Fateh Shah Miri

Fateh Shah Miri, or simply Fateh Shah, was a Sultan of the Shah Mir dynasty of Kashmir. Fateh took the throne of Kashmir in 1486 CE. Muhammad Shah regained the throne in 1493 but Fateh soon retook it in 1505 after defeating Muhammad Shah in a battle near Kupwara. Fateh Shah reconstructed the towns of Pulwama and Anantnag. In 1514, he lost his throne again to Muhammad Shah but retook after just a year. Fateh Shah ruled for a total of 18 years from 1486 to 1517. He died in 1517 with the throne being passed over to Muhammad Shah again.

Quotes

• On the imprisonment of Mahomed, Futteh Khan, assuming the reigns of government, and being formally crowned, was acknowledged King of Kashmeer in the year 902; and appointed Suffy and Runga Ray, the two officers who had lately made their escape, his ministers. About this time one Meer Shumsood-Deen, disciple of Shah Kasim Anwur, the son of Syud Mahomed Noorbukhsh arrived in Kashmeer from Irak. Futteh Khan made over to this holy personage all the confiscated lands which had lately fallen to the crown; and his disciples went forth destroying the temples of the idolaters, in which they met with the support of the government, so that no one dared to oppose them. In a short time many of the Kashmeeries, particularly those of the tribe of Chuk, became converts to the Noorbukhsh tenets. The persuasion of this sect was connected with that of the Sheeas; but many proselytes, who had not tasted of the cup of grace, after the death of Meer Shumsood-Deen, reverted to their idols.
  • Sultãn Fath Shãh of Kashmir (AD 1485-1499 and 1505-1516) Kashmir Tãrîkh-i-Firishta, translated by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, first published in 1829, New Delhi Reprint 1981, Vol. IV, pp. 279-80

• Fath Shãh ascended the throne in AH 894 (AD 1488-89)… In those days Mîr Shams, a disciple of Shãh Qãsim Anwar, reached Kashmir and people became his devotees. All endowments, imlãk, places of worship and temples were entrusted to his disciples. His Sûfîs used to destroy temples and no one could stop them…
  • Sultãn Fath Shãh of Kashmir (AD 1489-1499 and 1505-1516) Kashmir . in Nizamuddin Ahmad : Tabqãt-i-Akharî, in :S.A.A. Rizvi included in Uttar Taimûr Kãlîna Bhãrata, Aligarh 1959, Vol. II. p. 527

• Malik Musa ascended the throne in AH 907 (AD 1501). During his reign, he devoted himself to the obliteration of the infidels and busied himself with the spread of the religion of the prophet. He made desolate most of the temples where the infidels had practised idolatry. Wherever there was a temple, he destroyed it and built a mosque in its place… None of the Sultans of Kashmir after Sultan Sikandar… ever made such an effort for the spread of the Islamic faith as did Malik Musa Chadurah, and for this auspicious reason he received the title of the ‘Idol Breaker’.
  • About Malik Musa of Kashmir, who was a minister in the reign of Sultãn Fateh Shah Miri, Tarikh-Kashmir, edited and translated into English by Razia Bano, Delhi, 1991, p. 61.