How One Sufi And 700 Disciples Changed Kashmir Forever

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
Khanqah Moula Srinagar.

By Rayees Ahmad Kumar

In the fall of 1372, a man from Hamdan walked into Kashmir with fewer than a hundred companions. The king was away on a campaign. The people were uncertain. And yet, this group of travelers would change the course of the Valley's story.

They followed Hazrat Amir Kabir Mir Syed Ali Hamdani. Most people today simply call him Shah-i-Hamdan, the King of Hamdan. Others call him the man who brought Islam to Kashmir.

He was born in faraway Hamdan, in present-day Iran, on October 21, 1314. His parents, Syed Shahabuddin and Syeda Fatima, traced their roots to the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]. His father ran the affairs of the city, but it was his mother's brother, Syed Alluddin Simnani, who raised the boy. Under his care, young Hamdani memorized the Quran and found a path in Sufism.

That path took him far from home. His teacher, Sheikh Sharfuddin Mazdaqani, introduced him to the Kubrawi Sufi order, shaping his religious, spiritual, and intellectual world. Hamdani grew up not just as a thinker, but as a traveler, teacher, and builder.

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But why Kashmir? And why then?

The Valley had just emerged from chaos. A Tatar raider named Zulchu had swept through in the early 1300s, leaving destruction behind. Only a handful of families survived in Srinagar. Soon after, Rinchan Shah, a Buddhist from Ladakh, rose to power. Through another Sufi from Central Asia, Bulbul Shah, he embraced Islam and became Sadruddin.

That moment opened the door. Before setting foot in Kashmir, Hamdani sent two of his cousins, Syed Tajuddin Simnani and Mir Syed Hussain Simnani, to understand the ground. By the time he arrived, the air was ready for change.

His first stay lasted six months. He prayed, preached, and built bonds. He left for Makkah soon after. But he wasn't done.

He returned in 1380. This time, he brought 700 Syeds with him.

Imagine the sight: a caravan of scholars, craftsmen, and mystics crossing high mountain passes, finally reaching Srinagar. Sultan Qutubuddin welcomed them warmly. They settled near the river, in what was then called Allauddin Pora. They prayed by the waters. Soon, a modest wooden building came up. Today, it is the Khanqah-e-Moula, the heart of Kashmir's spiritual life.

Shah-e-Hamdan stayed two and a half years this time, walking across the Valley, visiting villages, teaching Islam not through conquest but conversation. He built khanqahs not just in Srinagar, but in Tral, Pampore, Wachi, Monghama, and even as far as Shey, a remote village in Ladakh where his followers constructed the region's first mosque.

His final visit came in 1384. He stayed less than a year. Illness forced him to leave.

On the way back, he rested in the village of Shey. Then in Pakhli. Then Kunnar, where a local king begged him to stay. But his health was failing.

On January 19, 1385, he passed away in Swat. His followers later carried his remains to Koulab, in present-day Tajikistan, fulfilling his wish to be buried there. His entire family rests beside him.

But his presence in Kashmir never really left.

His son, Mir Muhammad Hamdani, continued the work. He returned to the Valley during Sultan Sikandar's reign and began the construction of the Khanqah-e-Moula as we know it.

It began in 1396 and took three years. Sculpted wood, small bricks, carved stone-its design spoke of Central Asia but sat firmly on Kashmiri soil.

Today, the Khanqah rises on the banks of the Jhelum, green-roofed and solemn, a place of prayer, of poetry, of peace. Faithful feed pigeons and paupers there. Children run through its wooden corridors. The scent of incense lingers in the air.

More than 600 years have passed. The mosques Hamdani's followers built still stand. The ideas they carried-kindness, humility, discipline-still ripple through lives.

And what remains strongest is not just the architecture, but the memory: that someone once came here from far away, not with armies, but with verses. Not to take, but to give. Not to rule, but to remind.

Kashmir listened. And never forgot.

• The author hails from Qazigund and can be reached at [email protected]

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