Sufism in Kashmir from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century

Abstract

The histories of Medieval Kashmir, like those of many other parts of the subcontinent, mainly deal with courts and political developments. No attempt has yet been made to give a connected account of the religious developments and the ideological tensions in the Valley. The accounts of the introduction of Islam and Sufism into Kashmir are shrouded in myth and legend. Modern scholars, who deal primarily with political history of Kashmir, make occasional references to its saints, but their accounts are uncritical and generally based upon the later hagiological material. The present work seeks to unravel the tangled skein of legends concerning the Sufis of Kashmir and to present a connected study of the Sufi orders from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Both the Sufi orders introduced by the Iranian immigrants and the eclectic Rishi order which emerged locally have for the first time been examined and analysed in detail.