The Nurbakhshis of Baltistan: Crisis and Revival of a Five Centuries Old Community

Abstract

he Sufi order named after Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhsh (1392-1464), a branch of the Kubrawiyya,1 has been suppressed or merged with orthodox Twelver Shi'ism in Safawid Iran2 as well as in Kashmir, where it was introduced since late 15th century by Shams al-Din cIraqi,3 a disciple of Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhsh's son and successor Shah Qasim Faidbakhsh. But it has survived to this day in Baltistan, the mountainous region north of the Srinagar-Ladakh road that became part of Pakistan after the partition of India and the first Kashmir war 1947-8. T