This was the beginning of miseries for the people of Kashmir. The rather notorious role of Sayyid Ali Hamdani (popularly called Shah-i-Hamdan in Kashmir by Muslims) in changing the mindset of foreign Muslim invaders-cum-rulers from fairly benign to extremely fanatic Muslims is clear from the fact that he asked Sultan-Qutubdin to impose Shariah (Islamic Laws) in Kashmir. About Sayyid Ali Hamdani, Bahiristan-i-Shahi says (and I quote): “Again it needs to be recorded that for some of the time which the holy Amir spent in Kashmir he lived in a sarai at ’Alau’d-Din Pora. At the site where his khanqah was built, there existed a small temple, which was demolished so he could offer namaz (prayer) five times a day and recite portions of the Quran morning and evening. Sultan Qutbu’d-Din occasionally attended these congregational prayers.” I am choosing a Muslim source to quote, for, it lends credence to the fact that such demolitions were glorified and even considered righteous by the Muslim rulers, historians and the Amirs. After the death of Sultan-Qutubdin, he was succeeded by his son Sultan Sikandar, who needs no introduction.
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