On the terraced slopes of Srinagar’s famous Hari Parbat, lie the ruins of the Mulla Shah mosque—a rectangular structure surrounded by thick walls containing monastic cells. Dating back to the Mughal era in the 17th century, the mosque is currently being restored by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). It is the only ancient mosque in Kashmir to be commissioned by a woman—by Shah Jahan’s eldest daughter, Jahanara Begum. This fact is unknown to many: even the ASI board at the site incorrectly ascribes it to Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan’s eldest son and the crown prince. 

The ASI work at the site includes the restoration of the mosque’s veneer tiles that have fallen away over the centuries. The curtain walls of the cells will be repaired too, along with the lotus-crowned finial, which is the only surviving example of its kind in India. “We are trying to reset some of the elements of the mosque to their original dimensions,” said an ASI official familar with restoration work who preferred to stay unnamed. 

“There was an opening at the rear that allowed trespassers to get in. We have closed that, sticking to the original style of masonry in filling the gap. The repair will take place in patches, only in those sections that require it,” he added.

Named after a Sufi mystic who had considerable influence over the Mughal court, the Mulla Shah mosque is located on the way to the shrine of Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom, another prominent Sufi saint of Kashmir. Although many Mughal-era chronicles describe the latter in effusive terms, there is not much on Mulla Shah. Even in the present day, the droves of devotees who visit the shrine of Makhdoom Sahib skirt past the Mulla Shah ruins. The popular but erroneous belief is that the monastic cells served as jails. 

Jahanara, a powerful woman of the Mughal court

In fact, when it comes to the Mulla Shah mosque, popular misconceptions are many, fed by the Internet in no small measure. As said earlier, it is often ascribed to Dara Shikoh when it is Jahanara Begum who paid for its construction. A Persian couplet attributed to Mulla Shah at the mosque clearly identifies Jahanara as its patron: “Of the stone did Begum sahib make a building. The noble child of [the] faith-protecting Shah Jahan.” 

Jahanara, the Padshah Begum (first lady) of Shah Jahan’s court after her mother’s death, was a powerful woman. As the eldest of 14 siblings, she had the authority and wherewithal to fund the lavish weddings of her younger brothers, including that of the prince (and future emperor), Aurangzeb. 

The construction of the mosque seems to have been left incomplete after Mulla Shah was recalled to Lahore following the execution of Dara Shukoh in 1659, on the orders of Aurangzeb. There are tell-tale signs of this. The Quranic verses that should have been hammered into low-relief inscriptions are only stencilled on the mosque’s mihrab (prayer niche). The large limestone blocks scattered outside the quadrangle are partially engraved with baluster designs.

A fragmentary stone finial in the shape of a lotus graces the top of the mihrab cell. Some of its petals, carved from stones, are strewn about in the courtyard. The ASI plans to place these fragments in their correct positions and reconstruct the lotus. 

Does the ASI have a blueprint for the restoration? The official quoted earlier said that they have roped in a team of skilled draftsmen “who have worked out a formula based on geometry”. 

Historians studying the Mughal empire trace the mosque’s origin to the clash between the puritanical strains gathering force in the Mughal court under Shah Jahan and the latent heterodox tendencies embodied by the emperor’s two eldest children, prince Dara Shukoh and princess Jahanara. Scholars of architecture have confirmed this by noticing the mosque’s unconventional typology. The Quranic inscriptions on its entrance portal are not about the exaltation of Islam or Allah but are “engaging secular invitations to enter the structure,” said Afshan Bokhari, author of Imperial Women in Mughal India: The Piety and Patronage of Jahanara Begum. The mihrab portion, though, has mandatory Quranic verses praising Allah. 

According to Bokhari, the unconventionality of the mosque’s overall plan was intended to “delude the gaze of those who contested Sufism as a legitimate Islamic strand and who might have tried to suppress the perpetuation of ‘heretical’ studies.”

Legends of Mulla Shah

Mulla Shah seems to have occupied a controversial position in his time. The story goes that during one of his usual trances—an experience known as zikr, central to Sufism—he uttered lines disparaging Prophet Muhammad. He is quoted as saying, “I am hand in hand with God, why should I care about Mustafa [Prophet]?” in Nuskha-yi Ahwal-i Shahi, a 17th century hagiography by Tawakkul Beg, Mulla Shah's chief disciple in Kashmir. The incident stirred anger in the higher echelons of the Mughal court, with the ulema (clergy) petitioning Shah Jahan to execute Mulla Shah for having blasphemed the Prophet. Dara Shukoh reportedly interceded to stall the execution.

“He persuaded the emperor that, because Mulla Shah was the disciple of Miyan Mir, it would be inappropriate to act hastily,” writes Supriya Gandhi in The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India, an authoritative book about the prince. Miyan Mir was a Lahore-based Sufi ascetic acting as the spiritual guide and mentor to the Mughal royalty. He had grown close to the Mughal court after famously curing Dara Shukoh of fever. Gandhi writes that after Dara pleaded on behalf of Mulla Shah, the emperor relented, sparing the “errant” seer’s life.

Later, while travelling in Kashmir in 1634, Dara sought to reconnect with Mulla Shah to deepen his engagement with the Qadiri Sufi order. In Kashmir, Shah’s celebrity had reached a crescendo and he counted both Hindus and Muslims among his disciples. A Persian work from the 17th century, Dabestan-e Mazaheb, even identifies a Hindu youth—Banwali Das, son of Hiraman Kayasth—as one of his disciples. Das was likely to have travelled to Kashmir as part of Shah Jahan’s entourage.

Gandhi’s book brings to light another less known anecdote about Mulla Shah. She writes that when Dara was tasked by the emperor to repel the attempt by the Iranians to wrest control of Kandahar (a part of the Mughal empire at the time), the prince requested Mulla Shah for his blessings. The Sufi saint addressed him in a letter scrawled with the Quranic verses revealed to Prophet Muhammad by God during the Battle of Badr, a significant historical event that tipped the scales in Muhammad’s favour as he confronted his rivals, the Meccans, in the 7th century. 

“As soon as Dara Shukoh crossed the Indus River, in May 1642 (CE), he received word that the Safavid (Iranian) emperor had died... This was a divine intervention, Dara Shukoh felt, aided by Mulla Shah,” Gandhi writes. 

As Mulla Shah rose in estimation at the Mughal court, royal munificence grew too. In 1646, Dara Shukoh built for him an “extraordinary heart-enchanting, pleasure-granting place” (according to Nuskha-yi Ahwal-i Shahi)overlooking the iridescent waters of the Dal lake. This is Pari Mahal, a seven-terraced Mughal garden set among the Himalayan cedar forests, overlooking Srinagar. 

Later, following Mulla Shah’s requests for a hermitage and a congregational mosque, princess Jahanara provided 40,000 Mughal rupees for the construction. Upon its (partial) completion in 1651, Shah Jahan is said to have visited the mosque. However, this claim is not back by Kashmir’s oral or written histories.

Standing in a ruined state today, the mosque still inspires astonishment and awe. It remains to be seen whether the ASI restoration will bring back its lost glory.

Shakir Mir is an independent journalist based in Srinagar. His work is located at the intersection of conflict, politics, history and memory. 

Also Read | The Kushans of Kashmir

Also Read | The shelling did not stop for the children