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Introduction of Shi’ism in Kashmir
By: Ejaz Husain Malek
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
The chronology of the arrival of Shiism in Kashmir is a debatable issue. The traditional date of introduction of Islam into Kashmir is 1128 AD. For Shiism, the most probable date recorded is the arrival of Shams’u-Din Iraqi in 1481 AD (exactly a hundred years after Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani who came in 1381) as an envoy of Sultan Mirza Husain Bayqara of Herat to the court of Sultan Hussain Shah (r. 1472-84) and his conversion of Baba Ali Najjar, the most prominent disciple of Shaikh Isma’il Kubravi to Shi’ism. However, except Tohfatu’l Ahbab, which claims Iraqi’s conversion of Shaikh Isma’il to Shi’i-Nurbakhshism, no other source clearly attests this assertion, instead Iraqi is referred in all contemporary sources as a disciple of Baba Isma’il. This chapter discusses the roots of Shi’ism in the teachings and preaching’s of the Sufis of Kubraviya order. Kubraviya Sufis subscribed to Shafi’i School of Islam whose followers have special regard and reverence for the Ahl-i bayt comprising “The Five” or Panjtan (Muhammad, Ali, Fatimah-the daughter of Muhammad and wife of Ali and her two sons, Hassan and Hussain).
Before proceeding to analyze the making of Shi’i community of Kashmir, it is pertinent to discuss the scenario, which changed the religious demography of Kashmir from the fourteenth century onwards. The important question of why people converted to Islam in Kashmir needs our attention before elucidating the role of earlier Shi’ite Sufis in the introduction of Shi’ism in Kashmir, since Shi’ism constitutes one of the schools of Islam. The Sufi Silsila that contributed immensely to the popularity of Islam in Kashmir i.e., the Kubraviya Sufi Order too demands an analytical treatment herein. The foremost Kubraviya Sufi, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani whose missionary zeal was beyond measure responsible for the Islamization of Kashmir, deserve an elaborate discussion in this chapter.
Conversion to Islam in Kashmir
Islam like Christianity is essentially a missionary religion and every Muslim missionary carries with him the message of Islam to the people of the land into which he penetrates. Reflecting upon the missionary attitude of Islam and thereby its spread in The Preaching of Islam, T.W. Arnold writes: “The spread of Islam over so vast a portion of the globe is due to various causes, social, political and religious: but among these, one of this stupendous results, has been the unremitted labours of Muslim missionaries, who, with the Prophet himself as their great ensample, have spent themselves for the conversion of unbelievers.”
This befits for Kashmir where in third century BC majority of the populace followed Buddhism and in fifth century AD, Brahmanism in varied forms like Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktaism reasserted itself, and this assertion continued till fourteenth century. However, from fourteenth century onwards, owing to the social, political and economic reasons, and Sufi intervention, Kashmir witnessed Islam emerging as the dominant religion of the masses. ‘This was not the result of any forcible conquest writes Auriel Stein, but an outcome of gradual conversion, for which the influx of foreign adventurers, both from the south and from central Asia, had prepared the ground’, which was carried further by Sufis who subsequently came from Persia and Central Asia, and the local Rishis. Kalhana acknowledges the fact that the Hindu rulers of Kashmir were very generous and hospitable to these foreign adventurers and Sufis.
In fact, Islamization of Kashmir had already dawned before the arrival of the Sufis; their presence further stimulated the process. From the travel accounts of Marco Polo, it emerges that by the end of the thirteenth century there was noticeable presence of Muslims in Kashmir, for he says that, its natives, the Kashmiris, do not kill animals nor spill blood but if they are inclined to eat meat they get the Saracens who dwell among them to play the butcher.’ These Saracens were, most probably, non-Muslim Kashmiris of butcher Jati who had embraced Islam. Both contemporary social structure and economic motives demystify their conversion to Islam. By doing so, they could achieve emancipation from the stigma of pollution and meet the demands of Muslim clientele who ate meat prepared as per Sharia and could retain their Hindu (largely Kshatriya) clientele. Prior to this, during the 11th and 12th centuries we find Kashmiri rulers, Harsha (1089-1101), Bhiksachara (1120-21) and Jayasimha (1128-49) employing mercenary Muslim soldiers of fortune in their army.
Though these conversions from Hinduism to Islam did essentially serve the purpose of the Sultanate in Kashmir, it would be imprecise to attribute it entirely to the states initiative alone. Thus it is not the Sultans, observes Mohibbul Hassan, but the Sufis who were mainly responsible for introducing and spreading Islam in Kashmir. But for this they did not use compulsion, because they were neither capable of employing it, nor did they have the sanction of the State behind them . Their methods were persuasion, discussion and discourse. And they won over the hearts of the people on account of their simplicity, sincerity, piety and devotion. This observation emphasizes consequences rather than causes. Concerned over successful Sufi endeavours of Islamization of kings and commoners, Jonaraja remarks: “As the wind destroys the trees, and the locusts the shali crop, so did the Yavanas destroy the usages of Kashmira.”
This statement draws attention towards the subtle socio-cultural and religious changes characterizing the Kashmiri society with the gradual spread of Islam during this period through Sufi intervention, which Jonaraja refers as Yavanas.
The advent of Sufis indirectly induced the non-Muslims to embrace Islam. Prior to the arrival of the Sufis the Brahmins were the main beneficiaries of royal patronage, but the presence of Sufis and their missionary activities led to the gradual decline of their authority in the political, social and economic fields. The newly arrived Muslim saints and neo-converts took their place. Thus, many Brahmans and people of other castes gave up their religion in order “to obtain the favour of the king (Sikandar).”
Reflecting upon the theme of conversion, its direct impact on the masses, and its immediate impact upon the Brahmans Jonaraja writes that, It was out of his devotion to the religion of the Turushkas (Islam) not out of antipathy towards the twice born, that the ‘low born’ Suhabhatta (Malik Saifu’d-Din) oppressed the Brahmanas, levied fines on them, withheld their allowances and forbade their ceremonies and processions. Undermining the Brahman hegemony by any monarch of Kashmir prior to the arrival of Islam and Sufis was impossible to materialize. Their peculiar function as intermediaries between people and gods owing to their monopolization of religious scriptures made them privileged with certain entitlements in terms of patronage, political and economic, by rulers. A critical scrutiny of Jonaraja reveals that Suhabhatta’s conversion to Islam and his harsh treatment of Brahmans had many underlying reasons with broader implications. First, it seems a counteraction of his experiences with the caste system with its inherent exploitative tendencies of lower castes towards whom Suhabhatta appears somewhat sympathetic, otherwise for winning converts he could have simply diverted his neo-religious zeal towards lower castes, but as Jonaraja says, ‘he often instigated the king to persecute the twice born.’ Second, it was a consequence of his political interests, to consolidate and strengthen his position in the nobility of Sultan Sikander (1389-1413) and to utilize his neo-Muslim loyalty for winning confidence of the Sultan to gain power, for Jonaraja writes that, “The ministers attained or lost rank and honour according to the will of the powerful Suhabhatta.” Mir Mohammad Hamadani, however, emphatically warned Suhabhatta for his overzealousness, quoting the Quranic verse that says, “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” He was also fully aware about Saiyid Ali Hamadani’ treatise Zakhirat-ul-Muluk which enjoins the king to protect the life and honour of Zimmis. Jonaraja astutely conceals the fact that the conversion of the low caste people was in essence the revolt of socially oppressed masses against the domination of high-caste Brahmans. This revolt was channelized by the Sufis into converting the masses through an ideology, which in theory emphasized equality of one and all. This also explains Lalla’s tirade against Brahmanical supremacy, caste rigidities, religious superstitions etc. and her becoming the chief exponent of Islamic monotheism, thereby serving the cause of Islam in Kashmir.
In such a scenario where even a Brahman took cudgels against the rigid caste system, social hierarchy in which purity and impurity described existence of a person, birth by default defined his/her position in the society, any change or alternative that had the prospect of emancipating common masses from the shackles of outdated social customs, political setup and economic exploitation was, therefore, sure to be welcomed by them. At the same time, incessant conflicts among dominant groups, plundering of temples, and undermining of Brahman religious authority could perhaps have continued unabated without much popular reaction, if only an alternative had not presented itself to Kashmiri society. The alternative observes Rattan Lal Hangloo was Islam, which presented a new worldview comprehending social, political and ideological-cultural aspects. Popular reaction, indeed popular protest, against the unjust acts of those in power, took the non violent form of mass conversion to this new world view, i.e. Islam. Thus, Islam’s triumph in Kashmir in the Sultanat period was not a miracle performed by Sayyid Ali Hamadani or a mere demonstration of force displayed by Sultan Sikander or the Sayyids. It was, in essence, a natural revolt of the human heart against cold formalism of ritualistic Brahman priests, untold economic repression by rulers in concomitance with their officials and chaotic political setup, and the Sufis further ignited this revolt through their persuasive preaching. When all is said and done, says R.K. Parmu, it has to be admitted that Islam came to Kashmir as a great riddance. Thus, the fundamental change brought about by Islam in Kashmir was that it replaced a religion, which had been reduced to an irrational, highly hypocritical, and primitive set of ritual instructions and established the social basis for the Shahmir Sultanat, the first Muslim Sultanat of Kashmir. As a result, Kashmiri society was restructured by a new social order and a belief system, which demolished the age-old divisive and disintegrating social forces, stabilized, unified and integrated the hitherto fragmented society, with Islam as a unifying ideology. In this process, the Sufis who worked incessantly with dedication and missionary zeal, and were responsible for change in the religious demography of medieval Kashmir arrived during the formative period of the Shahmir Sultanate, founded by Sultan Shamsu’d-Din Shah Mir in 1339.
Islamicization of Kashmir
The conversion of people to Islam by these Sufi missionaries has attracted attention of research scholars with diverse theories propounded to explain the process of conversion that led to the emergence of Islam by the end of the fourteenth century as a majority religion in a place where non-Muslim constituted majority prior to the arrival of Sufi missionaries in the fourteenth century. Here it becomes imperative to look into the methods these Sufis adopted in the process of Islamizing people who had been converted to Islam either Sunnism or Shi’ism.
The Kashmiri non-Muslim society came into contact with the Muslims as early as the beginning of the 8th century, yet Islam could not make much progress here till the conversion of Rinchana , a Buddhist to Islam, by Bulbul Shah in the first quarter of the 14th century. The continuous and close interaction between neo-converts and their kith and kin leading to the intermingling of two different cultures during the next six centuries in which Islam gradually attained a firm foothold in the valley must have accelerated the process of acculturation. However, before the intervention of Sufi missionaries, the new converts, the Muslim Sultans and their newly converted Muslim nobility, which had been growing in numbers, were indistinguishable from the largely Hindu nobility in dress, manners and customs, and often in proper names. People used to pray in mosques and attended Puja in temples. Even the Sultan of the time would visit the temple every morning. The author of Baharistan-i-Shahi writes that although Sultan Qutbu’d-Din had been admitted to the Islamic faith, during those neither Ulema nor men of learning in Kashmir preached religion without hypocrisy. The Qazis and the theologians of those days paid scant attention to things permitted or prohibited (Halal or Haram) in Islamic religion and, because the teachings of Islamic faith had not been enforced fully, Sultan Qutbu’d-Din had married two women who were uterine sisters. When Amir Saiyid Ali Hamadani came to know of it, he informed the Sultan that it was forbidden in Islam to marry two sisters at a time and recited the relevant Quranic verse, which says, “Do not bracket two sisters in your marriage (at a time).” In conformity with the Quranic injunction, the Sultan at the insistence of Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani divorced both. The elder one, as per the command of the Sayyid, went into seclusion and attained a very high position in spiritual matters; with the other he entered into a new marriage contract (in conformity with Sharia) and made her wear clothes according to Islamic dress code. Sultan Sikander was born to her (Subhatta) after this marriage. Baharistan further says that, in those days the majority of people were infidels and polytheists. The inhabitants of this land wore the common and popular dress of the infidels. Sultan Qutbu’d-Din also dressed himself after this fashion. But at the behest of Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, he abandoned that costume and adopted the Muslim dress. To Saiyid Ali Hamadani and his devout followers, the social and religious life of the Kashmiri Muslims was an anathema, an abomination, as it militated against the Sharia. Therefore, they took upon themselves to liberate the Muslim society of Kashmir from Hindu encrustations and thereby transform the socio-religious environment of Kashmir. Here, he first demonstrated true Islam to Sultan and his nobility, which for common masses were ‘reference cultural group.’ He not only caused the Sultan to adopt Muslim way of life, but also instructed him to introduce it among his Muslim subjects, and appointed his most promising and trustworthy disciple, Pir Haji Muhammad as his religious mentor. Although there were three or four mosques in the whole valley when Hamadani arrived in Kashmir, no azan (call for the prayers) was recited and no congregational prayers were offered. The five daily prayers and Friday prayers were for the first time established by Hamadani. In areas where the Sufis could not reach due to certain circumstances, there it was difficult to distinguish the Muslims from the non-Muslims even up to the second half of the seventeenth century. A tolerant king like Jahangir was shocked at the results of such leniency on the part of the Muslims of the Rajauri valley. He observes in Tuzuk, “They (the people of Rajauri) all ally themselves with Hindus, and both (Hindus and Muslims) give and take girls. Taking them is good, but giving them, God forbid. I gave an order that hereafter they should not do such things, and whoever was guilty of them, should be capitally punished.”
The persistent endeavours of Sufis towards Islamization of Kashmir did impact the society in the long run. It was this impact, which Srivara, writing during the reign of Sultan Muhammad shah , complains about when he observes that men belonging to the four castes had of late adopted objectionable practices and had ceased to perform ceremonies prescribed by their religion. It was because of the enthusiastic efforts of Sufis like Sayyid Ali Hamadani and Shamsu’d-Din Iraqi, writes the author of Tohfat-ul-Ahbab, that the banner of faith was raised high in the sky, idol houses were effaced, mosques were constructed. He further says that, today instead of each fire temple, there is either a garden or a paradise. The spirit of truth in the heart of the missionary cannot rest till it manifests itself in the thought, word and deed. It is with this spirit that Sayyid Ali Hamadani, Mir Muhammad Hamadani and Shamsu’d-Din Iraqi entered the valley of Kashmir at a time when people were Muslims only for namesake. A look into the sojourn of these Sufis to Kashmir becomes necessary, which unravels many aspects of religious life in Kashmir at a time when transition and transformation from one milieu to another was initiated by these Sufis and patronized by the state. The sojourn of Iraqi to Kashmir constitutes the theme of the second chapter; here a discussion regarding missionary activities of Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, whose Kubraviya order was considered sympathetic to the Shi’i cause, will be the focus of our discussion.
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