In the quest for bāṭinī peace: Forms of everyday piety in a khanqāh in Kashmir

This paper examines how Sufi shrines in contemporary Kashmir function as sanctuaries of solace and meaning making for local devotees, especially women, who grapple with the uncertainties of protracted political turmoil. It specifically focuses on the khanqāh of Shaykh Ḥamzah Makhdūm (1494–1576), a central figure of the Suhrawardī Sufi order. While the Suhrawardīyya was the first organized Sufi tradition in the valley, Shaykh Ḥamzah Makhdūm emerged as the first native Kashmiri Sufi, consolidating and expanding the role of Sufi practice in the valley (Rafiqi 1972; Khan 1994). His shrine, situated at the foothills of kūh-i-mārān (lit. mountain of snakes) in the heart of Srinagar, remains one of the most frequented spiritual sites, where devotees turn to both divine intercession and communal solidarity.

Through an analysis of embodied rituals—communal dhikr (remembrance), shared supplications, and votive offerings—I propose the concept of a “vernacular theology of endurance” to describe how these localized practices cultivate resilience, generating an inner (bāṭinī) sense of ethical coherence where outer (ẓāhirī) justice is inaccessible. 

Drawing on Talal Asad’s (1986) notion of “discursive tradition”, I argue that shrine-centered devotion in Kashmir is not merely a relic of the past but an evolving ethical and political formation. Engaging Saba Mahmood’s (2004) insights into embodied piety, I contend that shrine rituals do not simply function as symbolic acts of faith but actively produce ethical dispositions, reshape moral sensibilities, and structure agency. Rather than serving as an anxiety-reducing mechanism (Malinowski 1948), these devotional acts configure a vernacular Islamic ethic that allows devotees to reframe suffering, negotiate political uncertainty, and sustain communal solidarity.

Kashmir is not merely a land where Sufism took root; it is a space where mystical traditions have continuously reinscribed themselves into the social and political fabric of the region (Rafiqi, 1972). Unlike many parts of the Islamic world where Sufism operated alongside established legal and political institutions, in Kashmir, it became the primary moral and spiritual framework through which Islam was articulated, adapted, and lived. 

The Suhrawardīyya order was the first to introduce Islam to the Kashmir Valley in the early fourteenth century through Sayyid Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Shāh, establishing a mystical foundation that would shape the region’s religious landscape. While subsequent Sufi traditions—Kubrawīyya, Naqshbandīyya, Qādirīyya, and Rīshīyya—expanded the mystical landscape, it was Shaykh Ḥamzah Makhdūm who, as the first native Kashmiri Sufi to attain widespread reverence, reinterpreted inherited Suhrawardī frameworks into a distinctly Kashmiri articulation of mystical devotion. Thus, his shrine, at the foothills of kūh-i-mārān, is more than a relic of saintly memory—it is a space where theological inheritances, communal aspirations, and political uncertainties collide and are continuously redefined.

Shrines also hold unique significance for women, offering one of the few public spaces where their presence is neither restricted nor questioned. Unlike other domains where women’s mobility is surveilled, shrines provide a space of communal gathering, spiritual autonomy, and social bonding. Here, women form spiritual networks, share religious counsel, and engage in collective devotion without transgressing normative expectations. The saintly figure of Shaykh Ḥamzah Makhdūm is not only venerated for his spiritual authority but is also seen as a fatherly presence, offering care that unsettles patriarchal boundaries. Just as the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) upheld the dignity of daughters in a society that favored sons, I argue that Kashmiri Sufi saints provide a space where women and those pushed to the margins find belonging. Here, care, refuge, and dignity take precedence over exclusion and hierarchy.

Although central to South Asian religious life, Sufism has frequently been marginalized by colonial and reformist scholars. They dismiss it as syncretic folklore or peripheral Islam, overlooking its role in shaping authority, communal ethics, and resistance. More recent scholarship, such as Filippo Osella and Benjamin Soares’ (2009) engagement with “Islam mondain,” examines how Muslims integrate spirituality into their everyday lives. Their work repositions Sufism—not just as a core element of Islamic spirituality but as a dynamic and evolving phenomenon—demonstrating how shrine institutions actively shape ethical life, communal solidarity, and political imaginaries.

Building on these insights, this paper focuses on everyday devotional experiences through ethnographic inquiry, examining how women’s embodied shrine practices shape moral subjectivities, gendered agency, and collective belonging. The shrine is not merely a space for ritualistic devotion but also a site of affective transformation, where women seek intercession for personal hardships, reproductive anxieties, and domestic struggles. The shrine’s central location in Srinagar makes it both physically and symbolically accessible, reinforcing its role as a site where the sacred and the sociopolitical intersect. By foregrounding the embodied practices that women in particular perform—acts shaped by grief, hope, and the need for spiritual redress—this study refines ongoing discussions in political theology. It illustrates how shrine devotion serves not simply as a source of solace but as a critical site where moral authority, ethical self-making, and resistance to structural disenfranchisement take shape.

Thus, this paper argues that the shrine of Shaykh Ḥamzah Makhdūm, emblematic of a distinctly Kashmiri Suhrawardī heritage, is not merely a site of mystical retreat but a dynamic space where emotional sustenance, ethical self-formation, and communal solidarity unfold in the face of enduring instability. The concept of “vernacular theology of endurance” that emerges from shrine practices reveals two critical insights. First, it challenges functionalist readings of religion as simply anxiety-reducing, showing how embodied shrine rituals—dhikr, communal prayers, and interpersonal networks—reframe justice, agency, and resilience in the absence of formal institutional redress. Second, it moves beyond colonial and modernist narratives that marginalize Sufism as passive or peripheral, instead demonstrating its role in shaping lived ethical frameworks and political alternatives. Ultimately, shrine piety in Kashmir is not merely a historical legacy but an evolving moral landscape, revealing how communities reclaim moral authority and spiritual agency where political solutions remain elusive.