Professor Mohibbul Hasan’s Kashmir Under the Sultans has an intrinsic merit of lucidly introducing a reader to a subject that begins with the foundation of the Sultanate and ends with the conquest of Kashmir by Akbar. Its chief merit lies in encapsulating such political, social, economic and cultural activities of the period that exercised an indelible influence on the valley. During the Sultanate period, as Professor Hasan observes, Kashmir had achieved a high standard of culture, but with the disappearance of her independence her culture gradually declined. Srinagar was denuded of poets, painters, and scholars, who had once adorned the courts of the Sultans, because, owing to the absence of local patronage, they were compelled to leave the Valley and seek their livelihood elsewhere. They entered the service of the Mughal emperors, and added to the brilliance of the court, thereby precipitating Kashmir’s cultural impoverishment. Professor Mohibbul Hasan offers useful insights into Kashmir’s political and cultural currents and cross-currents. This book is therefore of considerable value to social historians.
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