A study of ritual behaviour and its impact on the evolution of Kashmiri Muslim society

Abstract

Abstract The Kashmir valley is a centre of a large variety of Sūfi traditions. While they represent the success of Islam in establishing itself, many of the ritual components can be traced to pre‐Islamic practices. These are often condemned by the more ‘puritanical’ exponents of contemporary Islam, but the scholar can through them identify elements of the process by which the local communities became Muslim. This article particularly considers the role played by the recitation of the Aurad‐i Fathiyya prayer, compiled in the fourteenth century CE by Mir Sayyid ‘Ali Hamadani. Sources indicate that he was particularly tolerant of non‐Muslims and did not engage in assertive proselytism when he visited Kashmir, much to the chagrin of more demanding scholars and spiritual leaders. The record of Sayyid ‘Ali's activities, which exists both in the form of historical records and in popular memory, shows the close relationship between Islam as theology and Islam as historical realization.