The Shah Hamadan of Kashmir

Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani (1314-1385) who visited the valley of Kashmir thrice has been lovingly titled by the kashmiris as Shah Hamadan or the King of Hamadan. He is also known as Bani-a-Musalmani or the crescentader, who brought them en-masse within the fold of Islam through the sufi message of love, harmony and brotherhood. While giving his spiritual message he did not ignore the material needs of his disciples. He imported about seven hundred sayyids from central Asia to introduce several handicrafts into Kashmir such as paper machine, shawls, paper making, namdas, metal inlay works and khatum band. He also introduced Persian and Arabic learning and calligraphy, Persian dress and culture and Islamic fiqah or Jurisprudence. His idea of building various khanqahs or sufi convents in Kashmir was meant to create the sufi brotherhood communes of muslims. He played an important part in socio political affairs of Kashmir and brought about reconciliation between Sultan Shahabuddin of Kashmir and Sultan Firozeshad Tughlak of Delhi. This book deals with the psycho-dynamics of Sayyid Ali Hamadani in the field of Islamic mysticism.

Sufi mystic Haji Fida Mohammad Khan Hassnain was born in the year 1924 at Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Having graduated from the University of Punjab, Lahore he completed his post graduation in history and law at the Muslim University, Aligarh, India. He started his career as a professor of history in SP College, Stringer, Kashmir, 1947. Later he joined the national archives of India, New Delhi and obtained diploma in archives. He was promoted by government of India as the Director of Archives, Archeology, Research and Museums in 1953 and continued as such as till his retirement in 1983. He is credited with the having salvaged hundreds of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and Urdu by preserving this heritage in the oriental research libraries and the three archives repositories at Leh, Ladakh, Jammu and Srinagar. In 1969 he was invited by several Japanese Universities to give extension lectures on Buddhist culture and history. Since then he has visited various cities in Asia and Europe and has given lectures on history, culture and Sufism. He is a recipient of several degrees and awards from various institutions in India, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Mexico. He was granted the title of Rastra Sanskrit Samrat or the Emperor of National Culture in 1987. The Jammu and Kashmir government has bestowed upon him the prestigious lifetime achievement award on January 25, 2009. He is the author of about two dozen books on history, culture and mysticism which have been published in India, UK, Russia, Italy, Spain and USA.