Note 63 — The Fifteenth New Year’s Feast after the Auspicious Accession

The merchants and artificers of this country are mostly Sunnis, while the soldiers are Imāmiyya Shias. There is also the sect of Nūr-bak͟hs͟hīs.63 There is also a body of Faqirs whom they call Rīs͟hīs.64 Though they have not religious knowledge or learning of any sort, yet they possess simplicity, and are without pretence. They abuse no one, they restrain the tongue of desire, and the foot of seeking; they eat no flesh, they have no wives, and always plant fruit-bearing trees in the fields, so that men may benefit by them, themselves deriving no advantage. There are about 2,000 of these people. There is also a body of brahmans living from of old in this country, who still remain there and talk in the Kashmiri tongue. Outwardly one cannot distinguish them from Mussulmans. They have, however, books in the Sanskrit language, and read them. They carry into practice whatever relates to the worship of idols. Sanskrit is a language in which the learned of India have composed books, and esteem them greatly. The lofty idol temples which were built before the manifestation of Islam are still in existence, and are all built of stones, which from foundation to roof are large, and weigh 30 or 40 maunds, placed one on the other. Near the city there is a small hill which they call Kūh-i-Mārān65 (“The Wicked Hill,” Lawrence, 298), as well as Harī Parbat. On the east side of the hill there is the Dal Lake, which measures round a little more than 6½ koss.66 My father (may the lights of Allah be his testimony!) gave an order that they should build in this place a very strong fort of stone and lime; this has been nearly completed during the reign of this suppliant, so that the little hill has been brought into the midst of the fortifications, and the wall of the fort built round it. The lake is close to the fort, and the palace overlooks the water. In the palace there was a little garden, with a small building in it in which my revered father used constantly to sit. At this period it appeared to me to be very much out of order and ruinous. As it was the place where that veritable qibla (place turned towards in prayer) and visible Deity used to sit, and it is really a place of prostration for this suppliant, therefore its neglected state did not appear right to me. I ordered Muʿtamid K., who is a servant who knows my temperament, to make every effort to put the little garden in order and repair the buildings. In a short space of time, through his great assiduity, it acquired new beauty. In the garden he put up a lofty terrace 32 yards square, in three divisions (qit̤ʾa), and having repaired the building he adorned it with pictures by masterhands, and so made it the envy of the picture gallery of China. I called this garden Nūr-afzā (light increasing).