Kashmir Under Sultans introduces the reader to a subject that begins with the foundation of the Sultanate and ends with the conquest of Kashmir by Akbar. During the Sultanate period, Kashmir had achieved a high standard of culture, but with the disappearance of her independence, her culture gradually declined. Poets, painters, and scholars had to leave the Valley and seek their livelihood elsewhere owing to the absence of local patronage. They then entered the service of the Mughal emperors and were added to the court, thereby lessening the cultural impoverishment of Kashmir. The book encloses political, social, economic and cultural activities that had a lasting influence on the Kashmir Valley in that period. It is of considerable value to social historians as Professor Mohibbul Hasan offers insights into political and cultural currents and crosscurrents in Kashmir. This title is co-published with Aakar Books. Print editions not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

When Muslim rule in Kashmir ended in 1820, Sikh and later Hindu Dogra Rulers gained power, but the country was still largely influenced by Sunni religious orthodoxy. This book traces the impact of Sunni power on Shi'i society and how this changed during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book identifies a distinctive Kashmiri Shi'i Islam established during this period. Hakim Sameer Hamdani argues that the Shi'i community's religious and cultural identity was fostered through practices associated with the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and his family in Karbala, as well as other rituals of Islam, in particular, the construction and furore surrounding M'arak, the historic imambada (a Shi'i house for mourning of the Imam) of Kashmir's Shi'i. The book examines its destruction, the ensuing Shi'i -Sunni riot, and the reasons for the Shi'i community's internal divisions and rifts at a time when they actually saw the strong consolidation of their identity.

A pioneering and comprehensive study of the historical imagination in Kashmir, this book explores the conversations between the ideas of Kashmir and the ideas of history taking place within Kashmir’s multilingual historical tradition. Analysing the deep linkages among Sanskrit, Persian, and Kashmiri narratives, Kashmir’s Contested Pasts contends that these traditions drew on and influenced each other to imagine Kashmir as far more than simply an unsettled territory or a tourist paradise. By offering a historically grounded reflection on the memories, narrative practices, and institutional contexts that have informed, and continue to inform, imaginings of Kashmir and its past, the book suggests new ways of understanding the debates over history, territory, identity, and sovereignty that shape contemporary South Asia.

Kashmir under the Sultans introduces the reader to a subject that begins with the foundation of the Sultanate and ends with the conquest of Kashmir by Akbar. During the Sultanate period, Kashmir had achieved a high standard of culture, but with the disappearance of her independence, her culture gradually declined. Poets, painters, and scholars had to leave the Valley and seek their livelihood elsewhere owing to the absence of local patronage. They then entered the service of the Mughal emperors and were added to the court, thereby lessening the cultural impoverishment of Kashmir. The book encloses political, social, economic and cultural activities that had a lasting influence on the Kashmir Valley in that period. It is of considerable value to social historians as Professor Mohibbul Hasan offers insights into political and cultural currents and crosscurrents in Kashmir. This title is co-published with Aakar Books. Print editions not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

The book covers the monthly musings of the author from the year 2011 to 2015 that got manifest as write-ups in the daily Greater Kashmir, the daily Rising Kashmir, the daily Kashmir Images, selected extracts from some of the publications of the author, some selected extracts from the blogs of the author etc. These are topics of general interest and set up a new trend in book formatting.

This book traces the historical identity of Kashmir within the context of Islamic religious architecture between early fourteenth and mid-eighteenth century. It presents a framework of syncretism within which the understanding of this architectural tradition acquires new dimensions and possibilities in the region. In a first, the volume provides a detailed overview of the origin and development of Islamic sacred architecture while contextualizing it within the history of Islam in Kashmir. Covering the entirety of Muslim rule in the region, the book throws light on Islamic religious architecture introduced with the establishment of the Muslim Sultanate in the early fourteenth century, and focuses on both monumental and vernacular architecture. It examines the establishment of new styles in architecture, including ideas, materials and crafts introduced by non-Kashmiri missionaries in the late-fourteenth to fifteenth century. Further, it discusses how the Mughals viewed Kashmir and embellished the land with their architectural undertakings, coupled with encounters between Kashmir’s native culture, with its identity and influences introduced by Sufis arriving from the medieval Persianate world. The book also highlights the transition of the traditional architecture to a pan-Islamic image in the post-Independence period. With its rich illustrations, photographs and drawings, this book will interest students, researchers, and professionals in architecture studies, cultural and heritage studies, visual and art history, religion, Islamic studies and South Asian studies. It will also be useful to professional architecture institutes, public libraries, museums, cultural and heritage bodies as well as the general reader interested in the architectural and cultural history of South Asia.

The book comprises of three sections. Part one deals with the introduction of Islam in Kashmir right from the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) followed by Sufi saints starting from 7th Hijri causing mass conversion voluntarily on getting impressed by the behaviour of the saints who lived a life of austerity. Part 2nd deals with the translation of a 150 year old hand-written Persian poetry manuscript translated in to English, describing the wonderful miracles performed by the Sufi saints of the area. Part 3rd deals with the biographies of the saints mentioned in part 2 with their spiritual and family lineages and copies of some age old manuscripts with bibilography at the end. The book makes great revelations of the past years which is bound to make interesting reading for all people.