Modern scholarship differ on the origin of Shah Mir. However, modern historians generally accept that Shah Mir was from Swat in Dardistan.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Some accounts trace his descent from the rulers of Swāt.[a][9][10]
Encyclopaedia of Islam (second edition) suggests a possible Turkish origins.[11]Andre Wink puts forward the opinion that Shah Mir was possibly of Afghan, Qarauna Turk, or even Tibetan origin,[12] while A.Q. Rafiqi believes that Shah Mir was a descendant of Turkish or Persian immigrants to Swat.[4]: 311–312 Some scholars state that Shah Mir arrived from the Panjgabbar valley (Panchagahvara),[13] which was populated by Khasa people, and so ascribe a Khasa ethnicity to Shah Mir.[14][15]
Older sources by contemporary Kashmiri historians, such as Jonaraja, state that Shah Mir was the descendant of Partha (Arjuna) of Mahabharata fame. Abu ’l-Fadl Allami, Nizam al-Din and Firishta, also state that Shah Mir traced his descent to Arjuna, the basis of their account being Jonaraja's Rajatarangini, which Mulla Abd al-Qadir Bada’uni translated into Persian at Akbar's orders. This seems to be official genealogy of the Sultanate.[4] Based on this tradition, Aziz Ahmad considers it more probable that Shah Mir was a descendant of a convert from Hinduism only a few generation earlier, probably by a Sufi mystic.[16]
Shah Mir arrived in Kashmir in 1313 along with his family, during the reign of Suhadeva (1301–1320), whose service he entered. In subsequent years, through his tact and ability Shah Mir rose to prominence and became one of the most important personalities of his time.[4]
Annemarie Schimmel has suggested that Shah Mir belonged to a family from Swat which accompanied the sage Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani and were associated to the Kubrawiya, a Sufi group in Kashmir.[2] He worked to establish Islam in Kashmir and was aided by his descendant rulers, specially Sikandar Butshikan. He reigned for three years and five months from 1339 to 1342 CE. He was the ruler of Kashmir and the founder of the Shah Mir dynasty. He was followed by his two sons who became kings in succession.[17]
Sultan Shamsu'd-Din Shah was succeeded by his elder son Sultan Jamshid who ruled for a year and two months. In 1343 CE, Sultan Jamshid suffered a defeat by his brother who ascended the throne as Sultan Alau'd-Din in 1347 CE.[17]
He was the only Shah Mir ruler to keep Hindu courtiers in his court. Prominent among them were Kota Bhat and Udyashri. Ruler of Kashgar (Central Asia) once attacked Kashmir with a large army. Sultan Shihabu’d-din did not have a large number of soldiers to battle against the Kashgar army. But with a small army, he fought and defeated the whole army of Kashgar. After this battle, the regions of Ladakh and Baltistan which were under the rule of Kashgar came under the rule of Shah Miris.Sultan also marched towards Delhi and the army of Feroz Shah Tughlaq opposed him at the banks of River Sutlej. Since the battle was motive-less for the Delhi Sultanate peace concluded between them on a condition that all the territories from Sirhind to Kashmir belong to the Shah Mir empire.[19]
As a broad minded intellectual, Shihab'ud-Din, in the first half of his tenure, took care of the Sultanate and brought stability to the social and integral structure of Kashmir.[20] Full of animation and efficiency, Shihab'ud-Din set out to conquer its neighbour polities to expand and glorify his state. Marching through Baramulla, he first occupied Pakhli and went on to add Swat to his realm.[21] Next, he invaded the Khokhar dominated Pothohar, which extended from Attock to Sialkot. His commander-in-chief (Mir Bakhshi), Malik Candra, on the other hand, subdued Jammu, Kishtwar, Chamba, and other hill states.[22] Occupying all the bordering states in the south, Shihab'ud-Din went on to defeat the Dardic forces of Gilgit and the hill states of the north. Baltistan under the Maqpons and Ladakh under the Maryuls were, at that time, tributary states of Moghulistan and Tibet, respectively.[22] Shihab'ud-Din, along with Malik Candra, faced the Baltis and Kashgaris, defeating them easily and soundly.[22] He then moved towards Ladakh, beating the joint forces of Ladakhis and Tibetis.[22] After all these conquests, Shihab'ud-Din returned to Srinagar around 1370 and rather ought to live the rest of his life peacefully but just after some years, in 1373, he died due to a viral illness.[23]
Shihabu’d-din was also a great administrator who governed his kingdom with firmness and justice. A town named Shihabu’d-dinpura aka Shadipur was founded by him. He was also called the Lalitaditya of Medieval Kashmir as he erected many mosques and monasteries.[citation needed]
He was the next Sultan of Kashmir. The only significance of his rule is that the Sufi saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani arrived at Kashmir in his reign. In 1380 C.E. Qutbud’din died and was succeeded by his son Sultan Sikander also known as the Sikander Butshikand.[citation needed]
Sultan Sikandar (1389–1413 CE), was the sixth ruler of the Shah Mir Dynasty.
The Khanqah-e-Moula on the banks of Jhelum river, built during reign of Sikandar Shah
Barring a successful invasion of Ladakh, Sikandar did not annex any new territory.[24] Internal rebellions were ably suppressed.[24][25] A welfare-state was installed — oppressive taxes were abolished, and free schools and hospitals were commissioned.[24]Waqfs were endowed to shrines, mosques were commissioned, numerous Sufi preachers were provided with jagirs and installed in positions of authority, and feasts were regularly held.[26][24][25] Economic condition was decent.[25]
Jonaraja and later Muslim chroniclers accuse Sikandar of terminating Kashmir's longstanding syncretic culture by persecuting Pandits and destroying numerous Hindu shrines; Suhabhat — a Brahman neo-convert and Sikandar's Chief Counsel — is particularly blamed for having instigated him.[25][27] Scholars caution against accepting the allegations at face value and attributing them solely to religious bigotry.[28] His policies, like with the previous Hindu rulers, were likely meant to gain access to the immense wealth controlled by Brahminical institutions;[29][28][30] further, Jonaraja's polemics stemmed, at least in part, from his aversion to the slow disintegration of caste society under Islamic influence.[27][31] However, Sikandar was also the first Kashmiri ruler to convert destroyed temples into Islamic shrines, and such a display of supremacy probably had its origins in religious motivations.[31][32]
Sikandar died in April, 1413 upon which, the eldest son 'Mir' was anointed as the Sultan having adopted the title of Ali Shah.[33]
He was the seventh ruler of the Shah Mir Dynasty, and reigned between 1413 and 1420.[34] He was defeated by Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin at Thanna with the help of Jasrath Khokhar, a chieftain from Pothohar Plateau. The fate of Ali Shah is uncertain: he may have died in captivity or have been put to death by Khokhar.[34]
Zain-ul-Abidin was the eighth sultan of Kashmir. He was known by his subjects as Bod Shah or Budshah (lit.'Great King')[35] and ruled from 1418 to 1470.
Zain-ul-Abidin worked hard to establish a fair rule in Kashmir. He called back the Hindus who had left Kashmir during his father's reign and allowed building of temples. Jizya was abolished too in his command. From the regulation of commodities to the reviving of old crafts, Abidin did everything for overall development of Kashmir and his subjects. Zain-ul-Abidin is also called as Akbar of Kashmir and Shahjahan of Kashmir on account of religion and development respectively.
Next Sultan of Kashmir was Haji Khan, who succeeded his father Zain-ul-Abidin and took the title of Haider Khan.[36]
Interruption by Haidar Dughlat
Silver sasnu issued during 1546–50 in Kashmir by Haidar Dughlat, in the name of the Mughal emperor Humayun.
In 1540, the Sultanate was briefly interrupted when Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, a Chagatai Turco-Mongol military general attacked and occupied Kashmir.[37] Arriving in Kashmir, Haidar installed as sultan the head of the Sayyid faction, Nazuk. In 1546, after Humayun recovered Kabul, Haidar removed Nazuk Shah and struck coins in the name of the Mughal emperor.[38] He died in 1550 after being killed in battle with the Kashmiris. He lies buried in the Gorstan e Shahi in Srinagar.
Architecture
Some of the architectural projects commissioned by the dynasty in Kashmir include:
^ abcdBaloch, N. A.; Rafiq, A. Q. (1998). "The regions of Sind, Baluchistan, Multan and Kashmir: the historical, social and economic setting". History of Civilizations of Central Asia(PDF). Vol. IV. Unesco. pp. 293–318. ISBN923103467-7. Archived from the original(PDF) on 28 October 2016.
^Lewis; Pellat; E.J. van Donzel, eds. (28 May 1998). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. IV (Iran-Kha). Brill. p. 708. ISBN978-90-04-05745-6. Retrieved 14 December 2023. But her authority was challenged by Shah Mir, a soldier of fortune, who was most probably of Turkish origin.
^Wink, André (2004), Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries, BRILL, p. 140, ISBN90-04-13561-8, The first Muslim dynasty of Kashmir was founded in 1324 by Shah Mìrzà, who was probably an Afghan warrior from Swat or a Qarauna Turk, possibly even a Tibetan ...
^Sharma, R. S. (1992), A Comprehensive History of India, Orient Longmans, p. 628, ISBN978-81-7007-121-1, Jonaraja records two events of Suhadeva's reign (1301-20), which were of far-reaching importance and virtually changed the course of the history of Kashmir. The first was the arrival of Shah Mir in 1313. He was a Muslim condottiere from the border of Panchagahvara, an area situated to the south of the Divasar pargana in the valley of river Ans, a tributary of the Chenab.
^Zutshi, N. K. (1976), Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin of Kashmir: an age of enlightenment, Nupur Prakashan, p. 7, "This area in which Panchagahvara was situated is mentioned as having been the place of habitation of the Khasa tribe. Shah Mir was, therefore, a Khasa by birth. This conclusion is further strengthened by references to the part of the Khasas increasingly played in the politics of Kashmir with which their connections became intimate after the occupation of Kashmir.
^Ahmad, Aziz (1979). "Conversions to Islam in the Valley of Kashmir". Central Asiatic Journal. 23 (1/2). Harrassowitz Verlag: 3–18. ISSN0008-9192. Shāh Mir was probably a descendant of a convert from Hinduism only a few generations earlier, probably by some Sūfī or dervish of a 'little tradition.' His apocryphal ancestry as a descendant of the Pāndūs is mentioned by the Indian historians of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
^Hamadani, Hakim Sameer (2021). The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of Kashmir (Early 14th −18th Century). Routledge. pp. 99–100. ISBN9781032189611. While medieval Muslim hagiographic and historical accounts may have exaggerated Sikander's destruction of non-Muslim religious sites in a classical representation of religious piety, the tendency of some writers in the twentieth century CE to shield the Sultan from these iconoclastic activities is not historically correct, especially given the evidence from the period coming from writers of different religious backgrounds.
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