NYF Islamabad, Pakistan

from Iran. His disciple Sayed Shamsuddin Iraqi could be regarded as the real man who spread Noorbakhshism in whole of Baltistan. In this article we would see the historical ups and downs causing rise and fall of this community. At the moment, this tiny community is at the verge ofdistinction and is virtually polarized between pro-Shia and Pro-Sunni elements,
The high mountain areas of present-day northern Pakistan have not only preserved several small Kingdoms and a plethora of pre-Islamic beliefs and customs until very recently, but during the last centuries they have also emerged as a sort of refuge for three different Muslim minority groups. While the mainstream Sunni Muslims may nowadays account for only 25 percent of the population in the administrative unit called Northern Areas, some 50 percent belong to the Twelver Shi’a, 15 percent to the Islam’iliya and probably only 10 percent to the noorbakhshi sufi order. The latter is clearly identifiable as a distinct religious sect or community, notwithstanding its closeness to Twelver Shi’ism. The reasons why I have chosen he small noorbakhshi sect for presenting some results of my research in the religious developments in the Northern Areas since the late 19th century to this audience are the following:
First, the noorbakhshi as a distinct community have survived only in those areas, and more precisely in the eastern valleys of Baltistan and in the Shigar valley, thus offering an example of how geographical barriers contribute to the preservation of religious cultures;

Secondly, a serious challenge to the Noorbakhshi ‘ beliefs and to their persistence as a distinct Muslim community has emerged gradually and simultaneously with the opening up of Baltistan to stronger influences from the adjoining lowlands and beyond since the late 19th century, thus being a typical example of highland- lowland cultural interaction. Thirdly, the campaigns of proselytizing of both Sunnis and Shi’is among the Noorbakhshis in our century, and the methods and tactics employed to win converts from them, have been somehow symptomatic for the climate of sectarian competition which is nowadays so widespread in the Northern Areas. Last but not least, during my research fieldwork I have come to appreciate the Noorbakhshis’ unique open heartedness and innocent piety, as well as the deep roots of their brand of Islamic culture in Baltistan the latter is manifested by dozens of ancient but mostly well preserved Khanqahs in the Noorbakhshi villages which serve as their places of worship and communal centers . some of those khanqahs, like those of Shigar, Kiris and Khaplu, are the oldest remaining monuments of Islamic sacral architecture in the Northern Areas. For those in the audience who are unfamiliar with the Noorbakhshis Sufi order and Its history some brief explanations must be given now:

The Noorbakhshiya has emerged in 15th century in Iran as a branch of the kubrawiya Sufi order which had gradually adopted elements of Shi’i doctrine since one century earlier thus we find expressions of special veneration for Ali in Abi Talib, the first rightful succssor of the Prophet Muhammad (piece be upon him) and the first Imam according to Shi’i belief, already in some writings of Ala’ Ud-Daula Semnani and Sayyid Ali Hamadani, both important poles of the kubrawiya during the 14th century. Sayyid Ali Hamadani was one of the most revered missionary –Saint who came from Iran to spread Islam in the Indian subcontinent, especially in Kashmir, and he has long since been reclaimed by Sunni and Shi’i historiographers alike as having been of their religious persuasion. A similar controversy has later developed about the religious affiliation of Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhsh who had been a disciple of Hamadani’ shi’a, principal successor Khwaja Ishaq Khuttalani, and who became the founder and eponym of a new branch of the Kubrawiya. Noorbakhshis doctrines were preached in kashmir and Baltistan in the early 16th century by Mir Shams Ud-Iraqi himself a disciple of Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhshis ‘s son and spiritual heir, Shah Qasim Faidbakhsh. thus it was in the valley of Kashmir and in Baltistan where the Noorbakhshiya gained its greatest prominence in its country of origin, Iran, the order became outright Shi’i some decades after the Safavid dynasty made Twelver Shi’ism the religion of the state in 1501, and the same happened in the valley of Kashmir, either already during the lifetime of Shams Ud- Iraqi, who died in 1527,or in the following decades during the brief interlude of the Chak dynasty’s reign. But in Baltistan the Noorbakhshiya has survived until this day as a sect with doctrines of its own, combining elements of both Shi’i and Sunni Islam. the most important source of those doctrines is the book Al-Fiqh Al-Ahwat, which means the all-encompassing Fiqh, the latter being the terminus used to refer of the Muslim science of religious jurisprudence. While several non-Noorbakhshi authors have considered the book to have been written by Shams Ud-Din ‘Iraqi and falsely attributed to Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhsh themselves have no doubt in its authenticity. One of the first sentences of Al-Fiqh Al-Ahwat reads: God has ordered me to remove the disagreement from among this Umma –it means from the worldwide Muslim community-‘first regarding the legal provisions (furu’). and secondly regarding the principles of religion (usul)". This book, together with a complementary other book attributed to Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhsh Ar-Risala Al-Tuqadiya, in which those principles of the faith are elaborated form the basis of the Noorbakhshis’ claim that their eponym had been neither Sunni nor Shi’a, but had rather been bestowed with a mission to unify all Muslim sects. on the other hand, present-day Noorbakhshis strongly deny allegations that their eponym had ever declared himself to be the Imam Al-Mahdi, who will be the promised just ruler at the end of time according to Shi’a, belief. They dismiss such allegatins as inventions of their enemies, like the Sunni invader of Kashmir Mirza Haidar Dughlat, who had order persecution of the Noorbakhshis in mid 16-th century. I have given only a very basic outline of the doctrinal peculiarities of Baltistan’s Noorbakhshis. They possess in reality an elaborate corpus of rules for worship and daily life which reflects their Sufi heritage as well as elements of both Suni and Shi’i religious law. Besides, Noorbakhshis used to have and uncomplicated way of drawing their inspiration from Sunni as will as form Shi’a, religious books, but with a preference for the writings of the great Sufi masters of the Kubrawiya order and its various branches. If I have portrayed the Noorbakhshis as the oldest Muslim community in the present day Northern Areas some explanations are required. According to general local belief Islam was spread in Baltistan already in the late 14th century by Sayyid Ali Hamadani, but this can not be taken for granted as an established historical fact. The first prominent Muslim missionary whose preaching in Baltistan seems to be beyond all doubts was Shams Ud-Din ‘Iraqi at 1502 or 1505 AD. But even if Hamadani’s missionary travels to Baltistan did indeed take place some 130 years earlier, his teachings were mostly easy compatible with the later Noorbakhshis mission since the Noorbakhshis consider Hamadani as an important figure of their own spiritual chain. There is little doubt that the Noorbakhshis was spread in Baltistan before Twelver Shi’ism but following the pattern of Iran and Kashmir, the latter has gradually absorbed the former a puzzling question remains how and at what time the transformation from Noorbakhshis to Shi’ism took place in the valley of Skardu, the political center of Baltistan.While the 16th century Shardu rulers Ghazi Mir and Ali Sher Khan Anchan are generally being portrayed as Shi’a, in history books Noorbakhshis point at the construction of a large Khanah in Gamba near Skardu as late as 1717 to prove their strong presence in the Skardu valley at that time. One contemporary Noorbakhshis author, Ghulam Hassan Hasnu from Khaplu, has even claimed that the entire Baltistan had remained Noorbakhshis until the last decades of the 19th century which is obviously an exaggeration .But it seems that the majority of the people in the Shigar valley had remained Noorbakhshis that long, until thousands were converted y a particular energetic Shi’i cleric, Sayyid Abbas Al-Musawi from Gol, who settled in the village of Chutron in Shigar valley after 1900. In the principalities of Khaplu and Kiris east of Skardu, Shi’i missionary activity has started even later. The main factor which accelerated the conversion of Balti Noorbakhshis to Shi’ism in the 20th century has been the increased mobility of the local Shi’is who for the first time got the opportunity to travel as far as as Iraq to recieve higher religious education. Wheras the local Shi’is, could have been hardly more sophisticated than the Noorbakhshis in former centuries, those who had made their way to the centers of Shi’a, learning in Iraq, Iran and Northern India returned with a new understanding of their Shi’a, doctrines and developped a zeal to make the Noorbakhshis " real shi’a, ", too. For example, they adopted the practice of seeking guidance from living religious authorities, the Mujtahids, on many questions of their daily lives, and denounced the Noorbakhshis practice of emulating a "dead Mujtahid",Namely Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhshis and his book Al-Fiqh Al-Ahwat. likewise, the local shi’a, ceremonies during the month of Muharram commemorating the sacrifice of Imam Husain became more elaborate and were partly copied b those Noorbakhshis who lived in close contact with shi’is significantly, Sunni proselytism among the Balti Noorbakhshis started during the same period of increased mobility from the late 19th century onwards. The ground for it was prepared by a certain "Mullah Peshawari" who arrived in Baltistan around 1875 and stayed there for the rest of his life. After becoming the teacher of Sayyid Sa’adat Jan , the son of the Noorbakhshis pir residing in Kiris, he attracted many other Noorbakhshis disciples form all over Baltistan he taught them Sunni tenets in a subtle way, together with Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhshis ‘s book Al-Fiqh Al-ahwat, and never openly demanded their conversion, but encouraged them to seek higher religious education in Sunni schools of Northern India. As a result dozens of such Noorbakhshis students returned as converts to Sunni Islam ,and notably as followers of the Ahl-i Hadith sect, which propagates a strict brand of Sunni orthodoxy. in Kiris, the younger son of Sa’adat Jan, Sayyid Abul Hasan, became a most zealous leader of the Ahl-i Hadith sect after he found himself deprived from the hereditary position of the pir of all Noorbakhshis to the benefit of his elder brother. In the nearby village of Ghwarri, another convert from the Noorbakhshis founded an Ahl-i Hadith religious school as early as 1891, which later grew to become the largest of such schools in the entire Northern Areas. In Kiris, the "defection " of an unsuccessful contender. For the position of the Noorbakhshi’a,’ spiritual head repeated itself in the net generation when Sayyid Ali, a cousin of the Pir Sayyid Muhammad Shah Zain Ul-Akhyar, became the most energetic Shi’a, missionary among the Noorbakhshis of this century, making converts in dozens of Villages Sayyid Ali and his elder brother ,Sayyid Mukhatar Husain, even deliberately concealed their own conversion to Shi’ism for many years in order not to loose the trust of their Noorbakhshis fellow villagers. already in 1911 a census of India report predicted the complete absorption of the Balti Noorbakhshis , at that time some 40.000,by the other sects .that has not materialized ,and the member of Noorbakhshis has doubled since, but their area of distribution has shrunk considerably, with many villages in the Shigar and Kharmang valleys changing their affiliation completely. it should be noted that the opportunity to win converts from among the Noorbakhshis has always been very tempting for ambitious Shi’a, and Sunni Ulema alike, who would find it much more difficult to win converts from each other’shi’a, sects. In the case of the Noorbakhshis , their syncretism attitude, implying openness to Shi’a, as well as Sunni religious books and practices, made the task of the proselytizers much easier another element, as acknowledged by many Noorbakhshis themselves, has until recently been the latter’s cultural backwardness. Until the early 20th century, the Noorbakhshi’s canonical books like Al-Fiqh Al-Ahwat existed only in the form of manuscripts in the posession of their religious leaders. Since the 1914 printing of a persian translation of Al-Fiqh Al-ahwat, whose original was written in Arabic language, a number of Noorbakhshi books with doubtful authenticity , sometimes plainly fabricated, have been published by various printing housed of the lowland and in Iran. There has been for example, the introduction of the terminus "Imamiya Noorbakhshiya " in various books printed since the 1920s, which was meant to pave the way for a later absorption of the sect into Shi’i Islam ,and there have been some books falsely attributed to Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhsh which contain expressions of reverence for the Twelve Imams such as can only be found in Shi’a, literature. From the side of Sunni publishing houses, on the other hand books about Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhsh or attributed to him have been printed which contain references to known Sunni religious authorities and words of praise for the first two Caliphs such as can never been found in Shi’i books. Both Sunni and Shi’a authors have done their best to portray Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhsh as a follower of their own persuasion respectively, but there has been an interesting convergence of views regarding Shams Ud-Din ‘Iraqi’, the missionary of the Noorbakhshi in Kashmir and Baltistan .He has been portrayed as a shia by both sides: some shi’i allege that he concealed his convictions out of political caution following the alleged example of Sayyid Muhammad Noorbakhsh himself, whereas some Sunni authors claim that Shams Ud-‘Din Iraqi had fabricated Al-Fiqh al-ahwat and posed as follower of Sayyed Muhammad Noorbakhsh wrongly. Astonishingly, an important 16th century manuscript about the life of Shams Ud-Din ‘Iraqi’ which should make matters more clear, the Tuhfat ul-ahbab, has been quoted by many authors but has not been edited and published so far. It seems that there exist different versions of the Tuhfat ul-ahbab in Srinagar and in Baltistan. One Baltisan version has been recently translated into Urdu by a Noorbakhshi . Scholar, Ghulam Riza Akhundzada, but it has not yet been printed. Within all the confusion about what is authentically Noorbakhshis and what is not, which I have only described in very broad terms, some Noorbakhshis scholars have nevertheless managed to modernize and further develop their own sect’s sect’s doctrines. Pioneer among them has been Maulwi Hamza Ali from Khaplu who died in Rawalpindi in 1956. he written several books in refutation of Shi’i and Sunni attempts to absorb the Noorbakhshiya, the most important one with the title "light of the Believers- Exposure of the Difference", being a lengthy treatise on Noorbakhshis doctrines and practices as opposed to those of the Shi’i and Sunnis. Since the 1970s an Organization called Nadwat-I Islamiya Noorbakhshiya has been actively promoting the publishing of Noorbakhshi literature, among others the first Urdu translations of Al-fiqh Al-ahwat and Al-risala Al-‘Tiqadiya. A Journal published from Islamabad since 1985, the Nawa-I Sufiya, is also promoting the Noorbakhshis’ awareness of their own heritage as will as a revival of Noorbakhshis sufism, combined with an adoption of Noorbakhshis fiqh to the modern world.Interestingly, both the Nadwa and the editors of Nawa-I Sufiya are quite critical of the principle of hereditary spiritual leadership* which has been observed in Baltistan with a chain of Noorbakhshi Pirs who are all descendants of Shams Ud-Din ‘Iraqi. thus they are also critical of the traditional religious leadership which was formerly recruited exclusively from branches of the same lineage of Shams Ud-Din ‘Iraqi (*Note: this point was objected by Dr. Muhamad Ghzi Naeem and others from among the audience who made it clear that the editors of Nawa-I Sufiya had never been as critical of the Pir as some members of the Nadwa). During the last two decades the out look of the Noorbakhshi religious leadership has changed considerably. Most of the young generation of Noorbakhshi Ulema are nowadays also secular educated intellectuals holding M.A or B.A. degrees besides their certificates from Sunni or Shi’i religious schools in which they still have been used to enroll, but nowadays mostly without becoming converts. A Noorbakhshi Dar Ul-‘Ulum in Karachi was opened in 1990 with intention to dispense of resorting to other sects’ religious schools in future, the latter having also become reluctant to accept Noorbakhshi students recently. In the Noorbakhshis villages of Baltistan local `communal Organizations have sprung up everywhere to compete with Shia and Sunnis in founding religious schools, besides reviving and renovating the historic Khanqahs. I think such phenomena should not be regarded as divisive sectarianism, but rather as attempts of an ancient community to preserve its historical roots. The Noorbakhshi are the most peaceful people among the generally praiseful Baltis. In Balistan sectarian violence has been extremely rare since decades, and even ordinary crime is almost non-existant. The Noorbakhshi attitude towards the mainstream of Sunni and Shia Islam is still characterizes by a Sufi-style desire to overcome differences. It should not be glossed over,however, that the Noorbakhshi are nowadays a minority under strain and pressure from the stronger groups which can draw on country wide and international networks of communal solidarity and continue to make inroads into the Noorbakhshi realm, for example with the construction of huge modern-style mosques and Imambargahs in direct vicinity of ancient Noorbakhshi Khanqahs. Moreover, the Noorbakhshi have become deeply divided among themselves between a tendency which is more and more adopting shia ritual practices and religious terminology and a tendency which tries to keep its distance from Shia’ism , rejecting also the terminus ‘Imamiya’ as part of Noorbakhshi self-statement not surprisingly, the latter tendency is advocated by such Noorbakhshi Ulema and intellectuals who have previously been enrolled in Sunni religious schools, while the ‘Imamiya Noorbakhshia ‘ advocates have party visited Shia schools,in the Pakistani lowland or in Iran . Thus the very survival of the Noorbakhshiya as an independent sect is still at stake in the coming decades, although the tempo of conversion seems to have slowed down since the 1980s.