02/05/2022
The Hazratbal Shrine (Kashmiri: درگاه حَضْرَت بل), popularly called Dargah Sharif ("the Holy Shrine"), is a Muslim shrine located in Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. It contains a relic, Moi-e-Muqqadas, which is widely believed to be the hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is situated on the northern bank of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, and is considered to be Kashmir's holiest Muslim shrine.
The shrine contains strands of what is believed by many Muslims to be the hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The relic was first brought to Kashmir by Syed Abdullah Madani, a purported descendant of Muhammad who left Medina (in present-day Saudi Arabia) and settled in the South Indian city of Bijapur in 1635, at a time when the Islamic Mughal Empire was rapidly expanding across India.
Following Abdullah's death, his son Syed Hameed inherited the relic. The region was conquered by the Mughals shortly afterwards, and Hameed was stripped of his family estates. Finding himself unable to care for the relic, he passed it to Khwaja Nur-ud-Din Eshai, a wealthy Kashmiri businessman.
However, when the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was informed of the holy relic's existence and transfer, he had it seized and sent to the shrine of Sufi mystic Mu'in al-Din Chishti in Ajmer, and imprisoned Eshai in Delhi. After nine days Aurangzeb had a dream of Muhammad with four caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and Ali. In the dream, Muhammad ordered him to send the Moi-e-Muqaddas to Kashmir from Ajmer. Then Aurangzeb returned the holy relic to Eshai and allow him to take it to Kashmir. However, Eshai had already died while imprisoned. By 1700, the relic had been transported to Kashmir, along with the body of Eshai. There, Inayat Begum, the daughter of Eshai, became the custodian of the relic and established the Hazratbal Shrine. Since then, her male descendants have been caretakers of the relic at the mosque.
