Earthquake damages oldest Sufi shrine in Srinagar

Rifat Mohidin

Srinagar, October 26

Kashmir’s one of the oldest Sufi shrine, Khanqah-e-Moula that is on the list of Unesco’s World Heritage Site, suffered damages in the earthquake that hit Jammu and Kashmir today.

Located in old Srinagar city, the shrine is one of the important heritage places in Kashmir. Eyewitnesses said the minaret of the shrine sustained damage in the earthquake as well as the tomb of the shrine was knocked loose and tilted after the quake.

The tremors created panic in Srinagar where the intensity of the quake was strongest. People came out of buildings as tremors continued for more than 40 seconds. Some of the buildings also developed cracks.

“Being one of the oldest shrines, the tremors were strongly felt here, everything looked like it would collapse. All the devotees who were present here panicked and started moving out of the shrine,” said one of the caretakers of the shrine. The shrine of Shah-e-Hamdan or Khanqah-e-Moula is one of the oldest Muslim shrines in Srinagar. Situated on the banks of the Jhelum in the old city, the shrine was built in 1395 by Sultan Sikander in memory of the great Sufi saint Mir Syed Ali Hamdani – one of the first preachers of Islam in Kashmir.

In 1493, however, the shrine was reconstructed by Sultan Hassan Shah after being ravaged by a fire in 1480. More than two centuries later in 1731, it was Abul Barkat who restored the shrine to its old glory once again.

On September 7 last year, the swelling Jhelum broke its banks and damaged the woodwork on the ground floor of the heritage shrine. “The floods damaged the rare wood architecture of floor and “hammam”, Ottomman-era baths heated by lighting firewood. And today also the shrine has suffered damaged,” said a member of the Waqf Board, Kashmir, that takes care of shrines and mosques in Kashmir.