Shi’ism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shia Rivalry and Reconciliation (Library of Islamic South Asia)

233 Pages·2022·10.189 MB·English

by  Hakim Sameer Hamdani

SHIʿISM IN KASHMIR
Islamic South Asia Series
Series Editor Ruby Lal, Emory University
Advisory Board
Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell University
Stephen F. Dale, Ohio State University
Rukhsana David, Kinnaird College for Women
Michael Fisher, Oberlin College
Marcus Fraser, Fitzwilliam Museum
Ebba Koch, University of Vienna
David Lewis, London School of Economics
Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London
Ron Sela, Indiana University Bloomington
Willem van Schendel, University of Amsterdam
Titles
Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Muslim World: History, Law and Vernacular
Knowledge, Vanja Hamzic
The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late
Medieval India, Pushkar Sohoni
Sufi Shrines and the Pakistani State: The End of Religious Pluralism, Umber Bin Ibad
The Hindu Sufis of South Asia: Partition, Shrine Culture and the Sindhis in India,
Michel Boivin
Islamic Sermons and Public Piety in Bangladesh: The Poetics of Popular Preaching,
Max Stille
The Mosques of Colonial South Asia: A Social and Legal History of Muslim Worship,
Sana Haroon
The Language of the Taj Mahal: Islam, Prayer and the Religion of Shah Jahan,
Michael D. Calabria
Muslims under Sikh Rule in the Nineteenth Century, Robina Yasmin
Shiʿism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shiʿi Rivalry and Reconciliation,
Sameer Hamdani
SHIʿISM IN KASHMIR
A History of Sunni-Shiʿi Rivalry and
Reconciliation
Hakim Sameer Hamdani
I.B. TAURIS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland
BLOOMSBURY, I.B. TAURIS and the I.B. Tauris logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2023
Copyright © Hakim Sameer Hamdani, 2023
Hakim Sameer Hamdani has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xi constitute
an extension of this copyright page.
Series design by Adriana Brioso
Cover image: Women devotees at a shrine in Hasanabad on Shab-i Barat, Srinagar, 2016.
Courtesy of Syed Shahriyar.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any
third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this
book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any
inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist,
but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-0-7556-4393-6
ePDF: 978-0-7556-4395-0
eBook: 978-0-7556-4396-7
Series: Islamic South Asia
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
To find out more about our authors and books visit www .bloomsbury .com
and sign up for our newsletters.
To my daughter, Parirou, and the children of Kashmir,
may your world be full of nūr, omid, and khūshī
O Friend of the Believers, only guide to their salvation,
Muslims and Hindus, both your worshippers, your creation.
O One without a partner, our only sovereign, no sect could keep you
to itself;
confined to a temple, limited to a sacred mosque.
Mullā Ḥakim ʿAbdullah (d. 1887, approx.),
Kashmiri marṣiya: Valī al- Mūminin (Friend of the Believers)
CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Conventions xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
The Long Nineteenth Century 5
Sources and Structure 8
Chapter 1
NOT QUITE TAQIYYA: KASHMIRI SHIʿI AT THE START OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY 11
The Fear of Rāfz 13
The Claim of Being First Muslims 17
Two Saints, Two Sects 20
Chaks: The Pādshāhs of Kashmir 27
Chapter 2
MAPPING EXISTENCE: IN SEARCH OF PATRONAGE AND PROTECTION 37
Navigating Shiʿiness under the Afghans 37
Tājiran-i Iran: Iranian Shawl Merchants in Kashmir 41
In the Court of Awadh Kings 48
Loss of Muslim Sovereignty 53
Chapter 3
SHIʿI IDENTITY, SUNNI SPACE, AND NON-MUSLIM RULE 59
Vocalizing a Community: Mourning and Marṣiya 59
The Ashura Procession and the Riots of 1830 66
The City Elders and a Shahr-ashūb 70
The Royal Physician and the Well-Wishing Merchant 77
Chapter 4
DISSENSIONS WITHIN THE MŪMININ: CHALLENGING THE ELITE 89
Controlling the Muharram Ceremonies 89
The Issue of Khums 93
The Last Riot: 1289 ah/1872 ce 97
Rival Families, Rival Grouping 107
viii Contents
Chapter 5
MOVING TOWARD A UNIFIED MUSLIM IDENTITY 119
At the Start of a New Century 119
Phyīr Circuit, the Annual Trade Journey to the Plains 126
Chaat-i haal, Papier-Maché, and a New Class of Shiʿi Merchants 132
Challenges of Modernity: Missionaries and Education 138
The Anjuman, A Murder Case and Call to Reform 141
Memorandum of the Kashmiri Mussalmans and a Muslim Ashura 151
Kashmiri Shiʿi and the Recent Past: Overview 156
Appendix I: Letter of Ḥakim ʿAẕim, written to Moulvi Sayyid Rajab
ʿAli Shāh 161
Appendix II: Groans of the Muslims of Kashmir 164
Notes 167
Bibliography 203
Index 213
FIGURES
1 General map (courtesy: Hakim Ali Reza) xiv
1.1 Mʿārak, imāmbāda at Zadibal prior to its dismantling, Srinagar, 2004
(courtesy: Mubashir Mir) 12
1.2 Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm, SPS Museum collection, Srinagar, 2022
(author) 21
1.3 Shaykh Ḥamza Makhdūm shrine-precinct, Srinagar, 2019 (courtesy:
Mukhtar Ahmad) 35
2.1 Wall hanging commissioned for Imām Ḥusayn shrine (courtesy: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) 47
2.2 Ruins of Mughal Mosque at Hasanabad, early twentieth century
(courtesy: ASI, India) 56
3.1 Kashmiri marṣiya biyāz dated 1143 ah (1730 ce), Research Library,
Srinagar (author) 61
3.2 Performance of marṣiya at a majlis at Mʿārak, Srinagar, 2015 (courtesy:
Imran Ali) 63
3.3 Srinagar city, nineteenth century with location of major sites and Shiʿi
neighborhoods (author) 68
3.4 Calligraphy written by Shāh Niyaẕ for William Moorcroft (courtesy:
British Library) 76
3.5 Epistle of Ḥakim ʿAẕim to Moulvi Sayyid Rajab ʿAli (author) 79
3.6 Muharram procession in contemporary Kashmir, Srinagar, 2018
(courtesy: Hammad Ali) 85
4.1 Shrine of Sayyid Muhammad Madnī, Srinagar, 2019 (courtesy: Zubair
Ahmad) 100
4.2 Kashmir, location of major towns and Shiʿi-inhabited areas (author) 110
4.3 Moulvi Ḥaidar ʿAli Ansarī with the royal physician, Ḥakim Ḥasan ʿAli,
early twentieth century, Srinagar (courtesy: Hakim Athar Hussain) 111
4.4 Imāmbāda Hasanabad, twentieth-century reconstruction, Srinagar,
2015 (author) 114
4.5 Members of the Mullā family, Srinagar, late 1890s (courtesy:
Hakim Shaukat Ali Hamdani) 115
5.1 Divān of Ḥafiẓ Shirazī, copied by Mullā Muhammad Qāsim Hamdanī,
1796 (courtesy: Walter Art Museum, Maryland) 122
5.2 Quran codex, copied by Munshi Abū’l Ḥasan, 1851 (courtesy: Yasmin
Ali) 123
5.3 Muharram procession in the interiors of Dal Lake, Srinagar, 2021
(courtesy: Sayed Shahriyar) 127