Mir Syed Ali Hamadani
Revolutionary & Visionary
Mir Syed Ali Hamadani - Harbinger of Humanism in Kashmir
Editorial
Kashmir has had many a period of glory before the advent of Islam. It has a long chain of dynasties, Suraj Bansi, Pandava, Mauraya, Kushan, Gonandya, white Huns, Karokata, Utapala, and Loharas. Some of the dynasties had not only their periods of glory in this beautiful land but there borders extended deep in South of India and touched the borders of Gandahara. For his conquering territories after territories Kalhana called Laltadiditya 'universal monarch moving around the earth like the sun.' ...
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Life and Thought of Mir Saiyid Ali Hamadani
He was the son of Saiyid Shihabu'd-Din, the governor of Hamadan. Popularly known in Kashmir as Shah-i Hamadan, Saiyid 'Ali was born at Hamdan on 12 Rajab, 714/ 22 October 1314. His genealogy is traceable to the family of the fourth Caliph , Hazrat 'Ali. He received early education from his maternal uncle, 'Ala'u'd-Dawla, a pious Sufi, who is sometimes confused with the distinguished erudite Sufi scholar, 'Ala'u'd-Dawla Simnani. Initiated into the Kubrawiyya order by Shaikh Sharafu'd-Din Mahmu...
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Hazrat Shah Hamadans Contemporary Relevance
There is a particular category of personages in human history who always remain relevant. They are the distinguished sons of mankind who establish a contact with the Ultimate Reality, Allah (SWT) who is Timeless and Universal in the absolute sense. Those who are able to establish a spiritual contact with Allah acquire a relative type of timelessness and universality and never cease to become relevant. It is in this sense that we speak of them as men who never die but always remain alive.
Of course ordinary men like us discover the relevance of these great souls in relation to our own time and space. Looking around us in the second decade of the twenty-first century and then looking back at Hazrat Shah Hamadan's revolutionary achievements we find that he is immediately relevant to us in three main ways.
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Mir Syed Ali Hamadani (RA): His Influence on Life and Society of Kashmir.
Syed Ali Hamadani was a great reformer and a visionary who has impacted almost all the aspects of the lives of Kashmiris. Be it religious or spiritual dimension or social and political , be it the economic activity by introducing the arts and crafts of Iran and Central Asia in Kashmir or the instructions to the Kings and rulers ,in all these matters the influence and impact of Syed Ai Hamadani cannot be undermined. .He has influenced the Muslim Rishis and Hindu ascetics equally by his deep sp...
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The Relevance of Shah-i- Hamdan in the Present Day Kashmir
In today's Kashmir Shah-i-Hamdan is relevant from various perspectives , chief among them is growing menace of manufactured religious sectarianism ,economic deprivation and mismanagement, absence of skilled native man power , misrule and miss governance, observance of rituals rather than the spirit of religion and so on and so forth. I would rather exclusively focus on his take on sectarianism, which is posing a grave threat to our unity, and forces over which we have no control are fueling c...
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Shah-i-Hamadan and Modern Kashmir Identity.
Six and quarter centuries after his departure from Kashmir, Mir Saiyid Al Hamadani (1314-1385) like a roaring stream continues to run through social, cultural and religious discourses of the elysian land. Mostly scholars, researchers and experts have been focusing on mysticism and Sufism of the Saiyed. Of late some academicians are engaged in giving spin to Sufi orders to suit the dominant discourse. The spin-doctors working on the campuses have not only been politicizing the four orders of S...
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Durr Hazur-e-Amir-e-Kabir Mir Syed Ali Hamdani
Kashmir specific poetic treatise in Iqbal's 'Javid Nama'
How does Amir-e-Kabir Mir Syed Ali Hamdani [RA] relate to Kashmir, probably nothing explains it in as fine a manner and with as deft a touch as exhibited by the art of Allama Iqbal [RA]. The art in Persian poetic form, the finest medium of human expression encompasses the entire spectrum of Amir-e-Kabir's thought vis-à-vis Kashmir. However general issues with implied Kashmir specificity do get addressed, if only to frame Kashmir in her various perspectives. The long poem is a part of Allama I...