Shah Mir, Islam and the Rishis
A Muslim dynasty takes power in 1339, Sufi preachers arrive from Iran and Central Asia, and the mystics Lal Ded and Nund Rishi give the valley a Kashmiri-language spirituality shared across faiths.
- Kashmir's Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis — Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Manohar (1994)
- Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir — Chitralekha Zutshi, Hurst (2004)
- Kashmir (Oxford India Short Introductions) — Chitralekha Zutshi, Oxford University Press (2019)
- I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd — Lal Ded, trans. Ranjit Hoskote, Penguin Classics (2011)
- Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris — Christopher Snedden, Hurst (2015)
- Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir — Mridu Rai, Princeton University Press (2004)
A Muslim dynasty
By the early fourteenth century the Hindu kingdom of Kashmir was weak, shaken by a Mongol-led raid in 1320. A Buddhist prince from Ladakh, Rinchana, seized the throne and, by tradition, converted to Islam. In 1339 a courtier called Shah Mir, a Muslim of disputed origin, took power and founded the Shah Mir sultanate, which ruled for more than two centuries.
- Kashmir (Oxford India Short Introductions) — Chitralekha Zutshi, Oxford University Press (2019)
- Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris — Christopher Snedden, Hurst (2015)
Sufis and saints
Sufis from Iran and Central Asia followed. The most celebrated, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, visited in the 1370s–80s with followers whom tradition credits with bringing Persian crafts as well as faith; his shrine, the Khanqah-e-Moula on the Jhelum in Srinagar, is one of the city’s most loved. Persian became the language of the court for the next five centuries.
- Kashmir's Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis — Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Manohar (1994)
- Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir — Chitralekha Zutshi, Hurst (2004)
Under Sultan Sikandar (r. 1389–1413) and his minister Suha Bhatta, a convert, temples were destroyed and Brahmins pressured to convert, and Pandit memory holds this as a catastrophe. Historians debate its scale, but agree it was a harsh exception in a longer story.
- Kashmir (Oxford India Short Introductions) — Chitralekha Zutshi, Oxford University Press (2019)
- Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir — Mridu Rai, Princeton University Press (2004)
Lal Ded and Nund Rishi
Two mystics gave the valley its own spiritual voice. Lal Ded (Lalleshwari), a fourteenth-century Shaiva woman ascetic, composed short verses in Kashmiri, the vakhs, that mocked empty ritual and sought God within; they are the oldest poems in the language.
- I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd — Lal Ded, trans. Ranjit Hoskote, Penguin Classics (2011)
- Kashmir's Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis — Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Manohar (1994)
Mohammad Ishaq Khan argued that the Rishis made Islam feel native rather than foreign, and that is why conversion took deep root. Their shrines, above all Nund Rishi’s at Chrar-e-Sharif, became places where Kashmiris of different faiths prayed side by side.
- Kashmir's Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis — Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Manohar (1994)
- Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir — Chitralekha Zutshi, Hurst (2004)
Legacy
The Rishis’ shrines dot the valley, and Kashmiris still visit them for blessings, vows and festivals. Nund Rishi’s sayings, short verses called shruks, are quoted in everyday speech, and the line “food will last only as long as the forests last” has become a slogan of Kashmiri environmentalism. When his shrine at Chrar-e-Sharif burned in May 1995, during a stand-off between militants and the Indian army, the valley went into mourning.
- Kashmir's Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis — Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Manohar (1994)
- Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace — Sumantra Bose, Harvard University Press (2003)
The same era fixed Kashmir’s place in the Persianate world. For the next five centuries, Kashmiri scholars, Muslim and Pandit alike, wrote in Persian, and the valley’s craftsmen, cooks and poets drew on Iranian and Central Asian models, the roots of the wazwan, the shawl and the carpet.
- Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir — Chitralekha Zutshi, Hurst (2004)
- Kashmir (Oxford India Short Introductions) — Chitralekha Zutshi, Oxford University Press (2019)
Islam came mainly through preachers and saints, not conquest. Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, "Shah-e-Hamadan", brought Islam and crafts from Iran, and Nund Rishi made it Kashmiri. The valley's Sufi shrines are its spiritual heart, and conversion was largely voluntary.
- Kashmir's Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis — Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Manohar (1994)
- Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir — Chitralekha Zutshi, Hurst (2004)
Pandit memory also stresses coercion, above all under Sultan Sikandar (r. 1389–1413), remembered as *Butshikan*, "idol-breaker", when temples were destroyed and many Brahmins converted or fled. Tradition holds that only a handful of Pandit families remained before his son restored tolerance.
- Kashmir (Oxford India Short Introductions) — Chitralekha Zutshi, Oxford University Press (2019)
- Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris — Christopher Snedden, Hurst (2015)
Conversion was gradual, taking centuries, and owed most to Sufi orders, shrines and the Rishis' use of the Kashmiri language. Sikandar's persecution was real, though later chronicles may have exaggerated it; it was also an exception, reversed by Zain-ul-Abidin.
- Kashmir's Transition to Islam: The Role of Muslim Rishis — Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Manohar (1994)
- Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir — Chitralekha Zutshi, Hurst (2004)
- Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir — Mridu Rai, Princeton University Press (2004)
Why it matters today
This is when most Kashmiris became Muslim, and how it happened shapes identity today. Kashmiris often describe their faith as gentle, shrine-centred and local, embodied by the Rishis and by Lal Ded, revered by Hindus and Muslims alike. The idea of *Kashmiriyat*, a shared valley culture above religion, draws heavily on this era, even as people argue over how harmonious it really was.