A three-day international conference on the contribution of 14th-century Persian Sufi saint Mir Sayyid Ali bin Shahab-ud-Din Hamadani to “knowledge and learning” beginning here on Tuesday is expected to be attended by Islamic scholars, academicians and intellectuals from different parts of the world, including Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan and other central and south Asian countries.
Also, their counterparts from within India, including senior faculty members at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Milia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Hamdard and other universities, will present their papers during the conference at the University of Kashmir. Ambassador of Tajikistan in India Said Beig Sadoiv would be the chief guest during the inaugural session to be presided over by Kashmir University vice-chancellor Talat Ahmad.
Mir Sayyid (1384-1314), popularly known as “Shah-e-Hamadan” or King of Hamadan in Kashmir for he was born in Hamadan, Iran, and as Amir-e-Kabir (the Great Commander) was a poet and a prominent Muslim scholar besides being a spiritual leader. He was a prolific traveller of his time and travelled far and wide throughout the Muslim world and was very influential in spreading Islam in Kashmir and has had a major hand in shaping the culture of the Valley.
He wrote several short works on spirituality and Sufism and was immortalised by poets like Iqbal. He is buried in Khatlan, Tajikistan, where his mausoleum has fascinated large number of religious pilgrims from Kashmir in the recent past.