Persian and Central Asian Context of Islam in...

Persian and Central Asian Context of Islam in Kashmir (Fourteenth – Sixteenth Century)

Author Name : Fahmeeda Wani

ABSTRACT This paper argues with substantial evidence that for understanding and appreciating the Islam as practiced in Kashmir, it is inter alia pre-requisite to consider the fountain head from which this belief flowed to the valley namely Iran and Central Asia where for centuries together a rich and vibrant Muslim culture had evolved providing flesh and blood to the Islamic civilization, though in some respects it militates against many basic fundamentals of Islam, a compulsion of the socio-cultural and psychological factors with which Islam had to make compromises for its own survival. Hence Islam of Kashmir is persianate by extension as Kashmiri language is persianate by extension, to borrow the language of Marshal Hodgson.