‘Cultural superiority and exclusiveness located in its urbanity’: What makes Srinagar special

City of Kashmir, Srinagar: A Popular History, a short portrait of Srinagar city, is the third book by writer and art historian Sameer Hamdani. His first book, The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of Kashmir (Early 14th–18th Century), explores the composite character of Islamic religious spaces in Kashmir, building on his expertise as an architect and heritage consultant. His second book, Shi’ism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shia Rivalry and Reconciliation, delves into the history of sectarian relations between Shias and Sunnis in Kashmir.

Hamadani told Scroll that his fourth book will be the first major academic exploration of one of Kashmir’s top Sufi mystics, Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom, whose monastery on the hills of Hari Parbat in the city is an important religious landmark in Kashmir.

The City of Kashmir is a highly readable, engaging new offering that recentres Srinagar away from the narrative of turmoil and unrest and towards its unexplored past, when it emerged as a major urban settlement in South Asia, lying at the intersection of Chinese, Indian and Persian empires.

Drawing on vernacular literature and material artefacts spanning Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic periods, the book invites readers into a forgotten past of Srinagar, which had once served as a go-between connecting multiple cultures on the historic Silk Road.

At his residence on the banks of Nigeen Lake in Srinagar, Hamdani spoke to Scroll about his latest work. Excerpts from the conversation:

Kashmir is one big canvas to draw upon. Why did you specifically choose to write about Srinagar city?
Srinagar does to a large extent represent what Kashmir is. My interest in the city is chiefly personal. This is the city I have been living in for the past 40 years or more. For almost 14 generations, my family has been living in this very city. This is the city where I have worked. My childhood memories are of the city. Everything that makes me what I am is represented in this city. Beyond that, as an architect, I have a certain interest in the formation of urban life and how it manifests itself in the city. Srinagar is a very, how to put it, close-to-my-heart case study.

In your book, you have highlighted the role of the Partition in 1947 in bringing an end to Srinagar’s status as a receptacle of traditions from as far as the Ottoman Empire on one hand, to Suzhou in China on the other. Tell us what you found during your research.
Partition was an event resulting in the formation of modern nation-states, as a result of which, somehow, it is assumed that your legitimacy as a citizen is limited to a life defined by a certain line drawn on the physical landscape – my border, your border, our border. But the reality is that we as a people are as much connected to lands down South as we are towards our West and even North.

This is something that we might need to consider – how modern nation-states have reshaped our identities. Historically, the material culture of Srinagar tells us it was a city that engaged with diverse regions, diverse empires and diverse cultural environments and movements of people and ideas. We read about Buddhist monks from Kashmir who spread Buddhism in China, Sri Lanka and parts of South East Asia. Then there are texts authored by the famous Buddhist traveller Xuanzang. His narrative about Srinagar is an important archive of the city’s pluralistic identity.

Similarly, other evidence tells us we were as much a part of the Persianate world as we are of the Indic world. There are overlaps between what has happened in our historical life and it has left its material imprints everywhere across the city, a stele inscribed with Persian text here, or a manuscript written with Sanskrit verses there. We progressed as people or as a city only when we were open to these connections.

What was the farthest extent of the borders of the Kashmiri Empire ruled from Srinagar?
That question is open to interpretation. Some would say the kingdom extended as far as the Kaveri River down South and up to Iran in the West. In our imagination, we have a (Muslim) sultan and a (Hindu) king who both expanded the natural boundaries of Kashmir, although we don’t have archaeological evidence for any of it. From what we know from the textual sources, it seems that Lalitaditya (the Hindu king who ruled Kashmir in the 8th century) was the one to have carried the flags of Kashmir to faraway lands.

Is there any difference between Srinagar, ruled by Kashmir’s pre-Islamic Hindu kings, and the city ruled by the Muslim Sultans?
A city evolves through a process of layering. The native Muslim sultans added one layer. After that, the Mughals added a layer, too. The Afghans and the Sikhs added layers of their own. Today, the city is a sum of all these multiple layers that we have inherited, with each layer adding a unique texture. It is these multiple threads that are woven into our lives and experiences in what we locally call wathun bihun.

You seem to have taken a break from the past narratives about Mughals being the invaders who forcibly took over Kashmir in the 16th century? Instead, you say that their time in Kashmir was that of prosperity and cultural effervescence. Can you describe what Mughal Rule in Srinagar looked like?
Mughals presided over what was certainly one of the greatest empires in the early modern period and the amount of talent the royal courts in Delhi or Agra attracted were incredibly large. There are references that people in, let’s say, Samarkand are saying, “Let’s go to Mughal court in Delhi to try our luck.”

We also know a large amount of this movement was also flowing towards Srinagar. In their courtly accounts, Mughals are celebrating Kashmir as paradise. It becomes a norm in the Mughal court to go to visit Srinagar to witness this paradise and to see what the hype is about.

There are officially commissioned poets who are being asked to write about the land and about how Mughals are enriching Kashmir. The munificence that is coming because of the Mughals could be seen in the architectural projects and the huge landscaped gardens that we have in Srinagar. Some accounts speak of 700 gardens in the city itself and that show us the Mughal proclivity for Srinagar in terms of the construction activities that the empire commissioned. Then there’s also this notion of Kashmir as a hub for Persian literary creativity during the Mughal period.

We have the Mughal emperors and their subedars in the city presiding over the majalis wherein you have poets from various kingdoms coming to Kashmir and interacting with native Kashmiri poets.

What historic role has Srinagar played, if any, in determining the broader Kashmiri cultural and political zeitgeist of the Kashmir Valley?
The title of Srinagar as being the “Shahr-e-Kashmir” dates back to the medieval period, more so to the early modern period of our history. The name itself captures the idea that the cultural and social outpouring that Kashmir is known for originates or let me say finds its greatest expression in Srinagar.

Which is true to a certain degree because Srinagar was the major, rather the only polis – as it is even today. We still speak of one shahr (city) in Kashmir and that is Srinagar city.

As for the zeitgeist or mood – the mijaz – by which we mean the spirit of time, Srinagar certainly hoists the idea of a cultural superiority, an exclusiveness which is located in its urbanity. But then, equally, the city tends to be cosmopolitan, connected, vibrant and open to multiculturalism. Which I believe is what makes Kashmir the land, simultaneously open and yet equally conscious of its own distinctness.

In the age of AI, when the historical inquiries about a place can be just one prompt away, what makes your book special and authentic?
I am not against AI per se. It is a tool that is going to inform our future to a large extent. But, then even if we assume the AI-driven understanding of the past to be benign, it can and will inform you only about what is written, what has been discovered, at best, the latest state of investigation in any field of study. It does not undertake a study or an investigation on its own. AI is not going from mohalla to mohalla, ghat to ghat, house to house and investigating and interacting – so far at least. That is something that I hope readers of the book will find. Studies, investigations and understanding based on two decades lived in the city as a researcher.