Shaikh Shams-ud-Din Muhammad al-Isfahani commonly known as Mir Shams-ud-Din Iraqi who was a precher from Talish, on the shores of the Caspian. Sham’s father was Ibrahim. His mother came from a Musavi Sayyid family of Qazvin. With the aid of his disciples, Mir Shams-ud-Din won over a large number of converts. According to Mirza Haider Dughlat, Shams-ud-Din arrived from Iraq in the first reign of Sultan Fath Shah and converted many thousands thousands of people. After this, he was crowned in the name of the Twelve Imams. The Shia’s of Kashmir contend that he was a true Shia, and that the Ahwat, or ‘Most Comprehensive,’ a book in Arabic, containing the tenets of the Nur Bakhshi sect, – prevalent at present in Baltistan- is not his composition. Firishta says that Mir Shams-ud Din was a disciple of Sayyid Muin-ud-Din Ali known as Shah Qasim Zar-bakhsh, the son of Sayyid Muhammad Nur Baksh of Khurasan, Sayyid Muhammad being a disciple of Khwaja Is-haq Khatlani.
Sultan Fath Shah made over to Mir Shams-ud-Din all the confiscated lands which had fallen to the crown, and in a short time, Chaks were converted by him. The Shia doctrine, however, did not gain much support from the people of the Valley. Mir Shams-ud-din Iraqi was buried at Jadi-bal, a quarter in Srinagar, near which Kaji Chak built a large Imambara in the reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah. The grave of Shaikh Iraqi is held in great veneration by the pro-Iraqi party of Shias of Kashmir as the Pro-Iraqi party of Shias do not believe in his being a Sayyid. Malik Haidar Chadur, himself a noted Shia, also calls him Shaikh Shams-ud-Din Iraqi, in his Tarikh. There is a report that the dead body of Mir Shams-ud din Iraqi was removed to Chadur to avoid desecration by non-Shias.
Reference:
Sufi,G.M.D (1996). Kashmir Under The Mughals. Kashir: Being A History Of Kashmir(pp.109-111) Delhi:Capital Publishing House.
