Darasgah-i-Mulla Haider was established in the reign of Jahangir by Mulla Haidar Allama in Mahalla Gojwara near the poets’ Gardens, Baghat-i-Sha’ir Wari and it turned out a large number of scholars.
Khwaja Khawand Mahmud Naqshbandi founded the Madrasa-i-Khwajagan-i-Naqshband in the reign of Shah Jahan in Khwaja Bazar near Khanqah Naqshbandi. Mulla Haqdad of Badakhshan was the head of the madrasa.
Prince Dara Shukuh, who wrote his Risala-i-Haqq-numa in 1646 AC. while he was in Kashmir, will be remembered for having established the residential ‘School of Sufism’ for Kasb-i-Mah (literally, (Acquisition of the Moon) at the instance of his spiritual tutor, Akhund Mulla Muhammad Shah Badakhshani, on a spur of the Zebarwan mountain higher up the present Chashma-i-Shahi. Shaikh Shah Muhammad bin Mulla Abd Muhammad, commonly known as Mulla Shah or Lisanullah, came for Arksa, near Rustaq in Badakhshan, to Lahore in 1023 AH(1635 AC), Mulla Shah retired to Kashmir where he passed many days of his life in this monastery built by Dara Shukuh and his sister Jahan Ara. Mulla Shah died at Lahore in 1072 AH (1661-62 AC). He was of the Qadiri triqa of Sufis.
The Mulla was a voluminous writer and has left a Divan, which has been lithographed, besides several works on Sufism. Dara’s Sakinatul-Awliya gives the Mulla’s life . This school of Sufism for Kasb-i-Mah, among other things, taught penance and devotion, for purification of mind and elevation of soul, by devotional exercises, performed at night during moonlight. The beauty of spot, its solitude, its general magnificent view of the surroundings particularly of the dark blue, calm, unruffled water of the Dal for a mile and the charm of softening moon light must have had, no doubt, a most ennobling effect on the mind of the devotees. It is a contrast indeed that, while Akbar had his inclination to the Sun, Dara Shukuh turned to the moon ! But I am afraid we have yet to be clear on this Kasb-i-Mah. The building is now in ruins and is called Pari Mahal (the Fairy Palace), after the name of Dara Shukuh’s wife Nadira Begam known as Pari Begam. She was the daughter of Prince Parviz, Jahangir’s son and is buried in the Dargah of Miyan Mir, Lahore.
The pari Mahal with a domed ceiling had a garden with six terraces watered by a nearby spring. The retaining wall was ornamented with a series of arches. One statement attributes the construction of the Mahall to astronomical observations, another to astrological studies under the Mughals.
The Pari mahal is also called Kuntilun, because, it is said, it was to be “a copy of a castle named Tilun in India.” But when ready, the Mahal was not found to equal the Tilun. Dara Shukuh, therefore, in disgust remarked Ku Tilun, i.e., what comparison could it bear with Tilun. This was corrupted into Kuntilun. This is the statement of the late Pandit Anand Kaul Bamzai, ex-president, Srinagar Muncipality, for which no authority has been quoted by him in his Archaeological Remains. The explanation could be held plausible only if one could be sure of the location and importance of Tilun in India which is hardly known at all.
The Madrasa-i-Sayyid Mansur came into existence in 1125AH (1717AC), under the patronge of Nawwab Inayatullah Khan, governor of Kashmir during Mughal rule. Akhund Mulla Sulaiman Kallu was appointed to the headship of the madrasa and the village of Wangam was assigned for its maintenance. The Madrasa-i-Mulla Kamal and Mulla Jamal turned out men like Shaikh Isma’il Chishti, Baba Nasib-ud-Din Ghazi and Qazi Abu’l Qasim.
Amir Fathullah Shirazi died of typhoid due to intemperate eating of harisa or ‘pottage of wheat and meat’ in 998AH (1589AC) in Srinagar and was buried at the Kuh-i-Sulaiman beside the grave of Sayyid Abdullah Khan Chaugan Begi. It was in Srinagar, Maulavi Muhammad Husain Azad has noted, that Akbar was enjoying his visit in 997AH (1588AC). And it was also in Srinagar in 1005AH=1596AC, that Akbar asked Jamal-ud-Din Husain Inju or Anju to compile the Persian lexicon afterwards known as the Farhang-i-Jahangiri. Jamal-ud-Din took twelve years to complete the work and finished it in 1017AH in the reign of Jahangir, after whom it was named. Jahangir writes : ” In truth he (Anju) had taken much pains and collected together all the words from the writings of ancient poets. There is no book like this in the science.” It was revised by the author towards the end of his life. Jamal-ud-Din was promoted to the title of Azud-ud-Daulah (The Upper Arm of the State) by Jehangir. It is stated in the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri that jamal-ud-Din presented a copy of the lexicon to Jehangir in the 18th year of his reign (1032AH = 1622AC). Jamal-ud-Din was, for some years, governor of Bihar.
Mulla Muhammad Ali Kashmiri turned to Ahmadnagar in his early youth and took up employment on the staff of Sa’adat Khan Dakkani in the dominion of the Nizam Shahis. Later on he was attached to the King, Sultan Burhan-ulMulk. When Khan Khanam Abdur Rahim took Ahmadnagar, Mulla Muhammad Ali got on to his staff. On Mulla’s impressing Abdur Rahim by his ability, he was engaged in translating the well known work of Allamatul- Ulama’ Khwaja Sa’in-ud-Din from Arabic into Persian. It was on the 15th Rabius-Sani. 1025AH=1615-16AC, that Mulla Ali died at Malkapur now in the Buldana district of Berar, central provinces and is buried there.
An eminent poet and insha-writer was Mula Muhammad Yusuf Kashmiri Hamdani. Yusuf distinguished himself as a soldier too. He was the brother of Muhammad Sadiq Kashmiri, the author of the Tabaqat-i-Shah Jahani. Jahangir, as the Pupil of Faizi, had a special taste for Persian Poetry. Abu Talib Kalim, who was born in 1028AH (1618AC) and who died on 5th Zulhijja, 1061AH=1651AC, was the poet-laureate of Shah Jahan. He was engaged in versifying for the emperor the Padshah-nama also called Shah-nama or Shahinshah-nama in Kashmir when he died suddenly. He was buried not far from the tomb of Muhammad Quli Salim, who died in 1057AH (1647AC) and who was another well-known poet of the reign of Shah Jahan.
Muhammad Sadiq Kashmiri is the author of the Tabaqat-i-Shah jahani which consists of the lives of eminent men who flourished under Timur and his successors down to the reign of Shah Jahan. Muhammad Sadiq was born about 1000AH=1591AC. He spent his life in Delhi where he met Mulla Kami of Sabzwar and Shaikh Husain Kamangar. Sadiq situated under Shaikh Fa’iz and became a favourite disciple of Shaikh Abdul Haqq Dihlavi from whom he daily received affectinate notes during an illness which befell him in that city. Muhammad Sadiq had contemplated, as he states in the preface, compiling the lives of Saints, philosopher and poets from the time of the early Khalifs to the reign of Shah Jahan, but he was compelled by want of leisure to confine himself to those who lived under the house of Timur. The Tabaqat-i-Shah Jahani is divided into ten periods of tabaqqat, corresponding to the reigns of Timur and his successors, viz., (1) Timur (2) Miran Shah and Shah Rukh, (3) Mirza Sultan Muhammad and Uleg Beg, (4) Abu Sa’id, (5) Umar Shaikh, (6) Babur, (7) Humayun, (8) Akbar (9) Jahangir and (10) Shah Jahan. In each of the Tabaqat, the biographical notices are arranged in three sections or abwab comprising (1) The Sayyids andd Saints, (2) The learned or the Ulama, (3) Physicians or the Hukama and men of letters or the Fuzala, and (4) The poets or the Shuara.
Reference:
Sufi,G.M.D (1996). Kashmir Under The Mughals. Kashir: Being A History Of Kashmir(pp. 393-400) Delhi:Capital Publishing House.
