Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs

ISSN: 1360-2004 (Print) 1469-9591 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjmm20

Hazrat Bulbul Shah: The First Known Muslim

Missionary in Kashmir
Yoginder Sikand
To cite this article: Yoginder Sikand (2000) Hazrat Bulbul Shah: The First Known Muslim
Missionary in Kashmir, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 20:2, 361-367
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713680363

Published online: 04 Aug 2010.

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Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2000

Hazrat Bulbul Shah: The First Known Muslim

Missionary in Kashmir

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YOGINDER SIKAND

Introduction
The events of the last decade and more have occasioned a veritable ood of writings on
Kashmir. Some of these are genuine scholarly works, but most of them may be
considered little more than pure propaganda. A particularly tragic victim of this sort of
historiography has been the early history of Islam in Kashmir. Efforts have been made
to attempt to prove that the mass conversion to Islam in this region was the result of
political patronage extended by Muslim kings or even their alleged mass persecution of
the Hindu and Buddhist populace. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.
As Bukhari rightly points out, It is an irrefutable fact of history that the people of
Kashmir accepted Islam perfectly voluntarily with their hearts and souls [dil-o-jan se],
without any force or pressure.1
This article deals with the rst known Islamic missionary to Kashmir, a Su from
Turkistan popularly remembered as Hazrat Bulbul Shah. Little has been written about
him, although scattered references to him and his work are found in most of the
medieval chronicles about Kashmiri history. Hazrat Bulbul Shah is, however, of central
importance in any study of Islam in Kashmir, for not only did he play a pioneering role
in the spread of Islam here, but he is also thought to have made bold efforts to bring
about a transformation in the caste-ridden Brahmin-dominated society of the Kashmir
of his times, no doubt seeing this as part of his own religious mission. The success of
Hazrat Bulbul Shahs missionary endeavours therefore needs to be understood in the
context of the Brahminical social order of early medieval times, and to that we now
turn.

Brahminical Rule in Kashmir

Kashmir, on the eve of the advent of Islam in the region, was a society rigidly
hierarchically ordered, with the Brahmins exercising an untrammelled hegemony over
the hapless majority who were consigned to the unenviable status of low castes. The
extreme oppression under which the low castes laboured is re ected in one of the
earliest Kashmiri Sanskrit texts that we have at our disposal, the Nilamata Purana, in
which Nilanaga, the Hindu king of Kashmir, provides the social rules for the people of
Kashmir to follow. Among the many detailed commandments are laws that strictly
enjoin the enforcement of the caste system and the worship of the Brahmins.2 The
Brahminical period of Kashmiri history, writes one scholar, was characterized by
bloody sacri ces of low caste people by the high caste Brahmins to please their gods
and goddesses. The Brahmins comfortably lived off the labour of the low castes,
building magni cent temples where they stored their ill-gotten wealth.3 Wilson, in his
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Yoginder Sikand

treatise on the history of Hindu rule in Kashmir, writes that Brahmin offenders were
treated with leniency, while offenders against them were treated with ten-fold severity.4
Protest against Brahminical hegemony took many forms in pre-Islamic Kashmir. The
most forceful expression of this protest was the rapid spread of Buddhism in the region,
starting from the third century BCE. Buddhism remained the dominant religion of the
non-Brahmins of Kashmir until around the eighth century CE. The Chinese Buddhist
traveller and scholar, Hiuen Tsang, who visited Kashmir in the mid-seventh century,
observed some 100 or more Buddhist temples in Srinagar alone.5 From the sixth
century onwards, however, the in uence of Buddhism in Kashmir gradually began to
decline at the hands of Brahminical revivalism, which saw egalitarian Buddhism as a
major challenge to its supremacy. By the end of the eighth century, Brahminism had
clearly emerged as the triumphant victor.
The Brahminical campaign of exterminating Buddhism from Kashmir is one of the
darkest chapters in Kashmirs history. The ferocity and hatred that red many Brahminical revivalists is clearly brought out in the works of several early medieval Kashmiri
Brahmin writers. Jayaratha, in his Haracharitachintamani , attributes the destruction of
the Brahminical ritual sacri ces to the Buddha, and calls the Adi Buddha (The First
Buddha) a demon. He writes that the Sravakatmanah Buddha is bent on destroying
the world, by which, of course, he meant the Brahminical system of domination. In the
same vein, Kalhan declares in his Rajataringini that the Buddhists are the enemies of
the agamas, and showers invectives on them for putting an end to the rites and
sacri ces prescribed by the Nilamata Purana, which consisted largely in propitiating the
Brahmins as gods and upholding the caste order.6
Violence on a large scale accompanied this tirade against the Buddhists. The Hindu
king Mihirakula, whose name, says Baig, is synonymous with the restoration of
Shaivism in Kashmir, mercilessly slaughtered hundreds of Buddhist monks, destroying
their temples and ordering the massacre of thousands of families.7 Numerous Buddhist temples were captured and converted into Hindu shrines, the most prominent
being the temple of Pas Pahar atop the Takht-i-Sulaiman in Srinagar, which was
renamed after Shankaracharya, the leader of the Brahminical revivalist crusade, and
was dedicated to Jyeshteswara or Shiva.8 Likewise, the Hindu king Nara is said to have
burnt down thousands of [Buddhist] viharas.9
With the rapid decline of Buddhism, protests against Brahminical hegemony now
began, from the ninth century onwards, expressing themselves within certain strands of
Kashmiri Shaivism, bitterly critiquing the empty ritualism and idolatry associated with
the Hindu priesthood. This, however, failed to make a major dent in the power of the
Brahminical establishment, because, as Nazki argues, the reformist effort was stif y
opposed by the Brahmin priests, who, accordingly, plotted to trap it in the maze of
philosophy, and branded it, as indeed Kalhan also does in his Rajataringini, as open
heresy.10 According to Hangloo, over time even these reformist efforts within Kashmiri
Shaivism were tamed, and it now became the established position that salvation was
possible only through the learning of the Brahminical scriptures. This, he says, inevitably put the masses beyond its reach and limited its appeal to the select who had the
leisure for intellectual pursuits. He writes that with their concern for philosophical
speculation, the Shaivite leaders did nothing to relieve the masses from their age-old
suffering, while the latter were increasingly burdened with cumbersome rituals and
ceremonies.11 Thus, by the time Islam found its way to Kashmir, Kashmiri society was
ripe for a new philosophy of life, one that would appeal to the downtrodden lower
castes and the Buddhists, both victims of Brahminical revivalism and orthodoxy.

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Consequently, when the rst Muslim missionaries arrived in Kashmir, the Kashmiris
converted to Islam in a ood.12

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The First Muslims in Kashmir

It is interesting to note that the spread of Islam in Kashmir long predates the
establishment of the rst Muslim dynasty in the region in the early fourteenth century.
A story is told, whose veracity may be doubtful, of the Prophet Muhammad having
himself dispatched two emissaries to the court of Venadutt, the Hindu king of Kashmir,
who is said to have been so impressed by their exposition of their faith that he began
leading a simple life and even distributed one-tenth of his agricultural produce [i.e.
revenues] amongst the poor and needy as ushr.13 It is also said that after Muhammad
bin Qasim and his army defeated Dahir, the Hindu king of Sind, in 711 CE, Dahirs
son Jaisiya ed to Kashmir, taking along with him a Syrian Muslim general of his army,
one Hamim bin Sama. Hamim, apparently, was warmly welcomed by the Hindu king
of Kashmir and given an estate, where he built several mosques and laid the foundation
of a ourishing Muslim community.14
We also hear of an anonymous early ninth century Kashmiri Hindu king who wrote
a letter to Amir Abdullah bin Umar bin Abdul Aziz of Mansura, requesting him to
dispatch a scholar to his court who could explain the tenets of the Islamic shariat in
al-Hindia language.15 The ninth century Arab traveller Buzurg bin Shahryar mentions
in his travelogue, Ajaib-al Hind (The Wonders of India), that the Hindu king of Mehroke
in Kashmir had commissioned the preparation of a Kashmiri translation of the Holy
Quran.16 Firm evidence of the Muslim presence predating considerably the establishment of Muslim rule in Kashmir is available from the twelfth century onwards. Kalhan,
the noted twelfth century Kashmiri Pandit scholar, writes in his Rajataringini, that the
Kashmiri Hindu king Harshadeva (10891101 CE) employed many mlecchas (a derogatory term he uses for Muslims) in his court and army.17
As regards the rst Kashmiri converts to Islam, the early Hindu writers give us no
indications, being more concerned with happenings at the royal courts. However,
it has been opined that some of these texts might actually mention certain Muslim
Su missionaries active in the region well before the arrival of Hazrat Bulbul Shah
in Kashmir, but that their names have been distorted all out of recognition.18
As a result, the rst Su in Kashmir about whom we have rm historical evidence is
Hazrat Bulbul Shah, but even in his case his story is shrouded in layers of myth and
legend.
Hazrat Bulbul Shah
Hazrat Bulbul Shahs real name was Sayyed Sharfuddin Abdur Rahman, but, says one
writer, such a lover of the tradition of the Prophet [ashiq-i-sunnat-i-rasul] was he that
he was given the title of Bilal, after a favourite companion of the Prophet Muhammad,
which was later corrupted as Bulbul.19 As regards his place of birth, the records give
con icting views, some mentioning Turkistan, while others suggesting Iran and Baghdad. His family claimed direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad and was well
known for its piety. Hazrat Bulbul Shah is believed to have spent many years in
Baghdad, where he became a disciple of the noted Su of the Suhrawardi order, Hazrat
Shah Nimatullah Wali Farsi, who, in turn, according to one source, was a disciple of
Hazrat Ziauddin-ul Najib Abdul Qahiri.20

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Ra qui, in his treatise on Su sm in Kashmir, tells us, on the other hand, that Hazrat
Shah Nimatullah Wali Farsi was a disciple of Hazrat Shaikh Shihabuddin Abu Hafs
Umar bin Abdullah (d. 1234), nephew and successor of Shaikh Ziauddin Abdul
Suhrawardi. 21 He is said to have been equally pro cient in the religious [dini] and
worldly [duniyavi] sciences, and in the exterior [zahiri] as well as the esoteric [batini]
disciplines.22 As a wandering dervish, Hazrat Bulbul Shah travelled extensively in west
and central Asia before nally arriving in Kashmir in 1295 CE, in the reign of the last
Hindu king of Kashmir, Raja Suha Dev. It is believed that he stayed in Kashmir for a
short while on his rst trip and returned to central Asia, but later came back in 1324
CE in the reign of Kashmirs rst Muslim king, Rinchen Shah, in whose conversion to
Islam he played the central role. This time, it is said, he was accompanied by some one
thousand disciples, including leading Islamic scholars.23 According to another source,
however, he came alone.24
Hazrat Bulbul Shahs Missionary Endeavours
The role of Hazrat Bulbul Shah in planting the seeds of Islam in Kashmir is inextricably
linked with the political developments of his times, and here a slight digression is in
order. Kashmir in the twelfth century was racked with political intrigue in the courts of
the Hindu Rajas and considerable mass unrest. Jonaraja, the noted fteenth century
Hindu Pandit historian, writes about Raja Suha Dev, the last Hindu ruler of Kashmir,
that he was a rakshasa [demon] of a king, who devoured Kashmir for nineteen years,
three months and twenty ve days.25 Already tottering under the weight of its own
contradictions, the death-knell for Hindu rule was sounded with the invasion of the
Tartar hordes led by the Mongol warlord Zulchu, grandson of the dreaded Hulagu in
1319. He laid Kashmir waste in a campaign of mass slaughter that lasted some eight
long months, in which thousands of Kashmiris lost their lives. Zulchu ordered all
able-bodied Kashmiri men to be killed, for the women and children to be taken as
slaves and for entire towns to be razed to the ground.26
Shortly before Zulchus invasion, Rinchen Shah (whose Buddhist name was Lhachen-rgyal-bu-rin-chen), son of the Ladakhi Buddhist king Lha-chen-dngros-grub, had
ed to Kashmir after his father had been slain in a battle with the Baltis. The then
Hindu ruler of Kashmir, Raja Suha Dev, welcomed Rinchen and gave him an estate in
the region of Lar. At around the same time, another man who was to play a key role
in the establishment of Muslim rule in Kashmir, Shah Mir, arrived in Kashmir from
Swat. During Zulchus invasion Rinchen remained at Lar and played a heroic role in
defending the people against the Mongol marauders, because of which he emerged as
a popular leader with much mass support.27 Shah Mir, too, joined in leading the
struggle against the Mongols. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Mongol invasion Raja
Suha Dev ed to Kishtwar, and were it not for Rinchen Shah and Shah Mir, the
Kashmiris would have been left completely defenceless.
With Raja Suha Dev hiding in Kishtwar, Rawanchandra, his commander-in-chief,
took over as king of Kashmir, but his rule did not last long. Encouraged by the popular
support that he had won in resisting the Mongols, Rinchen deposed Rawanchandra and
ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1320 CE as the rst Buddhist king in Kashmir after
several centuries of Hindu rule. Since Shah Mir had played a key role in bringing him
to power, Rinchen appointed him as his chief minister. He also appointed Rawanchandra, son of Ramachandra, as governor of Lar and gave him the province of Ladakh as
an estate.

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Rinchen Shahs Conversion

Rinchens conversion from Buddhism to Islam at the hands of Hazrat Bulbul Shah was
the single most crucial event in his short-lived rule. According to one account, it was
Shah Mir who played a major role in this regard. Malihabadi writes that Shah Mir, said
by some to have been a Hindu Rajput, earlier served as prime minister in the court of
Raja Suha Dev. Every evening, after the isha prayers would be over, he would disguise
himself and sit outside the little inn in Srinagar that served as a mosque and meeting
place for the towns small Muslim community, to listen to sermons being delivered by
Muslim scholars. Gradually, he developed a great interest in the religion. One day, a
certain Su from Kabul, whose name we are not given, but who could well have been
Hazrat Bulbul Shah, arrived at the inn and delivered a speech on Islam, which so
in uenced Shah Mir that he decided to convert to that religion. Shah Mir told him his
hearts desire, and said that he was even willing to give up the post of the prime minister
in the Hindu Rajas court if he had to.
Shah Mir embraced Islam at the hands of the Su , who advised him to tell Raja Suha
Dev about his conversion. Shah Mir was convinced that the Hindu Raja would dismiss
him from his post for having become a Muslim, but when the king was given the news
he insisted that Shah Mirs change of religion had not prejudiced him in the least and
that he and his courtiers would not allow Shah Mir to resign, for they were all aware
of his ne administrative capabilities and dedication. When Rinchen ascended the
throne he appointed Shah Mir as his prime minister, and, according to this version of
the story, it was Shah Mirs in uence and the impression that he, as a pious Muslim,
made on Rinchen, that was instrumental in the latters conversion to Islam.28
Another version of Rinchens conversion has it that by temperament he was inquisitive and alert and was fond of the company of learned men. He would spend hours
with Buddhist and Hindu priests discussing religious matters, but even then, it is said,
he failed to nd their views appealing because they did not satisfy his spiritual thirst.
Buddhism, the religion into which he had been born, did not answer his quest because
by then it had become diluted with foreign elements. He was dissatis ed with
Hinduism, too, because of Brahminical arrogance and caste discrimination. Because
of this great spiritual vacuum in his life, it is said, he would spend many sleepless nights,
weeping profusely and praying to God to guide him to the true path. It was then that
he happened to meet Hazrat Bulbul Shah in the city of Srinagar. Learning about Islam
from him, and being so impressed by its teachings, which were simple, free from
useless ceremonies, caste and priesthood, he accepted Islam at his hands and received
the name of Malik Sadruddin. This event occurred in 1323 CE.29
Rinchen Shahs rst meeting with Hazrat Bulbul Shah is mentioned in almost all the
early Muslim chronicles of Kashmir. Witnessing the constant strife between his Hindu
and Buddhist subjects, it is said, Rinchen was greatly disturbed, and this set him on
the path of seeking to discover the spiritual truth. One night, while in deep thought,
he came to the decision that he should accept the religion of the rst person that he
happened to see the next morning. He spent the entire night praying to God for
guidance. When he got up in the morning and looked out of the window of his palace,
the rst person he saw was Hazrat Bulbul Shah, who was offering the early morning fajr
prayers on the banks of the river Jhelum. Seeing him, Rinchen rushed out of his palace
to pay his respects to him.
From Hazrat Bulbul Shah Rinchen learnt about Islam and then became a Muslim.
As the anonymous author of the Baharistan-i-Shahi, a medieval Persian text on the

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history of Kashmir, puts it, Rinchen, now subjected himself to the teachings of the
religion of Mustafa [the Prophet], and the right principles of the truthful path of
Murtaza [Imam Ali], and embraced the Islamic religion with sincerity and conviction.
He gave up once and for all the false and corrupt religions.30
Following the conversion of Rinchen and his family, several other leading Kashmiris
also followed suit, most notably Rawanchandra, son of the Hindu king Ramachandra
who had been deposed by Rinchen. Many low castes and Buddhists, too, now began
to embrace the new faith, seeing in it a source of liberation from the shackles of the
Brahminical system. It is said that, in all, Hazrat Bulbul Shah succeeded in making some
10,000 converts to Islam through means of peaceful missionary effort, although this
gure seems considerably exaggerated.31
Conclusion
Being a devout Muslim Su , Hazrat Bulbul Shah led a life of complete self-abnegation
and cast an enormous in uence on the people amongst whom he worked and lived.32
He preached against the popular superstitions that were widely prevalent amongst the
Kashmiris of his day. Belief in the power of ghosts and evil spirits was particularly strong
and widespread among the people. Hazrat Bulbul Shah, it is said, organized a special
religious service at which he recited the Surat al-Jinn, a chapter of the Holy Quran, after
which he no longer heard complaints from the people about jinns troubling them.33 His
close involvement with ordinary folk in their times of need is evident from the story that
once, at the height of a particularly severe winter when all the lakes had turned to ice,
the people of Srinagar, having no access to water, came to him for help. Hazrat Bulbul
Shah, so the story goes, looked up towards the sky and called out, Where is the sun to
melt all the ice? All at once, it is said, the sun appeared from behind a thick blanket
of clouds and the ice on the lakes began to melt.34 Although this may well be a later
hagiographic legend, the story clearly suggests the understanding that ordinary Kashmiris have of the Su being deeply concerned about the plight of the poor.
Hazrat Bulbul Shah took up residence on the banks of the Jhelum where Rinchen
Shah set up a khanqah or Su centre at Ali Kadal in the heart of Srinagar. Close to the
khanqah, Rinchen Shah constructed two mosques, including a Jamiah mosque for the
Friday congregational prayers. Attached to the khanqah was a large langar khana or
community kitchen, now known as Bulbul Langar where the poor were fed free of cost
twice a day. The credit for introducing the institution of the langar in Kashmir, which
is still to be found in several Su centres all over the region, thus goes to Hazrat Bulbul
Shah. At the khanqah he would deliver regular sermons and provide spiritual instruction
to his followers who, in turn, carried the message of Islam to various other parts of
Kashmir.35
Hazrat Bulbul Shah carried on with his mission of spreading Islam from his khanqah
until he breathed his last in 1327 CE. Although the mass conversion of the Kashmiris
to Islam had to wait for at least a century later, his role was crucial in planting the seeds
of Islam in the region.
NOTES
1. Sayyed Muhammad Faruq Bukhari, Kashmir main Islam: Manzar Aur Pasmanzar (Islam in
Kashmir: Historical Context), Srinagar: Maktaba Ilm-o-Adab, 1998, p. 4.
2. Ved Kumari, The Nilamata Purana, Vol. II, Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art,
Culture and Languages, 1994.

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3. R. L. Hangloo, Accepting Islam and Abandoning Hinduism: A Study of Proselytisation Process

in Medieval Kashmir, Islamic Culture, Vol. lxxi, 1997, p. 92.
4. Ibid., p. 93.
5. Bashir Akhtar, Ibadat Gahen (Places of Worship), in Hamara Adab (Our Culture), Srinagar:
Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, 19811982, p. 181.
6. Yoginder Sikand, The Role of Kashmiri Su s in the Promotion of Social Reform and Communal
Harmony [14th16th Century], Mumbai: Center for Study of Society and Secularism, 2000, p. 9.
7. Abdur Rashid Baig, Role of Shah-i-Hamadan in the Islamization of Kashmir, MPhil dissertation,
Shah-i-Hamadan Institute of Islamic Studies, Kashmir University, Srinagar, 1995, p. 77.
8. Muhammad Amin Pandit, From Burzahom to Solomons Throne, in Heritage of Kashmir, ed. F.
M. Hassnain, Srinagar: Gulshan, 1980, p. 46.
9. G. M. D. Su , Kashir: Being a History of Kashmir from the Earliest Times to Our Own, Vol. I, New
Delhi: Capital Publishing House, 1996, p. 43.
10. Rashid Nazki, Mazahib-o-Aqaid (Religions and Beliefs), in Hamara Adab (Our Culture),
19811982, p. 167.
11. R. L. Hangloo, Accepting Islam, op. cit., p. 95.
12. Rashid Nazki, Mazahib-o-Aqaid, op. cit., p. 172.
13. Mohiuddin, Islam in Kashmir, in Heritage of Kashmir, ed. F. M. Hassnain, Srinagar: Gulshan, n.
d., p. 44.
14. S. M. F. Bukhari, Kashmir main Islam, op. cit., p. 18.
15. Directorate of Information, Kashmir Today, Srinagar: Government of Jammu and Kashmir, 1998,
pp. 11314.
16. Khwaja Muhammad Azam Didamari, Waqiat-i-Kashmir (The History of Kashmir) [translated by
Khwaja Hamid Yazdani], Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Research Center, 1998, p. 117.
17. S. M. F. Bukhari, Kashmir main Islam, op. cit., p. 6.
18. Ibid., p. 9.
19. Abdur Rabb Kardar, The Way to Su sm: Life and Teachings of Su s, New Delhi: Anjuman-i-Minhaj-i-Rasul, 1979, p. 48.
20. Ibid., p. 49.
21. Abdul Qaiyum Ra qui, Su sm in Kashmir From the Fourteenth Century to the Sixteenth Century, New
Delhi: Bharatiya Publishing House, n. d., p. 16.
22. Hasan, Tazkirat-ul Auliya-i-Kashmir (The History of the Su s of Kashmir), Srinagar: Ghulam
Muhammad & Nur Muhammad, 1989, p. 4.
23. Abdur Rabb Kardar, The Way to Su sm, op. cit., p. 48.
24. Darakshan Abdullah, Religious Views of Sultan Sikander [13891413], PhD thesis, Department
of History, Kashmir University, Srinagar, 1988, p. 26.
25. G. M. D. Su , Kashir: Being a History of Kashmir, op. cit., p. 117.
26. K. M. A. Didamari, Waqiat-i-Kashmir op. cit., p. 61.
27. Mohibbul Hasan, Kashmir Under the Sultans, Srinagar: Ali Mohammad, 1974, p. 38.
28. Zayb Malihabadi, Kashmir Ki Kali: Kashmir Mai Musalmano Ka Pahla Qadam (The Flower of
Kashmir: The Advent of Muslims in Kashmir), Rampur: Pakeeza Kitab Ghar, 1990, pp. 420.
29. Mohibbul Hasan, Kashmir Under the Sultans, op. cit., p. 39.
30. Baharistan-i-Shahi (The Royal Garden), Calcutta: Firma KLM, p. 22.
31. Abdul Ahad Ra q, Sayyed Bulbul Shah, in Hamara Adab, ed. Muhammad Yusuf Teng,
Mushahir Number, Vol. II, Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and
Languages, 1979, p. 27.
32. P. M. K. Bamzai, Cultural and Political History of Kashmir, Vol. II, New Delhi: M.D. Publications,
1994, p. 315.
33. Abdul Ahad Ra q, Sayyed Bulbul Shah, op. cit., p. 31.
34. Abdur Rabb Kardar, The Way to Su sm, op. cit., p. 49.
35. The most prominent among Hazrat Bulbul Shahs principal disciples, who included Islamic
scholars (ulama) as well as mystics of great accomplishment, was Mullah Ahmad, whom he made
his chief deputy to carry on Islamic missionary work in Kashmir. Later, the Mullah was appointed
by Shah Mir, who ascended the throne of Kashmir after Rinchen Shah as Sultan Shamsuddin (r.
13411345), as the rst Shaikh-ul Islam or chief alim of Islam in Kashmir. To the Mullah goes
the credit of writing the rst Islamic texts in Kashmir about which we have rm historical evidence.
Among his many works, two stand out as most prominent: the Fatawa-i-Shihabiya, a compendium
on Islamic jurisprudence ( qh) and the other, the al-Shahab al-Shaqab, a treatise on Su sm.