Go Back
The Kashmir Sultanate. The Kashmir Sultanate (1320-1586) ruled the mountain-girdled Vale of Kashmir for over two and a half centuries. Founded when the last Hindu-Buddhist dynasty collapsed and Rinchana, a Buddhist prince from Ladakh converted to Islam, seized the throne (1320), it was consolidated by the Shah Mir dynasty, whose early sultans gave the valley its enduring character - above all Shihab al-Din (r. 1354-1373), who conquered the approaches to the valley and patronized its crafts.
The sultanate's most beloved ruler was Zayn al-Abidin, 'Budshah' (the Great King, r. 1420-1470): he welcomed Persian scholars and artisans who made Srinagar a center of papier-mache, carpet-weaving, woodwork and shawl-making; he built canals and gardens; and - uniquely among the sultans of his age - he pursued a deliberate policy of tolerance, rebuilding Hindu temples, abolishing the jizya, and having the Hindu classics translated into Persian. Kashmiris of both faiths still remember Budshah as their ideal king.
Under the sultans, Islam spread through the valley largely through the Sufi orders - the Rishis, Kashmir's own order of wandering ascetics founded by Sheikh Nur al-Din (Nund Rishi), revered by Muslims and Hindus alike, and the Kubrawi and Naqshbandi missionaries from Persia - creating Kashmir's distinctive blend of Persianate Islam and local Rishi tradition. Persian became the language of court and letters, which it remained for four centuries.
After Budshah, factional wars between the Shah Mirs, their Chak successors - Shi'a soldiers who won the throne in 1561 - and rival noble clans exhausted the kingdom, and in 1586 the Mughal emperor Akbar annexed the valley. Kashmir's sultanate left the valley its religion, its crafts, its gardens and its identity as 'Paradise on Earth' - the image the Mughals would inherit and gild.
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Kashmir: Introduction
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Persian in Kashmir State Administration
Encyclopaedia Iranica: Persian Influence on Kashmiri Art