The oldest trace of a Template:Transliteration in Kashmiri language dates to the 15th century CE and comprises a short, loose elegy composed on the death of a Sufi, Nund Rishi (d. 842AH/ 1438CE),[8] by his women disciple, Sham Bibi (d. 1446).[9][10] The first elegies written in Kashmiri to commemorate Husyan's martyrdom also date from the same period in works composed between the 15th and 16th centuries. These include Template:Transliteration written by two poets from the Musavi family,[11] Qasim bin Yusuf Din Shah, and his nephew Hakim Din Shah[12] in and around 811- 850 AH (1409-1446CE), during the Shahmiri Sultanate (1339-1561CE).[4][6][5][13][7][14] Another work that survives is of Ahmad, a poet who hailed from Ahmadpora, a Shia centre of learning in medieval Kashmir.[5][15]
Modern researchers have characterised this period commencing with the rule of Sultan Sikandar (r. 1389-1413 CE) and ending with the demise of the short-lived Shia Chak Sultanate (1561-1586 CE), as the first stage in the development of Kashmiri Template:Transliteration.[14] Significantly contemporary medieval texts originating from within Kashmiri Shia circles make no mention of Muharram assemblies to commemorate the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, or of traditions linked with the writing of Template:Transliteration in Kashmiri.[16] This includes both hagiographical works (Template:Transliteration) as well as political histories (Template:Transliteration) of the region authored by Shia writers.[17][18]
Aside from a few anonymous works, the names of the following poets who composed Template:Transliteration in this period survive:[19][14]
The development of the Kashmiri Template:Transliteration coincides with Mughal (1586-1753 CE) and Afghan rule (1753-1819 CE) in Kashmir.[20] This period saw the consolidation of Persian, both as the court language, as well as the preferred language of the urban elite, completely eclipsing native Kashmiri.[21] Many Persian poets who arrived at the Mughal court from Persianate lands, made Kashmir their home, settling down in the capital city, Srinagar.[22] Some, including two poet laureates[23] ( malik-u shoura)[24] at the imperial court are buried in the cemetery of poets (Kashmiri: Mazar-i Shoura or Mazar-e-Shura) located on the foothills of Takht-i Suleiman, Srinagar.[25] With the official promotion of Persian, the vernacular Kashmiri went through a period of steady decline.[21][14] This is also witnessed in the Template:Transliteration written during this time. Ahmadpora[14] in North Kashmir served as a major nucleus for Template:Transliteration writing during this period, with many sayyids from the Rizvi[26] family following this tradition.[27] Some of the prominent poets who composed Template:Transliteration during this time include:[14][3][6]
Two writers from North Kashmir are credited with this innovation: Qazi Ahmad Ali (d. 1800 approx.) and Khwaja Hasan Mir (d. 1826 CE).[5][27] Qazi Ahmad Ali, originally a Sunni from Varmul (Baramulla), converted to Shi’ism and formalized the Template:Transliterations within the Template:Transliteration.[32] He was a senior contemporary of Khwaja Husayn Mir,[33] a cultivator residing in the village of Habak. Husayn Mir, popularly known as Hussi Boii (Template:Lang), significantly popularized the new form of Template:Transliteration among the urban elite of Srinagar.[7][6] He also made innovations to the internal structure of the Template:Transliteration. Additionally, he introduced the poets of the Mulla family in Srinagar,[34] who were accustomed to composing in Persian, to this new form of Kashmiri Template:Transliteration. Over the next two generations, the Mulla family produced successive Template:Transliteration writers.[3][6][4][5][14][27]
The earliest composers of Kashmiri Template:Transliteration in the Mulla family include Mulla Hakim Muhammad Azim(1803-1852CE), Mulla Munshi Muhammad Yusuf(1798-1885 CE) and Mulla Munshi Shah Muhammad (d. 1850 approx.).[20][34][33][35]Hakim Azim and Munshi Yusuf played pivotal roles in enhancing the poetic beauty of Template:Transliteration, transcending the constraints of its elegiac form.[34] In an epistle written to Khan Bahadur Sayyid Rajib Ali Khan (d. 1869),[32] Azim highlights how he envisaged Marsiya as a symbol of Shia identity, and also his own role in reshaping the literary contours of this genre:
Having sent that for such a long time at an adverse fate, I necessarily intended to bring out the shinning pearls of its sad contents, which I had spun together in new ways, and arrange it on the lines of a Kashmiri Marsiya.[32]
During the nineteenth century, alongside Srinagar, another notable centre for Template:Transliteration writing emerged in the village of Gund Khwaja Qasim, under the stewardship of Khwaja Muhammad Baqir Gundi (d.~1834CE).[36] The tradition was greatly advanced by his son, Khawja Abdullah, and a student Mirza Aboul Qasim (d. ~ 1853CE).[5] The works of Mirza Aboul Qasim would achieve great public acclaim, and he remains the most prolific and popular Template:Transliteration writer to date.[37][7]
During the first half of the 19th century, many Kashmiri Marsiya writers left for Faizabad and Lucknow, seeking patronage at the court of the Shia rulers of Awadh.[32] These include Munshi Qasim, Munshi Shah Muhammad, Khwaja Abdullah, Munshi Safdar and Mirza Aboul Qasim. Oral traditions preserved amongst the Kashmiri Shia community maintain that Munshi Safdar was a close confidante of the last king of Awadh, Wajid Ali Shah(r. 1847-1856), and was poisoned due to court intrigue.[7]
In the post-Independence period, the tradition of writing Template:Transliteration was greatly reduced, with most poets engaging in composing in the easier, shorter genre of nauha.[10][6] Some writers who have produced Template:Transliteration that are recited publicly include, Sayyid Aboul Hassan Zigum, Sayyid Anis Kazmi and Sayyid Muhammad Chatergami.[6]
According to Hakim Ghulam Safdar Hamdani, Kashmiri Template:Transliteration evolved from a native tradition used to mourn the death of a family member, known as Template:Transliteration (Template:Lang).[14][7] Expressed in the vernacular, Template:Transliteration in its original form does not assume a poetic structure, nor does it seem to have been consigned to text.[3][45] This is a view generally held by most writers who have looked into the evolution of Template:Transliteration.[3][6][5][14][27] The arrival of Muslim preachers in Kashmir during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries resulted in the gradual introduction of practices and traditions prevalent in the Islamic world into Kashmiri society, including that of Template:Transliteration.[7] A surviving Template:Transliteration from this period starts with a verse in Persian followed by its translation in Kashmiri in the same meter.[4][19]
The grammatical structure of Kashmiri language; the heavy dependence on idiomatic expressions and the contextual nuances with multiple layers of meaning that form the essence of a successful Kashmiri Template:Transliteration are invariably lost in attempts at translation even in languages such as Urdu. Still, there have been attempts with limited success at translation in Urdu, starting with the 1960s and 1970s.[47][14] An English translation of the Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration (The Book),[48] seeks to capture the spirit of some of the main verses:
From which book of the law do you issue my death warrant”.
Alas! What had fate written for Zainab?
To re-live, re-read, recite the woes of Muharram!
Alas! her night, her days spent in anguish, in fear, in lament!
When the day would dawn in the dark dungeon
she would remember anew her nephews, her lost children,
and cry:
“Wake! The time for lessons has come it honors you nought to dwell in slumber.
The teacher is in waiting, go and pay your salutations,
Or, if with Grandfather you are studying, tell him then of Umar-i Saad
his tyranny, his acts of terror.
Alas! What fate? What destiny? I am left to lament, my family; my burden,
my arms tied; my back broken.
Oh! but that I could see,
Ali Akbar opening his book, Asghar; stammering in his lessons.
Alas! The Prophet’s progeny rendered desolate.
Alas! Eighteen brothers of Zainab, slaughtered under the sword.[49]
Textual record
So far around five hundred Template:Transliteration written during the nineteenth century have been collected and published.[32] These have been mapped from manuscripts, known as Template:Transliteration,[50] which have been copied in not only Kashmir but also in major cities of colonial India, including Amritsar, Lucknow, Faizabad, Calcutta and in far-off Kabul (Afghanistan).[4] According to Shafi Shauq, Kashmiri Template:Transliteration literature is the oldest genre within Kashmiri literature that has been consigned to a preserved written form:
The oldest compilation of Template:Transliteration literature in Kashmir in a manuscript form (biyaz) dates back to 1725, when Kashmir was under Mughal rule. Other Template:Transliteration compiled during the 18th century include those written in 1769 and 1794.[52] Of the Template:Transliteration written, more than a hundred are still recited in public mourning ceremonies across Kashmir.[5]
Within the imambada, both men and women collectively recite the Template:Transliteration. Typically, the imambada is a two-story space, with women occupying the upper floor, physically and visually separated from the men by latticework screens or curtains.[54] This follows the Muslim practice of women's seclusion (purdah), which is rigorously followed in a Template:Transliteration.[32] The primary reciter, known as a Template:Transliteration, receives assistance from a group of 7 or 12 men sitting in a circle called the Template:Transliteration. These men are referred to as Template:Transliterations.[27]
The congregation forms multiple concentric circles, radiating outward from the daireh, with the Template:Transliteration moving from one end of the congregation to another. The same practice is followed in Template:Transliteration performed at homes. A jug of water and soil of Karbala (Kashmiri: khak, or khak-i shifa) is kept in the middle of the Template:Transliteration on a cloth spread.[27][55][56][10] One of the earliest descriptions of the performance of a Kashmiri Template:Transliteration is recorded in Sughra Humayun Mirza's travelogue about Kashmir in 1928.[57] The travelogue describes the performance in the main imambada of Srinagar, Marak,[58] in these words:
In Srinagar there is a moḥala Zadibal where many Muslims live, and there are many Shiʿi in this moḥala. The majlis happens here. Sayyid Shāh Jalālī is a big jāgirdār and zamindār and the father-in-law [i] of his son is trader of pearls [. . .]. All of us went to Jalālī Ṣahibs place [. . .]. After lunch we went to the imāmbāda which is near his house. The majlis starts at six in the morning and continues till six in the evening. The majlis is read in the Kashmiri language and the imāmbāda is very large. There are buildings on all four sides, in the middle there is a lower ceiling supported on thirty-five columns, under which the majlis takes place [. . .]. The buildings on the four sides are two storied, the upper floor is in wood and has delicate wooden jālīs (screens). It is here (behind the jālīs) that women sit and listen to the majlis. The lower and the central floor is used by men. From morning till evening whoever desires, may come and be a part of the majlis. When men enter the majlis they remove their coats and turbans. All the men in the congregations were bareheaded. The marṣiya khwanī adopted here is distinct from that in the entire world [. . .]. In the end, Moulvi Imdād ʿAli Ṣahib of Lahore did marṣiya khwanī (recitation of elegies commemorating Ḥusayn b. Ali’s martyrdom). He stood up and said that today, I will recite a marṣiya in Urdu, because Sayyid Hemayun Mīrzā Ṣahib who has arrived in Kashmir from Hyderabad is present with us in majlis.[59]
References
↑Maqtal Al-Husayn{{#if:Mikhnaf|, Mikhnaf}. ABWA Publishing and Printing Center(2012). ISBN 978-964-529-266-7
↑ 5.005.015.025.035.045.055.065.075.085.09Kaeshri Marsiyuk Safar: An anthology of Kashmiri Marsiya{{#if:Sajjid|, Sajjid}. J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages(2013)
↑The descendants of the seventh Shia imam, Musa al-Kazim (d. 799CE) are known as Musavi Sayyids.
↑The postscript written at the end of a Template:Transliteration attributed to Hakim Din Shah mentions: "This lament was written by Hakim Ibn Musa Ibn Yusuf Din Shah during the reign of Badshah". See, Hamdani, Hakim Ghulam Safdar (2009). Template:Transliteration (in Kashmiri) (2nd ed.). Delhi. Skyline Publications.
↑[{{{url}}} The Art of the Book in Early Modern Kashmir]. Routledge(2024-01-11).
↑These include the tazkira originating within the Nurbakshiyya Sufi order, see, Ali, Mulla Muhammad Ali (2006). Jan, Ghulam Rasul,(transl.). Tuḥfatūl Aḥbāb (in Persian). Srinagar: Jan Publications.
↑These include Hajji Jan Muhammad Qudsi, Abu Talib Kalim Kashani, see, Sharma, Sunil (2017). Mughal Arcadia: Persian Literature in an Indian Court. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-98124-9.
↑ 24.024.1Tazkira-i Zafran Zar{{#if:Kashmiri|, Kashmiri}. Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries(2009)
↑Mughal Arcadia{{#if:Sharma|, Sharma}. Harvard University Press(2017-11-27). ISBN 978-0-674-98124-9
↑Rizvi Sayyids trace their descent to the eighth Shia imam, Ali al-Rida (or Reza). The descendants of the tenth imam, Ali al-Naqi are also referred to as Rizvi (or Naqvi Sayyids).
↑Like Qazi Ahmad Ali, Ahmad Din was also a Sunni from the town of Varmul (Baramulla), who converted to Shiism, see, Hamdani, Hakim Ghulam Safdar (2009). Aush ti Aab (in Kashmiri) (2nd ed.). Delhi: Skyline Publications.
↑According to Shafi Shauq, Fakhir (d. 1780) also introduced the genre of ghazal into Kashmiri language, see, Shauq, Shafi and Munwar, Najji (2008). Kashir Zaban ti Adabuk Twarikh (in Kashmiri). Srinagar: Ali Muhammad & Sons. pp.125-127. ISBN 978-81-921925-7-4
↑Sateh also served as the companion of the Mughal emperor, Farukh Siyyar (r. 1713-1719), before returning to Kashmir after the emperor's execution.
↑Mulla Ibrahim Munjim (or Mulla Abdul Rahim Munjim) served as the tutor of Nawwab Ibrahim Khan (d. 1709), who served as Mughal Governor of Kashmir in 1662-63, 1679-86, 1701-05 and 1709. See, Kashmiri, Mirza Muhammad Ali (2009). Barzegar, Dr. Karim Najafi (ed.). Tazkira-i Zafran Zar (in Persian). Tehran: Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries.
↑ 32.032.132.232.332.432.5Shi'ism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shia Rivalry and Reconciliation{{#if:Hamdani|, Hamdani}. I.B. Tauris(2023). ISBN 9780755643950
↑Azim was intimately connected with the Sikh and Dogra court and used his official position to further the interests of Kashmir Shia Muslims. He was the only Muslim Chief Jagirdar who enjoyed the confidence of the first Dogra ruler, Maharaja Gulab Singh, serving as his Chief Physician as well as the custodian of the Sericulture industry (daroga-i kiram kashan), see, Zuthsi, Chitralekha (2003). Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir. Delhi: Permanent Black. p.73. ISBN 81-7824-060-2
↑Qasim was also an acclaimed calligrapher, for details see, Hamdani, Hakim Sameer; Qureshi, Mehran (11 January 2024), "The Art of the Book in Early Modern Kashmir", The Routledge Companion to Global Renaissance Art, New York: Routledge, pp. 300–315, doi:10.4324/9781003294986-25, Template:ISBN, retrieved 24 August 2024
↑Habib also left a diwan of Persian poetry. Outside the genre of marsiya he is also known for his satirical poetry which brings to the fore various aspects of Kashmiri society in the 19th century, these include, Greias Nama and Sehlab Nama. See, Kazmi, Anees, and Manzar, MY (1981). Kuliyat-i Hakim Habib-al Lah (in Kashmiri). Srinagar: J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages.
↑Kashiren Marssiyen Hund Intikhab{{#if:Ansari|, Ansari}. Sahitiya Academy(2015). ISBN 978-81-260-4855-7
↑ 46.046.1Kashir Kilasaqi Marsiye: Ahang ti Arouz'. Sheeraza.
↑The first translations undertaken in Urdu include those by Hakim Ghulam Safdar and Munshi Muhammad Sadiq.
↑Template:Transliteration was composed by Mulla Hakim Azim in 1253AH/ 1837 CE. See, Sajjid, Maqbool (2000). Kuliyat-i Hakim Azim wa Munshi Muhammad Yusuf (in Kashmiri). Srinagar: Imam Hussein Research & Publishing Centre. p.22.
↑Shauq, Shafi and Munwar, Najji (2018). Kashir Zuban ti Adabuk Twarikh (in Kashmiri). Srinagar: Ali Muhammad & Sons. p. 91. ISBN 978-81-921925-7-4
↑Shi'ism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shia Rivalry and Reconciliation{{#if:Hamdani|, Hamdani}. I.B. Tauris(2023). ISBN 9780755643950
↑Prominent zakir families in Kashmir who continue to practice the art include: the Fakir family (Budibog), Khwaja family (Gund Khwaja Qasim), Malik family (Tangmarg), Rather family (Hanjjiyar), Sufi family (Magam), and various branches of the Sayyid family. See, Sajjid, Maqbool (2013). Kashir Marthiauk Safar: An anthology of Kashmiri Marsiya (in Kashmiri).Srinagar: J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. p. 155.
↑The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of Kashmir (Early 14th–18th Century){{#if:Hamdani|, Hamdani}. Routledge India(2021-02-17). ISBN 978-1-003-09652-8
↑The travelogue was written by a Muslim woman from Hyderabad who also worked for India's freedom and greater women's emancipation, see, Mirza, Sughra Humayun (1930). Rahbar-i Kashmir (in Urdu).Hyderabad: Azam Press.
↑The first imambada built in Kashmir at Zadibal, Srinagar is known in the vernacular as Marak. For details, see, Hamdani, Hakim Sameer (2015). "The Maarak and the Traditions of Imamabadas in Kashmir" Marg (September–December). Mumbai.
↑Shi'ism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shia Rivalry and Reconciliation{{#if:Hamdani|, Hamdani}. I.B. Tauris(2023). ISBN 9780755643950
