Zain-ul-Abidin: The King of Kashmir.

Sham S. Misri

Zain-ul-Abidin, popularly known as Bud Shah (1420 AD), was the king of Kashmir. His court was full of poets and musicians. He introduced Persian as the new official language. He introduced the art of weaving and paper making. In fact, Zain-ul-Abidin, an inspired ruler ended the forced conversion of Hindus and declared an office order that those Hindus who had been converted in this fashion be allowed to return to their own faith. He even provided Hindus with subsidies enabling them to rebuild the temples his father had destroyed. The different ethnic and religious groups were still not allowed to intermarry, but they learned to live side by side amicably enough. Zain-ul-Abidin organized visits to Iran and Central Asia so that his subjects could learn bookbinding and woodcarving, as well as how to make carpets and Shawls, thereby laying the foundation for the shawl making for which Kashmir was famous.

Once, the king was taken ill. He was down with an unknown disease.

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