Description
About the book :
” A Muslim Missionary in Mediaeval Kashmir ” edited by Sri Kashinath Pandit is a work based on Tohfatu’l-Ahbab, the biography of Shamsu’d-Din Muhammad Araki, an Iranian Shi`a Muslim.
The 13th century Mongol incursions into the vast Asian region and across the great Himalayan watershed disrupted the entire trading network of the Asian continent of those days. Its consequences were particular disastrous for landlocked Kashmir, which had been weakened by appalling bankruptcy and the sordid inter-group rivalry among its countries, nobles and Damara chiefs. This depressing political and social scenario whetted the lust of adventurers in her northern and western neighbourhood for capturing more territories and raising new principalities.
In the first quarter of the 14th century they succeeded in overthrowing the two thousand-year-old Kashmir Hindu ruling house, grabbed political power and laid the foundation of Kashmir Sultanate. This event was fraught with far-reaching consequences. Replacement of an indigenous regime of fair antiquity with one rooted in alien civilization could remain in place only when a supportive social structure legitimized it. This is the reason why the 14th century Muslim missionaries from Iran and Central Asia were more than welcome to the new ruling apparatus in Kashmir. It may be reminded that more than two centuries prior to that, pursuit of rational sciences that had originated in Greece and were grounded in logic had come under severe strain in Islamic world from orthodoxy relying on the support of feudal oligarchies and local satraps in Iran and Turkistan.
In the period under consideration, Muslim missionaries of those regions, vying with their Arab counterparts, took upon themselves the onerous task of designing the requisite social structure for vulnerable societies like the one in Kashmir. A prominent person to take the lead in this enterprise was Mir Sayyid `Ali Hamadani (A.D. 1381) followed by others but more notably Amir Shamsud-Din Araki (A.D.) 1477).
ISBN : 978-8185990859 ; Publisher : Voice of India ; Pages : 294;
Saurav Lahoti (verified owner) – :
I had our purchased this book after it was referred to in the movie Kashmir Files. Truly a blood boiling books which goes on to break the myth of Sufis lead by Shamsuddin Arakki in breaking the Hindu temples and converting the natives to Islam. Another revealing points were those of armed resistance by Kashmiri Hindus against Islamic iconoclasts which goes on to establish that Hindus did hold temples dear to them and we’re willing to go to any length to protect them.