son, Sayyid
Ḥaidar would continue in the shawl trade, and be the first in the family who went
on- phyīr.
Phyīr came to be associated with the annual winter journey, that mid-ranking
Kashmiri traders would take into various cities of the Indian plains to sell various
shawl products. During their three-to-four-month journey into the plains, these
traders would sell and earn enough to maintain their families and workers for
the year. The operation of the phyīr during the pleasant winter months made the
journey tolerable for the Kashmiris, who were otherwise unaccustomed to the
heat of the Indian plains. Most of the Shiʿi traders engaged in the phyīr, would plan
their journey in a manner that their return would coincide with the Navrouz,45
the major festival of Kashmiri Shiʿis occurring in spring. The phyīr was not a Shiʿi
phenomenon, Sunni traders also participated in this trade journey. For those
engaged in this trade circuit, the clientele included both European colonial officials
and native aristocracy comprising the landowning families (jāgīrdārs) and more
importantly members of the new Indian bourgeois class, the rich bank merchants,
the western educated natives serving in the colonial administration. Calcutta, the
capital of British colonial administration in India, remained the main center of the
phyīr, though some traders also operated in Bombay.
The margins of profit in the phyīr were substantial, depending upon the skillset
of the trader. Thus, Sayyid Aḥmad would part ways with his maternal uncle, Sayyid
Naqī Shāh, set up a separate business along with his brothers Sayyid Muhammad
and Sayyid Razā, with Muhammad embarking on the phyīr to Calcutta.46 Both
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 129

Sayyid Naqī and Sayyid Aḥmad would buy considerable amount of land in Zadibal,
build new houses, and when in the early twentieth century, the government opened
Numaish: The Exhibition Bazar, they would also set separate shops in the bazar.
Aside from the Rizvīs, other Shiʿi families from Srinagar who were major
players in phyīr, included that of the Mīrs47 and the Ghazīs also living in Zadibal.
From Hasanabad, one of the first Shiʿi trader who figured on the phyīr circuit
during the early part of the nineteenth century, was Ḥājjī ʿAli Muhammad. In the
years leading up to partition of South Asia, many individuals from Srinagar joined
the annual phyīr, a tradition which continues to this day among both Kashmiri
Shiʿi and Sunni community.
At Calcutta, the presence of Shiʿi traders operating in the phyīr circuit was
preceded by a few Kashmiri Shiʿi families who owned their own kothis in the city,
serving as their residence as well as showroom. In addition to Mīrzā Muhamamd
ʿAli, we know of Mīrzā Ḥusayn ʿAli, Sayyid Naqī Rizvī and Ḥājjī Ṣafdar Bābā48
who had their own kothis in the city selling shawl products. The phyīr traders,
living in rented accommodation, would sell their merchandise at the house of
their prospective clients. Over the years individuals engaged in the phyīr created
a new network of relations with their patrons in the city, at times returning to the
city with advance orders from their client families. Sayyid Ḥusayn Rizvī (d. 1989),
Naqī’s grandson is said to have been the supplier of pashmina to the Tagore family,
most famously the poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (d. 1941).49 The annual
movement of people from Kashmir into mainland South Asia also resulted in the
introduction of customs and rituals which originated among Shiʿi communities of
Calcutta and Lucknow. In Khulasat al-Azkar, the Iranian scholar Mullā Muḥsin Fayd
Kashanī (d. 1681) provides an assortment of Shiʿi rites, prayers, and supplications.
One of the practices mentioned in the Khulāsat al-Adhkār is of sageh-i akhuvvat50or
as it is commonly known in Kashmir sageh baradarī; a brotherhood established
between a group of two or more individuals. It was the Kashmiri traders engaged in
phyīr who introduced this ritual in Kashmir which became popular in the Zadibal
and Hasanabad, the moḥalas which served as the nucleus of phyīr trade among the
Kashmiri Shiʿis. By the second half of the twentieth century, the practice spread
to rural Kashmir, and we also hear of instances where it was introduced among
women, functioning as a bond of sisterhood. It was also during this time that the
ritual of shabī—a ritual coffin, taken out in a procession to commemorate Imām
ʿAli’s martyrdom was introduced in the mourning ceremonies of Kashmiri Shiʿi
community. All the main initiators of this novelty, Ḥājjī Asghar Mīr, Sayyid Safdar
Rizvī, and Sayyid Rasūl Rizvī were associated with the phyīr trade, and in the
oral traditions of the community the practice is believed to have imitated rituals
prevalent among the Shiʿi of Calcutta and Lucknow.51
The mobility and integration of Shiʿi traders and merchants in geographically
distant locales and cultures were not limited to the plains of South Asia or the
mountain borderland of Ladakh-Skardu-Baltistan alone. As opposed to the trader’s
journeying into the Indian plains, Sayyid Tūrab Shāh Madnī (d. 1364 ah/1944 ce), a
merchant from Narbal in Srinagar, operated on the Trans-Himalayan trade circuit,
taking annual trade caravans into Yarkand (in present-day Xinjiang). His brother-
130 Shiʿism in Kashmir

in-law, Sayyid ʿAli Shāh, was the last Shiʿi merchant who traveled into Yarkand
right up till 1947, owned a house in the city, even marrying into a Yarkandi family.
In, 1911 the city of Yarkand housed three to four hundred families from Baltistan,
Gilgit, Chitral, and Kashmir, many of them settled for three to four generations in the
city.52 While prominent Sunni business house of Shāhdads, Tibet Baqals, and others
continued their operation into Yarkand, Shiʿi presence in the area became limited
to the family of Tūrab Shāh and ʿAli Shāh. Earlier, ʿAli Shāh’s father Sayyid Aḥmad
and grandfather, had also participated in the Trans-Himalayan trade, and according
to family traditions died in Yarkand.53 In official colonial accounts we find some
isolated reports on Tūrab Shāhs operation in the Yarkand area. During 1914–16,
Tūrab Shāh approached the British Resident at Srinagar for help in resolving two
unpaid debts from Chinese subjects of Yarkand. Earlier appeals to authorities in
Yarkand, including the Amban of Yarkand (Imperial Qing Resident of the six cities
of Altishahr)54 for resolving the issue proved unsuccessful, highlighting some of the
difficulties for Kashmiri traders doing business in the region.55 After the fall of the
short-lived Second East Turkistan Republic to China in 1949, the family returned to
Kashmir. Unlike Tūrab Shāh, most Kashmiri Shiʿi engaged in the Trans-Himalayan
trade, limited their activities to Ladakh, focusing on Baltistan and Skardu, the Shiʿi
populated area of this Himalayan borderland. While some like Munshi ʿAziz Bhat
(d. 1948), a Kashmiri-origin trader, settled down permanently in the area, others
combined business interests with missionary activities. Leaving his job as a patwarī
(revenue officer), ʿAziz Bhat would successfully set up his own business house,
Munshi ʿAziz Bhat & Sons, constructing a caravanserai at Kargil, on the banks of
river Suru. This caravanserai, second in Kargil, was the first private sarai on the
Indian side of the Trans-Himalayan trade network and formed an important staging
post for traders traveling to Leh, the capital city of Ladakh or proceeding toward
Skardu.56 Though Kashmiri Shiʿi interests in the Trans-Himalayan trade across
the Karakorum mountains faded significantly in the second half of the nineteenth
century, with most of the business centered around cities in the Indian plains, yet
some connections linking the Shiʿis of Kashmir with their co-religionist in Ladakh
continued. Occasionally, these links also resulted in continued ventures of business
for the Kashmiri Shiʿi.

During the early part of the nineteenth century, after the riots of 1830, Mullā
Muqim’s elder brother Mullā Mahdi had migrated to Baltistan.57 He settled down
at Kharmang, a small principality which also formed the first stage of rest on the
route between Kargil and Skardu. Accompanied by a Kashmir sayyid, Sayyid Akbar
Shāh, the two helped in introducing many Kashmiri customs to the area. Mahdi
was also responsible for constructing small imāmbādas in the region, known as
ḥusaniyā. The success of his work in the region can be judged in how a century later,
European explorers arriving in the region would speak about the inhabitants of
Kharmang as being “remarkable for their zeal as Shiʿi Mahummadans.”58 Drawing
upon the links of discipleship, later generations of ulemas from Muqim’s family
also maintained their religious connections to the area, additionally participating
in trade centered on this Himalayan region.59
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 131

Similarly, the ruler of Kharamang, Rajā Jʿafar Khān, also formed friendly
relations with the munshi family of Babapora, after Munshi Muhammad
ʿAli (d. 1902) was appointed under Ranbir Singh as head of the shafā- khāna
(dispensary) at Skardu. Earlier during the ṣubedarī of Shaykh Ghūlam Mohyi-al
Dīn, Muhammad ʿAli’s father Munshi Yūsuf(d. 1883) and uncle Mullā ʿAziz-al
Lah had also been deputed to Skardu after its conquest by the Sikh army in
1841. During his stay in Skardu, ʿAziz-al Lah copied a popular collection of
Shiʿi prayer manuals, Zad-al Mad in the fort of Skardu.60 One of the sons of
the ʿalim Sayyid Zamān Shāh (the first mutwalī of imāmbāda at Hassanabad),
Sayyid Muhammad Taqī also settled down in Skardu combing his missionary
work in the area with trade in the Trans-Himalayan region, before his son Sayyid
Muhammad left for Nanital to work as a civil contractor for the British colonial
administration.
Similarly, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Sayyid Fazal
Shāh (d. 1354 ah/1935 ce) a Mūsāvī Sayyid from Anderkote in north Kashmir,
migrated to Skardu, settling down in lower Skardu. A polymath, Fazal Shāh
worked in Skardu as a cleric, a physician, and a poet, who composed verses not
only in Persian as well as in his native Kashmiri but also in Balti, the language of
Baltistan.61 While individuals like Mullā Mahdi, Sayyid Fazal, and Mullā ʿAziz-al
Lah represented the movement of Shiʿi gentry—the ḥakims and the ulema from
Kashmir toward Ladakh—we also come across craftsmen, laborers, and farmers
who fled to the region in the aftermath of riots that plagued Kashmir. Working as
barbers, weavers, goldsmiths, and farmers, members of the Thākr, Mīr, and Rathir
family arrived in the village of Zanga in Skardu somewhere after 1830 permanently
settling in the region.62
The continuing penetration of Kashmiri Shiʿi clerics into Ladakh can also be
seen in the twentieth century, when the trader, Tūrab Shāh enlisted the help of
Sayyid Rasūl Rizvī (d. 1960) a Najaf-trained Kashmiri seminarian, to help him in
distributing his religious dues from the khums money. While advising the trader,
Rasūl also used the opportunity to widely preach in Ladakh, before marrying
and settling down in the village of Chushoot near Leh. Kashmir’s connection
with Baltistan was also strengthened by a political event which resulted in forced
dislocation of families from the region toward Srinagar. In 1891, the rulers of
Nagar and Hunza in the Gilgit-Baltistan region revolted against the Dogra rule.
Assisted by the British, the Dogras managed to reconquer the area, and Azur Khān
the raja of Hunza was sent to Srinagar as a prisoner. After Azur’s death in 1922, his
surviving family members and retainers remained in Srinagar maintaining their
native customs, language as well as links to their homeland. Gradually, the members
of this small community, known as Bota Rajā, also established matrimonial links
with Kashmiri Shiʿi community, especially after 1947 when land routes between
Kashmir and the Skardu–Gilgit region were shut, sealing the community from its
native land. Following Azur Khān’s defeat, he was succeeded by Mīr Zafar Zahid
Khān (d. 1905) as the Mir of Nagar though given his ill health the region was
managed by his son, Sir Sikander Khān (d. 1940) who eventually succeeded his
father as the Mīr of Nagar in 1905. Maintaining their link with Kashmir, we find
132 Shiʿism in Kashmir

that Sikander, who in Dogra records is described as “a strict Shiah,” took a second
wife, the daughter of a Kashmiri Shiʿi ʿalim.63

Chaat-i haal, Papier-Maché, and a New Class of Shiʿi Merchants

Though a large number of Kashmiri Shiʿis were engaged in the shawl trade, papier-
mâché had also emerged as a significant contributor to the community economy.
Most writers in the nineteenth century associate the craft exclusively with the Shiʿi
community of Kashmir, practiced within the city alone, which had greatly suffered
from European market preferences, about which Lawrence writes:

Papier-maché has perhaps suffered more than any other industry from the taste
of foreign purchasers.64

As opposed to the shawl industry with large-scale kār-khāna, given its limited
market papier-mâché mostly survived as a household practice in the neighborhood.
The workshop or the chaat-i hal (lit: apprentices place), would simply be the
living room or the attic floor of the house of the master craftsman(vasta), where
the artist and his apprentices would work. The apprentices (chaat) would help
in preparing the mineral and vegetable colors, prepare the paint surface, the
artwork itself was the domain of the master—the vasta. One of the renowned
papier-mâché artists from the nineteenth century was Sayyid Tūrab (d. around
1894) about whom Sufi says “there were artists in the past, who carried the art
of papier-mâché to the highest pitch of excellence, [. . .], and the last one was
Sayyid Tūrab who died over fifty years ago.”65Though the craft flourished in the
moḥalas of Hasanabad, Kamangarpora, and Zadibal, barring a few names we have
no memory of the masters who were associated with this craft in the nineteenth
century. In Risāla-i Sayf al Ṣāram, Sayyid Bāqir names some of the descendants of
Bāqir Joo (deceased in 1880s), a naqash (papier-mâché arist) from Kamangarpora
whose family continued in the craft.66 Additionally, unlike most other craft
practices in the region which operated as hereditary occupations, while a son
could, and at times did inherit his father’s chaat-i haal, there was no way of
ensuring that a vasta would be succeeded in his craft by a son, the stroke of the
brushwork could be practiced but not inherited (Figure 5.4). Products prepared
in the chaat-i haal would be sold to traders to display in their showrooms, most
of which were located on the Jhelum riverfront in kothis. Shiʿi presence along
the riverfront was limited to two small sections near Nawa Kadal and Arwat at
Fateh Kadal, but we have no account of Shiʿi merchant owning a kothi in either
of these two areas. The first major Shiʿi owned kothi on the riverfront was only
set up in the early twentieth century, when an Afghan trader of pearls, Ḥājjī Jaʿfar
Khān settled down in the city and bought a kothi at Zaina Kadal from the family
of Khwāja Mohyi-al Dīn Gandrū.67 The river which passed through the center of
the city served as the principal transportation spine as well as the public interface
of the city. Major shrines, mosques, temples, and residences were located on the
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 133

Figure 5.4 A papier-mâché chaat-i haal in nineteenth-century Srinagar (courtesy: British

Library).

riverfront, including the residences of the city merchant—the kothis which also
served as the business establishment for these merchants. With an increasing
inflow of European into the region, vacationing in the valley to escape the summer
heat of the plains, the traditional diwān- khāna (living room) of the kothis were
reinvented as the “showroom” where the crafts of the region were put on display.
J. Duguid, who arrived in Kashmir during the summer of 1870, describes in some
detail the interaction in these kothis between prospective European buyers and
the Kashmiri traders.

Passing down the city you receive the salaams of the shawl and other merchants
whose places you have visited and temptations resisted [. . .]. Shawl merchants,
nearly all Muhammedans, cash cheques on the principal cities of India [. . .].

Their show-rooms, principally on the river banks with balconies of lattice- work,
during summer open, and in winter closed with paper, are posts of vantage
from which they watch their British customers proceeding along the river.
The merchant, his head man, sons or brothers, rush down to meet you as they
see your boat approach escort you to the show-room, and as soon as you have
entered it call for “cha,” the name for tea brought by the Portuguese, and thus
spread through the Asiatic world; it comes from Ladakh. A row of arm-chairs is
placed for European visitors [. . .].
134 Shiʿism in Kashmir

We have gone through the merchant’s stock, purchased some trifling articles,
and rise to leave. His “Cha” we have declined, but he insists on our taking a
basketful of almonds and raisins, sweetmeats, sugar candy, or preserves.68

More than half a century later, Duguid’s experience with the traders and merchants
of Srinagar is mirrored in the accounts of the socialite and actress, Yvonne
Fitzroy(d. 1971), who served as Private Secretary to the Marchioness of Reading.
Yvonne who accompanied the Marchioness and her husband the Viceroy, Lord
Reading during their state visit to Kashmir in October 1921,69 writes about a
similar encounter during her stay in Srinagar:

Once I was entertained to a Persian breakfast by the leading papier-mâché

manufactures, and never before have I eaten so much or felt so sick! There were,
I think, twenty-four courses, all fearfully and wonderfully made.70

Similarly, W Wakefield, a British doctor, who arrived in Srinagar five years after
Duguid speaks about the spectacle of city life carried on the riverfront. This includes
the Maharaja promenading on the river along with his darbār and European guest
to showcase his latest acquisition,71 a steam boat gifted by Queen Victoria (r.
1837–1901), to European visitors eagerly sought by the native merchants from
their kothi “overlooking the river.”72 Most of the kothis along the riverfront were
owned by Sunni merchants,73 a majority of which, especially those dealing in
Kashmiri Art were located at Fateh Kadal (Third Bridge). The major showrooms
operating from the kothis of Fateh Kadal which dealt with the Europeans included,
Samad Shāh, Ḥabib Shāh, Bahar Shāh & Sons,74 Ḥabib Joo & Sons, Ganymede,
Subḥana & Sons, Kabir Joo & Sons, Lasso & Sons, Khizr Mohammad, Ṣidik Joo&
Sons, Aḥmad Allah, Ghulām Ḥusayn, A Peer, and Ghulām Mohyi-al Dīn & Sons,75
all of which were Sunni owned. And it was in their showroom that the papier-
mâché artifacts of the Shiʿi vasta, would be displayed, the sale negotiated by a
mechanism simply known as “on approval.” Under the system of operation, the
Shiʿi vasta would receive the money for his goods, only after they were sold to
a buyer. As a part of this transaction, the Sunni showroom owner’s commission,
which comprised the profit he made from the actual sale as opposed to the rate
that was previously fixed with the vasta, could and did vary depending about his
selling skills. And these skills did vary with individuals and circumstances. When
a young American visiting Srinagar, ignored the advice of a British explorer on
procurement of precious stone, the piqued Britisher advised a Kashmiri merchant
selling stone to try his luck with the naïve American. The merchant managed to
sell to the American, cut color glass made in Paris as sapphires, for an incredible
amount of eight hundred rupees, the actual price being less than a hundred!
With an increase in the volume of Europeans visiting Kashmir, especially after
the setting up British Residency in Kashmir, we find a corresponding increase in
the commercial activity taking place in Srinagar. In a period, of less than half a
century, fortunes were made as new business establishments rose to prominence
on the entrepreneurial strength of a single generation. Unlike many other cities
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 135

of the Indian plains, Srinagar did not possess an organized bazar. Rather than a
row of shops on a major street or important urban avenue,76 as seen in some of
the cities of medieval Indian, Srinagar had evolved a unique urban morphology
centered around the river Jhelum and a series of water canals: Nallah Mar, Tsunth
Kul, Shāh Kul, Katti Kul, Lachma Kul, and the Nowpaora-Khawja Yarbal channel.
Major supplies in the city would arrive on the Jhelum in boats: the dunga and
behak before disembarking on the many ghats of the city. From the ghats these
supplies would be manually transported through narrow gullies and kuchas to
the residences and workshops. The only shop to be found would invariably be
located at the rear of the moḥala, catering to the immediate need of the residents;
the shop of the pujj (butcher), kandur (baker), an occasional tailor shop, and the
quintessential wani dukan selling everything from salt to cloth. The absence of
the much fetishized “Oriental Bazar,” from the landscape of the city, did leave a
vivid impression on the Europeans arriving in the region during the early years of
Dogra rule:

There is no respectable quarter, not a single good street; scarcely even a single
respectable bazaar, considering the size of the place. And what is true of Srinagar
is more than true of all the smaller towns.77

By early 1900s the few shops had expanded into a row of shops on some of the
major streets of the city.78 In addition, two of the seven bridges on the Jhelum
had shops on them, as also some of the smaller bridges on the Nallah Mar canal,
offering a unique if limited shopping experience. It was only around 1865, that
the city got its first organized market, New Bazar (popularly known as Maharaj
Gunj), in the heart of the city near Shaykh Moḥala.79 The bazar, approached from
stone steps leading up from the river, was designed as “a great square building with
open courtyards in it, the building itself consisting of innumerable little houses in
which the ground floor is usually devoted to manufacturing.”80 Nevertheless, it was
Fateh Kadal with its kothis opening onto the river, that remained the real center
of craft trade in the city. During the late 1920s, the Bund would be developed
upriver near the British Residency and would serve as an exclusive European
promenade, housing the banks, stores, and firms dealing in Kashmir craft owned
by Europeans, non-native Parsis and some of the Kashmiri-owned showrooms
that relocated from the inner city.
When many of the kothis at Fateh Kadal were burned in a severe fire during
Maharaja Hari Singh’s (r. 1925–49) reign,81 the owners were then provided land by
the Maharaja near at Bund, to set up their showroom. This relocation marked the
end of Fateh Kadal as the nucleus of showroom trade related to what is described
as the “Arts of Kashmir.”
Most of the travelogues written between the 1870s and 1940s82 portray the
Kashmiri showroom owners as a group of incessant peddlers, competing among
themselves, using guile and flattery to obtain a sale from the colonial visitor.
The showroom owner or his agent is a charming and at times irritating figure
who is always lurking in his boat, waiting the moment to seize upon the unwary
136 Shiʿism in Kashmir

European.83 In his description of the New Bazar, Oscar Eckenstein, an explorer

who arrived in the city in 1885 gives full vent to the colonials’ derision for the
native in his impression of the city’s traders:

As soon as I set foot on the lowest step in getting out of my boat, I was surrounded
by a yelling crowd of native shopmen, each of them shouting out that he was the
only honest man there—that he sold cheaper and better things than anybody
else—that all the others were thieves and rogues, and such-like.84

One of the establishments that would gradually challenge this perception was that
of Suffering Moses, which would over the years also emerge as one of the main
Shiʿi-owned business enterprise. The firm was started by papier-mâché artist, Ḥājjī
Ṣafdar Wanī (d. around 1950s) and his brother Ghulām Ḥusayn Wanī85 in the
1880s, initially dealing only in papier-mâché before expanding into other crafts.
Somewhere later in the twentieth century, Ṣafdar would shift his showroom to a
kothi at Fateh Kadal.86 Ṣafdar also worked as a successful government contractor
on major infrastructure works that commenced during the reign of Maharaja Hari
Singh (r. 1925–47). Writing in 1900, Isabel Savory captures both the fame of the
showroom and the persona of the man who was responsible for establishing one of
the most recognized and trusted firms dealing with the Arts of Kashmir:

we went to the shop of Suffering Moses, well known to every visitor in Srinagar.
[. . .]. He had already visited our camp that morning and had left his card [. . .]
Suffering Moses, as he is always called, and now calls himself, no sooner caught
sight of us on the river, than he was into kishty and after us. At last, personally
conducted to his own bazzar, we were invited to sit down and given tea, [. . .],
while the Sufferer, an old bearded man, who, after the manner of the East, had
dyed his beard bright red, and wore a skull-cap and a long garment trimmed with
fur, displayed his papier mâché and ornamental woodwork, his carved wood and
copper tables, and his silver and silver-gilt bowls, goblets, candlesticks, photo
frames, boxes, and what not from a vast selection we made various choices, to be
packed then and there and sent direct to England. This he fulfilled to the letter.87

While Ṣafdar’s dealing with the Europeans resembled that of his contemporaries,
it was his nephew, Ḥājjī Mohyi-al Dīn (1912–2001), who would transform the
functioning of the firm, and in the process the trade. Mohyi-al Dīn represented
the second generation of Kashmiri showroom owners, and the deference that had
marked the earlier exchange between the Kashmir traders and the colonial sahibs
and memsahibs, had matured into a more balanced relation of almost equals.
Numerous anecdotes have been recorded about Mohyi-al Dīn refusing to sell his
products to buyers, whom he thought to be less discerning of the craftsmanship
involved. This would have been an unheard sacrilege in the earlier generation of
his father and uncle.88
Along with the Suffering Moses, the other Shiʿi-run showroom set up along the
riverfront was that owned by members of the Bānkā family. In the Handbook to
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 137

Kashmir, written in 1933 for the benefit of European visitors to the region, only
two Shiʿi-owned showrooms find a mention in the list of thirty-three showrooms
in the city selling objects and curios related to Kashmiri crafts; AA Bānkā & Sons
at Bund and Suffering Moses at Fateh Kadal.89 The firm AA Bānkā & Sons was also
established by a papier-mâché artist, Akbar ʿAli Bānkā in 1892, and had their
first major break in 1928, when they got a commission from Viscount Goshen,
the Governor of Madras. In 1930, after doing the furniture for Viceregal lodge
at Shimla, the firm was given a Warrant of Appointment by the Viceroy, Lord
Irwin (1926–31). This was followed by a commission for the new Viceroy House
at Delhi (Rashtrapati Bhawan), executed under the supervision of the architect,
Sir Edward Lutyen.90 Somewhere in the 1920s the firm shifted from Fateh Kadal
to the Bund, the only papier-mâché showroom on the Bund in the pre-partition
days.91
Another Shiʿi family to participate exclusively in the papier-mâché, was the firm
of the Bābā family of Hasanabad, which was set up in 1920s. During the nineteenth
century, an ancestor of the family Asad-al lah Bābā took to the art of papier-mâché,
learning from one of the leading masters of the craft in Hassanabd. Asad-al Lah’s
five sons were also trained in the craft and would initially sell their products, in a
kothi located near Fateh Kadal, owned by a Sunni merchant, operating under the
name Ganymede. Soon, one of Asad-al Lah’s son, Ḥājjī Muhammad Qāsim Bābā,
started traveling to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, selling his products directly
to Europeans stationed in the town. Rawalpindi had emerged as a major center for
trade between Punjab and Kashmir, eclipsing a similar role that had been played
by Peshawar during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the extent of
which can be also understood from contemporary official records; the Gazetteer
of 1895:

A considerable portion of the trade of the Province with Kashmir passes through
the city, a portion which, in 1885, amounted to 27 percent. Of the imports and
14 percent. Of the exports [. . .] Some of the commercial houses have very
extensive dealing.92

Back in Srinagar, the Bābās continued their association with the Ganymedes. It was
only in 1925 that they set up their own business establishment, and in the 1930s
their own showroom in Srinagar, focusing exclusively on papier-mâché.93 Writing
in the 1970s, Ṣafdar mentions the pioneering role these Shiʿi artisan-traders
performed in the survival and expansion of papier-mâché:

During Dogra rule, the government did not pay any special attention to the
development of this craft. This craft was in its last moments and had almost
died down when from the Shiʿi (community) some hardworking, young and
enterprising traders spread its appeal to Europe and America, due to which this
craft prospered greatly, new designs and methods were invented. In this regard
Muhammad Qāsim (Dalgate), Suffering Moses (Bund), Ṣādiq ʿAli & Brothers
(Fateh Kadal) Asia Crafts (Bund), Kashmir Papier Mâché Union (Dalgate),
138 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Messrs Jʿafar ʿAli (Hassanabad) are worth mentioning. In addition to them there
are other traders who work in papier-mâché.94

Challenges of Modernity: Missionaries and Education

Maharaja Pratap Singh’s long reign of forty years95would see a gradual transformation
of many aspects of Kashmir’s public and civic infrastructure and an ever-increasing
expansion of colonial imprint on the legal, education, and health system. Before
his powers were fully restored in 1921, it was the British Resident through the
State Council who would maintain a watchful eye on the administration, pushing
the darbār toward administrative and infrastructural reforms.96 In this British-
owned scheme for an aggressively formulated reform, fiscal control, revision of
taxation system, improvement of judicial, administrative systems, improvements
of road, and a railway connection between Kashmir and British India formed the
areas of concerns.97 Parallel to the maneuverings of the colonial administration,
the Church Missionary Society (CMS) which had in 1852 established a mission
in Lahore, started its operation in Kashmir in 1865, on the arrival of Dr William
Jackson Elmslie (d. 1872).98 Earlier in 1854 during, Gulab Singh’s reign, Rev R
Clark and Colonel Martin had arrived in the city to see possibility of missionary
activities in the region.99 Emslie’s own visit was preceded by two missionaries,
“Rev. W. Smith of Benares, and the Rev. R. Clark of Peshawar, reached Kashmir in
the spring of 1863.”100 These early missionaries faced opposition from the darbār
and on one occasion, Clark was set upon by an engaged mob, partly incited by the
officials of the darbār.101 Similarly, Rev W. Handcock who was also in the Kashmir
was prohibited by the diwān to openly preach in the city.102 Similarly, the Muslim
clergy of the city protested against Elmslie’s preaching at one of the most revered
Muslim sacred sites in Kashmir, Dargah-i Hazratbal.103 The Chief Sunni Qāzi
of the city, Moulvi Nāṣir issued a decree that a visit to the dispensary of the
Mission would invalidate the marriage contract.104 The Shiʿi attitude toward the
missionaries seems to have been more ambivalent. Dr. Ernst F. Neve105 (d. 1946)
who would succeed Elmslie at the CMS dispensary in 1886 writes in his memoirs:

About five percent, of the Mohammedans are Shiahs. Although a highly

respectable community, these are looked upon by the orthodox Mussulmans as
outcasts. Curiously enough, although the Sunnis are friendly with the Hindus,
the Shiahs abhor them. The Shiahs are more friendly to Christians than ordinary
Mohammedans.106

Yet, an incident in the Shiʿi majority village of Yechgam107 resulted in a strain in

this relation, when the son of the village lambardar (head man), whose mother had
been treated by mission doctors converted to Christianity. Following the treatment,
the appreciative lambardar family strikes a friendly acquaintance with the Mission
doctors, and more visits follow. These visits are accompanied by subtle missionary
endeavors, reciting Christian-themed stories, and gifting the family with books
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 139

about Christianity. In a bibliography dedicated to the memory of another Christian

missionary in Kashmir, Irene Petrie (d. 1897) the author touches upon the details
of the episode, which highlight both the importance that the Mission doctors
associated with contacts with the lambaradar family and the ensuing community
backlash:

In August, 1889, two fully qualified medical women [. . .] came to Yetchgam. The
doctors operated successfully on the wife of the lumbardar that is, the hereditary
tax-gatherer, the headman of the village, on whose character and influence its
prosperity largely depends [. . .]. An influential maulvi had visited the village,
and the people took the opportunity to lodge a complaint against the young
man on account of non-attendance at the mosque and reading pernicious that
is, Christian books given him in 1889. A great disturbance ensued, and he was
threatened with excommunication.108

Elmslie’s own biography, written posthumously by his wife shows how the
missionary found better acceptance both among the native population and with
the darbār, in their work as health workers.109 Working as doctors and nurses,
the missionaries found an organizational strategy in which to operate and more
importantly influence upon the population an appreciation for Christianity.110 The
Bishop of Calcutta, during his visit to Kashmir, appreciated the practicality of the
methods adopted by the missionaries in these words:

He (Dr. Emslie) presents Christianity to the people in its most obviously

beneficent aspect; and for this union of care for men’s souls with the healing of
their bodies the gospel narrative furnishes us with the very highest justification
and precedent.111

The other significant area of operation of the missionaries was education, a semi-
organized school had been set up by Clark in 1864 but it was only in 1881, that
Rev J. H. Knowles established a school within the precinct of the Mission’s hospital
on the outskirt of the city at Drugjan. Nine years later the darbār gave permission
to Knowles to shift the school to Fateh Kadal in the heart of the city. The work of
Knowles was further strengthened with the arrival of Rev. Cecil Tyndale Biscoe in
1891.112
The response of a Kashmiri Sunni cleric, Moulvi Nāṣir to the Mission hospital
is also emblematic of initial Sunni reception to the introduction of western
education in the region. By equating the education in the missionary schools with
“nasarah ilm” (Christian knowledge), the Sunni clergy class effectively foreclosed
the participation of the community in the Mission’s school. Within the Shiʿi
society, while the Firqa-i Jadid would maintain a similar negative attitude toward
missionaries and their work, proscribing attendance in the mission schools, the
Firqa-i Jadid was more open to influences originating from the missionary-run
institutions. One of Moulvi Ḥaidar’s son, Moulvi Muhammad ʿAbbas adopted a
western way of dressing including sporting a necktie, which was mostly viewed
140 Shiʿism in Kashmir

as an anathema by Muslim community at large, both Shiʿi and Sunnis. ʿAbbas also
picked up the English language from the missionaries in turn imparting lessons in
Persian and Arabic to the missionaries.113 When the darbār opened State School at
Bagh-i Dilawar Khān, Ḥaidar enrolled two of his sons in the school.114 In the 1880s
two Kashmiri Shiʿis, Āgā Sayyid Ḥusayn and Ḥakim Muhammad ʿAli (d.1933)
enrolled in the Mission School, the first from Shiʿi community. In 1894, Āgā
Sayyid Ḥusayn would proceed to Lahore for completing his matriculation, the first
among Kashmiri Muslims to do.115 Yet the overall participation of Kashmri Shiʿi in
either the missionary schools or the State School remained limited to a few families
in the city. While the engagement of Kashmiri Muslim society with the missionary
schools would be a long-drawn process, changes affected in the administration
made traditional maktab-based learning obsolete, especially for those perusing
a career in the state administration. The replacement of Persian with Urdu as the
official language in 1889, adversely affected Persian-knowing individuals and
families, who for most of the nineteenth century had functioned as educators and
munshis working in various administrative departments. Similarly, the opening of
missionary hospitals in the region also resulted in a gradual shift away from native
practices of medicine; the Greco-Arab system of knowledge, known as unanī in
Kashmir and most of Muslim South Asia.
In 1890, Moulvi Muhammad Yaḥya passed away to be succeeded by his son,
Moulvi Rasūl Shāh as the mīrwaʿiẕ. Rasūl Shāh, who had been barred from
preaching in Srinagar after the 1872 riots, on his accession to the post of mīrwaʿiẕ,
emerged as a visionary who sought to effectively engage and manage aspects of
the Sunni Muslims in both religious and secular realms. In 1899 he established
the Anjuman-i Nusrat-al Islam, modelling it on the reform-oriented Anjuman-i
Himayat-al Islam, which had been established in Lahore in 1884.116 Conscious of
the challenges of the missionary schools, and the lack of an organized competence
in the traditional madrasas operated by clerical families, Rasūl Shāh sought to
fashion a response which while rooted in the traditional system could also compete
with the missionaries. Simultaneously with the establishment of the Anjuman-i
Nusrat-al Islam, Rasūl Shāh, opened a madrassa which took shape of a Islamia
High School in 1905, and was also provided with financial grants, albeit limited
from the darbār.117
As opposed to the Sunni, the Shiʿi lacked an organized answer to the changes
in the region. After the death of Āgā Sayyid Mahdi in 1890, he was succeeded
by his son, Āgā Sayyid Muhammad (d. 1931) as the religious head of the Firqa-i
Jadid. One of the first major works that occupied Sayyid Muhammad was the
construction of an imāmbāda at Budgam, the native village of the Āgā family.
Completed in 1315 ah/1897 ce it would serve as the seat of his preaching and
activities. Nevertheless, the construction of a new imāmbāda did not remove
the bitterness and the ongoing dispute between the Firqa-i Qadim and Firqa-i
Jadid for control of religious sites and Muharram ceremonies.118 It was widely
rumored among his supporters that Sayyid Muhammad was poisoned, though
he survived the attempt at his life (Figure 5.5). Aside from the internal bickering
between the two firqa’s, it was in 1324 ah/1906ce that the first Shiʿi association,
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 141

Figure 5.5 Āgā Sayyid Muhammad, early twentieth-century Budgam (courtesy: Zulfikar
Ali).

Anjuman-i Imāmmia was established, marking a tentative step toward reform and
reorganization of the community life.

The Anjuman, A Murder Case and Call to Reform

On Saffar 9 1324 ah (1906 ce), Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī presided over a
special session of Kashmiri Shiʿi, attended by four hundred invited guests both
from Srinagar city and the Shiʿi dominated villages. During the meet, Ḥaidar
ʿAli laid the proposal for establishing an organization, Anjuman-i Imāmmia to
look after the affairs of the Kashmiri Shiʿi, which was unanimously approved. In
a tract which was distributed sometime after the inaugural session, the organizers
explained how anjumans had been established in different cities of India with
an aim to reform, impart education, religious training, culture, virtue, and good
behavior to the community, a feat that the Anjuman-i Imāmmia sought to replicate
in Kashmir.119 While the tract makes no mention of the Anjuman-i Nusrat-al Islam
which had been established seven years prior by the Rasūl Shāh, the Shiʿi under
the leadership of Ḥaidar ʿAli were clearly seeking to emulate his success. The
Anjuman-i Imāmmia which was financially supported through public contribution
aimed at an ambitious program involving:
Improve the process of secular and religious education through the establishment
of madrassas and by sermonizing,
142 Shiʿism in Kashmir

To root out customs which were cause of ruin for the community
Improve the external conditions of community through a series of sermons
Aid the destitute and poor, and
To provide aid to orphans and assist in the funeral arrangements for those without
any descendants.120

Yet the actual objectives achieved by the Anjuman-i Imāmmia were rather limited,
in its annual report for the succeeding year the organizers were still looking to
establish seventeen madrassas in various locations in both the city and villages
which would provide religious education.121 The lack of financial resources, as
well as the required staff, greatly hampered the working of the organization.122
Still, the work of the Anjuman-i Imāmmia was greatly facilitated by the presence of
Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli of Nowpora who functioned as its treasurer. Though Ḥasan
ʿAli’s father had been a firm backer of Āgā Sayyid Mahdi, the son instead came
to associate with Ḥaidar ʿAli because of his acceptance of western education.
Ḥasan ʿAli had been taught English by the missionary doctors and had served
as a teacher in the school set up by Christian Mission Society at Fatah Kadal.
While he would author a manuscript in refutation of Christianity, Ḥasan was
nevertheless impressed by the missionary system of education. In one of his
unpublished manuscripts, he goes in great length to describe the technological
advances made by European nations, something he sought to imitate among
Kashmiri Shiʿi.123 The organizers of the Anjuman might have seemed hopeful
of fulfilling their mission, yet their efforts were overtaken by a totally unrelated
development in Zadibal. In his personal dairy, Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī,
details the incident which led to the closure of the Anjuman-i Imāmmia in these
words:

Sometime after the inaugural session of Anjuman-i Imāmmia (August,1907)

there was an incident at Zadibal. A Pandit had opened a shop of pashmina
wool there. This shop was the property of a Sunni who used to live in the
upper floor (of the shop) along with his brother. The Pandit developed illicit
relation with a girl in their family. One night both the brothers were out for
a dinner invitation and this girl was alone in the house. The said Pandit also
remained in the house. Destinies doing, late in the night one of the brothers
returned home and saw the Pandit. He beat the Pandit to death. In the morning
the other brother returned, and during the succeeding night both the brothers
hid the corpse in the field of Shiʿi. Meanwhile police started searching and
investigation. Finally, the body was discovered, and an innocent Shiʿi family
was arrested. As a result, all the Sunnis and the Pandits turned against the
Shiʿi and started harassing them. The Shiʿi’s contacted Nawab Fateh ʿAli
Qizalbash of Lahore. He sent a barrister from Lahore. All the accused were
released, but the police had tortured them so badly that they passed away soon.
All the money that had been collected by Anjuman-i Imāmmia was spent on
the case. As the circumstances were unfavorable the Anujman soon stopped
functioning.124
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 143

In the city, the consequence of court cases not only impacted the energy, time, and
money spent on the Anjuman-i Imāmmia but also upset the delicate balance of
quiet in the relation between the two Muslim communities. In the aftermath of the
1872 riot, the peace in the city could be best classified as a managed peace, enforced
through the community elders and the darbār, in the succeeding years the city had
witnessed a genuine coming together in pursuit of common commercial interest.
This can be seen in the way Shiʿi kār-khāna owners operated with Sunni traders
who owned a majority of the showrooms along the riverfront. Similarly, in the
court disputes between the Firqa-i Qadim and Firqa-i Jadid regarding ownership
of Mʿārak, representatives of the Sunni community also participated as facilitators,
including Khwāja Mohyi-al Dīn Gandrū, the Sunni merchant who had been
convicted for his role in the riot of 1872.
This gradual shift toward re-establishment of the cosmopolitan character of
the city, last witnessed during the heydays of Mughal rule, can also be seen in the
program for decoration and illumination of the main Sunni religious site, located
in the heart of the city: Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā. The initial khatamband work for the
building interior had been undertaken under the Afghans- the papier-mâché work
on the ceiling of the main shrine chamber took place during the closing years
of the nineteenth and first quarter of twentieth century. In the absence of any
court patronage, the work was commissioned by the Sunni elders of the city, the
merchants and the traders, and the employment of Shiʿi papier-mâché artists on
one of the most revered Sunni shrines of Kashmir is indicative of the toning down
of sectarian prejudices within the city. This Shiʿi involvement is again reflective of
the mediatory presence of the community elders, Shiʿi as well as Sunnis who in all
probability oversee this program of artistic exchange, a project which highlights
the transformative nature of the sectarian relations within the city during the
closing years of the nineteenth century. This engagement of the two sects and
the interdenominational dialogue within the Kashmiri Muslim community can
also be mapped in other connected spheres of religious life in the city. In the first
quarter of the twentieth century, the pioneering publishing house of Kashmir:
Ghūlam Muhammad Nūr Muhammad Tājiran-i Kutb, published a small tract,
Marṣiya Shahadat-i Ḥasanain focusing on elegies written on the martyrdom of the
imāms, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn. In addition to Persian marṣiya written by the famous
Iranian poet, Muḥtasham- i Kashanī (d. 1578-8), the tract also included bilingual
compositions on the subject by contemporary Kashmiri Sunni poets including
Khwāja Muhammad Asʿad, Asʿad al-Lah Kalashpurī, Mir Shams -al Dīn Pandanī,
and Pīr Qādir Shāh Malaratī. Though reverence for the two imāms can also be
seen in earlier Sunni compositions in Kashmir, also mapped in the tract, in the
work of Shaykh Yʿaqūb Ṣarfī and Bābā Dāwūd Khākī, the publication assumes a
greater significance given the popularity of rituals linked to the martyrdom of the
two, especially Imām Ḥusayn in contemporary Shiʿi society. The adoption of the
print media, which could be widely circulated, can certainly be seen as an attempt
to create and propagate a Sunni cult of the imāms. But in including work of a
revered Shiʿi figure such as Muḥtasham, the publishers strove to establish an larger
overarching theme of commemoration linked with the memory of Ḥusayn rather
144 Shiʿism in Kashmir

than represent competing iconographies. Also, from the eighteenth century we

find that some Kashmiri Sunni poets using the format of the Mulla Ḥusayn Wāʿiẓ
Kashifī’s (d.15044) Rawḍat al-Shuhadāʾ (The Garden of the Martyrs) to compose
lengthy elegies in Persian, on the martyrdom and sufferings of Ḥusayn. Another
popular Sunni ritual connected to the event of Ḥusayn’s martyrdom was preserving
a portion of the qurban (ritual meat slaughtered on ʿĪd), for consumption
on Ashura. While I have not been able to date the origin of this ritual, but the
tradition was well established in certain Sunni families of the city (also in rural
Kashmir) as we come close to the twentieth century. Parallel to the engagement
in the Muharram ceremonies, we find that in Malud ceremonies among Kashmiri
Sunni community, along with verses of Sunni poets, naats of two Shiʿi poets, Ḥājjī
Jān Muhammad Qudsī and Sayyid Muhammad Fakhir also formed a part of the
performance, a practice which continues in contemporary Kashmir. While this
progress toward a sectarian accommodation in the city might seem too slow or
minimal, contrast this with the manner in which a Sunni elder of the city, ʿAli
Khān was castigated half a century earlier, simply for marrying his daughters into
Shiʿi families125.
The peace in the city following the riots also resulted in a widespread program
of mosque construction and repair in Shiʿi moḥala of the cities. Of these the
most significant was the completion of the Masjid-i Ḥājjī ʿAidī at Zadibal by
Ḥājjī Ṣafdar in a distinct non-Kashmiri architectural style comprising domes and
minarets (Figure 5.6). The largest mosque for the Shiʿi community till recent past,
this building owed its origin to the patronage of Ṣafdar’s father, the Peshawar-
based merchant, Ḥājjī ʿAidī who as I have shown earlier was a benefactor of the
Kashmiri Shiʿi. Significantly, within the city the first recorded instance of the
ʿĪd congregational prayer is said to have taken place in this mosque which also

Figure 5.6 Masjid-i Ḥājjī ʿAidī at Zadibal (courtesy: Zulfikar Ali).

 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 145

included a separate hammam building and a wide-open forecourt.126 Some of

the other mosques which also included a hammam, whose construction can be
traced to this period in the city include those at Babapora, Shamswari, and Nawa
Kadal as well as some of the mosques in Zadibal area. During the first quarter of
twentieth century, Malik Asad-al Lah, a wealthy shawl merchant based in Zadibal
was responsible for financing hammams for many mosques in the city. Aside from
philanthropic initiatives of wealthy community elders, most of this architectural
proclivity was based on community fundings, sourced from residents living
in a particular area. Even in the case of the imāmbāda at Hasanbad which was
constructed by Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli, the initial construction in 1283 ah/1866
ce was begun by residents of Ashraf Moḥala (Nandpora) under the supervision
of a local, Raḥman Ashraf.127 Parallel to events in the city, the Āgā family of
Budgam also oversaw construction of small mosques across the rural landscape
of Kashmir.
But sometimes, stray incident did manage to unravel any progress toward a
Muslim ecumenicism, as can be seen in the entry for Muharram, 1317 ah/1899 ce,
in Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli’s Tārīkh-i Kashmir:

This month the Ahl-i Sunnat people gave rise to another rumor, that the Shiʿi
have killed a Sunni, as they had done earlier in the year 1305 ah (1887 ce).
The foundation (of the rumor) was laid in this manner, that in the locality of
Chattergam most of whose inhabitants are Shiʿi, one month back a man was
found dead and the Sunnis from the surrounding areas made it known that the
Shiʿis must have killed him. And this news, payy-i ba payyi (slowly) reached
the city, and the general population of the city who have no temperament for
(differentiating between) black and white, made this a proof in the lanes and
bazars of the city [. . .] they don’t have this realization that a religion which holds
upholds the killing of a human is a false religion. Anyway, the investigating in the
deceased commenced [. . .] It came out in the open that the deceased belonged
to Shiʿi religion. Still these people were not ashamed, but the novelty that was
introduced was, these people to remove the stain of reproach spread another
news that in the city, there was a woman who had appeared in the clothes of
a dervish whose name was Mukhta. Ahl-i Sunnat see her with great reverence
and these days she was not in the city. Alas! Who did Satan inspire and under
Satan’s influence he said that Mukhta Sahiba has been killed by Shiʿi. Now what
was to say, men and women started an uproar, and the affair reached such a
turn that Shiʿi were openly cursed and at places they were attacked on road and
looted [. . .]. If there was no fear of the Sarkar-i Angrez (British Government),
these people would have attacked the Shiʿi without constraint. Finally, some
respected Shiʿi personalities approached Bakshi Parmanand and he told Mīrzā
Mustafa, who was a Sunni elder. And ordered him to make the people stop
immediately. Consequently he (Mustafa) threatened people and made the vaiz’s
(preachers) understand, and to preach to the people till the time they, willingly
or unwillingly, became silent. After a few days a strange spectacle took place, that
darvish women arrived in the city, and people became extremely dishonored.128
146 Shiʿism in Kashmir

While the failure of the Anjuman-i Imāmmia highlights the constraints in which
the Shiʿi community operated, Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī made concentrated
efforts at forging good terms with the Sunni religious establishment in the city. In
an attempt toward mutual acceptability, Ḥaidar ʿAli sought to establish personal
relations with two leading representatives of the Sunni community, the family of
Qāzī Qawam-al Dīn who officiated as the Head Mufti, and the Mīrwaʿiẕ-i Kalan
family headed by Moulvi Rasūl Shāh.129 Though Rasūl Shāh would be accused by
his opponents for introducing the Wahhabism in the Kashmir, his interactions
with the Ḥaidar ʿAli did manage to tone down the anti-Shiʿi rhetoric in the city.130
Simultaneously, interactions between Shiʿi-Sunni courtiers and the merchants
helped in rebuilding lines of communication between the elders of the community,
which had come undone in the aftermath of the riot of 1872. This newfound
bonhomie between the two communities is also reflected in a tract published by
Anjuman-i Nusrat-al Islam to mark its annual conference:

On the occasion of the congregation, at many places in the city, the residents
of the city had made arrangements for welcome gateways etcetera, on a scale
exceeding last year’s preparations. Regarding decoration, what was new this year,
which is worth mentioning is that the Ahl-i Tashī (Shiʿi) also seeing the work
as qaūmī kām (community work) participated in the event and the residents
of Kamangarpora, in which most of the residents are Ahl-i Tashī erected a
magnificent gateway.

This brief passage in a tract authored by the leading Sunni religious organization
in Kashmir reflects a paradigm shift in the way those who spoke for the Kashmiri
Sunni community viewed the Shiʿi—the transformation of a community that had
been considered as an outsider for most of the previous century was now seen as
being a part of the same qaūm, same community. Unlike earlier references to Shiʿi
as rāfizī, that are to be found in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Sunni-authored
texts, we find that in this particular instance, the use of the respectful term Ahl-i
Tashī, showing a marked degree of accommodation of Shiʿi sensibilities.131
Meanwhile, the Firqa-i Jadid continued its rigid stance on the issue of western
education, forbidding its members to interact with the missionaries. Though by
the early twentieth century, the popular support Firqa-i Jadid enjoyed among
Kashmiri Shiʿi outstripped the influence of Firqa-i Qadim, under Āgā Sayyid
Muhammad the group lost most of its revolutionary enthusiasm that had marked
Āgā Sayyid Mahdi’s career. During most of the twentieth century, the relations
between the two Shiʿi groups were marked by extreme rivalries, many a times
personal between the two leading ulemas heading the contending factions. After
the formation of Anjuman-i Imāmmia, Sayyid Muhammad established a rival
organization, Hami-al Islam,132 which also started a series of maktabs in the Shiʿi-
dominated area of Kashmir. Yet the focus of these maktabs remained limited to
religious teaching, and the firqa as an institution remained impervious to the
political and social challenges taking place in the region. Sayyid Muhammad also
undertook the Kashmiri translation of ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā, the book on legal rulings
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 147

of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Kāẓim Yazdī (d. 1919).133 Popularly known
as Kāshir Kitāb, this translation was widely studied in the network of maktabs
operated by the Firqa-i Jadid under Sayyid Muhammad.
Aside from the two rival factions which came increasingly under the control of
the clerical families, Ansarīs and the Āgā, we find that in the 1930s the first Shiʿi
society without any clerical background, Shiʿi Upliftment Association was founded
in the city by Shiʿi youth. The founding president of the society was a wealthy
philanthropist, Mīrzā Muhammad Taqī.134 Grounded in a reformist agenda, the
outlook for modernizing the Shiʿi society was primarily perceived as a goal that
could be achieved through widespread acceptance of western-style education.
The society functioned without any official recognition for some time before
being dissolved, whereafter most of the members reorganized themselves
in 1932–4 under the banner of Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Kashmir. This
nonpolitical organization was registered with the government as a society for
social and religious reform and published its objectives, “to awaken the sleeping
Shiʿi qaum (community).”135
Very early on the society was able to successfully petition the government
for inclusion of Nauroz, as a state holiday.136 Nevertheless, much of the society’s
time was spent in trying to get financial support from the government for the
destitute, orphans, and widows. Given its success with the darbār on these issues,
the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī expanded into a field which was the privilege of the
ulema linked with Firqa-i Qadim and Firqa-i Jadid.137 Somewhere in the 1930s,
the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī decided to organize nimaz-i juma (Friday congregation
prayer) in the city, after seeking guidance on the issue from Grand Ayatollah Abu’l
Ḥasan Isfahanī (d. 1946), Grand Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad-Ḥusayn Nainī
Gharavī (d. 1936), Grand Ayatollah Shirazī,138 and Allama Sayyid ʿAli Haʿirī (d.
1941), a respected alim of Kashmiri origin based in Lahore.139 In Masl’ia Nimaz-i
Juma, a tract published by the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī, the performance of the Friday
congregation prayer is projected as a collective act which will help the community
and the individual in receiving the blessings of Allah.140 Additionally, in their
question to Ayatollah Nainī, the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī makes the point that as a
minority within Muslim society, Kashmiri Shiʿi are censured by the Sunnis for not
offering the juma- facing their ‘ṭʿan va malāmat’ (taunt and rebuke).141 In popular
Sunni traditions, Muslim men who willfully choose to refrain from offering
nimaz-i juma for three consecutive Friday, are believed to have relapsed into a
state of disbelief.142 The criticism that the Shiʿi of Kashmir faced is similar to what
had happened much earlier in Awadh, where one of the charges for Shiʿi departure
from the Muslim body was linked to their non-performance of the nimaz-i juma.
Where the issue of the nimaz-i juma championed by the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī was
seen as an affirmative act in community participation, the Masl’ia Nimaz-i Juma
did also seek to challenge the position of the ulema linked with the Ansarī and Āgā
family, referring to them as “artificial leaders,”143 unmindful of the consequences
as the Shiʿi society stares into the abyss of oblivion.144 The reaction as could be
expected, given the circumstances, was swift from the two existing groupings.
The elders in the Firqa-i Jadid, questioned the performance on basis of tradition
148 Shiʿism in Kashmir

arguing that “our forefathers did not observe.” The response from Firqa-i Qadim
was more nuanced. Taking a recourse to Shiʿi religious writings, they argued that
the performance of nimaz-i juma was not an obligatory act and as a proof pointed
to Javahir- al Kalām (c. 1846) of the Iranian scholar, Shaykh Muhammad Ḥasan,
a popular nineteenth-century work on Shiʿi jurisprudence. In seeking a recourse
to a theological understanding, the Ansarī ulema were not only defending their
opposition to the establishing of the nimaz-i juma, but also attempting to open a
line of communication with the educated youth running the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī.
A majority of the members in the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī hailed from families who
were traditionally supporters of the Firqa-i Qadim,145 members that Firqa-i Qadim
did not want to alienate any further.
Notwithstanding the pressure exerted by their opponents, the Anjuman-i
Bahbūdī was able to organize the first nimaz-i juma, in the city at Dalgate; the date
is not recorded but this must have been around the early 1930s. The congregation
was led by Shaykh ʿAbdul ʿAli (d. 1953), a respected religious scholar from the
famed dynasty of Mullā Muqim. ʿAbdul ʿAli had studied under Ayatollah Isfahanī,
and in a letter written to his father, Shaykh Muhammad Ḥusayn (d. 1922) the
Iraqi mujtahid fondly remembers ʿAbdul ʿAli.146 In the dispute between the Firqa-i
Qadim and Firqa-i Jadid, the ulema from Muqim’s family had largely remained
detached, supporting neither of the competing parties. By the time we come to
the close of the nineteenth century, we find that though respected, the family was
nevertheless eclipsed even in their hereditary moḥala, Nabdipora, by newcomers:
the Rizvī family linked to Ḥājjī Sayyid Ḥasan Rizvī, author of Majālis-al Abrar.
Significantly, ʿAbdul ʿAli’s uncle, Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi (d. 1911), himself a
reputed scholar trained in the seminaries of Najaf and Karbala, had on his return
to Kashmir authored a work, Khaṣāil-al Shiʿi (c. 1328 ah/1910 ce), to defend
the Shiʿi from “the disregard and ridicule of the local Sunnis who were ignorant
and unaware about the Shiʿi beliefs.”147 This is a major indicator that the desire, as
a minority to make itself understood, was not limited to the youth trained in the
system of modern education alone, but also shared by some of the traditional Shiʿi
scholarly families. One can argue that in the first half of the twentieth century,
reform was the mizaj—the zeitgeist of Kashmiri society—both among Shiʿi and
Sunni, in Hindus148 as well as Muslims.
After the success of the first congregation prayers in the city, the Anjuman-i
Bahbūdī repeated the nimaz-i juma at Chinkral Moḥala, and then at Chattabal,
before moving to Zadibal to offer the prayers at Masjid-i Ḥājjī ʿAidī. Where the
earlier prayers had been held in the heart of the city, in mixed neighborhoods with
a significantly larger Sunni population, moving the prayers to Zadibal was seen by
the supporters of the two firqa as an outrage and assault on their territory. On the
appointed Friday, as the worshippers proceeded to the mosque, the congregation
faced physical assault, many were injured and in the disturbances the prayers
were disrupted. In attacking the congregation, the followers of the two rival firqa
forgot their mutual animosity, in defending what they believed to be their shared
territory. Following the unsavory episode at Masjid-i Ḥājjī ʿAidī, Shaykh ʿAbdul
ʿAli dissociated from the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī and remained a recluse for the rest
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 149

of his life. Somewhere later, the leader of Firqa-i Qadim issued a ruling declaring
participation in any “anjuman” as un-Islamic.149 Faced with internal dissension,
the president of the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī, Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar also resigned, and
in less than a year the organization ceased to exist. The demise of the anjuman
highlights how at the start of the twentieth century the two religious families:
the Āgā (Firqa-i Jadid) and the Ansarī (Firqa-i Qadim) had emerged as the main
centers of leadership within the Shiʿi society, effectively controlling both the
religious and the secular aspects of life. Disillusionment with the two was mostly
articulated by the emerging educated youth, who perceived the two firqa’s as the
cause of Shiʿi backwardness and disunity.
Following the disbandment of the anjuman, Munshi Muhammad Isḥāq (d.
1969) financed a newspaper, Zulfikar, which before its closure by the Dogra darbār
in 1937 included hard-hitting editorials150 and articles against what was termed
as the self-serving, self-perpetuating, and hereditary mullās. Without naming the
Āgā and the Ansarī family, articles in Zulfikar, would portray the two as the main
reason for the pastī (downfall) of the Shiʿi society in Kashmir. The narrative of
Shiʿi pastī itself was an imported imagination, drawing from the larger narrative
of Muslim loss in South Asia following the failure of the Great Rebellion of 1857.
As I have shown, the nineteenth century marks a period of incremental gain for
Kashmiri Shiʿi, yet these zealous youth perceived only decay and decline. But this
emerging intellectual discourse was not only limited to questioning the role of the
ulema linked with the two firqas as the sole interpreters of religiosity in the Shiʿi
society of Kashmir. Aside from the narrative of a divided house and the lack of
modern education within the Shiʿi society, these writings are also vociferous in
their denunciation of what is presented as un-Islamic and superstitious practices:
the wahm-o tawahhumāt (false ideas and belief in fantasies). The widespread belief
in talismanic and divination practices; in the efficacy of augury (fāl), amulets
(tāwīz), astrology, and geomancy (ramal) in the Shiʿi society are marked for
special rebuke and censure.151 Though these practices are based within traditional
Islamic knowledge system, the reformers of the twentieth century presented them
as systematic of the malaise which affected the body of Kashmiri Shiʿi society,
hindering it from “harnessing the full benefits of modernity, and in doing so
also reclaiming the image of a pure and reformed Islam.”152 We also see in this
modernizing reform-oriented critique, how the legitimacy of these practices
is often questioned by not only linking it to the world of fantastical, but also in
arguing for an assumed Hindu influence or source of these practices.153 As the
first generation of Kashmiri Shiʿi trained in the colonial system of education, the
reform-oriented youth in their critique internalized many of the colonial narratives
of the “natives” as backward and superstitious people.
Zulfikar’s publisher, Isḥāq, had served as the founding president of Shiʿi
Upliftment Association, and then as a key organizer of the Anjuman-i Bahbūdī,
before joining popular politics in the 1930s as an associate of Shaykh Muhammad
Abdullah. While, Isḥāq would embody a reformist agenda, seeking remedy to
societal issues through a recourse to Islam freed from the hereditary religious
classes-the moulvis, Ḥakim Ṣafdar in his Shiʿi Mūsālmān aūr unkey Jamūd key
150 Shiʿism in Kashmir

Asbāb;154 sought for a religious reformation, questioning the basis of such Shiʿi
religious practices as tabara and taqiya, and the purposiveness of engaging in
polemical debates surrounding the formative period of Muslim history. For Isḥāq,
the desire for change and modernity within the contemporary Kashmiri Shiʿi
society meant liberation from the traditional hereditary moulvis, while Ṣafdar’s
writing articulate for not only change in direction but also reworking of the
inherited religious discourse. The reform-driven agenda articulated in the writings
of Isḥāq and Ṣafdar would resonate and be elaborated upon in the works of two
prolific columnist, Ḥakim Ghulām Ḥusayn Makhmūr (d. 2007) and Engineer
Ghulām ʿAli Gulzar. In their writings, Makhmūr and Gulzar would represent
a continuing desire to accommodate and assuage Sunni feelings in a desire for
broader Muslim unity. Interestingly, neither Isḥāq nor Ṣafdar articulate a similar
demand from the Sunnis for accommodating Shiʿi sensibilities. Despite their
varying approaches, both reflect a deep impact of the teachings of the South Asian
reformer and educationist, Sir Sayyid Aḥmad Khān (d. 1898), his rationalistic
interpretation of Islam, as well as a desire to limit the Shiʿi-Sunni differences in
the hope of securing a broader Muslim unity or as Ayesha Jalal terms it “Islamic
universalism.”155
Despite their vociferous zealousness, we find that these reforming dissenters
failed to make any headway within the Shiʿi society at large, at least in the first half
of the nineteenth century. The paradigm of a reformed society, free of tawahhumāt,
failed to appeal to a people for whom these very practices served as essentials of
their existence as a pious community. The failure also needs to be seen against the
privileged background of the reformers, the benefits of whose message was limited
to a well to do sections of the society and continued to ignore the experience and
expectations of those marginalized; the women, weavers, artisans, laborers, and
peasants as well as the caste-based discriminations of those designated as low
caste—bey khāndani.156
Aside from the reforming agenda of youth educated in western system, we find
the continued participation of Kashmiri scholars in the hazwas of Iraq; embarking
on a long journey to study under leading mujtahids of the shrine cities. This was
not only limited to clerical families such as the Ansarīs and the Rizvīs of the Firqa-i
Qadim or the descendants of Mullā Muqims alone, but also included members
of the Āgā Sayyid Mahdi’s dynasty, the Mūsāvīs, as well as many newcomers.
Earlier somewhere around the late nineteenth century, Shaykh ʿAli Asghar (d.
1934), a near contemporary of Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī completed his seminary
training in Iraq, before returning to Kashmir in his old age. Hailing from a
poor farmers’ family, he was one of the first major nineteenth-century ʿalim not
belonging to any traditional scholarly family of Kashmir.157 Given the fluctuating
fortunes of the hawza in Iraq during this period, we find repeated instances of
at least one mujtahid, Grand Ayatollah Isfahanī,158 impressing upon his Kashmiri
students their duty toward the hawza. In two separate letters written to Kashmiri
ulema, Shaykh Muhammad Ḥusayn in 1343 ah/1924 ce and to Sayyid ʿAbdul
Rasūl Rizvī in 1356 ah/1937 ce, Isfahanī apprises them about the precarious
situation of the hawza, and the need to collect and transmit due share from the
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 151

khums money to Iraq for the maintenance of this center of Shiʿi learning. The
letter to ʿAbdul Rasūl, especially highlights both Isfahanī’s concern for the well-
being of the hawza and the importance of vakīls, such as Rasūl working in distant
geographies like Kashmir for maintaining not only the scholarly but also a financial
link between the hawza and Shiʿi communities:

As of now the defense of hawza ilmiyah Najaf is the most pressing concern.
Evidently, the preservation of this hawza is dependent on its financial aid.
Because, if the financial support is stopped, then in these circumstances there is
danger of its disintegration. Since last two–three years due to some national laws,
the transmission of shariah raqumat (khums monies) to this place is difficult.

Presently, the arrival of even a single rupee from there (Iran) is impossible [. . .].
Therefore, in any manner possible, through draft or havala, try to send the
sharih raqumat to Najaf.159

Memorandum of the Kashmiri Mussalmans and a Muslim Ashura

In 1907, a petition from Kashmir arrived at the desk of Lord Minto (1905–10),
Viceroy of India and Governor-General of India, whose office then forwarded it to
Sir Louis Dane, the Secretary in the Foreign Department. The petition was signed
by a group of twenty-seven individuals, who claimed to be the “Representatives of
Kashmiri Mussalmans.” The memorandum begins with an acknowledgment of the
role that Britain as the paramount power had played for an equitable welfare of the
Kashmiri Muslims, recalling the hardships of older days, when:

Azan (call to prayers) was prohibited; the zamindars of the valley who were
unfortunately all Moslems, were treated as laden beasts with human faces; [. . .].
The horrible atrocities [. . .] still within living memory.160

The petitioners, without laying any blame on the Maharaja, go on to detail how
the darbār functions in an anti-Muslim bias, with “Ministers who are all Hindus
and are alert to let any opportunity to further the Hindu Cause slip by. As a result
of this policy the Moslem interest are not only utterly ignored but their legitimate
aspirations are cruelly suppressed.”161 The memorandum lists the discriminations
and under-representation faced by the Kashmiri Muslims and suggests measures
that the Kashmir darbār needs to take to remove this sense of this discrimination.
Though the memorandum was rejected by the British, it marks the first instance
when the elders of Kashmiri Muslim society articulated a demand for their rights
as subjects, subjects who they were keen to point out constituted an overwhelming
majority, in the words of the petitioners, “95% of the total population [. . .] loyal and
law abiding.”162 In the chequered history of Shiʿi-Sunni relations in Kashmir, the
memorandum also marks the first instance in the history of modern Kashmir when
the elites representing the two communities, signed themselves as comprising a
152 Shiʿism in Kashmir

united Muslim community. In addition to leading Sunni figure of the city, Khwāja
Mohyi-al Dīn, Khwāja Sana-al Lah Shawl, Khwāja Mukhtar Shāh Ashai, and
Sana-la lah Qadrī, the signatories also included two Shiʿi: Āgā Sayyid Ḥusayn Shāh
Jalālī and Ḥājjī Jʿafar Khān.
The next engagement of the Kashmiri Muslim society with the British colonial
authority came during the summer of 1924, when the news of the Governor-
General, Lord Readings visit to Kashmir spread in Srinagar. Earlier in the July
of the same year, an agitation by the Muslim workers in the Silk Factory against
their Pandit officers and lack of proper wages had been put down brutally with a
bayonet charge, overseen by the heir-apparent, Raja Hari Singh.163 With tempers
rising high, the city presented a somber if not entirely grim spectacle. The brutal
suppression of the workers was immediately followed by the arrival of the Shiʿi
month of mourning, Muharram and the Ashura procession passing through the
heart of the city.
Reminiscing about his college days, Ṣafdar writes about the nature of the
Ashura procession in the city, and a singular event related with it which took place
during the Muharram of 1923:164

On the night of ninth Muharram (shab-i Ashura), a majlis would be held at his
(Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli) house. Around 3 am in the morning the procession
of Zuljinnah would commence. It would be accompanied by ten or twelve
men, reciting la ilahailla-llah (there is no god but Allah) slowly, slowly. A few
torches would also accompany the procession for providing the light. In this
small procession neither was marṣiya recited nor would people beat their chest.
On reaching Kamangarpora, the Zuljinnah would be taken to the haveli of late
Sayyid Aṣghar Shāh Jalālī, where people would pay their respect. From here the
Zuljinnah would proceed to Imāmbāda at Zadibal (Ma’rak) where this brief
procession would culminate in the darkness of night.

The entire journey from Namchibal to Ma’rak spread over a distance of two–three
miles would be completed in a few hours of complete darkness. The Ashura of
1923 nevertheless marked a significant departure; two young mourners in the
procession, Miyān Ghūlam Muhammad Khān and Yūsuf ʿAli Khān started to
beat chest and recite nūḥa as soon as the mourners reached the main road. This
innovation attracted a large number of mourners, and as more people started
assembling, the procession made its way slowly to Ma’rak, reaching the end of
destination around dusk. This is the first known instance when the Ashura’
procession commenced during daytime in Kashmir. Happy with the turn of the
events, the organizers decided that to follow a similar pattern in the following year
by talking out a daytime procession.
Next Muharram, the darbār passed an hukum nama (order), demanding of the
organizer of the procession, Sayyid Ḥusayn Shāh Jalālī should follow established
tradition, effectively forbidding a daytime procession. With feelings still running
high against them, the darbār thought it best to avoid any large-scale gathering
of their Muslim subjects during the daytime, hence the enforcement of the ban.
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 153

Also, with an impending visit of the Viceroy, it is possible that the Maharaja’s
government wanted to avoid any possible incident which could lead to further
disturbances in the city.
The darbār’s order for an early morning procession was defied by the Jalālī who
was supported by Khwāja Saʿad-al Din Shawl, one of the leading Sunni of the
city. An attempt by the mourners to proceed to the main road was thwarted by the
police when Ram Singh the Superintendent of Police confiscated the tʿazia(Quran
carried in a small casket).165 The mourners meanwhile refused to back down, and
defying the police marched on to the main road with the active backing of the
Sunni community. In the absence of the tʿazia, the procession was accompanied
by two alams (religious flags), from the highly revered Sunni shrine of Asar-i
Sharif Shahrī, Kalashpora.166 Members of both the communities participated in
this unique celebration of Ḥusayn’s martyrdom which also became associated with
an evolving discourse on the future of Kashmiri community in a post-maharaja,
postcolonial world.
Thus, a procession that had started as a manifestation of Shiʿi community’s desire
for visibility in the public space and demonstrate their identity became associated
with narrative of the Muslim identity of Kashmir. Representing a rare case of Shiʿi-
Sunni ecumenism in Kashmir, it set the stage for future cooperation between the
two communities in their struggle against the Hindu ruler. This integration of the
Shiʿi and Sunni community in a quest for freedom would continue to be checked
by sectarian tensions, tensions that originated at local level, in the moḥala, along
the route of a procession, or in the utterance of an individual. But the political and
increasingly the religious leaders of both the communities sought to minimize
these irritants, to portray an image of Muslim unity.
Immediately following the Ashura, Khwāja Saʿad-al Dīn Shawl held a meeting
of members of the Muslim community at his home. In the meet, it was decided that
during Lord Reading’s upcoming visit, a memorandum would again be submitted
to the Viceroy, highlighting the continued discrimination faced by Kashmiri
Muslims. Āgā Sayyid Ḥusayn, the first Muslim matriculate, working as Wazir-i
Wazarat (administrator) for the district of Anantnag, had come into contact with
a Shiʿi barrister from Lucknow, Āgā Ḥaidar, who was on a vacation in the city.
With the memory of the rejected memorandum of 1907 fresh in the mind of
the assembly, many of whom had signed it, Ḥusayn suggested to Shawl that they
should request Āgā Ḥaidar to draft the memorandum. In the meantime, the darbār
also came to know about the meeting and even raided the houseboat in which Āgā
Ḥaidar was residing.167 The events regarding the actual presentation of the draft are
a bit murky, it was either submitted to the viceroy at Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā during
his boat procession in the city or when he was shopping along the Bund.168 The
Pandit newspaper, Bahār-i Kashmir, published from Lahore with its pronounced
anti-Muslim stance describes the event in these words:

Lord Reading and the rest of the party arrived in Srinagar on 14th October [. . .]
After partaking lunch, the entire party embarked on steamboats and left for
the Srinagar Residency, where arrangements for the Lord’s disembarking had
154 Shiʿism in Kashmir

been made. [. . .] but when the procession passed near Shāh Hamdan, it [Shāh
Hamadan] is the same place where a riot had taken place some days back, on
Viceroy Ṣāhab’s arrival thousands of Muslim who had assembled their earlier
and were waiting for the arrival of Viceroy Ṣāhab, those boards which they had
made earlier and on which the letter zulum-o sitam (oppression and tyranny),
presented them before the Viceroy Ṣāhab.169

The memorandum submitted to Lord Reading echoed the earlier petition of 1907,
yet the new petition included a longer list of demands worded more forcefully. It
sought restoration of seized religious sites and lands, and inquiries into “Muslim
grievances regarding the Zuljinnah procession, the incident at Khanqah-e-Shāh-
i-Hamdan and those relating to Islamabad and Baramula,”170 under an impartial
European officer. The list of demands was no longer limited to a fair representation
of Muslim in the administration but demanded an overhaul of the functioning of
the government. Without voicing it openly, the text of the demand made it clear
that the Muslim draftees of the memorandum saw the Maharaja’s rule as a Hindu
rule, and only the British paramount power could undo the institutional bias that
lay at the heart of the Dogra regime. Crucially, the memorandum made a demand
for, “An elected Legislative Assembly which should also work as a Constituent
Assembly for the drafting of a Constitution for the State, [. . .] Muslim population
must be kept in view while granting representation to the various communities.”171
Rather than seeking an accommodation with his Muslim subjects, the Maharaja
sought to punish the principal movers behind the memorandum, Saʿad-al Dīn
Shawl was banished from the state and Ḥusayn Shāh Jalālī dismissed from his
post as a zailadar. The jāgīrs of another prominent signatory to the memorandum,
Khwāja Ḥasan Shāh Naqshbandī were confiscated, while his son Khwāja Nūr
Shāh Naqshbandī was dismissed from the state services.172 With the state in a
flux, and the resentment against the maharaja growing, Pratap Singh, the longest-
serving ruler of the Dogra dynasty, died on December 23, 1925.
Under the guidance of the community elite, the narrative of a discriminated
Kashmiri Muslim began to dominate the collective Muslim idea about the rule of
the Hindu maharaja. The Muslim identity served as a tool for promoting collective
group interests as well as mobilizing an opinion against the Hindu rulers both
in Kashmir and outside, especially among Punjabi Muslims. In articulating a
Muslim identity, the Kashmiri Muslim community also came into conflict with
the Pandit minority, whose domination in the administration was bound to lose
in case of a proportional representation, as demanded by Muslim representatives.
This fear of the numbers, also weighed heavily in some of the more rancorous
articles published in Gulzar-i Kashmir, which served as one of the mouthpieces for
Kashmiri Pandits.173
Following Pratap Singh’s death, Saʿad-al Dīn Shawl was allowed to return to
Kashmir in 1926.174 During his exile in Lahore, Shawl had been able to mobilize
additional support for Kashmiri Muslims among the Muslims of Punjab. The All-
India Muslim Kashmir Conference, which had been founded earlier in 1911 by
Punjabi Muslims had made conscious efforts to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 155

Figure 5.7 A meeting of Anjuman-i Imāmmia presided by Nawab Fateh ʿAli Khān,
Srinagar, 1922 (courtesy: Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani).

Muslims. This was reinforced by holding conferences outside Kashmir as well as

a visit of members to Srinagar.175 Meanwhile, building upon the reproachment
between the Shiʿi and Sunni, Ḥusayn Shāh Jalālī was able to revive the Anjuman-i
Imāmmia, and laid the foundation of the first Shiʿi school, Imāmmia School at
Zadibal in 1910. Under Jalālī, while working toward the upliftment of the Shiʿis,
the Anjuman would actively support the demands voiced by the Sunnis as
representing the collective Muslim body of Kashmir (Figure 5.7). The elite of the
two communities, Shiʿi and Sunni, who during the nineteenth century had served
as leaders of two competing communities would now work to secure the interest
of a unified Muslim society.
In the early 1930s, three brothers from a Shiʿi family, Ḥakim ʿAli (d. 1975),
Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar (d. 1974), and Ḥakim Ghulām Murtaza (d. 1957) would
constitute a group of educated Muslim youth who began to deliberate upon the
state of Kashmiri Muslims and ways of empowering the Muslim community. The
initial group was headed by Khwāja Ghulām Aḥmad ʿAshai (d. 1964), who had
been prematurely retired by the government in the same year. Focusing on the
discrimination faced by Kashmiri Muslims under the government, they started
a campaign to publicize these grievances through Lahore-based newspaper. The
group would later take the shape of Reading Room, which became actively involved
in the political uprising against the Hindu Dogra rule under the leadership of
Shaykh Muhammad ʿAbdullah (d. 1982). The Muslim struggle against the Hindu
ruler helped in creating a network of personal relation between the Shiʿi and Sunni
community both among the elders of the two groups and the educated youth. A
particular case of co-operation between the two communities which helped in
bridging the sectarian fault lines was the commemoration of Imām ʿAli’s birthday
on Rajab 13 as “Ali Day.” The first such celebration was held in 1940 at Zadibal
and presided over by Justice Sir ʿAbdu’l Qadir of Lahore the founding President
156 Shiʿism in Kashmir

of Anjuman-i Himayat-al Islam. Held in a Shiʿi space of the city in close vicinity
of Mʿārak, the Ali Day became part of an annual celebration in the city’s life with
active participation of the Sunni elite.

The formulation of a Muslim identity came increasingly in conflict with a similar

religious identity-based politics of the Kashmiri Pandit community. On July 13, 1931,
a mass killing of twenty-two demonstrators by the Maharaja’s troops, catapulted
the simmering discontent against the Dogra rule into open rebellion, marking
it as the foundational day in the narrative of freedom struggle of the Kashmiri
Muslim society. Simultaneously Kashmiris would get drawn into the nationalist
debates originating from the Indian mainland. A vast majority of Kashmiri Shiʿi
would politically and emotionally associate with the politics of Muslim League and
the Pakistan movement, many participating in the rigors of freedom struggle and
jail life, including the octogenarian, Āgā Sayyid Ḥusayn Shāh Jalālī. In the months
leading up to partition of British India, Pakistan Day would be observed by the Shiʿi
openly at Zadibal, marking the community’s allegiance to the idea of Pakistan.176 The
label of being pro-Pakistani would remain with the Shiʿi after Kashmir’s accession
to India in 1947, an accession which was followed by Abdullah’s appointment as
the Prime Minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.177 In his autobiography,
Isḥāq records the desperate situation faced by the Shiʿi of Budgam following the
tribal invasion of 1947, including a threat to arrest Āgā Sayyid Yūsuf (d. 1982),
the revered religious leader of Firqa-i Jadid. Yūsuf who was based in Budgam had
maintained an apolitical stand in the lead-up to the partition, but was accused by
Shaykh ʿAbdullah’s supporters of having colluded with the tribal militia who entered
Kashmir to secure its accession to Pakistan. A crucial element of Isḥāq’s account of
the events surrounding 1947 is his description of a massacre of several Kashmiri
Muslims, predominantly Shiʿi at Yechgam by Indian army,178 the first recorded case
of civilian killing in what would eventually enfold as the “Kashmir dispute.”179

Kashmiri Shiʿi and the Recent Past: Overview

Under the government of Shaykh ʿAbdullah (1948–53, 1975–77),180 not a single

Shiʿi would be inducted in his ministry and this pattern would continue way up
till 1987, when Moulvi Iftikhar Ansarī (d. 2014), a Shiʿi mid-level cleric, would
be inducted as a cabinet minister under, Abdullah’s son and successor, Farooq
Abdullah. Meanwhile, in 1979, the Islamic Revolution in Iran would capture
the imagination of many in the Kashmiri Shiʿi society. Ayatollah Khomeni’s
Kashmiri roots would remain a source of pride for the community, a majority
of whom completely aligned with the aspirations of the distant Islamic Republic.
Visits to Kashmir of high-profile functionaries in the newly established Islamic
Republic, including, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Mehdavi Kani and
Ayatollah Ali Gulzadeh Gafuri in the years following the revolution, also helped
in popularizing the idea of religio-political authority of Khomeni among the
Kashmiri Shiʿi. To a large extent, this resulted in gradual displacement of Najaf
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 157

based scholars who had traditionally served as the source of religious emulation
for the Shiʿi of Kashmir. The Iran-Iraq war, the Baathist targeting of the Ḥawzah
in Najaf, also resulted in a rupture in scholarly links connecting Kashmiri scholars
to seminaries in Iraq, consequently we find a gradual movement away from
Najaf toward Qum in Iran. The execution of a young Kashmiri seminarian in
Najaf, Shaykh Nisar Ḥusayn (d. 1986)181 by the regime of Saddam Ḥusayn, also
bought to fore the risks of proceeding with religious studies in the Najaf Ḥawzah.
While expanding their presence in Kashmir within the Shiʿi society, the Iranian
establishment sought to promote an image of Shiʿi-Sunni unity, and during his visit
to Srinagar, Khamenei would offer prayer in the main Jamia Masjid to showcase
this spirit. Popular slogans, originating from Kashmiri Shiʿi sections such as,
“news from Iran has arrived, Shiʿi-Sunni are brothers alike” sought to promote
this spirit of Muslim ecumenicalism, while also linking it to the revolutionary
regime in Tehran. The response from the Kashmiri Sunni religious leadership and
elite to this development, and the Iranian regime at large, would be ambivalent at
best. While some would welcome it, some choose to see the Iranian revolution as
a sectarian threat to the Sunnis as a confessional community; and a challenge to
their religious beliefs.182
Simultaneously, the execution in Pakistan of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (d. 1979), the
charismatic premier who was deposed by the Army Chief, General Zia-ul Haq (d.
1988) in a military coup d’etat marked a watershed movement in how Kashmiri
Shiʿi viewed Pakistan. Many in the Kashmiri Shiʿi community thought of Bhutto
as a Shiʿi—a belief that continues to resonate among sections of Kashmiri Muslim
society even today, Shiʿi and Sunni alike. The Islamization campaign in Pakistan
launched by Zia-ul Haq, and what was perceived as institutionally supported
sectarian strife would contribute to a gradual disillusionment among the Kashmiri
Shiʿi, from events and happening in that country.183
In 1983, the maverick Shiʿi leader, Moulvi Iftikhar Ansarī184 contested and won an
assembly election outside Srinagar, against a candidate from National Conference,
the party founded by Shaykh Muhammad ʿAbdullah. While Ansarī’s win was
conditioned by a degree of Sunni support, nevertheless his victory was perceived
as that of a Shiʿi religious leader against a Sunni candidate from the Sunni party.
Shiʿi celebration in the city, after the delayed results were finally declared added to
the sense of Sunni unease over what was in the end an inconsequential electoral
victory.185 This, in turn, resulted in the first major Shiʿi-Sunni riot of the twentieth
century. Besides Zadibal, Shiʿi populated moḥala in mixed neighborhood of the
old city were targeted by mobs, mostly workers and supporters of the National
Conference. The riots occurred at a time, when the process of migration from the
dense and congested neighborhoods of the old city had started. For Shiʿi living in
these old neighborhoods, aside from the challenges of living in a decaying urban
landscape of the downtown, the disturbances added another reason for leaving:
insecurity.
Consequent to the riots, we find that Shiʿi living in the mixed moḥalas of
Kamangarpora, Namchibal, Babapora, Fateh Kadal, Nawa Kadal, Nawpora, and
Daulatabad in the old city relocated to areas with substantial Shiʿi population, such
158 Shiʿism in Kashmir

as Zadibal, Baghwanpora, Shalimar, or Bemina. Over the decades this resulted

not only in thinning out Shiʿi presence in the historic city, but also setting up of
Shiʿi enclaves, spatially and socially disconnected from a wider, predominantly
Sunni morphology of the city. Further exacerbating this broadening sectarianism
of the physical landscape is the gradual ideological shift within the native Ḥanafī
community toward a more sectarian brand of Sunni Islam; the Ahl-i Ḥadīth186 and
the Salafī. To a large extent, this trend is continuing and gets replicated in towns
and villages outside of Srinagar. It was in the 1970s that a Sunni preacher based
in the city and linked with the Ahl-i Ḥadīth, Moulvi Ghulam Nabi Mubarki (d.
1978) or as he was popularly known based on his oratorical skills, Nʿabih Kumir,187
publicly denounced the Shiʿi mourning ceremonies and the Ashura procession.
Within the city, Mubarki was responsible for popularizing an urban legend,188
which warned the believing Sunni about the dangers of witnessing the Ashura
procession, an act which Mubarki preached would invalidate the marriage contact
of the observer.189 While countless Sunnis would ignore his rhetoric, a limited few
even participating in the procession, given the implication, Nabi’s denunciations
did manage to influence many in the Sunni society. In my interview with Ḥakim
Imtiyaz, who has documented the Shiʿi sociopolitical history of modern Kashmir,
he dwelled upon how some Sunni families with houses on the procession route
would close their windows during the passage of the mourners.190 Yet, he and many
others in the Shiʿi community narrate countless anecdotes of not only Sunnis but
also Kashmiri Pandits, honoring the procession with niyāz (offerings) to mark the
fulfillment of a vow.191
While Mubarki’s sermons did manage a degree of alienation among the Sunnis
from the Ashura ritual and generate sectarian disquiet in the city especially among
the mourning Shiʿi, this tribulation in the city’s urban and religious life had a short
trajectory. In the end, Mubarki’s rhetoric was limited to the period of mourning
season of Muharram,192 and marked a brief interlude in his primary and sustained
polemical discourse against his fellow Sunnis, the Ḥanafīs. The immediate cause
for Mubarki’s public outcry was the rising popularity of the Ashura procession
among the Sunni youth, who would come onto the streets to witness this ritual
passage through the heart of the city.193 Though the interactions between the Shiʿi
performance and the Sunni observers, took place mostly along the edges of the
procession, such public spectacles in the city did help in familiarizing the Sunni
audience with a Shiʿi ritual, in turn leading to acceptance of such practices and
eventually more tolerance.194 In condemning the Muharram mourning ceremonies,
Mubarki was echoing the archetypal Ahl-i Ḥadīth narrative that sought to proscribe
rituals and practices rooted in popular culture as representing bʿidah (innovation)
and shirk (polytheism). Additionally, in targeting the Ashura, Mubarki sought to
represent himself as the lone speaker for the Sunni collective willing to take upon
the deviant nature of the Shiʿi performances. While censure of the Shiʿi as a sect,
or of the Shiʿi practices, was also prevalent among the Ḥanafī religious classes, this
critique had not manifested itself in the public spaces. Mubarki’s rhetoric was the
first public break from the tradition of Muslim ecumenicalism that had marked
Shiʿi-Sunni relations in the twentieth century. His play on the acceptability of Shiʿi
 5. Moving Toward a Unified Muslim Identity 159

practices and performances can also be read as a propaganda tool to attract Sunni
audiences to the Ahl-i Ḥadīth cause, in a city which was (and possibly remains)
predominantly Ḥanafī.
Outside Srinagar, within the Shiʿi settlements, the period leading from the 1970s
into the 1980s marked a flourishing of the Muharram ceremonies and processions.
Within the city, the two Shiʿi factions, organized separate Ashura processions, one
on the old route from Namchibal to Mʿārak organized by Firqa-i Qadim and a rival
one proceeding from Rūżā-i Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIraki to Imāmbāda Hasanabad
under the patronage of Firqa-i Jadid. The two processions were coordinated in
manner to avoid an overlap along the procession route, but many mourners would
participate in both the processions. In 1978, due to political pressure from the
chief minister of the state, Shaykh Muhammad ʿAbdullah, the two groups finally
agreed to participate in a single Ashura procession commencing from Abi Guzar,
with the responsibility of managing the event undertaken by the factions on a
rotational basis. An earlier attempt, to organize a united, single Ashura procession
in the 1950s by Munshi Muhammad Isḥāq under the banner of Shiʿi Federation
had come unstuck with the removal of ʿAbdullah as Prime Minister of the state in
1953.195 Till 1989, when the procession was banned by the state government, the
Ashura march from Abi Guzar in the commercial heart of the city, to Zadibal in
the cities Shiʿi dominated suburbs, covering a distance of five miles, spread over
an entire day, would mark the most elaborate and imposing liturgical event in the
city life.
Across Kashmir itself, following Zia-ul Haq’s death in 1988,196 popular protests,
followed by an armed rebellion against the India state backed by Pakistan,
increasingly took a communal coloring. The large-scale migration of Pandits
from Kashmir made the rebellion a Muslim alone affair, in which the military and
administrative power of Hindu majority Indian state was arranged against the sole
Muslim-dominated region of India. The quest for ‘Āzadī’ (freedom) from Indian
remained the hope for a majority of Kashmiri Muslims, Shiʿi and Sunni alike.
While the overwhelming participants in the armed rebellion were and remain
Sunnis, some Shiʿis also took up arms against the Indian state.197
The fall of Saddam Hussain, and the sectarian killings in Iraq along with the
desecration of a revered Shiʿi shrine at Samarra, rekindled sectarian disquiet
in Kashmir, which had largely been overshadowed by political turmoil related
to Kashmir’s own insurgency. The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq was initially
welcomed by some in the Kashmiri Sunni community, who saw it as the face of a
Sunni resurgence in post-Saddam Iraq. The failure of the Arab Spring, events in
Syria, the role of Iran, and the armed opposition, further split the opinion among
Kashmiri Muslims on the sectarian ground. For a significant majority of Kashmiri
Shiʿi, supporting Iran and the religious leadership in Iran is often conflated with
a correctness of religious belief. It can be argued that in the 1980s following the
Iranian revolution, and more specifically following the Ḥājj incident in 1987
resulting in the death of many Iranian pilgrims, Saudi Arabia did enjoy a similar
paradigm of loyalty among Kashmiri Sunnis, this support has gradually dissipated
to small core group of idealogues among the Deobandī,198 Ahl-i Ḥadīth, and Salafī’s.
160 Shiʿism in Kashmir

The fluid nature of public opinion within the Kashmiri Sunni society on the
political confabulations across the Muslim nations; the emerging disillusionment
with not only the Saudi state but also the religious establishment, contrasts with the
near universal and uncritical identification of the Kashmiri Shiʿi with the Iranian
establishment and the office of the Rehbar (Supreme Leader). Within the Kashmiri
Sunni society this at times generates a charge of sectarian politics against the Shiʿi.
Nevertheless, in the public spaces tensions due to these transnational events
feature mostly on social media debates and conversations that have so far not
resulted in an event of physical violence. Despite the ever-increasing number of
these conflicts that are widespread across the sectarian fault-line in the Islamic
world, the particulars of political uncertainty facing Kashmiri Muslims, the
aspirations of freedom from India, and the ensuing struggle against Indian state
continues to define the Sunni-Shiʿi relation in the region. Though a section of the
Shiʿi society remains apprehensive of a possible future outside the Indian state,
an overwhelming majority of the Kashmiri Shiʿi still ascribe to the narrative of
“Āzadī.” The dismemberment of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019
and the withdrawal of the special constitutional status that had at least in theory
governed Kashmir’s relation with the Delhi, by the right-wing Bharatiya Janta
Party (BJP) government is an undeniable inflection point in Kashmir’s politics.199
Many among the Kashmiri Muslim society, Shiʿi and Sunni alike, perceive this
change as a threat to their Muslim existence.
As an argument, even in these changing and testing times, the case for
boundaries defining Shiʿi-ness or Sunni-ness in contemporary Kashmir does
exist- boundaries that have shown a marked resilience in their continued presence.
Yet, these boundaries are not exclusionary to the extent they were at the start of
the nineteenth century. The process of sectarian coexistence, an inspiration for
Kashmiri Muslim collective identity that was first proposed in the early twentieth
century holds true even today, after the passing away of a tumultuous century.
Seemingly, despite the frayed edges, the core of this Muslim ecumenicalism in
Kashmir holds true. The Muslim society of Kashmir does exhibit and operate
at multiple levels of societal exchanges, making these boundaries permissive to
both change and newer meanings and interpretations. Each and every individual
interaction is adding and changing the nature of what being a Shiʿi or Sunni means.
Do then, our inherited identities still characterize how we identify as individuals,
as people? The answers may be too varied and diverse to reach a conclusion.
But, if events in India and across the world are an indicator, it seems so. How the
future may translate, is, and remains an open question. In a world of increasing
polarization and politicised identities, can we in Kashmir, foreground our future
on the footsteps of this initial narrative of coexistence, may we as people be able to
build upon it and cross the other divides in our societies, is a hope for Kashmir as
for the rest of South Asia.
 APPENDIX I
LETTER OF ḤAKIM ʿAẔIM, WRITTEN TO
MOULVI SAYYID RAJAB ʿALI SHĀH

(Translation: Stephan Popp)

To the Greatly generous, Abundant in blessing Honourable servants1 of His

Prosperous, entirely splendid Excellency, the illustrious Jenab Maulvi Ṣāhab, the
father of virtues, of enduring rankings, the barrier to incidents, Naṣr ud-dunyā
vad-dīn, the morning of the weak and oppressed, our greatest master (maulānā)
and generous refuge, may his (lit. Their) honour be increased!
After explaining the wish to achieve the joy of being close to (you) the shop
brimming with grace, I notify you that the rays of the Glosses to Elegant Wishes
(taʿlīqa bi-munya) and the lightning of the exalted letters in which the sun rises
shone in the corners of the dark realm of the habitually foul heart. Its bright sun-
blazing splendor has made the nest of the sad mind, which had become a den
for the bats of sorrow, the horizon where the lights of joy rise. The advice and
counsel that you have demonstrated in Indian language from the words of thanks
and patience of those dependent on the times and preferences about being silent
about outright praise and slander of oneself and the others have planted advice in
the soil of the earth behind the Nawab and beyond merit of the fine cracks of the
government.2
A half-verse came to my mind,3 which has sweetened the sweet brain of That
pen gourmet very much: “The bitterness of envy has not made the pen desirous of
sugarcane.” Silence has a delight that does not come up in talk.
Earlier, for this pen-tongued (person) could not control the two languages.
He brought part of the miracle of the time to the exhibition of speech, but it has
become stammering now by the advisable hint of the cupbearer (= the pir). He has
recorded all of it, which had been before a joke before (perhaps: most [beshtar] of
which had been a joke before [peshtar]), in the volume of silence according to the
righteous guidance enveloped in the pages of forgetting, turned the reins of (his)
determination quickly toward writing a complaint, and hurried on the way to the
aim of displaying it.
You gave the illustrious book “The Uncovering of the Veil” to each one of the
friends in India by excessive generosity and munificence, and one copy of it to
this abecedarian in the school of ignorance, in utmost kindness and goodness.
Therefore your gift, like a spring cloud, is universal like a skilled secret carrier
whom they have sent to approve their mistress.
162 Appendix I

To the aims of some faulty, defiant people, I have stayed sometime in the
pericardium of concealment, divided that bride into seven each, and hid the
visible face in the veil of seclusion from the high-rising slander of the rivals from
the relatives of corruption for some weeks. When it had not come on the bridal
thrones of high and low for several times, I gave it a shining appearance like a ray.
Its publishing came out like that one famous in the horizons, and its perfection
seemed utterly impossible. So after a long while, it reached me with the knowledge
of Muhammad Hasan Turk. From the testimony of the issues of expression and the
flashes of meanings, the outward eyes of the far-sighted became blind, and the eyes
of the black-bodied behaving like bats became dark.4 During the investigation,
a half-verse indicating the date of completion came to my mind, with some
rhyming phrases that contain the conclusion, which I have named “The anklets
of the charming brides of thought.” I have written a supplement to the above-
mentioned book and summed them up, so that their crowns do not make those
delicate (brides) born from (my) personality heavy and slow.
Some judicious people have suggested that these sentences needed to be put
in the corrective view of the scholars of the time. Although I have said that this
means harvesting fruit from the forefathers who offer a potshard in the opinion
(that it is) a jewel for the gemmologist, my friends have not accepted my word for
their babies (?) and have answered: Has this shining jewel not been an eardrop for
the ear of your reason (= have you not understood), which they have said and truly
pierced a pearl (Arabic):
Sending the slanderer (nammāl)/the ants (nimāl) is perfect friendship; by [. . .]5
half the men are locusts. Which means, my effort continues to the utmost; the gifts
correspond to him who gives.
I had requested a proof for this word because I offer(ed) my service in the same
days. A respectable man whom I trusted did not meet (him), and my heart did
not give in to the messengers of the traders. Having sent that for such a long time
at an adverse fate, I necessarily intended to bring out the shining pearls of its sad
contents, which I had spun together in new ways, and arrange it on the lines of a
Kashmiri marthiya, so that your Lordship’s beautiful (?) grace receives a jewel tear,
the price of which gives plenty of recompense to each of those who ask for help.
With this precious pearl in the crown, (your) glorious crest will be remembered
in the plain of the Last Judgment. But they have given priority to a group (that is)
all faults (baġy), the disciples of Sayyid Ibrahim, who hides in confusion about
religion, over all adversaries. They have taken the ball of precedence from Āzar
the Idol-maker. They have made the market of remembering His Excellence the
Lord of Martyrs, may he be lauded and praised, a dead market for marṣiyas, and
spoiled the belief of the people by listening to one marthiya after the other, so that
mentioning it again would be excessive for the discerning mind.
In short, the marthiya of that group, which consists of most writers, have all the
words of the marṣiya as a wish (munya) in the ear, and they try to dishonor and
reproach those who commemorate. But they know that their sad predominance
deserves an enormous price for their above-mentioned piety. In the era of Sardār
ʿAbdullah Khān Afghan, who had sparked a fire in Zadibal from utmost hatred,
 Appendix I 163

fanatism, and enmity for keeping up the anger, which ruined the believers daily
in the publication from the mourning rites. They altered them every night
clandestinely. And more so in the era of ʿAbdullah Khān Afghan, in which
ʿAbdullah’s mouth said more and more that in his days the remembrance of the
Lord of Martyrs, peace be upon him, and the faith of the mourners, should be
canceled from the minds. Strangers prohibited crying when remembering Husain
PBUH. It has gone so far now that we have to cry very much.
May God the Exalted, the lord of power and wealth, and the friend of success
and bravery, inspire you6 that you become a champion in this important affair in
the region of Kashmir! More than this would be outside of good manners, which
forbid verboseness. Best wishes, the pauper (fuqarā).
 APPENDIX II
GROANS OF THE MUSLIMS OF KASHMIR

Petition To His Highness the Maharaja Saheb Bhadur- in- Council, Srinagar

May it please Your Highness,

The humble petition of the Muslims of all the sects of Kashmir respectfully
showeth:-

That the Muharram procession all over the World starts early morning and
ends by after-noon according to the timing of the original event. Unfortunately,
an ex-parte despotic order based on false report, was issued last year requiring
the Shias to perform this ceremony by night on the plea that lest the Sunnis be
offended. The falsity of the plea is evident from the fact that the Sunnis & the Shias
have been jointly performing this ceremony by day time several years since. Last
year being forced on this very occasion no ceremony could be discharged, but
at the same time we were told that permission would be given next year on the
receipt of representation. The representation was duly submitted to Your Highness
through proper channel; which has not so far been favoured with any reply. Some
days before the last ceremony the Sunni raises, on being summoned before the
Superintendent Police, told him plainly that there was no objection from the
Sunnis. When preparations were being made for the procession, the Supdt. Police
arrived 2 A.M. on the spot, where from the procession starts, attended with
20 Sorwars, armed with swords, & 60 constables armed with bludgeons, prepared
especially to terrorise and keep us back from discharging religious obligations. He
ordered those who were near the Zuljanah (Imam Hosains’ Horse) to start at 3.30
A.M which was agreed to be carried out; but then raised another obstruction by
demanding those present to furnish security, binding to run Zuljanah so fast as to
reach Imambara before sun-rise. There were about a Lac of people, the Muslims
of all sects, gathered together to perform the sacred ceremony. On being told that
carrying out the order of reaching the Imambara before sun-rise with so large a
crowd was impracticable, The Supt. Police, under instructions from the District
Magistrate (both unsympathetic,) restored to tyrany [sic]so far unheard of and
unknown, that the Zuljanah with all decorations was taken away in sheer contempt
to the Thana & thens to the Hindu Supdt’s house; and so defiling the Zuljanah & all
his accessories. After the time of ceremony was over, i.e. by about 1P.M., the horse
was returned to the Muawalli [sic] without any decorations. This outrage was
 Appendix II 165

more than enough to create an uncontrollable situation all over the city; had not
religious feelings intervened and dictate to the congregation to proceed on with the
procession carrying a Holy Quran and leaving the Zuljanah, the Supdt. Police ran
away leaving the procession, consisting of all sects of the Muslim numbering about
a Lakh, to itself proceed on its way unguarded; and yet the procession reached its
destination (Imambara Zadibal) and thens to Alam Saheb’s Ziarat peacefully and
tranquilly. This fact alone falsifies the assumption that the Muslim sects were not
united in desire of performing the ceremony during the day time. In short the joint
complaints of the Shias & the Sunnis are:-

(1) That the Sunnis are unjustly stigmatized of being hostile to the ceremony,
while they have been performing it jointly with the Shias in Srinagar years
since and while their brotheren [sic] all over India do perform it yearly with
no less zeal than Shias.
(2) That security was demanded for performance of a purely religious,
mourning ceremony, while every facility is always afforded with open hearts
to other communities viz Aryas, Sikhs, Sanatanists & Pundits etc.; and in
some cases State assistance in the shape of sites, furniture and guards, is also
given to them in spite of the fact that their processions are usually political
and joyously boistrous [sic].
(3) The Zuljanah was grossly insulted as stated above a contempt to our
religious, sacred symbols, which can be better be imagined than described.
The shocking tyranny and sacrilege were committed while even the
intolerable had not been infringed in any way. The Zuljanah on account of
veneration is kept aloof from being used for full 40 days after the ceremony;
and what a heart rending disgrace it was that the same Zuljanah, with
decorations was driven forcibly away and locked contemptuously by non-
Muslims.
(4) That the decorations, as reported by the Mutawali are still missing, which
proved beyond doubt that the Zuljanah was disrespectfully handled without
the least regard to our religious susceptibilities.
(5) That our religious liberty has been not only singularly interfered high-
handedly, but grossly outraged.

The united appeal of the whole Muslim community with bleeding hearts is that
a special committee, properly constituted be appointed to investigate into this
unprecedented case, or as an alternative we may be allowed to institute formal
judicial proceedings against the officers concerned.
In conclusion we beg to submit that we have numerous other serious grievances
to ventilate, which will form the subject of a subsequent petition.

Dated Srinagar
the 18th September, 1924.
We beg to remain
Your Highness’ most obedient subjects,
166 Appendix II

Muslims
Through the President & Raises,
Signatories:
Mirwaiz Moulvi Ahmadullah Hamdani, President Anjuman i Khankah Mualla,
Srinagar (Kashmir).
Khawja Hassan Shah Nakashbandi, Raise & Jāgīrdār, Srinagar.
Moulvi Sharifud Din, Mufti Azam Kashmir, Srinagar.
Sheikh Mohammad Ishaq, Vice-President Anjumani Hamdard Kashmir, Srinagar.
Moulvi Mohammad Jawad, Shia Mufti, Srinagar.
Mir Syed Hosain Jalali, President Anjuman i Imamia Kashmir, Srinagar.
Aga Abdullah, Merchant, Srinagar
Syed Said Shah Jalali, Vice President Anjuman i Imamia Kashmir, Srinagar.
Khawja Sadudin Shawl, Raise, Srinagar.
Khawja Ghulam Mahyudin, Raise, Srinagar.
Mir Maqbool Shah Saheb, Sajada Nisheen Ziyarati Dastgir Saheb, Srinagar.
 NOTES
Introduction

1 The spindle is an important part of the yandir (spinning wheel), used in spinning of
pashmina, the fine wollen fabric used to make the much-famed Kashmiri shawls. Given
the large-scale prevalence of shawl weaving in Kashmiri society, it was an essential
household item in a majority of Kashmiri homes during the nineteenth century.
2 G. T. Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, the Countries Adjoining the Mountain-
Course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, North of the Panjab, vol. i (London: H.
Colburn, 1842), 84.
3 Also referred to as Tārīkh-i Kashmir ʿAẕamī, see Khwāja ʿAẕam Dedhmarī, Tārīkh
-i Kashmir/Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr (Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 1836). For an Urdu
translation of the original Persian work, see Khwāja ʿAẕam Dedhmarī, transl. (urdu)
Z. S. Azhar, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr (Srinagar: Gulshan Publishers, 2003).
4 As an established Sufi order operating from a khānaqāh, Naqshbandīs were late
entrants to the religious landscape of Kashmir and the Kubrawī and the Suhrawardī
had provided religious leadership among the Sunni society since the late fourteenth
century. For a general study, see Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr.
5 ʿAẕam said of his year of passing.
The light of faith upon Sāṭiḥ’s grave.
6 Kalhānā transl. M. A. Stein, Rajatarangini (Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 2007), 353, 357.
7 See Abū’l Rahim al Berunī, transl. W. C. Sachan, Alberuni’s India, vol. ii (Delhi: S.
Chand & Co., 1964), 206.
8 Muhammad ibn Yʿaqūb al-Kulaynī, transl. Sayyid Ḥasan, Usūl-i Kāfī (Lucknow:
Nizami Press Book Depot, 2001), 141–74.a.
9 See Suhanna Shafiq, The Maritime Culture in Kitāb Ajaib al Hind (the Book of
the Marvels of India) by Buzurg Ibn Shahriyar (unpublished M.Phil thesis, 2011),
University of Exeter.
10 Ibid., 69.
11 Finbarr Barry Flood, Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-
Muslim” Encounter (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018), 65–9.
12 Similarly Aslam uses Ahl-i Tashayyu' for the Shiʿi community, see, Abu’l Qāsim
Muhammad Aslam, Gowhar-i ʿĀlam (Bodleian Library, Oxford University MS. S. Digby
Or. 133).
13 Ibid., ff. 176.
14 In his mention of Aslam, the twentieth century historian, Sufi, mistakenly refers to
him as the son of Khwāja Muhammad Aʿẕam Dīdahmarī, see, G. M. D. Sufi, Kashir,
vol. i (Lahore: University of Punjab, 1949), xii.
15 This could be seen as popular reinterpretation of Shiʿi worldview, in which “the
Shīʿites are ‘brothers’, the other Muslims merely ‘people’ (nās).” Josef van Ess, transl.
John O’ Kane, Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra, vol.
i (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 319.
16 For a critique of what is understood by sectarianism in the Muslim world and a
reading of the different layers and meanings it has assumed in contemporary writings
168 Notes

on Muslim world, see Fanar Haddad, Understanding “Sectarianism”:

Sunni-Shi’a Relations in the Modern Arab World (London: C. Hurst & Co
Publishers Ltd, 2019).
We find the use of 'Ahl al-Ahwāʾ by early Sunni theologians for those “followers
of Islām, whose religious tenets in certain details deviate from the general ordinances
of the Sunnite confession,” which is often translated into sectarian, though Goldziher
argues against it. See I. Goldziher, “Ahl al-Ahwāʾ,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second
Edition, edited by P. Bearman, Th Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P.
Heinrichs, last visited online on April 7, 2022, http://dx​.doi​.org​/10​.1163​/1573​-3912​_
islam​_SIM​_0377. The term 'Ahl al Firaq’ traditionally and more commonly used for a
sect also forms part of the title of two works on sects and schisms in Islam, that of the
Sunni scholar Abū Manṣūr al Baghdadī (d. 1037 ce) and the Shiʿi, Abū Muhammad
al-Nawbakhtī (d. 912–22 approx.).
17 For an overview of the operation of orthodoxy and heresy in turn leading to
formations of sects, see John B. Henderson, The Construction of Orthodoxy and
Heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and Early Christian Pattern (Albany: State
University of New York, Press, 1998).
18 Writing in the seventeenth century, the fourth Mughal emperor Jahangir (r.
1569–1627) in his autobiography speaks about the existence of two distinct Shiʿi
communities in Kashmir:
The military are Imami Shiites, and some belong to the Nurbakhsh sect.
Wheeler M. Thackston (transl. and ed.), The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir,
Emperor of India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 334.
19 See Charles Ellison Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir and the Adjacent Districts (Calcutta:
Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1873), 30.
20 See Chitralekha Zutshi, Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the
Making of Kashmir (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004), and Mridu Rai, Hindu Rulers,
Muslim Subjects, Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2004).
21 Juan Cole, instead of Jaun, the other study is by Andreas Rieck, not Reick
Finally, my book was published in 2019, not 2009 and the correct place of
publication would be Chapel Hill, NC, not simply “North Carolina”. For details, see J.
R. I. Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iran and Iraq, Religion and State in Awadh,
1722-1859 (Berkley: University of California Press, 1989) and Andreas Rieck, The
Shias of Pakistan, An Assertive and Beleaguered Minority (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2015).
22 In two letters written in 1969 to a senior Kashmiri cleric, Āgā Sayyid Yūsuf al
Mūsāvī, Khomeini writes about his family link to Kashmir. For a reproduction of
the letter and a generic discussion on Khomeini’s Kashmiri roots, see Justice Hakim
Imtiyaz Hussain, The Shiʿas of Jammu & Kashmir: An Analytical Study of the Shiʿa
Community in the State of Jammu & Kashmir from 1324 to 1947 AD, vol. i (Srinagar:
Srinagar Publishing House, 2017), 603–5.

Chapter 1

1 Born in 1882, Ṣughrā Mīrzā was an advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity, a poet whose
writing are replete with concerns for women upliftment, as well as a philanthropist.
See K. Lalita and Susie J. Tharu (ed.), Women Writing in India: 600 BC to the Early
 Notes 169

Twentieth Century (New York: Feminist Press), also Sajjad Shahid, “Strange Turns in
the Fight for Equality,” The Times of India, March 16, 2014.
2 The travel to Kashmir was advised by Col. Anderson, the surgeon at British
Residency in Hyderabad, and in their journey the Mīrzās were also joined by Lt
Ḥaidar Mīrzā, Ṣughrā’s younger brother, see Ṣughrā Hemayun Mīrzā, Rahbar-i
Kashmir (Hyderabad: Azam State Press, 1930), 17.
3 From the first quarter of the nineteenth century till the early part of the twentieth
century, more than fifty travelogues were composed by European visitors to
Kashmir.
4 At one place Ṣughrā, after visiting a kārkhāna (workshop), refers to the artisans
working there with a certain sense of pride as “our desī (native) artisans.” Mīrzā,
Rahbar-i Kashmir, 40.
5 Hājjī Jaʿfar Khān was a prominent Afghan trader, who arrived and settled down in
Srinagar, somewhere in the late nineteenth century. His daughter was married to
Sayyid Ḥusayn’s eldest son, Sayyid Mustafa. For details, see Justice Hakim Imtiyaz
Hussain, The Shi’as of Jammu & Kashmir (1324-1947), 2 vols.
6 Mīrzā, Rahbar-i Kashmir, 78–9.
7 Similarly, Mīrzā records in some details about the urs of the Sunni saint Sayyid
Qamr-al Dīn held at Ganderbal, especially the riverine procession leading from
Srinagar to the shrine of Qamar-al Dīn, ibid., 73–5.
8 The main khānaqāh in Kashmir, Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā at Srinagar which was
reconstructed in 1733, had a basic plan measuring 22 m x 22 m.
9 The etymological origin of Mʿārak is derived from the Arabic word Mʿārikā
(battleground). The event of Karbala that is commemorated by Shiʿi Muslims is also
sometimes referred to as mʿārikā-i Karbala (The Battle of Karbala). The Mughal
historian Badayunī in his history refers to mourning assemblies that were held in
Delhi to commemorate the martyrdom of Imām Husayn, which were known as
Mʿārikā. See Hakim Sameer Hamdani, “The Maarak and the Tradition of Imambadas
in Kashmir,” in Marg, September-December (Mumbai: The Marg foundation, 2015).
10 This happened on Rajab 12 (seventh month of Muslim calendar), 1289 ah (1872
ce), see Peer Hassan Shah, transl. Shafi Shauq, Tareikh-e Hassan: A History of
Kashmir, vol. i (Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture & Languages,
2016), 417 and Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, ed. Ḥakim Sameer Ḥamdanī and
Maqbūl Sājid, Tārīkh -i Shiyan-i Kashmir (Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research &
Publishing Centre, 2014), 213–16.
11 Mīr Muqim was appointed to the office of naīb subedarī (deputy governorship) of
Kashmir by the Mughal ṣubedar. Yet in the difficult and often turbulent times related
to the post-Aurangzeb rule in Kashmir, the office of naīb was always up for grabs.
Muqim lost his office to a rebel force led by Abu’l Qāsim Khān. Unable to restore his
position, Muqim along with Khwāja Zahir, proceeded to Lahore and invited Aḥmad
Shāh to annex Kashmir. For detail of the events, see Pīr Ḥasan Shāh Kuihāmī, transl.
Shams-ud Dīn Aḥmad, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan, vol. i (Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmir Academy
of Art, Culture & Languages, 1998).
12 George Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern Part of
India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia by the Caspian Sea, vol. ii
(London: R. Faulder, 1798), 36.
13 Ibid., 29. Of the revenue generated seven lakh rupees were remitted to the treasury at
Kabul.
14 Ibid., 24.
170 Notes

15 Ibid.
16 Interestingly, the work does not account for the rule of Sūkh Jiwan Mal (1753–62),
a Punjabi Hindu who after assuming the subedarī of Kashmir made an attempt to
stand independent of the Kabul court. Ram Joo is also silent about hardships faced by
Kashmiri Muslims under the Dogra rule, see Pandit Ram Joo Dhar, Kafiyat-i Intizām
-i Mūlk-i Kashmir (Srinagar: Research Library, Accession no: 1913), 3.
17 A tax based on shariah, levied on non-Muslims living under the jurisdiction of
Muslim rulers.
18 Dhar, Kafiyat-i Intizām -i Mūlk-i Kashmir, 3.
19 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol. ii, 753, also, see Hamdani, Shiyan-i Kashmir.
20 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 198–9. Also see Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan
(1999), vol. i and ii. For details on the working of Khawand Maḥmūd, see Itzchak
Weisman, The Naqshbandiyya; Orthodoxy and Activism in a Worldwide Sufi Tradition
(New York: Routledge, 2007).
21 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol. ii, 785.
22 The nature of the “truth” remains unsaid, also, the wording of the phrase would
indicate that for the Shiʿi, Ḥāfiz Kamāl was essentially seen as a Sunni. See Hamdanī,
Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir.
23 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol. ii, 750.
24 Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England, vol. ii, 14–15.
25 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol. ii, 763–5. Amīr Khān had executed Khwāja
Kamal-al Dīn Naqshbandī in retribution for his murder of Ḥāfiz ʿAbdullah. Given the
hold of Naqshbandī’s on the religious circle of Srinagar, this would have antagonized
them greatly, hence the delegation to Kabul seeking the ṣubedar’s dismissal.
26 Anonymous, Bahāristān-i Shāhī, transl. K. N. Pandit (Srinagar: Gulshan Books,
2013), 19.
27 See Sayyid ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i Kashmir (Chronicle of Kashmir), transl. Ghulām Rasūl Bhat
(Srinagar: Center of Central Asian Studies, 1994).
28 Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr, 77.
29 Ibid., 76.
30 ʿIrakī’s year of passing is mentioned on the margins of manuscript of Malik’s Tārīkh-i
Kashmir, kept at Research Library, Srinagar. See Ḥaidar Malik, Tārīkh -i Kashmir
(Research Library, Srinagar, MS. 1856).
31 In its native land of origin, Iran, the importance of the order lay, “in exemplifying the
messianic-tinged Ṣūfī-S̲ h̲ īʿī ferment that preceded and, in some measure, prepared
the way for the establishment of the Ṣafawid state.” Hamid Algar, “Nūrbak̲ h̲ s̲ h̲ iyya,”
in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by P. Bearman, Th Bianquis, C. E.
Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs, Available online: http://dx​.doi​.org​/10​.1163​
/1573​-3912​_islam​_SIM​_5992, last accessed 2021.
32 ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 3.
33 Ibid.
34 Mostly ʿIrakī is referred to as Mīr Shamas ʿIrakī or alternatively as Mīr Shamas or
Shamas ʿIrakī, see Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr.
35 Ibid., 173–5, 177.
36 The only notable exception to this is Ḥaidar Malik, who started his life as a courtier
in the court of Chak sultans before becoming a part of Mughal administration
of Kashmir. Nevertheless, both Malik and his ancestors were supporters of the
Nūrbakhshī order, and it is possible given the time that he may have been initiated in
the order, though he makes no such mention in his work. See Malik, Tārīkh-i Kashmir.
 Notes 171

37 In ‘Ali’s account we find an isolated report about a reshī, Bābā Lustī, who was targeted
by the Shiʿi. See ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 62–3. The Shiʿi historian Malik is highly
reverential in his description of the founder of Reshī order, see Malik, Tārīkh-i
Kashmir, 101–2.
38 Interview with Sayed Mujtaba Jilani, Srinagar, 2021.
39 For a study of the Nūrbakhshī order, see Shahzad Bashir, Messianic Hopes and
Mystical Visions: The Nūrbakhshīya between Medieval and Modern Islam (Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 2003).
40 While most Sunni writers refer to Bābā ‘Ali as a simpleton who was caught in the
guise of ʿIrakī, Malik refers to him as one “who possessed the purest of conscience,”
see Malik, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 103.
41 Dedhmarī refers to Shaykh Ismāʿīl as the Shaykh-al Islam of Kashmir, see Dedhmarī,
Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr, 171. ʿIrakī’s biographer writes in detail about Ismāʿīl’s defection
of the Nūrbakhshī cause and reports that he died from leprosy. For details, see
Mullā Muhammad ‘Ali, transl. Ghulām Rasūl Jān, Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb (Srinagar: Jan
Publications, 2006).
42 The author of Bahāristān records the event in these words:
he (Mīrzā Haidar) decided to put an end to his (Dāniyāl’s life). He summoned
Shaykh Fatah-ul Lah to his presence and told him to fabricate false witnesses
and the proof against Shaykh Dāniyāl. That ungodly (khudā nā tars) fellow
made strenuous efforts and bribed for this purpose some corrupt and wicked
people, whose decrees in matter of religion were hardly tenable and whose moral
dispensations were hardly popular.

Anonymous, Bahāristān-i Shāhī, 115.

43 About Malik Mūsā, the historian Malik writes:
During his reign, he devoted himself to the obliteration of the infidels and busied
himself with the spread of the religion of prophet. He made desolate most of the
temples [. . .]., Malik, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 61.

44 ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 29–30.

45 Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb: A Muslim Missionary in Medieval Kashmir: Being English Translation
of Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, transl. K. N. Pandita (New Delhi: Eurasian Human Rights Forum,
2009), 118–19.
46 Pandita, Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, 116–17.
47 Jonarāja Kalhānā, Shuka Shrivara et al., transl. J. C. Dutt, Rajatarangini: Kings of
Kashmira, a translation of Sanskrit work, 3 vols. (Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 2009),
408.
48 For a telling instance of this behaviour, see Pandita, Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, 121–3.
49 The masnavi forms the first volume of a seven-volume collection, Haft Awrang.
50 Pandita, Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, 153–6.
51 In South Asia, biographical notices of prominent Sufis broadly fall under two
distant categories malfuzāt and taẕkiras. Where malfuzāt text are dedicated to
the memory of a single saintly figure and serve as dedicated biographies, taẕkira
are envisioned as general biographical works and are not limited to a specific
individual, order or time frame. In Kashmir the genre of malfuzāt does not exist as
a separate category.
52 Bābā Dawud Khākī, transl. Makhdūm Muhammad Khalil Qureshī, Dastur-al Salikin
sharah Virad-al Muridīn (Srinagar: Sheikh Muhammad Usman & sons, 2001), 402–3.
172 Notes

For the polemical nature of such encounter, in addition to Khākī’s, Dastur-al Salikin
and Virad-al Muridīn, also, see Bābā Ḥaidar Tūlmūlī, transl. Ghūlam Rasūl Faruqī,
Hidayet-al Mukhlisin (Taj-al Āshiqin) (Srinagar: Bait-al Ḥilal Alim-o Adab, 2004).
53 Tūlmūlī was a non-native from Gujrat in mainland India, who arrived in Kashmir in
906 ah/1500 ce, in his teenage years, see Tūlmūlī, Hidayet-al Mukhlisin, 9–12, 83–4.
54 Ibid., 95–6.
55 These include:
Dastur-al Salikin and Virid-al Muridīn written by Bābā Dawud Khākī’, Hidayet-al
Mukhlisin of Bābā Ḥaidar Tūlmūlī, Majmu’a Mukhbir-al Israr wa Sultaniya of Shaykh
Aḥmad Chaglī, Chilchilat –al Arifin of Khwāja Isḥāq Qārī and Sey Ghazal-i Miram of
Khwāja Miram Bazaz.
56 See the account of Mullā Yūsuf and Khwāja Mūsā in Chilchilat –al Arifin. Qārī
argues that those who deny Makhdūm’s spiritual status are grave sinners, while also
acknowledging the existence of these deniers, for details see, Qārī, Chilchilat –al
Arifin.
57 See Tūlmūlī, Hidayet-al Mukhlisin, 178, 179.
58 Bābā Dawud Khākī, transl. Qārī Saif al Dīn, Dastur-al Sīlikin (Srinagar: Ashraf Book
Centre, 1971), 53, 65.
59 In contemporary Kashmir, among devotees the shaykh is often invoked as “Sultanā.”
60 A similar report can also be seen in Qārī’s work, for details, see Khwāja Ishāq Qārī,
Chilchilat-al Arifin, (Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 500), ff. 27.
61 While mentioning their names, Qārī curses both Ghāzī Chak and ʿIrakī, see, Qārī,
Chilchilat-al Arifin, ff. 27 and 29.
62 For an understanding of how pivotal ʿIrakī and Makhdūm remains in modern
historiography, see the editorial notes by Shams-ud Dīn Aḥmad to Kuihāmī’s Tārīkh-i
Ḥasan which highlights the binary approach of contemporary academics in dealing
with the past.
63 See Mīr Saʿad ul-Lah Shāhabādī, Bagh-i Suleimān (Srinagar: Research Library,
MS.1194). The translation of the original Persian is by Mehran Qureshi, Srinagar,
2021.
64 In Tūlmūlī’s account, all the Prophets, saints, and the combined angels descended
over the grave to pray over the dead saint for a period of 40 days, a practice that
he argues would continue till the Day of Judgement, see, Tūlmūlī, Hidayet-al
Mukhlisin,167.
65 Some reports also speak about the ruling Chak sultan praying over the deceased
shaykh.
66 Ḥabib outlived his uncle, the new sultan, dying in 1573, see Mohibbul Hasan,
Kashmir under the Sultans (Srinagar: Ali Mohammad & Sons, 1974), 151.
67 The chronology related to this event is not clear. ‘Ali mentions it as 967 ah/1559–60
ce, the author of Bahāristān-i Shāhī mentions 1554 as the year when Ghāzī Chak
became ruler of Kashmir. The rulership here marks Ghāzī assuming the position
of vizier and not kingship. After ruling as a sultan for three years he abdicated the
throne in favor of his brother Ḥusayn Shāh, passing away in 1567 at the age of fifty-
eight, see Bahāristān-i Shāhī, 127, ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 34 and Hasan, Kashmir
under the Sultans, 152.
68 The Chaks were divided into two branches, one based in Kupwara which retained its
Sunni belief and the principal branch originally from Dardistan in the Nelum valley,
who converted to Shiʿism and they rose to power as sultans of Kashmir. For details,
see G. M. D. Sufi, Kashir, vol. i (Lahore: University of Punjab, 1949).
 Notes 173

69 ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 34.

70 Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr, 198.
71 Including Malik Regi Dār the brother of the vazīr Malik Saif Dār. After an incident
involving Shaykh Sihab-al Dīn, it seems both brothers changed their perspective
regarding ʿIrakī. For details, see Pandita Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, 106, 110.
72 Some months after ʿIrakī’s arrival, the reigning sultan, Ḥasan Shāh, passed away.
After his funeral, ʿIrakī expressed his apprehension of possible opposition from the
mullās in these words:
Owing to the demise of the king, my mission is disrupted, and my return (to
Khurasan) hindered. I do not know how the mullahs are going to interfere in my
affairs.

Pandita, Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, 94.

73 Ibid., 253.
74 Raina bestowed his own land at Zadibal to ʿIrakī, who then constructed a khānaqāh
at the site. On his death, ʿIrakī was buried within the precinct of the khānaqāh which
continued to serve as the principal seat of the order in Kashmir, see Pandita, Tuḥfatūl
Aḥbāb, 184–6.
75 Pandita, Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, 184.
76 The fights between Ḥasan Shāh’s son Muhammad Shāh and his cousin Fateh Shāh for
the throne can be seen as beginning of the ascendancy of Kashmiri nobles at the cost
of the authority of the Shāhmirī sultans. For details, see Hasan, Kashmir under the
Sultans.
77 One of the four legal schools among Sunnis, the Ḥanfī’s trace their origin to the Iraqi
scholar, Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 767). Historically the Ḥanfī school remained the predominant
school of jurisprudence among Sunnis of South Asia, including Kashmir.
78 Mīrzā Ḥaidar Dughlat, transl. E. D. Ross, Tārīkh-i Rashidī: A History of the Moghuls of
Central Asia (Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 2012), 118–19.
79 ʿAli, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 32.
80 Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr, 185.
81 Ghulām Rasūl Jān, Jāmia-al Kamālat Ḥazrat Ishān Shaykh Yʿaqūb Sarfī (Srinagar:
Indian Printing Press, 1995), 127. Also see Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr.
82 Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr, 185.
83 See Anonymous, Bahāristān-i Shāhī and Hasan, Kashmir under the Sultans.
84 For details, see Qārī, Chilchilat-al ʿArifin.
85 Malik, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, 73.
86 Shuka 124–5.
87 Khusraw-i ʿAādil is a reference to the Sasanian emperor, Khosrow I. (d. 579), who on
account of his knowledge, virtues, and reforms is remembered as the epitome of just
ruler in Persianate cultures.
88 A disciple of Shaykh Ḥamza, Khwāja Tahir Rafiq (d.1596) is seen as the prime mover
behind the appeal of Kashmiri Sunni ulema to Akbar. See Jan, Jāmia-al Kamālat, 128,
also, see Sufi, Kashir.
89 Ḳiṣāṣ in Muslim law is the principle of retaliation applied in case of killings (ḳiṣāṣ
fi ‘l-nafs) or non-fatal wounding (ḳiṣāṣ fī-mā dūn al-nafs). See J. Schacht, “Ḳiṣāṣ,”
in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by P. Bearman, Th Bianquis, C. E.
Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs, Last visited online 2021, http://dx​.doi​
.org​/10​.1163​/1573​-3912​_islam​_SIM​_4400.
90 Anonymous, Bahāristān-i Shāhī, 132.
174 Notes

91 Mīrzā Muqim’s Shiʿi origin was used as an excuse by the Sunni ulema at Akbar’s court
against him, and consequently he along with Mīr Yʿaqūb, the emissary of the sultan
of Kashmir, were executed for their role in the trial of the Sunni qāzī’s at Srinagar. The
conspiracy against Mūqīm was orchestrated by two leading Sunni religious figures
at the Mughal court, the ṣadr Shaykh ʿAbd-al Nabī (d. 1583) and Maḵdūm-al Mūlk
ʿAbdullah Sulṭānpūrī. For details, see Maulana Muhammad Ḥusayn Azad, Darbar-i
Akbarī (Delhi: National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, undated), 316–27.
92 Ibid., 133–43.
93 Ibid., 135.
94 Ibid., 134.
95 For details, see Hakim Sameer Hamdani, The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious
Architecture of Kashmir (Early 14th-18th Century) (New York: Routledge, 2021), 71–4.
96 Bābā Dawud Khākī, Qasideh-i Ghusuliya Yūsuf Shāh, transl. Mehran Qureshi
(Srinagar: Research Library, Ms. 1914), ff. 5.
97 For details, see Anonymous, Bahāristān-i Shāhī and Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr.
98 For an official Mughal account of the conquest of Kashmir, see Shaykh Abū’l Fażl,
transl. H. Beveridge, Akbar Nāmā, 2 vols. (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 2000).
99 Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr, 85.

Chapter 2

1 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 424.

2 Ḥakim Mullā ʿAẕim, Maktūb Ḥakim ʿAẕim baray-i Moulvi Rajab ʿAli Shāh, transl.
Stephen Poop, Personal collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
3 The ḥakim on account of his learning was styled as the second Bū ʿAli Sina
(Avicenna) among the local Shiʿi community. In addition to his principal task of
being the Maharaja’s chief physician he was also responsible for reorganizing the
sericulture industry in Kashmir. Aside from his Kashmiri marthiyas, not much
survives of his works. A manuscript of Risala–i Faizha’ a Persian composition on
poetry copied by the Ḥakim in 1248 ah/1832 ce with his notes on the margin
survives with his descendants. Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 311–15, 347;
Zutshi, Languages of Belonging, 72 and Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii, 575. Also, see Maqbūl
Sājid, Kuliyāt-i Ḥakim ʿAẕim wa Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf (Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2000) and Shahid Badgami, Kashir-i-Marsyuk
Tawarīkh (Delhi: Taj Printing Services, rpt.2014).
4 One of ʿAbdullah’s predecessors, ṣubedar Mīr Hazar, was in the habit of gathering
Shiʿi men, tying them in jute sacks and then drowning in Dal Lake. The rule of the
pleasure-loving Shiʿi subadar Amīr Khān proved some relief to the Shiʿi of Kashmir.
See Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999) vol. ii, 750, 790.
5 Ibid., 806–7. Also, see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 343–6.
6 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 209–10.
7 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1998), vol. i, 592.
8 Kuihāmī would add to this the provocation of taking out a shabih (coffin) and more
importantly cursing of the shabah.
9 Shauq, Tareikh-e Hassan, 416.
10 Ibid., 409.
11 Mullā Khalil Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh-i Kashmir (Srinagar: Research Library, Mss. 1074),
ff. 161.
 Notes 175

12 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol. ii, 787. According to the Shiʿi author ibn
Reza, the residents of Hasanabad under the guidance of Sayyid Hadi constructed an
imāmbāda, which was then destroyed by the Afghans. The work of ibn Razā suffers
from a weak chronology and many of the events related by him are confused and
unreliable. Most probably based on Kuihāmī account it seems that the construction
of an imāmbāda at Hasanabad been started, when the Afghans came to know about
it and destroyed it. For details, see Sayyid ʿAli ibn Razā, transl. Sayyid Muhsin
Kashmirī, Kuhl-al Jawahir (Lahore: MAAB, 2013), 47, 76.
13 For an account of both, see Marjānpūrī, Tārīk -i Kashmir, ff. 161–3.
14 For details, see Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh-i Kashmir and Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999),
vol. ii.
15 For a Shiʿi account of the ṣubedar, see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir and ibn
Razā, Kuhl-al Jawahir.
16 Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, Aūsh ti Āab (Delhi: Skyline Publishers, 2009), 90;
translation author.
17 Ibid., 91; translation author.
18 Ibid., 92.
19 Ibid., 89; translation author.
20 Maqbūl Sājid, Kaeshri Marsiyuk Safar (Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art,
Culture & Languages, 2013), 289.
21 Ibid., 319.
22 Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, ff. 161.
23 George Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern Part of
India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia by the Caspian Sea, vol. ii
(London: R. Faulder, 1978), 20.
24 Janet Rizvi and Monisha Ahmed, Pashmina: The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond
(Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2009), 208–9.
25 Ibid.
26 Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, vol. ii, 84–5.
27 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol ii. 790, Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, ff. 159.
28 Marjānpūrī, Tārīk-i Kashmir. Also see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 208.
29 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol ii, 790. The ṣubedar was also responsible for
imposing jiziya tax on Kashmiri Hindus.
30 Ibid., 800.
31 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol. ii, 800–1, 890. For a Shiʿi version of the event,
see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 208–9.
32 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 208.
33 Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, ff. 160.
34 On possible movement of Iranians within the territory of the Dūranīs, see Sajjad
Nejatie, “Iranian Migrations in the Durrani Empire, 1747-1793,” Comparative Studies
of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 37, no. 3 (2017), 494–509.
35 This is how modern Shiʿi historian would interpret Āqā Rahīm intentions, see
Hamdani, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 208.
36 Importantly, the incident occurred during the rule of Kifayat Khān, who is
considered by the Shiʿi historians as a Shiʿi. Āqā Rahīm’s action against the
Khwāja was also conditioned by a desire to seek retribution from Khwāja ʿĪsā
for his murder of Muhammad Taqi, a close associate of Rahim, see Kuihāmī,
Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), vol. ii, 800 and Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir,
208–9, 299.
176 Notes

37 B. Hopkins, The Making of Modern Afghanistan (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,

2012), 132.
38 See Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern Part of India.
39 B Hopkins, The Making of Modern Afghanistan (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2012), 132.
40 Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern Part of India, vol ii,
36.
41 Victor Jacquemont, Letters from India; describing a Journey in the British Dominions
of India, Tibet, Lahore and Cashmere during the years 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, vol. i
(London: Edward Churton, 1834), 155.
42 Ibid.
43 William Moorcroft and George Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of
Hindustan and the Panjab; in Ladakh and Kashmir; in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and
Bokhara, vol. ii (London: J Murray, 1841), 194.
44 Willem Floor, The Persian Textile Industry in Historical Perspective 1500-1922 (Paris:
L’Harmattan, 1999), 309. Also, see Charles Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of Iran
1800-1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971).
45 Floor, The Persian Textile Industry in Historical Perspective 1500-1922, 309.
46 Mughal moḥala is located in Lal Bazaar area of the city and was traditionally
populated by members of the Mughal family.
47 See Jacquemont, Letters from India.
48 W. H. Floor, The Merchants (tujjār) in Qājār Iran in Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1976), 103.
49 Maryam Ekhtiar Sheila R. Canby, Navina Haidar, and Priscilla P. Soucek (ed.),
Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), no. 283, 342, 398–9, ill. 398.
50 Ibid.
51 For a detailed analysis of the Qizalbash in nineteenth-century Afghanistan, see
Solaiman M. Fazel, Ethnohistory of the Qizalbash in Kabul: Migration, State and a
Shi’a Minority, PhD thesis (Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, 2017).
52 Bihbahānī traced his descent from the famous Safavid ulema, Mullā Muhammad
Ṣaleh Mazandaranī, the brother-in-law of Isfahan’s Shaykh al Islam, Mullā
Muhammad Bāqir Majālisī (d. 1699).
53 Ahmad Behbahani, Mir’atul-Ahwal–i Jahan Numa, transl. A. F. Haider, India in the
Early 19th century (Patna: KhudaBaksh Oriental Public Library, 1996), 172.
54 There is much confusion about Mullā Muqims’ year of death with three different
dates recorded, 1195 ah/1780 ce, 1274 ah/1857 ce, and 1235 ah/1819 ce.
55 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 276–7, also, see Sayyid Muḥsin Kashmirī,
Danishnama Shiyan-i Kashmir (Lahore: MAB, 2011), 184.
56 Behbahani, Mir’atul-Ahwal–i Jahan Numa, 172.
57 For Sayyid Dildar, see Jaun Cole, Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and
History of Shi’ite Islam (London: I.B. Tauris, 2005).
58 The possession of miraculous power would be associated with both Mullā
Muhammad Muqim and a younger contemporary Akhūnd Mullā Muhammad
Razā Kashmirī, who flourished during the time of Nawab Saʿadat ʿAli Khān (r.
1798–1814), for details, see Sayyid Muhammad Ḥusayn, Taẕkira-i Beybaha (Delhi:
Dayiratul al-Muraif Iran va Hind), 325–6.
59 Behbahani, Mir’atul-Ahwal-i Jahan Numa, 160.
60 Jadunath Sarkar, Fall of the Mughal Empire, vol. i (Delhi: Orient Longman, 1971), 15.
 Notes 177

61 See Sayyid Ghulām ʿAli Khan, ‘Imād-al Sadāt.

62 After initially opposing the idea, Nasirābadī finally offered the first Friday
congregational prayer on Rajab 13, 1200 ah (1786 ce). For the controversy around
the issue and Badshāh’s role in it, see J. Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iraq and
Iran, 127–30.
63 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir.
64 Nasirābadī would in time would assume the position of Lucknow’s chief mujtahid, see
Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iraq and Iran, 104.
65 Syed Athar Abbas Rizvi, A Socio Intellectual History of the Isna Ashari Shi’i in India,
vol. ii (Canberra: Ma’rifat Publishing House, 1986), 92–3.
66 For details on the life of these Kashmiri scholars, see Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli
Kashmirī, Najum-al Sama fi Tarajim al Ulema, ed. Mīr Hāshim Muḥadīth (Tehran:
Sazman Tableghat Islami, 1967).
67 Rizvi, A Socio Intellectual History of the Isna Ashari Shi’i in India, vol. ii, 96–7.
68 See Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iraq and Iran.
69 See Justin Jones, Khandan-i-Ijtihad: Genealogy, History, and Authority in a Household
of ‘ulama in Modern South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
70 Muhammad Najmul Ghanī, Tārīkh-i Awadh, vol. iv (Lucknow: Munshi Nawal
Kishore, 1919), 17–18, 252, 267, 268.
71 Ibid., 309.
72 Ibid., 268.
73 Reginald Heber, Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India from
Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825, vol. i (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1829), 341.
74 Ghanī, Tārīkh-i Awadh, vol. iv, 6.
75 See Rizvi, A Socio Intellectual History of The Isna Ashari Shi’i In India, vol. ii, 227–30.
76 Nawab Saʿadat ʿAli Khān II.
77 Behbahani, Mir’atul-Ahwal-i Jahan Numa, 197.
78 Jabbār Khān belonged to the Afghan royalty and was the eldest among the competing
sibling for the throne of Kabul. The British diplomat Burnes, who met in Kabul
sometime after the Sikh conquest of Kashmir, writes about him:
We had previously heard about the amicable character of our host, Nawab Jubbar
Khan [. . .]: himself the eldest of his family, he has no ambitious views, though
he once held the government of Cashmeer [. . .]. Never was a man more modest
or more beloved [. . .]. His manners are remarkably mild and pleasing [. . .]. It is
delightful to be in his society.

Sir Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara; being the Account of a Journey from India
to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, from the sea
to Lahore, with Presents from the king of Great Britain; Performed under the Orders of
the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833 (London: John
Murray, 1834), 134–5.
Jabbar Khān’s rule of six months in Kashmir also finds a positive mention in
the history of a Kashmiri Pandit writer Birbal Kachru, who remarks on his just and
impartial rule. See Bashar Bashir, A Kashmiri version of Majmu al Tawarikh of Birbal
Kachru with Commentary and Notes (PhD. Thesis: University of Kashmir, 1997), 520.
79 Mohan Lal, Travels in the Panjab, Afghanistan & Turkistan to Balkh, Bokhara and
Herat; and a Visit to Great Britain and Germany (London: WH Allen & Co., 1856), xv,
xvi.
80 Lal, Travels in the Panjab, Afghanistan & Turkistan to Balkh, Bokhara and Herat, xv.
178 Notes

81 Sir Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, 22.

82 Louis E. French, Ranjit Singh, The Shawl, and the Kaukab-i Iqbal-i Punjab in Sikh
Formation: Religion, Culture, Theory, April–August, 2015, vol. ii, Issue 1/2 (London:
Taylor and Francis), 83–107.
83 Ibid.
84 For a discussion of the Sikh Empire, see Priya Atwal, Royals and Rebels: The Rise and
Fall of the Sikh Empire (London: Oxford University Press, 202).
85 Bashir, A Kashmiri version of Majmu al Tawarikh of Birbal Kachru, 504.
86 Ibid., 539–40.
87 Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii, 724.
88 See P. N. K. Bamzai, Culture and Political History of Kashmir, vol. iii (New Delhi: MD
Publications Pvt Ltd: 1994), 623–4.
89 See Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh-i Kashmir.
90 The killed included Khwāja Muʿīn-al Dīn Kawūsa and his son-in-law, Mīrzā Kallū.
See Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii, 730.
91 Two earlier attempts by Ranjit Singh to annex Kashmir in 1813 and 1814 had ended
in a failure. See Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii, i.

Chapter 3

1 Author’s interview, Maqbool Sajid, Srinagar, 2021. Sajid has documented more than
500 marṣiya from the nineteenth century.
2 For details, see Biyāz, unpublished manuscript (Research Library, Srinagar, MS.
1657), and Biyāz, unpublished manuscript (Research Library, Srinagar, MS. 1658).
3 See Biyāz, unpublished manuscript (Research Library, Srinagar, MS. 1656), ff. 105,
123.
4 Biyāz, Private collection, Sayyid Ḥabib-ul Lah, Reshipora.
5 Qāsim Kalim, Kuliyat-i Khwāja Ḥasan Mir (Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research &
Publishing Centre, 2001), 345.
6 During my study, I came across some other limited instances of conversion
into Shiʿism during the nineteenth century, but these events were not part of an
organized campaign but seem to have been dictated by the particular circumstances
surrounding individual spiritual quest.
7 Maqbūl Sajid, Naqūsh-i Khwāja Dāim (Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research &
Publishing Centre, 2006), 12. Later in his life, Dāim went on a pilgrimage to Iraq,
where he is reported to have died and buried in Karbala.
8 The earliest example of a manqabat in Kashmiri can be traced to sixteenth-century
Kubrawī Sufi, Khwāja Ḥabib-al lah Ḥūbbī.
9 Sajid, Naqūsh-i Khwāja Dāim, 210
10 The tree of blessedness which grows in heaven.
11 The reference here is to the Twelve Imāms.
12 In popular Shiʿi culture of Kashmir, Imām ʿAli is often invoked by the title of Shāh
(king).
13 The nashid then goes on to seek the intercession of the rest of the eleven imām.
14 “This cannot be a human composition but is divinely inspired” is a common ẕākir
trope frequently voiced in defining this literary genre during public performance.
15 Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh -i Kashmir (MS. 2259), ff. 10.
 Notes 179

16 See Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, also, see Budgami, Kāshir-i Marsyuk
Tawarīkh.
17 See Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh -i Kashmir (MS. 2259).
18 Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, vol. ii, 84–5.
19 Following the riots, most of these Iranian merchants withdrew from the city, never
to return. In Umdat Ut-tawarikh, the merchants are described as Mughal, and on
being informed about the riot, Maharaja Ranjit Singh orders the ṣubedar to make
all efforts to draw them back to Srinagar, for details, see, Sohan Lal Suri, transl.
V. S. Suri Umdat Ut-tawarikh, Daftar III (Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University,
2001,2002), 17.
20 The procession would halt at Khairpur for the night, before proceeding the next
morning toward Char.
21 Yā Shāh (O Master), they cry for help is to Imām ʿAli.
22 For details, see, Ḥakim ʿAẕim, ‘Qafas (Cage)’ in Sajid, Kuliyāt-i Ḥakim ʿAẕim wa
Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf, 121–31.
23 We have no way of understanding, whether the call for prayers was even sounded
in Shiʿi mosques in this period. Given that such a call would include the typical
Shiʿi invocation, “I bear witness that ‘Ali is the friend of Allah,” it seems highly
improbable that this would happen at least in the mixed neighborhoods of the city.
24 Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh -i Kashmir (MS. 2259), ff. 8, 9.
25 Ibid., ff. 7.
26 See Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh -i Kashmir (MS. 2259).
27 See J. Keay, China: A History (UK: Hachette, 2009).
28 Waleed Ziad, Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints Beyond the Oxus and Indus (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2021), 166.
29 See Itzchak Weismann, The Naqshbandiya, Orthodoxy and Activism in a Worldwide
in Sufi Tradition (London: Routledge, 2007).
30 Moorcroft leaves us with the following observation on his meeting with Shāh Niyaz:
I was much pleased with the earnestness with which our new friend recapitulated
the heads of this discussion, and with the apparent frankness and cordiality of his
manners. After a short time I took leave of our host.

Willim Moorcraft and George Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of

Hindustan and the Panjab; in Ladakh and Kashmir; in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and
Bokhara, vol. i (London: John Murray, 1837), 244.
31 Ziad, Hidden Caliphate, 166.
32 One of the earliest examples of a Persian shahar-ashūb (or shahar-angiz) in the
ghazal form is to be found in the compilation of Sayfī Bukharī (d. 909). See
Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. ix (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 212.
33 Hammad Rind, reply to tweet on https://twitter​.com​/HammadHRind​/status​
/1398936016837394432, accessed on May 30, 2021.
34 Sufi mentions that Mujrim was a frequent visitor to the shrine of Shaykh Ḥazma
Makhdūm at Srinagar. In his diwān Mujrim has written a poem in praise of
another prominent Sunni Sufi, Shaykh ʿAbdu’l Qādir Gilānī (d. 1166 ce), the
founder of the Qādrī Sufi silsala. Though relatively obscure during the Sultanate
period, the Qādrī order resurfaced as a major Sufi silsala in Srinagar during the
Afghan rule. For details, see Mīrzā Mahdi Murjim, Diwān (Srinagar: Research
Library, MS. 350). Also see Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii and Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i
Kashmir, 235.
180 Notes

35 See Murjim, Diwān, ff. 160–4, translation: Mehran Qureshi, Srinagar, 2021.
36 Somewhere in the 1860’s, Mahdah Shāh Deykah (d. 1895) wrote a satire on the
elders of the city, celebrating some and lampooning others. In addition to Sunni and
Pandits, Deykah also mentions some Shiʿi ulema and merchants including Moulvi
Jawad (Ansarī), Moulvi Ṣafdar, (Ḥakim) Baqir, Ḥājjī ʿAbid, Mīrzā Rasūl, Mīrzā
Muhammad ʿAli, Sayyid Shāh (Jalali?), and Ḥājjī Ṣafdar (Baba), see, Mahdah Shāh
Deykah, Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir (Srinagar: Research Library, Srinagar, MS. 664).
37 For a study of patronage of Muslim places of worship in the eighteenth century, see
Hamdanī, The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of Kashmir.
38 Traditionally, it is believed that the mosque was partially opened for prayers in
1843 by Shaykh Ghūlam Mohyi-al Dīn, who served the Lahore darbār as ṣubedar of
Kashmir from 1841 to 1845. See Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii, 745.
39 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 212.
40 Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii, 732–3.
41 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 212.
42 Mīrzā Najaf ʿAli, Ṣurat-i jamʻ wa-kharj-i māliyāt-i Qandahār (Bodleian Library,
Oxford University, MS. S Digby Or. 173), ff. 41.
43 Even today mourners in Muharram majalis and procession in Kashmiri Moḥala
(Lucknow) and Moḥala-i Shiyan-i Kashmir (Lahore) recite Kashmiri verses in their
gatherings keeping alive a cherished memory linking them to the land of their
forefathers. Author’s interview, Mehmood Mehdi Abdi, Mumbai, 2021.
44 Most Kashmiri Shiʿi who arrived in Lucknow after the riots of 1830 settled down in
Golaganj and Wazirganj. Additionally, we find the presence of Kashmiri Sunni in
the city at Katra Abu Turab Khan. The most famous of the Kashmiri Sunni families
in Lucknow was that of the Khwājas who were famous ḥakim of Lucknow. Author’s
interview, Mehmood Mehdi Abdi, Mumbai, 2021.
45 Rubāb bint Imra’ al-Qays in Arabic.
46 Author’s interview, Vaibhav Koul, Delhi, 2021. According to Vaibhav, the last
member from the Kashmiri Hindu (Pandit) community to recite nūḥa was Pandit
Brij Mohan Nath Kacher of Kashmiri Moḥala, who was active till the 1960s.
47 Shāh Niyaẕ was also a poet, whose Chāi Nāma (Book of Tea) is part of a literary
genre celebrating the culture of tea, a genre that seems to have achieved a level of
fame in the nineteenth century. See Khwāja Shāh Niyaẕ Naqshbandī, Chāi Nāma
(Lahore, Matbah-i mujdadi, undated).
48 Najaf introduces himself as Ḥājjī Sayyid Najaf ʿAli son of Sayyid Malik Muhammad
Khān of Lahore. See ʿAli, Ṣurat-i jamʻ wa-kharj-i māliyāt-i Qandahār, ff. 70.
49 Pashmina, the raw goat wool used in the making of Kashmiri shawls, was and is still
sourced from Ladakh, in a region closer to Tibet, known as Changthan.
50 Moorcroft briefly stayed in Muhsin ʿAli’s house, whom he describes as “a wholesale
dealer in tea to a large extent,” during his stay at Leh, about which he writes, “We
encamped at the house of Mohsin Ali, a Kashmiri merchant, whom I had appointed
British facter at Lē {Leh}.” See Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan
Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab, vol. i, 354 and 423.
51 ʿAli, Ṣurat-i jamʻ wa-kharj-i māliyāt-i Qandahār, ff. 70. Also see Simon Digby,
“From Ladakh to Lahore in 1820-1821: The Account of a Kashmiri Traveler,” Journal
of Central Asian Studies, vol’iii, no:1 (Srinagar: Kashmir University, 1997), 8.
52 It was on July 31, 1823, that Moorcroft started his journey from Srinagar. See
Moorcraft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the
Panjab, vol. i.
 Notes 181

53 Moorcraft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the
Panjab, vol. ii, 275.
54 Ibid., 252.
55 Ibid., 243.
56 The first major Shiʿi-Sunni riot in 1635 involved the Naqshbandī shaykh,
Khwāja Khawand Maḥmūd Naqshbandī. Similarly, Khwāja Muhammad Āftāb
Naqshbandī and Khwāja Padhshāh Naqshbandī played a significant role in
instigating and sustaining the mobs targeting Shiʿis during the riots of 1719. In
the riots of 1776, the body of a Shiʿi, Anwar Malik, was quartered from the gates
of the Khānaqāh-i Naqshbandīyā in Srinagar. See Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i
Kashmir, 198–208. Also see Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh -i Kashmir and Khuihāmī,
Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999).
57 For details, see the descriptions provided by Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999). Also
see Pīrzada Abdul Khaliq Tahirī, Awliyā-i Kashmir (Srinagar: Gulshan Publications,
2003). For an understanding of the prominence of the order in eighteenth-century
Srinagar, see Dedhmarī, Vāqiʿāt-i Kashmīr.
58 Shāh Niyaẕ’s understanding of Moorcroft’s mission is reflected in his advice to the
khalun about how to treat the Britisher:
but to treat us civilly; and that the minister might feel assured we were what we
professed to be, inoffensive travellers and merchants.

Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the
Panjab, vol. i, 244.
59 Mīr Iʿzzat al-Lah (d. 1825) was the principal munshi of Moorcroft, who also left his
impression of his travel with Moorcroft. See Digby, From Ladakh to Lahore in 1820-
1821.
60 Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the
Panjab, vol. i, 247.
61 Simon Digby based on the account of Najaf ‘Ali’s also points to this understanding of
the Kashmiri merchants and their information gathering capacity:
One may note also the informative role of educated and travelled Muslims,
mainly Kashmiri, in the last days of Ladakhi independence under its ancient
native dynasty. Najaf ‘Ali’s narrative illustrates the process of transmission,
by Persian-speaking, travelled Indian and Kashmiri Muslims, of information
about the changing state of European and global politics and technology, to this
remote and threatened Tibetan Buddhist kingdom in the decades before it lost its
independence.

Simon Digby, From Ladakh to Lahore in 1820-1821: The Account of a Kashmiri

Traveler.
62 Moorcroft refers to him as Nakaju, “a Kashmirian, who was our chief opponent.”
Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the
Panjab, vol. i, 452.
63 Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the
Panjab, vol. i, 452, 453.
64 Stein describes the Aksakal as “headman, literally ‘white beard’.” See M. Aurel Stein,
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 169.
In official British documents from the later part of the nineteenth century, Aksakal
is sometimes defined “as an informal post, acting as agent or attorney for a trader,”
182 Notes

rather than the trader himself. See Government of India, Foreign and Political
Department, Series E, Proceedings, August 1916, Nos. 63–68, National Archives,
New Delhi.
65 See Henry Landsell, Chinese Central Asia, A Ride to Little Tibet, vol. i. (London:
Sampson Low, 1893). The position of Aksakal became a part of the British
colonial set-up and the appointment of the Aksakal was done after considerable
consideration. See File No. 1–11, Foreign, Frontier-A, 1899, National Archives
of India, New Delhi. For a general understanding of British interest in Chinese
Turkistan, see details of Douglas Forsyth’s mission to Yarkand, Government of India,
Foreign and Political Department, No. 6 0f 1871, National Archives of India, New
Delhi. Details of Forsyth’s mission are also recorded in Gordon’s account of the
embassy, which speaks about the presence of Kashmiri soldiers in the army of the
Amīr of Kasghar. See Sir Edward Thomas Gordon, The Roof of the World: Being a
Narrative of a Journey over the High Plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the
Oxus Sources on Pamir (Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 1876), 94.
66 During his travels, Stein managed to “obtain” a large collection of manuscripts from
both Kashmir and the Grotto of the Thousand Buddhas at Tun-huang, which was
celebrated as “harvest of ancient manuscripts and records comprises some 11,000
documents, in about a dozen scripts and languages. [. . .]. These include the oldest
existing specimens of Chinese Buddhist pictorial art; block-printed texts dating
from the ninth century; a Sanscrit MS. on palm leaves of the fourth century.” See
Vincent A. Smith, The Work of Sir M. Aurel Stein K.C.I.E. in The Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Jan. 1919, Cambridge University
Press, 56.
67 Stein, Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan, 163, 165. Additionally, Stein’s enquiries into
the artefacts and antiques of Khotan were responded to only by Kashmiris living in
Yarkand. According to Stein, Kashmiris were innate peddlers and their connections
and knowledge of arts and crafts were impressive.
68 Naqal as Asal Hukumnama Maharaj zair tanazay-i Ahl-i Tashayyu', MS. Personal
Collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
69 Ibid. Also see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir.
70 In a letter written by Mullā Ṣadiq Ansarī to Sayyid Ḥusayn, son of Sayyid Dildār
ʿAli Shāh, Ṣadiq makes a reference to money remitted by Ḥakim Mahdi to Kashmir.
See Sayyid Muhamad ʿAbbas, Auraq al-Zahab (Qum: Kitabshinasi-i Shiʿi, 1974),
984.
71 For an understanding of the architecture of the Mʿārak, see Hakim Sameer
Hamdani, The Maarak and Tradition of Imambadas in Kashmir, Marg (Mumbai:
Marg Publication, 2015), 56–69. For a historical account, see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i
Shiyan-i Kashmir.
72 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 289.
73 In some traditions the date is mentioned as 868 ce.
74 Among the Sayyid families based in Srinagar, a branch which was initially based in
Chinkral Mohala is famous by the surname “waʿiẕ” (preacher). During the second
half of the nineteenth century the family produced many reputed religious scholars.
Based on the unique surname, it is possible to posit that some scholars in the family
also started preaching publicly, but in the absence of any textual, oral, or even family
tradition this is difficult to establish when and at which platform.
75 ibn Razā, Kūhal-al Jawahir, 78. Though the writer of Kūhal-al Jawahir has provided
many details linked with the role his family (Mousavī-Ardabelī) played in Kashmir,
 Notes 183

the work suffers from discrepancies both in its chronology and in the event
description. Importantly, the details which ibn Razā provides us about members
of his family and their role in nineteenth-century Kashmir are not supported by
another other work originating in this time period from Shiʿi circles linked to
Kashmir.
76 For details on the Shaykh Mohyi-al Dīn, see Bashir, A Kashmiri Version of Majmu al
Tawarikh of Birbal Kachru and Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii.
77 The Ākhbārāt’s are a series of monthly reports written from 1846 to 1853, by Saif-al
Dīn primarily for Sir Henry Lawrence, the British governor of Punjab, apprising
the latter about developments in the court of Kashmir. Serving as the official news
writer for the British, Saif-al Dīn’s twelve-volume Ākhbār provides an interesting
overview on the functioning of the court and British involvement in the state. For
details, see Mirza Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt wa Murasala Jāt Siyāsī wa Mūlkī dar ‘Ahdi
Maharaja Gulab Singh (Srinagar: Research Library, MS.1420–1427, 1429–1430,
1433, 1434–1436).
78 Earlier on Saif-al Dīn writes that Gulab Singh had taken ill since a few days back and
a team of royal physicians comprising Ḥakim ʿAẕim, Ḥakim Ata-al Lah and Ḥakim
Ghafar were called to the court for treating him. The maharaja later on caught cold
and in the end was cured by the medication prescribed by Ḥakim ʿAẕim. During
his illness, ʿAẕim would regularly visit the Maharaja and give his opinions on
different subjects. Saif-al Dīn ends the report on a rather cryptic note, saying that
the maharaja was very respectful and kind to the ḥakim. On the side margins, Saif-al
Dīn lists the entry under the heading “the reality of Maharaja Ṣāhab’s kindness
(maharbānī) to Ḥakim ʿAẕim.” See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS.1421, ff. 19.
79 Ibid., ff. 33.
80 Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1420, ff. 87. Gilgit was conquered by the Sikh army under
Zorawar Singh in 1840, but the area also known as Gilgit-Baltistan proved difficult
to hold on. During Mohyi-al Dīn’s rule, the area was reoccupied by the Sikh army
under Vazir Lakhpat Rai in 1842.
81 Saif-al Dīn also refers to ḥakim as dārōghah -i kiram kashān (in charge of
sericulture). See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1423, ff. 43.
82 Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1421, ff. 33.
83 Ibid., 1421 ff. 45.
84 Saif-al Dīn provides a detailed description on how Gulab Singh disposed of the
jāgīrs on assuming control of Kashmir as ruler. Ibid., ff. 4–7.
85 Also see Sajid, Kuliyāt-i Ḥakim ʿAẕim wa Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf.
86 For details, see Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1421.
87 The manuscript of Risāla–i Faizha’, a Persian composition on poetry, was copied
by the ʿAẕim in Lahore, the capital city of Sikh Empire. See Saifī Bukhariī Risāla–i
Faizha’, MS. Personal Collection, Justice Ḥakim Imtiyaz Hussain, Srinagar.
88 Based on family traditions, Ṣafdar states that ʿAẕim joined the Lahore court
following Ranjit Singh’s conquest of Kashmir. See Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i
Kashmir, 312.
89 ʿAẕim, Maktub Ḥakim ʿAẕim baray-i Moulvi Rajab ʿAli Shāh.
90 Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf Bābā would also proceed to Skardu after the conquest
of Gilgit as special representative of his cousin, ʿAẕim. Later he would be appointed
by the darbār as the physician for Sakrdu. While Yūsuf would return to Srinagar
after some time, his son Munshi Muhammad ʿAli would also be appointed as the
physician for Sakrdu. See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1420, ff. 87.
184 Notes

91 See Kalim, Kuliyat-i Khwāja Ḥasan Mir.

92 See Budgamī, Kāshir-e-Marsyuk Tawarīkh.
93 See Hamdanī, Aūsh ti Āab.
94 The Ansarī’s trace their descent from a Mullā ʿAlam Ansarī, a fifteenth-century
scholar who arrived in Kashmir as an associate of Sayyid Ḥusayn Qūmmī, the
progenitor of the main branch of Rizvī Sayyids in Kashmir. For details, see Sayyid
Muḥsin Kashmiri, Danishnama-i Shiyān-i Kashmir (Karachi: MAAB, 2011) and
Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir.
95 For Mullā Fazl ʿAli Ansari, see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, Kashmiri,
Danishnama-i Shiyān-i Kashmir and Sajid, Kuliyāt-i Ḥakim ʿAẕim wa Munshi
Muhammad Yūsuf.
96 Traces of this scholarship can be seen both in religious studies and in the field of
marṣiya writing.
97 Thus, while Mullā ‘Abd al-Ghanī, the author of Jāmi al Rizvī, was a respected a’lim,
the fame of his cousin, Mullā Abu al-Ḥakim Sāṭiḥ (d. 1143 ah/1730 ce), rested
on his poetical composition, emerging as the favored court poet of the Mughal
emperor Fa’rukh Siyar (r. 1713–19). In Sāṭiḥ’s Persian diwān only a few isolated
verses in praise of the Shiʿite Imāms can be found. The same holds true of many
other Kashmiri Shiʿi poets who lived under the Mughals, including Maulana Auj’ī
Kashmirī, Ḥājjī Ḥaidar, Muhammad Rizā Mushtaq, Muhammad Rafī, and so on.
The work of these Mughal era poets are mostly secular in nature, devoid of any
reference to their Shiʿi identity, or any marṣiya eulogizing the memory of the most
popular Shiʿi imām, Ḥusayn. See Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli Kashmirī, Tazkira-i Zafran
Zar, ed. Dr. Karim Najafi Barzegar (Tehran: Society for the Appreciation of Cultural
Works and Dignitaries, 2009), 50–2. Also see Ḥājjī Muhammad Aslam Khān Aslaḥ,
Tazkira-i-Shoura-i Kashmir (Lahore: Iqbal Academy, 1983).
98 The family of Sayyid Ṣalih Rizvī, the marṣiya writer, played a major role in this,
especially his son, Sayyid Ṣafdar Shāh (d. 1255 ah/1839ce).
99 Muqim is generally said to have passed away in 1195 ah/1750 ce, but Mahdi Khatāʿi
in his note on the sole surviving manuscript of Kashkūl, Muqim’s compendium of
Shiʿi prayers and supplications, mentions the year of his teacher’s death around 1235
ah/1819 ce. For details, see Kashmiri, Danishnama-i Shiyān-i Kashmir, 185.
100 Sayyid Murtazā Ḥusayn, Matlaʿ-i Anwār (Karachi: Khorasan Islamic Research
Center, 1981), 234.
101 Personal collection, Āgā Sayyid ‘Abd al-Baqi Rizvī, Srinagar.
102 Ḥusayn, Matlaʿ-i Anwār, 234.
103 The Treaty of Amritsar (bai nāma-i Amritsar) signed on March 16, 1846, between
Gulab Singh and officials of the East India Company represented by F. Currie and
Henry Lawrence resulted in the sale of Kashmir to Gulab Singh for one crore rupees.
For details, see Diwān Kripa Ram, transl. Kirpa Ram, Sukh Dev Singh Charak and
Anita K. Billawaria, Gulab Nama: A History of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu and
Kashmir (Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 2005).
104 Ibid. Also see Rizvi, A Socio Intellectual History of the Isna Ashari Shi’i in India, vol.
ii, 103–5.
105 Rizvi, A Socio Intellectual History of the Isna Ashari Shi’i in India, vol. ii, 333. Also
see Mushirul Hasan, “Traditional Rites and Contested Meanings: Sectarian Strife in
Colonial Lucknow,” Economic and Political Weekly 31, no. 9 (March 2, 1996), 548.
106 The Muharram ceremonies, processions, and assemblies take place in a part of old
Lahore which still retains its association with Kashmir, Moḥala Shi’iyan-i Kashmir.
 Notes 185

107 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 263.

108 Ḥusayn, Matlaʿ-i Anwār, 47–9, 336–8. Also see Rizvi, A Socio Intellectual History of
the Isna Ashari Shi’i In India, vol. ii, 155.
109 Maktūb Mullā Ḥakim ʿAẕim baray-i Mullā Ṣādiq ʿAli Ansarī, personal collection,
Zakir Sayyid Yūnis Hamdanī, Labartal, Budgam. The text of the letter copied by
a renowned scholar from the late nineteenth century, Sayyid Ḥusayn of Labartal,
exists as marginalia in a lithographic edition of Nukhbah. The copied text also
includes a diverse assortment of Persian and Arabic verses ranging from the divān
of Imām ʿAli to those written on the merits of good penmanship. Given the diffused
nature in which the letter has been copied, it is difficult to establish with certainty
the sections which are authored by ʿAẕim, apart from the reference to the ḥadīth.
110 He also authored a work on the subject. See Mullā Ṣādiq ʿAli Ansarī, Al-Saif al
Muntaqī ʿAli Mʿiānadī al Murtaza (Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 1441).
111 The ḥadīth which is characterized as weak forms a part of debates related to
methodology in theology classes within Shiʿi seminaries. Author’s interview, Sayyid
Muhsin Kashmirī, Florida, 2022.
112 Author’s interview, Sayyid Muhsin Kashmirī, Florida, 2022.
113 Personal collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
114 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 289.
115 Mrs. Harvey, The Adventures of a Lady in Tibet, China and Kashmir (London: Hope
& Co., 1853), 248, 261–2.
116 Harvey, The Adventures of a Lady, 249.
117 See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt.
118 In a rather lengthy description, Deykah portrays the merchant as an effeminate
who lost his wealth due to his debauchery and then fled to Tibet during the reign of
Maharaja Ranbir Singh, see, Deykah, Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir, ff. 24–5. The work is
generally derogatory in its description of the Shiʿi.
119 Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1429, ff. 103.
120 Deykah praises both the father and the son for their wealth and philanthropy in
the city, see, Deykah, Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir, ff. 32, also, see, Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i
Shiyan-i Kashmir, 397–8.
121 Naqal as Asal Hukumnama Maharaj zair tanazay-i Ahl-i Tashi, MS. Personal
Collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
122 See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt.
123 “Āukūt, or harvest-home festival, which takes place on the second day of the Diwali,
when the city people are fed at the expense of the State on the first fruits of the
autumn harvest.[. . .] Huge feasts [. . .] are prepared at six appointed places—for the
better class Pandits, the common Pandits, the better class Mūsālmans, the common
Mūsālmans, the Shiʿis and the Dogras.” Walter R. Lawrence, The Valley of Kashmir
(London: H. Frowde, 1895), 271.
124 See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1423, ff. 110, 142.
125 Ibid.
126 Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1421, 71.
127 Lawrence, The Valley of Kashmir, 271.
128 In his letter Ṭālib ʿAli mentions how he came to know of the sad news through
a letter (from the nawab?) provided by Muhammad ʿAli. Further down in his
condolence Ṭālib writes if destiny prevails, he will personally visit Murad ʿAli to
offer his condolences. See Maktūb Munshi Ṭālib ʿAli baray-i Nawab Murad ʿAli
Khān, Khairpur, personal collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
186 Notes

129 Mīrzā Muhammad Mujrim Kashmirī, Mʿayār Lughāt Qūyim: Firhangh Shāhnama,
ed. Murtaza ʿImranī (Tehran: Intishārat Sukhan, 1978), 22.
130 Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1422, ff. 146.
131 Deykah, Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir, ff. 32.
132 Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1427, ff. 101.
133 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 397–8.
134 Both the Jamia Masjid and Mʿārak are based on the Iranian four iwan mosque plan,
with the central open courtyard of the mosque transformed into the roofed pukhir
of Mʿārak. For details, see Hamdanī, The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious
Architecture of Kashmir.
135 Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli is specially remembered for arranging for the wedding
expenses of girls belonging to impoverished families in the city. For details, see
Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 289. Deykah also lauds the merchants
unlimited philanthropy, see, Deykah, Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir, ff. 32.
136 Literally lover, muḥib is used here to signify a friend of the Prophet’s family. Muḥib,
dost (friend), along with mūmin are some of the terms employed by Kashmiri
marṣiya writers for addressing the congregation of mourners.
137 The Kufis betrayed Ḥusayn at Karbala and played a leading role in imprisoning
surviving members of his family, publicly parading them in the streets of Kufa. The
phrase “like a Kufi” has become synonymous among Kashmiri Shiʿi for someone
who betrays with no shame. Often, it is used as a slight against the Sunnis, though
the use is not limited to such a meaning alone.

Chapter 4

1 The nisba Qazvinī is probably based on Sayyid Ibrahim’s association with the ulema
of Qazvinī family who operated their school in the shrine city of Karbala, Iraq.
The family had migrated from Qazvin, Iran to Iraq in the late eighteenth century
under the brothers, Sayyid Muhammad Bāqir al Qazvinī and Sayyid Muhammad
ʿAli al-Qazvinī. The leading ʿalim of the family in nineteenth century Iraq included
Sayyid Ibrahim al Qazvinī (1799–1848). Sayyid Ibrahim’s nisba would be based
on his associations with the school of Qazvinī’s in Iraq rather than the toponym
Qazvin.
2 See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS.1422.
3 For Mullā Ashraf, see Stephen Frederic Dale, “A Safavid Poet in the Heart of
Darkness: The Indian Poems of Ashraf Mazandarani,” Iranian Studies 36, no. 2 (June
2003): 197–212. In Kashmir, Ashraf is also said to have composed a marṣiya for the
Nūrbakhshī shaykh, Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIraki. See Kashmiri, Danishnama-i Shiyān-i
Kashmir.
4 While we find greater reliance on Iranian munshis in the first half of nineteenth
century, the same were increasingly replaced by men of Indian origin after 1857.
For an account of Iranian munshis, see the account of early European victors to
Kashmir, especially, Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan provinces of
Hindustan and the Panjab, 2 vols.
5 For Shiʿi mujtahids in the nineteenth century, see Meir Litvak, Shi ‘i Scholars of
Nineteenth-century Iraq: The ‘Ulama’ of Najaf and Karbala’ (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998).
 Notes 187

6 The issue is believed to have first risen during the rule of the Shiʿi Mughal subedar
of Kashmir, Ibrahim Khān (d.1709), son of the famous Mughal governor, ʿAli
Mardan Khān (d. 1657). For details, see Sayyid Abū’l Qāsim Rizvī, Al S’ādah fi
Sayādat al S’ādāt (Lahore, 1890).
7 Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS.1422, ff. 110.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 265.
11 See Mullā Muhammad Bāqir, Risālah i Hidāyat al Dhalīl ilā Siwā’ al Sabīl (Lahore:
Ṣahab Saqib, 1308 ah/1890 ce).
12 Ḥakim ʿAẕim, Maktub Ḥakim ʿAẕim baray-i Moulvi Rajab ʿAli Shāh.
13 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 265, and Sajid, Kuliyāt-i Ḥakim ʿAẕim wa
Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf, 24.
14 The only historical document relating to the functioning of Mʿārak and the role of
the Mʿārakdars as its mutwalī is to be found in an official decree from the Mughals
in eighteenth century. This legal document is preserved with the Mʿārakdar family.
See Personal collection, Sayyid Jalāl-al Dīn Mʿārakdar, Zadibal, Srinagar. For
the role of mutwalī as administrator of an endowed property (wakf) especially
in nineteenth-century colonial South Asia, see Eric Lewis Beverley, “Property,
Authority and Personal Law, Waqf ’ in Colonial South Asia,” South Asia Research 31,
no. 2: 155–82 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2011).
15 Āgā Sayyid Ḥasan Mʿārakdar, Irshād ul Jāhilīn wa Tanbīh ul Ghāfilīn (Srinagar:
Bardkar Press, undated), 4–5. Also see Sajid, Kuliyāt-i Ḥakim ʿAẕim wa Munshi
Muhammad Yūsuf, 27.
16 The text of ʿAẕim’s verdict does not even indicate if in their role of Mʿārakdari,
the family of Mʿārakdars are allowed to collect the donations made to the
Imāmbāda.
17 This would be the main argument used against the Mʿārakdars, when the issue
finally landed in the court, for details see Rūbakār az ʿAdalat-i Sadr-i Srinagar az
misl-177, Faisla 13 Poh, 1925 Bikrami, Personal collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali
Hamdani, Srinagar.
18 Tracing their descent in Kashmir through the Kubrawī shaykh, Sayyid Taj-al Dīn
Hamdanī, buried at Shahmpora, Nowhatta in Srinagar.
19 The Madnī sayyids trace their decent from Sayyid Muhammad Madnī, a fifteenth-
century missionary who is associated with the court of Zain-al Ābidīn and is buried
near Nowshera.
20 Sayyid ʿAli b. Ṣafdar is considered among the mujtahids of Lucknow. For details, see
Kashmiri, Danishnama-i Shiyān-i Kashmir.
21 Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iran, 80.
22 Hamid Algar’s introduces the term in describing how many Shiʿi religious families
produced successive generation of eminent scholars. See Hamid Algar, “Allama
Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai: Philosopher, Exegete and Gnostic,” Journal of
Islamic Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
23 Mullā Muhammed predeceased Akhūnd Mullā Javad. See Kashmiri, Danishnama-i
Shiyān-i Kashmir.
24 In addition to Akhūnd Javad, Mullā Fazal ʿAli had three other sons, Mullā
ʿAbdullah (d.1296 ah/1878 ce), Mullā ʿAbbas and Mullā Muhammad Ḥusayn. The
family continued through the line of Mullā ʿAbbas. Akhūnd Javad had a son who
predeceased his father, passing away in 1264 ah/1847 ce. For details, see Munshi
188 Notes

Jʿafar, Tanbīh ul ibād fī ahwāl-i Moulvi Muhammad Javad (Srinagar: All Jammu &
Kashmir Shiʿi Association, 1377 ah/1957).
25 Sayyid Bāqir addresses Mullā Javad with the honorific title of Hūjjat-al Islam (Proof
of Islam). In nineteenth century Shiʿi’a world the title was rarely used, though during
the reign of the Fatah Ali Shah (r. 1797–1834) of Iran it was at times used for leading
mujtahids. The large-scale use of the term for mid-level clerics is a contemporary
phenomenon, see Sayyid Bāqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Sāram (Lahore: Sahafi, undated), 22.
26 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 253.
27 Ann Willner and Dorothy Willner, “The Rise and Role of Charismatic Leaders,” in
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 358 (New
Nations: The Problem of Political Development, March 1965), 79.
28 Ḥasan A. Mīrzādeh, Asnadazkamkhai Mali bazairan-imuslamanshabiqario hind
darmashaddarduran-i Qajjar, in vol. 4, no: 16–17, 1391, http://shamseh​.aqr​
-libjournal​.ir​/issue​_4930​_4946​.html.
29 Hamdani, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 255.
30 Bāqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Sāram, 23. Bāqir also claims that many individuals whose
ancestors were known by the surname of Dar, Joo, Mīr and Bhat have recently
started claiming to be Sayyids, ibid.
31 Author’s interview, Mohammad Huzaifa Nizam, Peshawar, 2021. According to the
Census of 1911, out of a total population of 3,577 Shiʿi living in Peshawar, a majority
traced their roots to Kashmiri. See C. Latimer, Census of India, 1911, vol xiii, North-
West frontier Province (Peshawar: Commercial Press, 1912), 72.
32 Ibid. For a description of the bazar of Peshawar in the early twentieth century, see
E. G. G. Hasting, Report of the Regular Settlement of the Peshawar District of the
Punjab (Lahore: Central jail Press, 1878). Hasting’s reports about how, ‘The trades
of working in leather and copper, silver wire making, dyeing, cleaning and winding
silk, and the preparation of snuff, are carried on by Cashmiris, Peshdwaris and
Cabulis’, Ibid., 19.
33 Bāqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Sāram, 23.
34 According to Muhsin Kashmirī, the total amount due to sayyids from Ṣafdar’s
khums amounted to ten thousand rupees, of which half the money had been
distributed by the merchant himself, while the rest of five thousand rupees were sent
to Akhūnd Mullā Javad for distribution, Mohsin also asserts that in his distribution
Jawad followed in the footsteps of his father, ensuring that all those who claimed
to be sayyid received a share from the khums money. for detail, see Sayyid Mūhsin
Kashmirī, Groh bandi dar Kashmir, unpublished paper, 2021.
35 Anonymous, Risāla-i ʿIgala (Lucknow: Maṭbah-i Islam, 1890).
36 For an understanding of how the Rebellion was seen in British imagination as
a product of Muslim religiosity, see Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst, Indian Muslim
Minorities and the 1857 Rebellion; Religion, Rebels and Jihad (London: I.B.
Tauris, 2017). Also check, S.R. Wasti, “British Policy towards the Indian Muslims
Immediately after 1857,” in Muslim Struggle for Freedom in India (Delhi: Renaissance
Publishing House, 1993).
37 For an understanding of this early migration to Punjab, see Victoria Schofield,
Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War (London: I.B. Tauris,
2010) and Zutshi, Languages of Belonging.
38 Ranjit Singh also encouraged the settling of Kashmiri shawl weavers in Punjab,
to cater to the court demand for the shawl cloth, which was then used ‘ to pay
allowances to his followers, to grant robes of honor, and to send gifts to the other
 Notes 189

rulers, including officials of the British East India Company’, Michelle Maskiell,
“Consuming Kashmir: Shawls and Empire, 1500-2000,” Journal of World History 13,
no. 1 (Spring, 2002): 35.
39 Frederic Drew, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories: A Geographical Account
(London: E. Stanford, 1876), 179.
40 Maskiell, Consuming Kashmir: Shawls and Empire, 39.
41 Ibid., 51.
42 See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1424.
43 The pitiful condition of the shawl weavers is described by Temple, who visited
Kashmir twice (1859, 1871) during Ranbir Singh’s reign in these words:
The shawl-weavers, too are Muhammadans, and form a numerous and withal
a miserable class, badly paid, badly nourished and badly housed, and therefore
physically and morally wretched.

Richard Temple, Journals Kept in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim And Nepal, vol. i
(London: WH Allen & Co., 1887), 276.
44 Ibid., vol. ii, 144.
45 See Zutshi, Languages of Belonging.
46 Khwāja Mohyi-al Dīn Gandrū also owned a house at Zaina Kadal near the bridge.
This house which still exits was later bought by a Shiʿi trader, Ḥājjī Jaʿfar Khān and
is still remembered as Jaʿfar Khan sinz koothi.
47 Temple, Journals Kept in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim And Nepal, vol. ii, 60.
48 Temple refers to him as Mukhta Shāh. Khwāja Mukhtār also authored a manual
of Kashmiri crafts, see Temple, Journals Kept in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim And
Nepal, vol. ii.
49 Temple speaks about Ghafar Shāh is his second visit of 1871, though it is possible
that he met him earlier too. In his journal of 1859, he speaks of meeting an unnamed
Naqshbandī Sayyid. Fauq on the other hand names him as Gafūr, son of Aḥmad
Shāh, son of Shāh Niyaẕ. For details, see Temple, Journals Kept in Hyderabad,
Kashmir, Sikkim and Nepal, vol. ii. and Mohammad Dīn Fauq, Tārīkh Aqwam
Kashmir (Srinagar: Gulshan Publishers, 1996), 156.
50 Mohammad Dīn Fauq, Mashahir-i Kashmir (Lahore: Zafar Brothers, 1930), 20–3,
also, see Fauq, Tārīkh-i Aqwam Kashmir, 292.
51 Ibid., 300.
52 The Jalālī’s were a Sayyid family hailing from Iran, whose ancestor had arrived in
Kashmir during the late Mughal period. For details, see Kashmiri, Danishnama-i
Shiyān-i Kashmir.
53 Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir, 30.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid., 31.
56 Muzaffar Khan, Kashmiri Muslims: An Historical Outline, vol. ii (Srinagar:
Humanizer Publications, 2012), 280–1.
57 For the architecture of the mosque, see Hamdani, The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic
Relegious Architecture of Kashmir.
58 Deykah, Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir, ff. 24–5.
59 Hamdani, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 290–1.
60 Not much has been written on the origin of the institution of Mīrwaʿiẕ and
Kashmir. For details, see Sheikh Showkat Hussain, Kashmir Profiles (Beirut: Dar-al
Kutub al ʿIlmiyah, 1971), 30–4.
190 Notes

61 Moulvi Muhammad Shāh Sʿaādat, Tārīkh-i Kashmir ki roznama dairy (Srinagar:

Ghūlam Muhammad Nūr Muhmmad Tajiran-i Kutb, 1947). Also see Fauq,
Mashahir-i Kashmir, 120–24.
62 Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli was a teacher, who helped the Christian missionaries in setting
up a school in Srinagar. Ḥasan ʿAli’s Vaqʿāt -i Kashmir is based on journal that the
author composed during the reign of Maharaja Pratap Singh in late nineteenth
century. Of the original five volumes, only three remained with his descendants. In
his autobiography, Munshi Isḥāq borrows liberally from the journal while detailing
out some of the events in nineteenth century. Unfortunately, the manuscripts of
the journal written in Persian and Urdu, were forwarded to a publisher in Lal
Bazar but have neither been published nor the original manuscripts returned to
the owners. Some of the events in the book have been published in the revised
edition of Hamdani, Tārīkh-i Shiyan Kashmir, Munshi Muhammad Isḥāq, Nida-i
Ḥaq (Srinagar: Markaz-i Ishayat, 2014), and Jamia Masjid Heritage Corridor:
Conservation and Revitalization Plan (INATCH: 2009, unpublished report).
63 Nowpora is a mixed neighborhood in Srinagar city with a small but relatively well-
off Shiʿi population.
64 Should be 1872.
65 Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq, 31–2.
66 Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir, 32.
67 Kuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (199), 594–96.
68 For details see Khuihāmī, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan (1999), 593–96, Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i
Shiyan-i Kashmir, 215–16. For a copy of the verdict of Maharaja Ranbir Singh on the
riots, which includes the testimony of Aziz Khān, a Sunni karkhandar from Malik
Ṣāhab in Srinagar, see Hawal-i Sarkar-i Wala Madar Maharaja Ranbir Singh dar
Maramlah Gharat-i Ahl—i Tashi, Personal collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani,
Srinagar.
69 See Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq,
70 In another instance Gandrū asks the Sunnis of Malik Ṣāhab locality to desist
from building a bathing house and hammam in the neighborhood, as it faced the
shrine of Shaykh Ḥamza and would be disrespectful to the saint’s memory. On the
merchant’s advice, the residents then decide to build a mosque instead. See Hawal-i
Sarkar-i Wala Madar Maharaja Ranbir Singh dar Maramlah Gharat-i Ahl—i Tashi.
71 Hawal-i Sarkar-i Wala Madar Maharaja Ranbir Singh dar Maramlah Gharat-i Ahl—i
Tashi.
72 For the Kashmiri text of the marṣiya, see Maqbūl Sājid, Kuliyat-i Munshi
Muhammad Mustafa wa Munshi Muhammed Yūsuf (Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2002).
73 See Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 292; regarding the bagh of Muhammad
ʿAli of which no trace or description survives, Gates provides us with this brief
description:
The Mar or snake canal maybe held to flow from the Naopoura Kadal on the
south-west margin of the Dal; it passes successively the Mīrzā Muhammad Ally
{Ali} Bagh on the right bank, the Mīrzā Raza Bagh on the left bank.

Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir, 359.

74 Hawal-i Sarkar-i Wala Madar Maharaja Ranbir Singh dar Maramlah Gharat-i Ahl—i
Tashi.
75 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 215–16.
 Notes 191

76 Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir, 32.

77 Riot between Sheas and Soonees in Cashmere, Foreign Department, Political B, progs.
March 1873, nos. 75–79. National Archives, Delhi.
78 Mukerjee was also responsible for reviving the sericulture industry in the state.
During Maharaja Pratap Singh’s time he served as minister of the state before finally
leaving Kashmir for his native Calcutta, where he died in 1920 as vice-chairman of
Calcutta Corporation. See The Pioneer Mail and Indian Weekly News, Volume 47,
1920.
79 Riot between Sheas and Soonees in Cashmere, Foreign Department.
80 Ibid.
81 Pandit Hargopal Kaul Khasta, Gūldastā-i Kashmir (Srinagar: Sheikh Ghūlam
Muhammad & Sons, 1986), 211. Also see Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir.
82 Khwāja Sa’ad al-Dīn, ‘Shiʿi Nāma’ in Asun ti Gindun, vol. i (Sringar: Ghūlam
Muhammad wa Nūr Muhammad, 1903), 19–21.
83 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 290.
84 Sayyid Sajād (transl.), Dastāvizat Tʿamir-i Imāmbāda Hassanabad, Personal
collection, Mirza Muhammad Reza, Srinagar.
85 The building was demolished in the 1990s and a new expanded structure created in
its place. For details, see Hamdani, “The Maarak and the Tradition of Imambadas in
Kashmir.”
86 Biyāz, Private collection, Munshi Nazir Aḥmad, Srinagar.
87 The brothers, Bābū Rishambar and Nilambar were Bengali civil servants whose
services was retained by the Kashmir darbār. In addition to their work in the
judiciary, the two were also involved in reviving the sericulture industry in Kashmir.
For details, see Lawrence, The Valley of Kashmir.
88 Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq, 76.
89 ʿAli Malik was brother-in-law of Ḥājjī Ṣafdar Bābā and a kar khandar himself.
90 In their deposition in the court the Jalālī’s maintained that the transfer took place
through the agency of the Mīr family, who were projected by the Jalālī’s as the real
custodians of the imāmbāda as opposed to the Mʿārakdars. Accordingly, the Jalālī’s
maintained the transfer happed through Khalil Mīr, son of Hatim Mīr who was the
custodian at the time of Imāmbāda’s reconstruction in 1831. For details, see Rūbakār
az Adalat-i Sadr-i Srinagar.
91 In the Sunni too, a similar caste-based division “aseil” for the upper caste and
“kaminah” for those termed as lower caste existed.
92 Acquisition of wealth was a possible mean for circumventing the disadvantage of
caste. There are instances, especially from the twentieth century when improvised
upper class families married their daughters into economically well-off families
of lower social standing, such a union proving beneficial to both the parties.
Nevertheless, such instances are far limited in nineteenth century Kashmir.
93 For the events that took place during this time, see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i
Kashmir.
94 Following, ʿAbdullah’s early death in 1891 during a cholera pandemic, Ṣafdar
effectively took over the management of the imāmbāda. This, and the leading role he
played in the legal entanglements related to the custodianship of the Mʿārak and the
Rūżā-i- Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIraki at Zadibal, would result in popularizing the Firqa-i
Qadim as Firqa-i Ṣafdar Shāh. In contemporary Kashmir the party is simply known
as Moulvi Ṣāhabī as opposed to members of the Firqa-i Jadid who are represented as
Āgā Ṣāhabī.
192 Notes

95 The issue of the custodianship of ʿIraki shrine was finally resolved in a court case
decided in 1944. See Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 281.
96 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 267.
97 See Maqbūl Sājid, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli: Shaksiyat ti Fann (Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2002).
98 A particularly divisive question which gave rise to public passions was the issue of
companionship of Mʿammūr-i Ḥabshī. See Bashir Ahmad Khan, “The Ahl-i-Ḥādith:
A Socio-Religious Reform Movement in Kashmir,” The Muslim World 90 (Spring
2000): 143.
99 Lawrence, The Valley of Kashmir, 285.
100 See Āgā Bākir al-Mūsāvī al-Najafī, Nafḥtah al-Najaf (Srinagar: TFC Center, 2018).
101 In addition, Ḥaidar ʿAli studied under Mullā Ḥusayn Fazil-i Irdkanī, Mīrzā Abū’l
Qāsim Ṭabāṭabāʾī, and Shaykh Zain-al ʿĀbidīn Mazandaranī. For details, see
Kashmiri, Danishnama-i Shiyān-i Kashmir.
102 In his writings Ḥaidar addresses Mahdi as Ḥājj Mahdi Shāh. See Mullā Ḥaidar ʿAli
Kashmirī, Risāla-i Fasl al Khitāb (Lahore: Matbah-i Islamī, 1888).
103 See Sayyid Ḥasan Rizvī, Majālis-al Abrar (Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 3075),
Bāqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Sāram and Bāqir, Risālah i Hidāyat al Dhalīl ilā Siwā’ al
Sabīl.
104 The wearing of a turban was a normative practice among adult Muslims within
Kashmir but assumed a special significance among the ulema classes. Rizvī’s critique
of Mahdi is for attiring himself in a turban which because of its distinctive shape and
color was the privilege of the ulema.
105 Rizvī, Majālis-al Abrar, ff. 12.
106 Mīrzā Ḥusayn Nūrī Tabrisī, Badr Mushʿashʿa (Bombay, 1890).
107 Ḥaidar ʿAli performed his Ḥājj in 1331 ah/1912 ce. Author’s interview, Dr. Amjad
Ansari, Srinagar, 2021.
108 “very few Kashmiris make the pilgrimage to Mecca, though the journey is now easy,
and does not cost more than Rs. 340. In 1892 twenty-one Kashmiris went to Mecca,
and this was an unusually large number,” Lawrence, The Valley of Kashmir, 285.
109 Unfortunately, we do not have the names of Mahdi’s companions on this pilgrimage.
110 Ibid. Rizvī’s text clearly indicates the growing popularity of Sayyid Mahdi’s among
the masses.
111 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 228.
112 See Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, “Yad-i Ruftagan,” in al-Irshad (Budgam:
Anjuman-i Sharie Shiyan, 1381ah/1961ce), Ramzan and Shawwal issue.
113 Munshi Muhammad Jaʿfar, Shajrah-Mullā khāndan, Personal collection, Dr. Amjad
Ansarī, Srinagar.
114 Author’s interview with Zakir Sayyid Sami-al Lah Jalālī, Srinagar, Kashmir, 2021.
115 Author’s interview, Munshi Ghulam Hassan, Srinagar, 2017 and Mīrzā Muhammad
Raza, Srinagar, 2020.
116 Hakim ʿAli Raza, Dairy, Personal collection, Hakim Bashir Ahmad, Srinagar.
117 Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, Dairy, Personal collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali
Hamdani, Srinagar.
118 Author’s interview with Aga Faisal Qizalbash, Srinagar, 2021.
119 See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1424.
120 Popularly known as the nawabs of Nawab Gunj, Lahore, the Qizalbash nawabs
would maintain a sustained interest in affairs of Kashmiri Shiʿis. For Nawazish
ʿAli Khān, see Sir Roper Lethbridge, The Golden Book of India, a Genealogical and
 Notes 193

Biographical Dictionary of the Ruling Princes, Chiefs, Nobles, and Other Personages,
Titled or Decorated, of the Indian Empire (London: Sampson Low, Marston &
company, 1900), 221.
121 Author’s interview with Āgā Faisal Qizalbash, Srinagar, 2021.
122 Moulvi Iftikhar Ansarī, Maktub wa Shajrah-i varisan-i Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī,
Personal collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
123 Author’s interview with Āgā Pervaiz Safvī, Srinagar, 2021.
124 Author’s interview with Āgā Sayyid Bāqir Mūsāvī, Srinagar, 2021.
125 See Yaqoob Laway and others versus Gulla and others, 2004 (III), SLJ 761, High
Court, Srinagar.

Chapter 5

1 Lawrence, The Valley of Kashmir, 285.

2 See Saif-al Dīn, Ākhbārāt, MS. 1424, 1425, 1426.
3 See Sufi, Kashir, vol ii, 483. An incomplete biyaz of Mahdi in his own hand is to be
found in the private library of Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Ḥusayn, Srinagar.
4 After graduating from the University of Calcutta, Mukerjee joined the bar in Lahore
in 1867. See William Digby, Condemned Unheard: the Government of India and HH
the Maharaja of Kashmir (London: Indian Political Agency, 1890), 58.
5 Hamdanī, Aūsh ti Āab.
6 Also known as Baghwanpora, the ḥakims trace their decent from Ḥakim Hemayun
who is said to have arrived in Kashmir as a part of the Mughal emperor, Akbar’s
entourage in the sixteenth century. Unlike, the ḥakims from the Mullā and
Qizalbash family, those of Baghwanpora remained uninvolved in community
matters and dissensions. For details on the family, see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i
Kashmir, 339–42.
7 On Naqī, see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 356. The ḥakim collapsed in open
court, and the maharaja is said to have cried out, ‘ Naqī da putur koun hai’ (who is
Naqī’s son). Author’s interview with Aga Faisal Qizalbash, Srinagar, 2021.
8 See Maqbūl Sājid, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli: Shaksiyat ti Fann (Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2002).
9 Amar Singh would serve as the vice president of the Administrative Council as well
as the Commander-in-Chief of the state’s army. His son, Hari Singh, would succeed
his uncle to the throne in 1925. For details, see Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii.
10 For an analysis of the British encroachment on Pratap Singh’s authority, see Robert
A. Huttenback, “The Emasculation of a Princely State: The Case of Kashmir,” Journal
of Asian History 7, no. 1 (1973): 1–29.
11 See Razā, Dairy.
12 Ibid.
13 On the other hand, in his memoirs ʿAli Razā related an incident where Pratap
Singh solicited the aid of Ḥakim Mahdi to have his father, Maharaja Ranbir Singh
poisoned. Though the claim of parricide is unsubstantiated, Ranbir was open about
his preference for Amar Singh to succeed him.
14 Bāqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Ṣāram, 18.
15 MS. W.636, Walter Art Museum, Maryland. Those who worked on the paintings in
the album are not named.
16 Bāqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Ṣāram, 21.
194 Notes

17 See Maqbūl Sājid, Kuliyat-i Munshi Mustafa ʿAli and Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf, vol.
i (Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research & Publishing Centre, 2000).
18 The school was set up in in 1874 and would later be renamed as MP School.
19 In the Munshi family archives (at Srinagar), there is a letter from the British
Resident at Kashmir, conveying the Viceroy’s appreciation for the Ḥasan, Personal
collection, Munshi Altaf, Srinagar.
20 The second Delhi Darbār was held in 1903, to mark the succession of Edward VII as
the Emperor of India.
21 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 337.
22 Ibid., 338.
23 These include works on both religious as well as secular subjects printed by Mirzā
Muhammad of Shiraz in Bombay and more significantly the publishing house
of Munshi Nawal Kishore, set up at Lucknow in in 1858. For an overview of
lithographic production in nineteenth century India, see Lithography ii. In India,
entry in Encyclopedia Iranica, available online: https://iranicaonline​.org​/articles​/
lithography​-ii​-in​-india, last accessed December 30, 2021.
24 Personal collection, Yasmin ʿAli, Srinagar.
25 See Hamdani, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 338.
26 Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim would remain the most prolific Kashmiri marṣiya writer,
whose poetical composition has achieved a popular acclaim among the
audience that remains unsurpassed to this day. For more on his life and works
and details on his forced migration, see Maqbūl Sājid, Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim:
Maqām ti Kalām, vol. 3 (Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research & Publishing Centre,
2003).
27 Biharī was a Ḥanafī scholar who served in the Mughal court under Emperor
Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) and Shāh ʿĀlam (r. 1707–1712) as a qazi, tutor to the
Imperial family and as a minister. For details, see Asad Q. Ahmed, “The Sullam
al-ʿulūm of (d. 1707) Muḥibb Allāh al-Bihārī,” in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic
Philosophy, ed. Khaled El-Rouayheb and Sabine Schmidtke (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2016).
28 For details, see Kashmiri, Danishnama-i Shiyān-i Kashmir.
29 Maktūb Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli baray-i Nawab Fateh ʿAli Khan Qizalbash, Personal
collection, Hakim Bashir Aḥmad, Srinagar.
30 For Tonkī, see Abū Majid Muhammad, Taẕkira Maulana Mufti Muhammad
ʿAbdullah Tonkī, 2021, available online: www​.dawateislami​.net, last accessed
December 30, 2021.
31 This includes Pandit Salgiram Kaul Sālik, whose qasida (panegyric) on the accession
of George V. (r. 1910–36) as Emperor of India, was corrected by Ḥasan ʿAli, Personal
Collection, Munshi Ashraf, Srinagar.
32 Author’s interview, Bismillah Rizvī, Srinagar, 2019.
33 See Mīrzā, Rahbar-i Kashmir.
34 Personal collection, Shaykh Muhammad Shafʿi, Srinagar.
35 Author’s interview, Āgā Sayyid Mudasir Rizvī, Srinagar, 2021.
36 Author’s interview, Bismillah Rizvī, Srinagar, 2021.
37 The first organized religious school for women within Kashmiri Shiʿi society was
started by Sayedah Nisar Fatima (d. 1999), daughter and wife of renowned ʿalims.
Her school, Maktab-i Tʿalim Quran wa Ḥadīth was started in 1979 at Khandah in
South Kashmir and trained women form both Shiʿi as well as Sunni background,
author’s interview, Sibti Hasaan, Srinagar, 2022.
 Notes 195

38 The Gazetteer of 1873 is the only official document with figures based on sectarian
lines. Of the total estimated Shiʿi population of Kashmir (15,000), 8,000 was based
in Srinagar. As against this the Sunni population of the city stood at one-thirds
of the total population of the community in Kashmir. See Bates, Gazetteer of
Kashmir, 30.
39 Ṣafdar argues that the Shiʿi avoided jobs which had a public dealing and while it
may seem as a probable reason given the strain in sectarian relations in the city, it
would be difficult to accept this as sole reason. Ṣafdar goes on to list some major
occupations that were not represented in Shiʿi society of Kashmir till mid-twentieth
century. For details, see Hamdani, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 160.
40 The Sunni shawlbafs accounted for 16 percent of the total Sunni population. See
Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir, 30.
41 For details see Rai, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects.
42 Andrew Wilson, The Abode of the Snow (London: Willam Beackwood & Sons, 1875),
366.
43 The date of construction of the house was found carved on a wooden beam, during
the dismantling of the building. Author’s interview, Sayyid Danish Rizvī, Srinagar,
2021.
44 A case would be Khānaqāh-i Sokhta, Nawa Kadal, the seat of the powerful family
of Pandit courtiers: Dhars, which also became the chosen area of residence for the
Ansarī’s on their arrival in Srinagar.
45 Celebrated on March 21, Navrouz represents a pre-Islamic, Iranian festival
celebrating the New Year which was incorporated in Muslim societies imbibed with
Persianate cultural influences. Among the Shiʿis the festival was reinvented as the
day on which the first Shiʿi imām, ʿAli succeeded to the office of Caliphate.
46 Author’s interview, Prof. Sayyid Vilayat Rizvī, Srinagar, 2021.
47 The family of Ḥājjī Asghar Mīr.
48 Ṣafdar Bābā was originally from Babapora but settled down in Nowpora where he
had relations with the Sayyids of Madnī family. In Calcutta he operated a business
house dealing with Kashmiri crafts under the name “Liberty Arts & Crafts.” Author’s
interview with Āgā Faisal Qizalbash, Srinagar, 2021.
49 The expensive Kashmiri shawl, make a brief appearance in one of Tagore’s stories,
The Son of Rashmani.
50 Author’s interview, Sayyid Mohsin Kashmiri, Florida, 2021.
51 Author’s interview, Sayyid Zahoor Rizvī, Srinagar, 2021.
52 File Foreign Department, General A, Proceedings, January 1911, nos. 1–2,
Government of India, National Archives, Delhi.
53 Shajray-i Tayibiya Sayyid Ṣāliḥ Rizvī madafun Haigam, 2001, bearing the stamp of
Āgā Sayyid ʿAbdu’l Baqī Rizvī of Nabdipora, Personal collection of Sayyid Akhter
Rizvī, Narbal, Srinagar.
54 For details on Chinese government in the region, see J. Dowson, “Route from
Kashmír, viâ Ladakh, to Yarkand, by Ahmed Shāh Nakshahbandi,” The Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 12 (1850): 372–85.
55 File Foreign and Political Department, Secret E, proceedings August 1916, nos.
63–68, Government of India, National Archives, Delhi.
56 For Trans-Himalayan trade in the region, see Janet Rizvi, Trans-Himalayan Caravans:
Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2004).
57 Baqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Ṣāram, 21.
196 Notes

58 Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak Together with Routes in the Territories of the
Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing
Press, 1890), 496.
59 Author’s interview Shaykh Muhammad Shafʿi, Srinagar, 2021.
60 The work was completed in Srinagar in 1264 ah/1847 ce, with the initial sections
composed at Skardu, Personal collection, Munshi Altaf, Srinagar.
61 See Muhammad Ḥasan Ḥasrat, Tārīkh-i Adbiyat-i Baltistan (Rawalpindi: T.S. Printer,
1992), 159.
62 Author’s interview, Ḥasan Ḥasrat, Skardu, 2021.
63 The name of the ʿalim is not mentioned in the report. See Revised List of Ruling
Princes Chiefs and Leading Personages of Jammu and Kashmir State and Gilgit Agency
(New Delhi: Government of India Press), 20–1.
64 Lawrence, The Valley of Kashmir, 378.
65 Sufi, Kashir, vol. ii, 578.
66 Bāqir, Risāla-i Sayf al Ṣāram, 16.
67 Author’s interview, Munshi Ghulām Hasan, Srinagar, 2017.
68 J. Duguid, Letters from India and Kashmir: Written 1870; Illustrated and Annotated
1873 (London: George Bells and Sons, 1874), 203–6. We find a similar description
in Marion Doughty’s account about a visit to the kothi of a leading silversmith in the
city. For details, see Marion Doughty, Afoot through the Kashmir Valleys (London:
Sands & Company, 1901), 159–65.
69 This was followed by an informal visit in October 1924, for details see Yvonne
Fitzroy, Courts and Camps in India: Impressions of a Viceregal Tours, 1921-1924
(London: Methuen, 1926), 217.
70 Fitzroy, Courts and camps in India, 222.
71 “the Maharajah, who every evening steamed up and down the watery highway of
the city, [. . .] much to the delight of his faithful subjects, who clustered like bees on
every commanding point that afforded a view of the royal progress.” W. Wakefield,
The Happy Valley Sketches of the Kashmir and the Kashmiris (London: Sampson Low,
Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1879), 168.
72 Ibid., 115.
73 Along the Jhelum riverfront, the showroom of H.R. Jailal the silversmith, and
Tarachand-Arjandev silversmith and banker were the only two major, non-Muslim
establishments, both at Fateh Kadal.
74 Petrocokino mentions Bahar Khān (sic. Shāh) and Samad Shāh as renowned
establishments for not only acquiring shawls but also acted as providers of boats,
tents, furniture, and bankers, see Ambrose Petrocokino Cashmere, Three Weeks in a
Houseboat (New York: Longmans, Green, 1920), 67.
75 J.L.K. Jalālī, Handbook to Kashmir (Srinagar, 1933), 161–2.
76 See Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, “Bazars and Markets in Medieval India,” Studies in
People’s History 2, no.1 (2015): 61–70.
77 W. Burns Thomson, Seedtime in Kashmir (London: James Nisbet & Co’, 1875), 78.
78 See F. Ward Denys, Our Summer in the Vale of Kashmir (Washington: James William
Bryan Press, 1915).
79 This bazar which still exists as one of the major wholesale markets of the city
is today remembered as Maharaj Gunj, its original name all but forgotten. In
subsequent decades, especially in the first half of twentieth century, after the
introduction of motorized transportation, many residents living along major
roads, opened shops on the ground floor of their homes, given rise to a new urban
 Notes 197

morphology in which continuous linear lines of shops opening onto major roads
define the market in major town and cities of Kashmir.
80 Oscar Eckenstein, The Karakorams and Kashmir; An Account of a Journey (London:
T.F. Unwin, 1896), 19.
81 In the aftermath of Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947, Hari Singh was forced to
appoint his son, Karan Singh as the Prince Regent. He continued in his titular post
of Maharaja till 1952 when the title was abolished.
82 More than fifty European travelogues written during this period also touch upon
Kashmir.
83 ‘I found the native dealer very objectionable. He is difficult to avoid.’, Eckenstein,
The Karakorams and Kashmir, 17. For a similar account, see Walter Del Mar, The
Romantic East, Burma, Assam, & Kashmir (London: Adam and Charles black, 1906)
and T. R. Swinburne, A Holiday in the Happy Valley, with Pen and Pencil (London:
Smith, Elder & Co., 1907).
84 Eckenstein, The Karakorams and Kashmir, 19–20.
85 In a visiting card of the firm reproduced in 1900, the name is mentioned as M. H.
Suffdur Mogol, it is possible that the MH in card referred to another of the Wani
brothers, Muhammad Ḥaidar. Both Muhammad Ḥaidar and Ṣafdar ʿAli died
childless, the firm being inherited by Ghulām Ḥusayn’s children. The use of Mogol
rather than the family surname Wani, might have been done to attract European
fascination with the Mughals. For details, see Isabel Savory, A Sportswoman in India
(London: Hutchinson & Co., 1900), 193.
86 In the 1950s the firm would re-establish itself at the Bund, operating from a
houseboat moored on the river, Author’s interview, Muzaffar Wānī, Srinagar, 2021.
87 Savory, A Sportswoman in India, 193–4.
88 See Brigid Keenan, Travels in Kashmir (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989).
89 Jalālī, Handbook to Kashmir (Srinagar, 1933), 157–64.
90 The city would be officially opened by the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, as the new capital of
British Raj on 10th October 1931.
91 Jalālī, Handbook to Kashmir, 161–2.
92 Gazetteer of the Rawalpindi District, 1893-1894 (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette,
1895), 257.
93 According to Qāsim Bābā’s son, Zulfikar Bābā this happened in late 1930s, thought
according to Malik Mahdi grandson of Qāsim’s brother, Mustafa Bābā, the first
establishment was set up in 1925 by Mustafa Bābā. Author’s interview, Zulfikar Bābā,
Washington, 2021 and Malik Mahdi, Srinagar, 2021.
94 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 360–1.
95 It was on account of his long reign, that Pratap was also referred to as “Budhi Raza,”
the Old King.
96 For a narrative sympathetic to Pratap, see Madhvi Yasin, British Paramountcy in
Kashmir, 1876–1894 (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 1984).
97 Yasin, British Paramountcy in Kashmir, 33, 39.
98 It was on May 9, 1865, that Elmslie opened the first dispensary for Kashmir Medical
Mission, at Srinagar. See Thomson, Seedtime in Kashmir, 96.
99 Ashley Carus-Wilson, Irene Petrie, Missionary to Kashmir (London: Hodder&
Stoughton, 1903), 118.
100 Thomson, Seedtime in Kashmir, 81.
101 “In the month of April 1864, Mr. Clark, accompanied by Mrs. Clark, and having
with him some reliable native assistants, re-entered the valley [. . .]. On their arrival
198 Notes

at Srinagar, they were at once mobbed by a crowd of a thousand people, who

threatened to set the house on fire, some of them coming within the compound and
throwing stones.”, Thomson, Seedtime in Kashmir, 81.
102 Ibid., 97.
103 Ibid., 100–1.
104 Ibid., 212.
105 Neve would set up the Kashmir Mission Hospital in 1880, and this was followed
by the Kashmir State Leper hospital in 1891. For details, see Ernst F. Neve, The Pir
Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir (London: Church Missionary
Society 1915).
106 Neve, The Pir Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir, 30.
107 Also written as Itchgham, the village is located in the district of Budgam in Central
Kashmir.
108 Ashley Carus-Wilson, Irene Petrie, a Biography (New York: Fleming H. Revell
Company, 1901), 285.
109 See Thomson, Seedtime in Kashmir.
110 Also see The Ministry of Healing in India: Handbook of Christian Medical Association
of India (Weselyan Mission Press, 1932).
111 Thomson, Seedtime in Kashmir, 114.
112 For details, see C. E. Tyndale Biscoe, Kashmir in Sunlight & Shade (London: Seeley,
Service & Co., 1922).
113 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 30.
114 Ibid., 259.
115 Author’s interview, Aga Faisal Qizalbash, Srinagar, 2021.
116 On Anjuman-i Ḥimayat-al Islam, see S. M. Ikram, Indian Muslims and Partition of
India (Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 1992), 207.
117 See Rai, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects.
118 See Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq. Also see, Dastāvizat (Srinagar: Research Library, MS.
3049).
119 For details, see Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli, Anjuman-i Imamia Srinagar (Srinagar:
1324 ah/1906 ce).
120 Ali, Anjuman-i Imamia, 4, 5.
121 See Munshi Ḥasan, ‘Ali, Anjuman-i Imamia Srinagar (Srinagar: 1325 ah/1907 ce).
122 Still, the Anjuman did operate seventeen madrasas, including one at Maharaj Gunj
the main commercial heart of the city with a negligible Shiʿi presence. However,
most of these madrasas were short-lived.
123 Private Collection, Dr Ifthikhar Munshi, Srinagar, 2020.
124 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 262.
125 Deykah, Raʿyis Nāma-i Kashmir, ff. 33.
126 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 287.
127 The inhabitants of Ashraf Moḥala commenced work at the site by clearing the debris
of the previous building which had been burned by the Afghans. They donated some
of their own land for the expansion of the building and also contributed 1400 work
days of labor. For details, see Sajād, Dastāvizat Tʿamir-i Imāmbāda Hassanabad.
128 Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli, Tārīkh-i Kashmir, reproduced in Hamdani, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i
Kashmir, 207.
129 Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq, 72.
130 According to Isḥāq, Rasūl Shāh’s opponents used to refer to him as Rasūl Rāfiz. See
Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq.
 Notes 199

131 Similarly, from the first quarter of twentieth century we find in the vernacular,
Kashmiri Sunni referring to the Shiʿi as “khudhi” a somewhat neutral counterpart to
the derogatory slur, rāfizī.
132 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 269.
133 The book is titled Miraj-al Falah Minhaj-al Salah, though it became more popular
under the name Kāshir Kitāb (The Kashmiri Book). It is considered among the first
work of prose undertaken in Kashmiri. Author’s interview, Maqbool Sajjid, Srinagar,
2021.
134 Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq, 47.
135 Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Kashmir, Agraz-o Makasid (Srinagar: KPCM, 1351
ah/1932 ce), 3.
136 File Records, Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Kashmir, Personal collection, Hakim
Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
137 Masl’ia Nimaz-i Juma (Srinagar: Kashmir Printing Press, undated). The tract
was published by Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Kashmir, though the name of the
organization does not appear in the publication. Author’s interview, Munshi Ghulām
Hassan, Srinagar, 2018.
138 It is not clear whether this is Grand Ayatollah Mīrzā Mahdi al-Shirazī (d. 1961)
or his contemporary and cousin, Grand Ayatollah Mīrzā ‘Abd al -Hadī Shirazī
(d. 1962). See Masl’ia Nimaz-i Juma.
139 Born in Lahore in 1288 ah/1871 ce to a respected scholar Sayyid Abū’l
Qāsim, Haʿirī completed his learning in Iraq and like his father maintained
great interest in the affairs of Kashmiri Shiʿi. He also wrote his support for the
organizers of the Kashmir Conference held in Gujranwala, Punjab in 1929,
which provided an opportunity to voice support for the freedom of Kashmiri
Muslims against the Dogra rule. For details, see Kashmiri, Danishnama-i
Shiyān-i Kashmir, 294.
140 Masl’ia Nimaz-i Juma, 3.
141 Ibid., 6.
142 This is based on popular interpretation of a ḥadīth found in traditional Sunni
collection in which the Prophet is reported to have said: Whoever leaves Juma three
times without a valid necessity, then a seal is placed on his heart.
143 Ibid., 2.
144 Ibid., 3.
145 The stepmother of Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar, Anjumans’ first president, was the eldest
daughter of Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī, while his brother was married to another of
Ḥaidar’s daughter.
146 Maktūb Ayatollah Abū’l Ḥasan Isfahanī baray-i Shaykh Muhammad Ḥusayn,
Personal collection, Prof. Shaykh Shafʿi, Srinagar.
147 Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Kashmirī, Khaṣāil-al Shiʿi (Lahore: Fʿaiz Aam Press,
1910), 2.
148 In the Kashmiri Hindu society, a key reforming agenda was the issue of widow
remarriage.
149 File Records, Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Kashmir, Personal collection, Hakim
Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
150 The editor of the newspaper, Ḥakim Ghulām Ḥusayn Makhmur, had recently
completed his graduation and would also follow Isḥāq in his political career.
151 The belief in the efficacy of Shiʿi pirs engaged in these practices resonates in
contemporary Sunni society, where some still seek them for achieving their
200 Notes

beloved, or educational, matrimonial, or financial success or health benefit. Author’s

interview, Sayed Mujtaba Gilani, Srinagar, 2021.
152 See Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, Shiʿi Mūsālmān aūr unkey Jamūd key Asbāb
(Srinagar: Gulshan Press, undated).
153 See Hamdanī, Shiʿi Mūsālmān aūr unkey Jamūd key Asbāb and Zulfikar.
154 Hamdanī, Shiʿi Mūsālmān aūr unkey Jamūd key Asbāb.
155 Ayesha Jalal, “Negotiating Colonial Modernity and Cultural Difference: Indian
Muslims’ Conceptions of Community, 1878-1914,” in Modernity and Culture: from
the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, ed. Leila Tarazi Fawaz and C. A. Bayly (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 230.
156 None of the reformers in their writings addressed the issue of caste-based
structure of the Shiʿi society, unlike their limited focus on the need to educate
women.
157 For a detailed description of Shiʿi scholars of Kashmir, see Kashmiri, Danishnama-i
Shiyān-i Kashmir.
158 Isfahanī assumed the position sole marjaʿ-i taqlid of the Shiʿi world around
1935 and continued in this role till his death.
159 Based on the Urdu translation of Isfahanī’s letter, see Kashmiri, Danishnama-i
Shiyān-i Kashmir, 321.
160 Foreign Department, General-B, Progs. January 1909, Nos. 15/16, National
Archives, New Delhi.
161 Ibid.
162 Ibid.
163 See Yousf Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom (1819-1946), vol. i (Lahore: Ferozsons,
1977), 333–34.
164 Though Hamdanī mentions the date as 1921, this seems to be wrong and given the
chronology of the events he has listed, it should be 1923. See Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i
Shiyan-i Kashmir, 398.
165 Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, 334.
166 Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir, 399. Isḥāq on the other hand maintains that
the alams were from the Khānaqāh-i Mʿaulā. See Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq.
167 Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, 335–9.
168 Ibid., 336.
169 Bishambar Nath Zutshi (ed.), Bahar-i Kashmir, October, 1924, 31 (Lahore: National
Art Press), 31.
170 Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, 336.
171 Ibid., 336.
172 Ibid., 338. Also see Hamdanī, Tārīkh-i Shiyan-i Kashmir.
173 See Bishambar Nath Zutshi (ed.), Bahār-i Kashmir, October 1924.
174 Muhammad Dīn Fauq, Masheir Kashmir (Lahore: Zafar Brothers, 1930), 23.
175 See Ayesha Jalal, Self and Sovereignty, Individual and Community in South Asian
Islam since 1850 (London: Routledge, 2000).
176 Another similar event took place at Jamia Masjid, Srinagar under the leadership of
Mīrwaʿiẕ Yosuf Shāh (d. 1968), who was the political and ideological rival of Shaykh
Muhammad ʿAbdullah. For an understanding of the bitter rivalry between the two,
and the ensuing disturbances in the city, see Sʿaādat, Tārīkh-i Kashmir ki roznama
Dairy.
177 During the tumultuous days of partition and an invasion of Kashmir by members
of the frontier tribes seeking Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, Munshi Muhammad
 Notes 201

Isḥāq, a Shiʿi leader close to Shaykh Abdullah was appointed as Emergency Officer
for Budgam. This district still retains a substantial Shiʿi population. See Isḥāq, Nida-i
Ḥaq.
178 For a contemporary account of these events, see Isḥāq, Nida-i Ḥaq.
179 For more on the tribal invasion, see Alastair Lamb, Incomplete Partition: The Genesis
of the Kashmir Dispute, 1947–1948 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
180 After Kashmir’s accession to India following the partition of South Asia in
1947, Shaykh ʿAbdullah governed the state of Jammu & Kashmir as Emergency
Administrator from August 1947–March 1948, as Prime Minister from 1948–53 and
as Chief Minister from 1975–82, when he died in office.
181 Nisar left for Najaf in 1964, where he studied under Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abū’l
Qāsim Khoei (d. 1992). Author’s interview, Shaykh Muhammad Shafʿi, Srinagar,
2021.
182 Some of the articles published in an Urdu language Iranian periodical, Rah-i Islam,
which gave a Shiʿi interpretation of pivotal moments in the formative period of
Muslim history, gave rise to this Sunni disquiet.
183 See Rieck, The Shias of Pakistan, An Assertive and Beleaguered Minority.
184 Ifthikhar, a mid-level cleric, was the head of the Firqa-i Qadim, who dabbled in
politics from early in his life. Over the years he would be associated with different
political parties, with competing political ideologies, including the National
Conference.
185 In the State Assembly, National Conference secured a comfortable majority, winning
forty-six of the seventy-five seats. The main opposition, Indian National Congress,
of which Ifthikar was the successful candidate managed to secure a mere twenty-six
seats.
186 Often misrepresented as Wahabi’s, the Ahl-i Ḥadīth emerged in the nineteenth
century colonial India, with a Salafi background, ideologically linked to the
reformist traditions of Shāh Walīullāh Dehlavī (d. 1762).
187 Kumir is the Kashmiri word for dove, and would signify sweet, melodious oration.
188 This legend was the most common Sunni trope signifying the deviant nature of
the Ashura ceremonies. Among the Ḥanafī’s this narrative was also propagated by
Kazim Shāh Bukharī of the Ḥanafī Arabic College, Noor Bagh. Author’s interview,
Moulvi Ghulām ʿAli Gulzar, Srinagar, 2021.
189 Author’s interview, Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain, Srinagar, 2021.
190 Ibid.
191 As a participant in the Ashura procession, I have similar personal recollections
dating back to the late 1980s.
192 These sermons were generally limited to the initial ten days of the Muharram,
sometimes culminating in the Friday sermon preceding the Ashura. The main
seat of operation of Mubārkī was the Bazar Masjid at Zaina Kadal, but some of the
sermons were also delivered in the mosques at Barbar Shah and Gaw Kadal.
193 The anti-Ashura rhetoric of Mubārkī, nevertheless, was limited to questioning of the
material manifestation of the Shiʿi ceremonies. It did not seek to question the Shiʿi
historiography of the events leading to up to Karbala or to absolve the Umayyads.
Author’s interview, Moulvi Ghulām ʿAli Gulzar, Srinagar, 2021. For an overview of
the Ahl-i-Ḥadīth in Kashmir and Mubārkī’s role in it, see Khan, The Ahl-i-Ḥādith:
A Socio-Religious Reform Movement in Kashmir.
194 In the 1980s, many of the public buses operating in the city would during the ten
days of Muharram leading up to Ashura bear small black pieces of cloth to mark the
202 Notes

event. A vast majority of these buses would be operated by Sunni drivers. Similarly,
from seventh to tenth Muharram the state television would refrain from playing any
music on its broadcasts.
195 For details, see Hussain, The Shiʿas of Jammu & Kashmir, 427–28.
196 The death of Zia marked another episode of anti- Shiʿi riot in the city, after the Shiʿi
were accused of celebrating his death. The incident happened during the month of
Muharram, and one of the most vivid moments was the attack on Shiʿi mourners
near Jamia Masjid, Srinagar. Given the disturbances, the Ashura procession could
not be taken out on its traditional route in the city. Since 1989, the main Ashura
procession from Abi Guzar culminating at Zadibal has been banned by the state
government.
197 The militant organization, Hizb-al Muminin is the only Shiʿi armed group, but most
of its attacks were limited against those Shiʿi who were perceived as being close to
the Indian state.
198 A reformist movement that originated in nineteenth century colonial India, the
Deobandi’s operate within the Hanafī school, and have a strong predisposition to
textual interpretations and condemning cultural practices linked with Sufi shrines of
South Asia. In their public outrances, some preachers associated with the Deobandī’s
have openly censured Shiʿi as unbelievers, including in Kashmir where the sermons
of young preachers such as Muhammad Nuʿmān Bhat (Nowsherī) represent this
pattern of polemical condemnation.
199 See “From Domicile to Dominion: India’s Settler Colonial Agenda in Kashmir,” May
10, 2021, 134 Harvard Law Review, 2530.

Appendix I

1 It was common to address the servants of an important person instead of himself,

supposing the matter was not important enough that he dealt with it in person.
2 Traditional introduction after the titles, beginning with “after.” It usually goes along
the lines of “After offering thanks to the <compliments> lord . . .” But the author feels
familiar enough to skip this formality for the next, that is, “yearning for a meeting.”
This is mere courtesy, of course. The rest of the paragraph thanks for the previous
letter, which must be praised according to the position of its sender.
3 Putting it this way, and especially with “my,” indicates a certain familiarity between
sender and addressee. A formal letter would have “Half-verse”: and then the relevance,
if necessary. Verses often close a paragraph but not here.
4 I suppose this is because the testimony was so brilliantly clear.
5 Unclear.
6 Here the writer assumes the informal tu = Urdu tum, indicating the addressee is a close
friend.
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Mullā ‘Abd al- Ghanī b. Abī Ṭālib, Jāmi al Rizvī, Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 1225,
1228.
Mullā ‘Abd al- Ḥakim Sāṭiḥ, Kuliyāt-i Mullā Sāṭiḥ, Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 535.
Mullā Abdul Nabī, Wajiz-ut Tārīkh, Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 1048.
Mullā Ḥakim Ḥabib -ul Lah, Biyāz −i Ḥabib, Personal collection, Hakim Bashir Ahmad,
Srinagar.
Mullā Khalil Marjānpūrī, Tārīkh −i Kashmir, Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 800, 1074.
Mullā Mahdi, Biyāz −i Mahdi, Personal collection, Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain,
Srinagar.
Mullā Muhammad Amin Ghanī K ashmirī, Manẓūm Manāẓirah Shiʿi va Sunni, Srinagar:
Research Library, MS. 1227.
Mullā Muhammad Muqim, Kashkūl, Personal collection, Āgā Sayyid ‘Abd al- Baqi Rizvī,
Srinagar.
Mullā Ṣādiq ʿAli Ansarī, Al-Saif al Muntaqī ʿAli Mʿiānadī al Murtaza, Srinagar: Research
Library, MS. 1441.
Munshi Muhammad Jaʿfar, Shajrah-Mullā khāndan, Personal collection, Dr. Amjad
Ansarī, Srinagar.
Munshi Muhammad Jaʿfar, Shajrah-Mullā wa Munshi wa Jalālī khāndan, Personal
collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
Naqal as Asal Hukumnama Maharaj zair tanazay-i Ahl-i Tʿashi, Personal Collection,
Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
Pandit Birbal Kāchru, Majmat-al Tārīkh, Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 130.
Pandit Narayan Koul Aʿijaz, Tārīkh -i Kashmir, Srinagar: Research Library, MS. 1485,
1842, 2360.
Pandit Ram Joo Dhar, Kafiyat-i Intizām −i Mulk-i Kashmir, Srinagar: Research Library,
M.S. 1913.
Pandit Salgiram Kaul Salik, Qasida-i George Panjum, Personal Collection, Munshi Ashraf,
Srinagar.
Qāzī Mūsā Shahid, Risāla dar Taṣawwuf, Srinagar: Research Library, M.S. 1644.
Revised List of Ruling Princes Chiefs and Leading Personages of Jammu and Kashmir State
and Gilgit Agency, New Delhi: Government of India Press.
Rūbakār az ʿAdalat -i Sadr-i Srinagar az misl-177, Faisla 13 Poh, 1925 Bikrami, Personal
collection, Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
Ṣayfī Bukharī, Risāla-i Faizha, Personal collection, Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain,
Srinagar.
Sayyid Ḥasan Rizvī, Majālis-al Abrar, Srinagar, Research Library, MS. 3075.
Sayyid Muhsin Hamdani, Groh bandi dar Kashmir, unpublished paper, Florida, 2021.
Sayyid Sajād (transl.), Dastāvizat Tʿamir-i Imāmbāda Hassanabad, Personal collection,
Mirza Muhammad Reza, Srinagar.
Sayyid Samʿi-al Lah Jalālī, Shajrah Jalālī khāndan, unpublished paper, Srinagar, 2021.
Shajray-i Tayibiya Sayyid Ṣāliḥ Rizvī madafun Haigam, Personal collection, Sayyid Akhter
Rizvī, Srinagar.
 Bibliography 205

Shaykh Muhammad Hadi, Aḥwal-i khāndan-i Mullā Muqim, Personal collection, Hakim
Shaukat Ali Hamdani, Srinagar.
Vāthiqa-nāma, Srinagar, Research Library, MS. 574.
Yaqoob Laway and others vs. Gulla and others, 2004 (III), SLJ 761, High Court, Srinagar.

Official reports & Correspondence (Sources)

India Office Records and Library, London.

Jammu and Kashmir State Archives, Jammu & Srinagar Repository.
National Archives of India, New Delhi.

Unpublished Thesis

Bashar Bashir, A Kashmiri version of Majmu al Tawarikh of Birbal Kachru with

Commentary and Notes, PhD. Thesis, University of Kashmir, 1997.
Solaiman M Fazel, Ethnohistory of the Qizalbash in Kabul: Migration, State and a Shi’a
Minority, PhD. Thesis, Indiana University, 2017.
Suhanna Shafiq, The Maritime Culture in Kitāb Ajaib al Hind (the Book of the Marvels of
India) by Buzurg Ibn Shahriyar, M.Phil Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011.

Books and Journals

Kashmiri, Persian and Urdu

Āgā Bākir al-Musavī al-Najafī, Nafḥtah al-Najaf, Srinagar: TFC Center, 2018.
Āgā Sayyid Ḥasan Mʿārakdar, Irshād ul Jāhilīn wa Tanbīh ul Ghāfilīn, Srinagar: Bardkar
Press, undated.
Allama Sayyid ʿAli ibn Razā, transl. Sayyid Mohsin Kashmiri, Kūhal-al Jawahir, Karachi:
MAAB, 2013.
Anis Kazmi, Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim: Maqām ti Kalām, vol. i, Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2002.
Anis Kazmi, Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim: Maqām ti Kalām, vol. v, Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2010.
Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Kashmir, Agraz-o Makasid, Srinagar: KPCM, 1351 ah/1932
ce.
Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Kashmir, Masl’ia Nimaz-i Juma, Srinagar: Kashmir Printing
Press, undated.
Anonymous, Risāla-i ʿIgala, Lucknow: Maṭbah-i Islam, 1890.
Asun ti Gindun, vol. i, Srinagar: Ghūlam Muhammad wa Nūr Muhammad, 1903.
Bābā Dawud Khākī, transl. Qārī Saif-al Dīn, Dastur-al Salikin, Srinagar: Ashraf Book
Centre, 1971.
Bābā Dawud Khākī, transl. Makhdūm Muhammad Khalil Qureshī, Dastur-al Salikin
sharah Virad-al Muridīn, Srinagar: Sheikh Muhammad Usman & Sons, 2001.
206 Bibliography

Bābā Dawud Khākī’, transl. S.M. Ḥabib, Virid-al Muridīn, Srinagar: Sultaniya Book Depot,
2012.
Bābā Ḥaidar Tūlmūlī, transl. Ghūlam Rasūl Faruqī, Hidayet-al Mukhlisin (Taj-al Āshiqin),
Srinagar: Bait-al Ḥilal Alim-o Adab, 2004.
Bishambar Nath Zutshi (ed.), Bahar-i Kashmir, October 1924, Lahore.
Ghulām Muhammad Mattū, Tārīkh −i Shiyan-i Kashmir, Shalina: Idarah Imām Zamān,
2010.
Ghulām Rasul Jān, Jāmia-al Kamālat Ḥazrat Ishān Shaykh Yʿaqūb Sarfī, Srinagar: Indian
Printing Press, 1995.
Ḥājjī Muhammad Aslam Khān Aslah, Tazkira-i- Shoura-i Kashmir, Lahore: Iqbal
Academy, 1983.
Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, Aūsh ti Āab, Srinagar: Maktab-i Lalla Rukh, 1958.
Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, Aūsh ti Āab, ed. Hakim Sameer Hamdani, Delhi: Skyline
Publishers, 2009.
Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, Shiʿi Musalmān aūr Unkey Jamūd key Asbāb, Srinagar:
Gulshan Press, undated.
Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, “Yad-i Ruftagan,” in al-Irshad, Budgam: Anjuman-i
Sharie Shiyan, 1381 ah/1961 ce, Shawwal issue.
Ḥakim Ghulām Ṣafdar Hamdanī, ed. Ḥakim Sameer Ḥamdanī and Maqbūl Sājid, Tārīkh
−i Shiyan-i Kashmir, Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research & Publishing Centre, 2014.
Khwāja ʿAzam Dedhmārī, transl. (urdu) Z.S. Azhar, Vaqʿāt-i Kashmir, Srinagar: Gulshan
Publishers, 2003.
Khwāja Shāh Niyaẕ Naqshbandī, Chāi Nāma, Lahore: Maṭbah-i Mujdadi, undated.
Maqbūl Sājid, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli: Shaksiyat ti Fann, Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research &
Publishing Centre, 2002.
Maqbūl Sājid, Kaeshri Marsiyuk Safar, Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art,
Culture & Languages, 2013.
Maqbūl Sājid, Kuliyāt-i Ḥakim ʿAẕim wa Munshi Muhammad Yūsuf, Srinagar: Imam
Hussein Research & Publishing Centre, 2000.
Maqbūl Sājid, Kuliyat-i Munshi Muhammad Mustafa wa Munshi Muhammad Yusuf, vol. i,
Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research & Publishing Centre, 2002.
Maqbūl Sājid, Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim: Maqām ti Kalām, vol ii., Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2003.
Maqbūl Sājid, Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim: Maqām ti Kalām, vol. iii, Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2011.
Maqbūl Sājid, Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim: Maqām ti Kalām, vol. iv, Srinagar: Imam Hussein
Research & Publishing Centre, 2010.
Maqbūl Sājid, Naqūsh-i Khwāja Dāim, Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research & Publishing
Centre, 2006.
Maulana Muhammad Ḥusayn Azad, Darbar-i Akbarī, Delhi: National Council for
Promotion of Urdu Language, undated.
Mazoor Hashemi, Ḥusayniyāt, Srinagar, 1996.
Mīrzā Ḥusayn Nūrī Tabrisī, Badr Mushʿashʿa, Bombay, 1890.
Mīrzā Muhammad, “Ali Kashmiri,” in Tazkira-i Zafran Zar, ed. Dr. Karim Najafi Barzegar,
Tehran: Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries, 2009.
Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli Kashmiri, Nujum-al Sama fi Tarajim al Ulema, ed. Mīr Hashim
Muḥadith, Tehran: Sazman Tableghat Islami, 1967.
Moulvi Muhammad Shāh Sʿaādat, Tārīkh-i Kashmir ki roznama Dairy, Srinagar: Ghūlam
Muhammad Nūr Muhmmad Tajiran-i Kutb, 1947.
 Bibliography 207

Muhammad Dīn Fauq, Masheir Kashmir, Lahore: Zafar Brothers, 1930.

Muhammad Dīn Fauq, Tārīkh Aqwam Kashmir, Srinagar: Gulshan Publishers, 1996.
Muhammad Ḥasan Ḥasrat, Tārīkh-i Adbiyat-i Baltistan, Rawalpindi: T.S. Printer,
1992.
Muhammad ibn Yʿaqūb al-Kulaynī, transl. Sayyid Ḥasan, Usūl-i Kāfī, Lucknow: Nizami
Press Book Depot, 2001.
Mullā Ḥaidar ʿAli Kashmirī, Risāla-i Fasl al Khitāb, Lahore: Maṭbah-i Islamī, 1888.
Mullā Muhammad ‘Ali, transl. Ghulām Rasūl Jān, Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb, Srinagar: Jan
Publications, 2006.
Mullā Muhammad Bāqir, Risālah i Hidāyat al Dhalīl ilā Siwā’ al Sabīl, Lahore: Sahab
Saqib, 1308 ah/1890 ce.
Munshi Ḥasan Ali, Anjuman-i Imamia Srinagar, Srinagar, 1324 ah/1906 ce.
Munshi Ḥasan Ali, Anjuman-i Imamia Srinagar, Srinagar, 1325 ah/1907 ce.
Munshi Jaʿfar, Tanbīh ul ibād fī ahwāl-i Moulvi Muhammad Javad, Srinagar: All Jammu &
Kashmir Shiʿi Association, 1377ah/1957.
Munshi Muhammad Isḥāq, ed. Munshi Ghulam Ḥasan, Nida-i Ḥaq, Srinagar: Markaz-i
Ishayat, 2014.
Munshi Muhammad Ṣadiq, Kāshir-e-Marsy, 2 vols., Srinagar, 1968–9.
Pandit Hargopal Kaul Khasta, Gūldastā-i Kashmir, Srinagar: Sheikh Ghulam Muhammad
& Sons, 1986.
Pīr Ḥasan Shāh Kuihāmī, transl. Shams-al Din Ahmad, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan, vol. i, Srinagar:
Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture & Languages, 1998.
Pīr Ḥasan Shāh Kuihāmī, transl. Shams-al Din Ahmad, Tārīkh-i Ḥasan, vol. ii, Srinagar:
Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture & Languages, 1999.
Pīrzada Abdul Khaliq Tahiri, Awliyā-i Kashmir, Srinagar: Gulshan Publications, 2003.
Pīrzadah ʿAbdul Khāliq T̤ āhirī, Muḥsin-i Kashmir yaʿnī Ḥaz̤rat Makhdūm Ḥamzah
raḥmatulláh ʿalaihi kī sīrat mubārakah, ḥālāt-i zindagī aur karāmāt vag̲ h̲ airah kā
taz̲kira, Srinagar: City Book Centre, 2008.
Qasim Kalim, Kuliyāt-i Khwāja Ḥasan Mir, Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research &
Publishing Centre, 2001.
Sayyid Abū’l Qāsim Rizvī, Al S’ādah fi Sayādat al S’ādāt, Lahore, 1890.
Sayyid ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i Kashmir (Chronicle of Kashmir), transl. Ghulām Rasūl Bhat, Srinagar:
Center of Central Asian Studies, 1994.
Sayyid Anis Kazamī, Kāshir-e-Marsy Hinz Tārīkh, Budgam: Gulshan Adab, 1976.
Sayyid Bāqir Rizvī, Risāla-i Sayf al Ṣāram, Lahore: Sahafi, undated.
Sayyid Farzand ʿAli Khan, Riyaz al Jinān, Ludhiana: Maṭbah Majmʿa al Bahrein, 1870.
Sayyid Ghulam ʿAli Khan, ‘Imād-al Saʿadat, Lucknow: Munshi Nawal Kishore, 1897.
Sayyid Muhamad ʿAbbas, Auraq al- Zahab, Qum: Kitabshinasi-i Shiʿi, 1974.
Sayyid Muhammad Ḥusayn, Tazkira-i Beybaha, Delhi: Dayiratul al-Muraif Iran va
Hind.
Sayyid Muḥsin Hamdani Kashmiri, Danishnama-i Shiyān-i Kashmir, Karachi: MAAB,
2011.
Sayyid Murtaza Ḥusayn, Maṭlaʿi Anwar, Karachi: Khurasan Islamic Research Center,
1981.
Sayyid ʿAli Naqī Rizvī, Dafʿa al Mughālṭah, Bombay: Maṭbah-i Muhammdi, 1889.
Shahid Budgami, Kāshir-e-Marsyuk Tawarīkh, Delhi: Taj Printing Services, 2014.
Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Kashmirī, Khaṣāil-al Shiʿi, Lahore: Fʿaiz Aam Press,
1910.
Ṣughrā Hemayun Mīrzā, Rahbar-i Kashmir, Hyderabad: Azam State Press,1930.
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19th Century, Patna: Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library, 1996.
Alastair Lamb, Incomplete Partition: The Genesis of the Kashmir Dispute, 1947-1948,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Alex Shams, “From Guests of the Imam to Unwanted Foreigners: The Politics of South Asian
Pilgrimage to Iran in the Twentieth Century,” Middle Eastern Studies 57 (2021): 581–605.
Ambrose Petrocokino, Cashmere, Three Weeks in a Houseboat, New York: Longmans,
Green, 1920.
Andreas Rieck, The Shias of Pakistan, An Assertive and Beleaguered Minority, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2015.
Andrew Wilson, The Abode of the Snow, London: Willam Beackwood & Sons, 1875.
Ann Willner and Dorothy Willner, “The Rise and Role of Charismatic Leaders,” in The
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 358, New Nations:
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Anonymous, Bahāristān-i Shāhī, transl. K.N. Pandit, Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 2013.
Ashley Carus-Wilson, Irene Petrie, a Biography, New York: Fleming H. Revell Company,
1901
Ashley Carus-Wilson, Irene Petrie, Missionary to Kashmir, London: Hodder& Stoughton, 1903.
Ayesha Jalal, “Negotiating Colonial Modernity and Cultural Difference: Indian Muslims’
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Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, ed. Leila Tarazi Fawaz and C.A. Bayly, New York:
Columbia University Press, 2002, 230–60.
Ayesha Jalal, Self and Sovereignty, Individual and Community in South Asian Islam since
1850, London: Routledge, 2000.
B. Hopkins, The Making of Modern Afghanistan, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Bashir Ahmad Khan, “The Ahl-i-Ḥādith: A Socio-Religious Reform Movement in
Kashmir,” The Muslim World 90 (Spring 2000): 133–57.
C. Latimer, Census of India, 1911, vol xiii, North-West Frontier Province, Peshawar:
Commercial Press, 1912.
C.E. Tyndale Biscoe, Kashmir in Sunlight & Shade, London: Seeley, Service & Co., 1922.
Charles Ellison Bates, Gazetteer of Kashmir and the Adjacent Districts, Calcutta: Office of
the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1873.
Chitralekha Zutshi, Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of
Kashmir, Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004.
Diwan Kripa Ram, transl., Kirpa Ram, Sukh Dev Singh Charak and Anita K Billawaria,
Gulab Nama: A History of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar:
Gulshan Books, 2005.
E.G. Hasting, Report of the Regular Settlement of the Peshawar District of the Punjab,
Lahore: Central Jail Press, 1878.
Eric Lewis Beverley, “Property, Authority and Personal Law, Waqf in Colonial South Asia,”
in South Asia Research, Vol. 31(2), New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2011, 155–82.
Ernst F. Neve, The Pir Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir, London: Church
Missionary Society, 1915.
F. Ward Denys, Our Summer in the Vale of Kashmir, Washington: James William Bryan
Press, 1915.
 Bibliography 209

Fanar Haddad, Understanding ‘Sectarianism’: Sunni-Shi’a Relations in the Modern Arab

World, London: C. Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2019.
Finbarr Barry Flood, Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-
Muslim” Encounter, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
Frederic Drew, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories: A Geographical Account, London: E.
Stanford, 1876.
Geneive Abdo, The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprising and the Rebirth of the Shi’a-Sunni
Divide, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
George Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern Part of India,
Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia by the Caspian Sea, 2 vols, London:
R. Faulder, 1798.
G.M.D. Sufi, Kashir, 2 vols., Lahore: University of Punjab, 1949.
G.T. Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, the Countries Adjoining the Mountain-
Course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, North of the Panjab, vol. i, London: H Colburn,
1842.
Hakim Sameer Hamdani, “The Maarak and the Tradition of Imambadas in Kashmir,” in
Marg, September–December, Mumbai: The Marg Foundation, 2015.
Hakim Sameer Hamdani, The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of
Kashmir, (early 14th–18th Century), New York: Routledge, 2021.
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Henry Landsell, Chinese Central Asia, A Ride to Little Tibet, vol. i., London: Sampson Low,
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Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst, Indian Muslim Minorities and the 1857 Rebellion; Religion,
Rebels and Jihad, London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.
Isabel Savory, A Sportswoman in India, London: Hutchinson & Co., 1900.
Itzchak Weisman, The Naqshbandiyya; Orthodoxy and Activism in a Worldwide Sufi
Tradition, New York: Routledge, 2007.
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The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 12 (1850).
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London: George Bells and Sons, 1874.
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Janet Rizvi, Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh,
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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1722-1859, Berkley: University of California Press, 1989.
Jaun Cole, Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi’ite Islam,
London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.
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John B. Henderson, The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic,
Jewish, and Early Christian Pattern, Albany: State University of New York, Press, 1998.
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Justin Jones, Khandan-i-Ijtihad: Genealogy, History, and Authority in a Household of

‘ulama in Modern South Asia, Cambridge University Press: 2019.
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Century, New York: Feminist Press.
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a Translation of Sanskrit Work, 3 vols., Srinagar: Gulshan Books, 2009.
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 INDEX

ʿAbbas Mīrzā 53 Awadh 50–3, 73, 77, 80, 81, 93–8, 121,
ʿAbdullah Khān 1, 37–9, 78, 162, 163 124, 147
Abu’l Qāsim Muhammad Aslam 4 Ayatollah Abu’l Ḥasan Isfahanī 147, 150,
Āgā Ḥakim Baqir Qizalbash 116 151
Āgā Ḥasan Jān 53 Ayatollah Ali Gulzadeh Gafuri 156
(Āgā) Sayyid Ḥusayn Shāh Jalālī 11–13, Ayatollah Mehdavi Kani 157
125, 152–6 Ayatollah Mīrzā Ḥusayn Nūrī
Āgā Sayyid Mahdi (also, Sarkar Āgā Tabrisī 112
Mahdi) 97, 107–14, 116, 117, 140, Ayatollah Mīrzā Sayyid Muhammad
142, 146 al-Ḥasan Shirazī 111
leads ḥājj caravan 112 Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini 8, 157
Āgā Sayyid Muhammad 140, 146, 147 Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei 156
imāmbāda Budgam 140 office of Rehbar 160
poisoned 140 Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad Ḥusayn
Ahl-i Ḥadīth 158, 159 Nainī 147
Aḥmad Shāh Abdalī 13 ʿAẕim Khān 46–7
Akbar ʿAli Bānkā 137
Akhund Mullā Muhammad Javad 49 Bābā ʿAli Najār 19, 21
Akhund Mullā Muhammad Javad Bābā Dāwūd Khākī 24–6, 34–6, 143
Ansarī 94–7, 107, 125 Bābā Ḥaidar Tūlmūlī 24–7
Alchi (temples) 3 Bābū Nilambar Mukerjee 105, 120
ʿAli b. Abī Ṭālib (imām) 17, 18, 36, 46, Bābū Rishambar Mukerjee 107
53, 62, 105, 129, 155 Bagh-i Dilawar Khan 83, 121
Kashmiri manqabat 64, 65 school at 140
ʿAli b. Mūsā Rāzā (imām) 93 Bahāristān-i Shāhī 17, 18, 30–3
Rizvī Sayyids 93–7, 116, 124, 128, Bulbul Shāh 17, 18
129, 148, 150 Bund 135, 137, 153
ʿAli Shāh Chak 33, 34 Buzurg b. Shahriyar 3
Allama Sayyid ʿAli Haʿrī 147
al-Mahdi (imām) 3, 77 cast-system 108, 150
Amīr Khān Jawān Sher Qizalbash 16 Christian missionary work 138–40, 142
Anjuman-i Bahbūdī Shiyan-i Dr. William Jackson Elmslie 138, 139
Kashmir 147–9 muslim response 139, 140
Anjuman-i Himayat-al Islam 156 cow-killing 55, 56
Anjuman-i Imāmmia 141–3, 146, 155
Anjuman-i Nusrat-al Islam 140, 146 East India Company 54, 75, 97
Āqā Aḥmad Bihbahānī 48–50, 52
Āqā Rahīm 41–4 Fateh Kadal (also, Third Bridge) 134–7,
Arab Spring 159 139, 157
Aukut 83 Fateh Shāh 19, 29
214 Index

Firqa-i Qadim (also, Firqa Ṣafdar Shāh)- Jaʿfar al Ṣādiq (imām) 45

Firqa-i Jadid 107–9, 111–17, 139, Jalālī family 99, 104, 107, 114, 116, 124, 127
140, 143, 146–50, 156, 159 Jamia Masjid (Srinagar) 13, 15, 35, 36,
Franco-Prussian War of 1871 98 55, 66, 67, 70, 72, 85, 101, 157
Juʿma Khān Alkozī 39
gendered spaces 125
Ghāzī Shāh 25, 27, 31–3 Kabul 6, 14, 16, 38, 43, 54, 57, 71, 94–6
Gulab Singh 38, 78, 81–4, 97, 116, 120, 138 Kamangarpora 84, 102, 107, 132,
Gund Hassi Bhat 65 146, 157
Karbala 9, 40, 46–8, 59, 73, 104, 148
Ḥabib Shāh 27 Kasghar 43, 71, 105
Ḥadīth 45 Khālsa 54, 55
Ḥadīth Saʿah 82 Khān Bahadur Moulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli
Ḥāfiz ʿAbdullah 15 Khān 37, 79–81
Ḥāfiz Kamāl 15, 16 khums 10, 77, 89, 90, 93–7, 107, 108,
Ḥājjī ʿAbid 82, 83, 90, 92 111, 112, 131, 151
Ḥājjī ʿAidī 97 Khwāja Ḥabib-al lah Nowsherī 16
masjid at Zadibal 144, 148 Khwāja Ḥasan Mīr 80
Ḥājjī Baqir 77 Khwāja Ḥassī Bhat 39, 40, 62, 64, 86
Ḥājjī Khwāja Ṣafdar Bābā 90, 96, 99, Khwāja ʿĪsā 14, 41–3
115, 129 Khwāja Isḥāq Diwānī 71
Ḥājjī Sayyid Ḥasan Rizvī 112, 123 Khwāja Isḥāq Qarī 25, 31
wife 125 Khwāja Mohyi-al Dīn Gandrū 98–100,
Ḥakim ʿAbdullah 125 132, 143
Ḥakim Ghulam Ṣafdar Hamdani 137, Khwāja Muhammad ʿAzam
138, 142, 149, 150, 152, 155 Dedhmārī 2–4, 18, 19, 28, 30,
Ḥakim Ḥabib-al Lah 120, 121, 124 31, 36
Ḥakim Mahdi 108, 109, 115, 116, 120 Khwāja Muhammad Baqir Gundī 124
Ḥakim Mahdi Khān 52, 53, 73, 77, Khwāja Muhammad Dāim 64, 65
93, 94 Khwāja Muhammad Fazil 40
Ḥakim Naqī Qizalbash 120 Khwāja Saʿad-al Dīn Shawl 153, 154, 166
Harsadeva 2, 3 Khwāja Sana-al Lah Shawl 103
Hasanabad 66, 103, 126, 129, 132, 137 Khwāja Shāh Niyaẕ Naqshbandī 71,
cemetery 44 74–6, 99
imāmbāda 101, 106, 145, 159 Khwāja Zahir Dedhmārī 13
mosque 41 Kubrawī 3, 18, 19, 21, 28, 75
Mughal Mosque 55
riots 38 Leh 71–7, 130, 131
Hindu-Muslim riot 154
Ḥusayn b. ʿAli (imām) 4, 9, 12, 38–40, Mahanand Jeo Dhar 106
46, 47, 50, 59, 73, 80, 81, 92, 104, Majlis-i Chihlum 11–13
107, 143, 144, 163–5 maktab (also, madrassa) 51, 80, 81,
Ḥusayn Bayqara 18 123–5, 140–2, 146, 147
Ḥusayn Shāh Chak 25, 32, 33 Malik Mūsā Raina 19, 22, 28, 29
Mʿārakdar family 92–4, 108, 113, 116
ʿId 53, 144 marṣiya 62–6, 69, 70, 73, 77, 79, 80,
ʿĪdgāh 31, 42, 55 84–7, 90, 92, 93, 101, 103, 106,
ihtiyāt 82, 94 119–22, 152, 162
Isfahan 44, 45, 48, 122 Sunni marṣiya writer 143
 Index215

Mashad 44, 53, 82, 96 Moulvi Imdād ʿAli 12

Maulanā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī 23 Moulvi Nāṣir-al Dīn 104, 138
Mecca 45, 46 Mufti Muhammad Shāh Sʿaādat 101
memorandum to British colonial Muʿammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī 3
authority, in 1907 151, 152 mujtahid 48, 51, 52, 81, 90, 110–13, 148, 150
in 1924 153, 154 principle of ijtihād 82
merchants in the city 83, 99, 102, 108, Mullā ʿAbdu’l Ḥakim Sāṭiḥ 2, 51
126–9, 132–8, 146 Mullā ʿAbdullah Ansarī 81, 114
as Aksakal 76 Mullā ʿAli Padshāh 49, 50
decline of shawl merchants 98–100 Mullā Fazl ʿAli Ansarī 80–2, 90, 94, 95
depicted in shahar-ashūb 72 Mullā Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī (also, Moulvi
Iranian merchants in city 14, 41–6, Ḥaidar ʿAli) 110–12, 114, 116,
48, 59, 69, 82, 90, 95 125, 128, 139–42, 146, 150
Kashmiri merchants in Central Mullā Ḥakim ʿAbdullah 86
Asia 71 Mullā Ḥakim Muhammad ʿAẕim 37, 38,
at Leh 74, 75 78–83, 86, 90–3, 120
Peshawar 96, 97 letter to Moulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli
phyīr circuit 126–31 Khān 161–3
satire of Dekyah 101 succeeded by son Ḥakim ʿAbdul
at Yarkand 76 Raḥim 78, 120
Mīr Hazār Khān 14 Mullā Ḥakim Muhammad Javad 38, 39, 41
Mīr Muqim Kanth 13 Mullā Khalil Marjānpūrī 38, 39, 41–3,
Mīr Sayyid ʿAli Hamdanī 18 48, 66, 67, 69–71, 74
son Mīr Sayyid Muhammad Mullā Mahdi 120, 121
Hamdanī 19 Mullā Mahdi Khatāʿi 80
Mīr Shams-al Dīn ʿIraki 18–30, 36, 69, 93 Mullā Mahdi Mujrim 71, 74
shrine 92, 108, 159 Mullā Muhammad Muqim 48, 49, 51, 94
Mīrwaʿiẕ Muhammad Yaḥya (also, brother Mullā Mahdi 130, 131
Moulvi) 101, 102, 140 daughter Fatima Begam 125
Mīrwaʿiẕ Rasūl Shāh 102, 104, 140, 141, descendants shaykh family 124, 148, 150
146 school 80–1
Mīrzā Abu’l Qāsim 124 Mullā Muhammad Qāsim Hamdanī 121
Mīrzā Ḥaidar Dughlat 29–31 Mullā Ṣādiq ʿAli Ansarī 82, 95, 110, 125
Mīrzā Lāmʿih 120 Munshi Aḥmad ʿAli Ghazī 121, 122
Mīrzā Muhammad ʿAli 83, 84, 86, 95, Munshi Ḥasan ʿAli 102, 145
96, 99–101, 103, 107, 115, 127, 129, Munshi Muhammad Isḥāq 102, 107,
145, 152 114, 149, 150, 156, 159
family 116 Munshi Mustafa ʿAli 106, 121, 124
son of Mīrzā Rasūl 83, 96, 97 Munshi Ṭālib ʿAli 84
Mīrzā Muhammad Kāmil Kashmirī 51 Mūsā al Kazim (imām) 93
Mīrzā Muhammad Taqī 147 Mūsavī Sayyids 93, 94, 96, 97, 124, 131, 150
Mīrzā Muqim 33
Mīrzā Mustafa 145 Najaf 46, 97, 110, 111, 131, 148, 151
Mīrzā Najaf ʿAli 74 Namchibal 116, 157
Mīrzā Razā 39 Ashura procession 84, 152, 159
Mīrzā Saif-al Dīn 78, 82–4, 90, 91 Naqshbandī (order) 2, 3, 15, 23, 71, 75
Moulvi ʿAbdullah II 125 family 99
Moulvi Ghulam Nabi Mubarki Khānaqāh-i Naqshbandī 15
Kumir 158, 159 Khawājāghan-i Naqshbandī 78
216 Index

Nawab ʿAli Rizā Qizalbash 81 grandson Sayyid Abuʿl Ḥasan 81

Nawab Asaf-al Dawlah 49 khums disposal 94
Nawab Fateḥ ʿAli Qizalbash 124, 142 son Sayyid ʿAli Shāh 48, 49, 81, 94
Nawab Ibrahim Khān 50 Sayyid Tūrab Shāh Madnī 129–31
compilation of Biyāz Ibrahimī 50 Sayyid Zamān Shāh 103, 131
Nawab Nawazish ʿAli Qizalbash 81, 116 Shahmīrī 3, 17, 27–9
nimaz-i jamat 90, 92 Shaykh ʿAbdul ʿAli 148, 149
nimaz-i juma 147, 148 Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm 2, 20, 21,
Nūrbakhshī 3, 5, 18, 20, 21, 23, 30 23–7, 31, 34, 35
shrine of 34, 35, 67, 101
Pandit Birbal Kāchru 54, 55 Shaykh Ismāʿīl 21
Pandit Ram Joo Dhar 14 son Bābā Fateh-ul Lah (also, Shaykh
pīrs 120 Fateh-ul Lah) 22
practices condemned 149 Shaykh Muhammad Abdullah 149,
Pratap Singh 83, 115, 120, 138, 154 155–7, 159
Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi 148
Qāzī Aḥmad ʿAli 62–5 Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi
Qāzī Aḥmad Dīn 64 Tabataba’i 48
Qāzī Ḥabib 32 Shaykh Muqim 103
Qāzī Ḥabib-al Lah 15 Shaykh Yʿaqūb Ṣarfī 36, 143
Qāzī Kadal 42 Shiʿi Federation 159
Qāzī Mūsā Shahid 32, 33, 35, 36 Shiʿi scholarship in Kashmir 7, 48–52,
Qāzī Qawam-al Dīn 146 64, 77, 80, 82, 94, 112, 124, 150,
Qizalbash 47, 81, 116, 120 157
Shiʿi-Sunni riots 1, 7, 10, 13, 49, 59, 84, 157
Rajā Birbal Dhar 57 in 1762 16, 17, 21
Raj Kāk Dhar 78, 84, 91, 127 in 1788 39
Ranbir Singh 97, 99, 108, 109, 113, 120, 131 in 1793 42, 43, 47
Ranjit Singh 37, 46, 48, 53–5, 57, 79, 96, 120 in 1801 38–41, 47, 48
Reshīs (native Sufi order) 3, 19, 20 in 1830 66–73, 77–9, 81, 82, 98, 126, 130
founded by Shaykh Nūr-al Dīn 20 in 1872 89, 97–107, 109, 116, 127,
Rīnchanā (also, Sultan Ṣadr al-Dīn) 17, 18 140, 143, 144
in 1983 157
Saddam Hussain 157, 159 first riot 36
Sayyid ʿAbbas Shāh 61 Naqshbandī involvement 75
Sayyid ʿAbdullah Shāh Jalālī 107, 108, Sir Henry Lawrence 81
113–15 Skardu (also, Iskardu) 71, 129, 133
Sayyid ʿAli 17, 18, 22, 25, 27, 30, 31 Mullā ʿAziz-al Lah copying Zad-al
Sayyid Dildār ʿAli 49, 50 Mad 131
Sayyid Ibrahim Qazvinī (also, Mullā Munshi Muhammad ʿAli at
Ibrahim) 89–93, 108, 162 dispensary 131
Sayyid Muhammad Baqir 94, 132 Rajā Aḥmad Shāh 84
Sayyid Muhammad Madnī 100 Rajā ʿAli Shāh 84
shrine of 101 Sayyid Fazal Shāh poet 131
Sayyid Murtazā Ḥusayn 80 Sayyid Muhammad Taqi 131
Sayyid Mustafa Shāh 60, 61 Suffering Moses (also, Ḥājjī Ṣafdar
Sayyid Rasūl Rizvī 131, 150, 151 Wani) 136, 137
Sayyid Ṣafdar Shāh Jalālī 107, 108, 115, 116 Ṣughra Hemayun Mīrzā 11–13, 125
Sayyid Ṣafdar Shāh Razvī 48, 81 Suhrawardī 3, 75
 Index217

Ustād Muhammad Ja’far 39, 86 celebrating Ali Day 155

cemetery of Baba Mazar 44
Vazir Pannu 102 imāmbāda at (also, Mʿārak) 7, 11–13,
39, 66, 67, 69, 73, 77, 78, 84, 90,
Walter R. Lawrence 83, 109, 120, 132 106, 152, 165
khānaqāh at 22, 30
Yarkand 43, 71, 76, 82, 105, 129, 130 murder at 142, 143
Yechgam 138, 139, 156 nimaz-i Juma 148
Pakistan Day 156
Zadibal 11, 27, 37, 38, 40, 42, 49, riots 16, 102
50, 66, 80, 86, 91, 92, 94–6, 99, Zain-al Ābidīn (imam) 93
100, 107, 112, 121, 125, 126, Zia-ul Haq 157
128, 129, 132, 142, 144, 145, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto 157
158, 159, 162 Zuljinnah 152, 154, 164, 165
218