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Notes on the Hagiography and Cult of a Muslim Saint

in Nager and Hunza (Northern Pakistan)

By Jürgen Wasim Frembgen, Munich

Introduction: The Context of Islamization

The Islamization of the mountain peoples living in the Eastern Hindukush,

Karakoram, and Western Himalaya seems to have taken place gradually,

introducing different sects.' After a first "pulse" of propagation of Sunni

Islam, apparently as late as the 16'*^ century, the Ismailiyya was brought in

from Badakhshan (by the end of the IS'** c). Missionaries spreading the

Twelver-Shi a faith {Ithnä 'Ashari Shi'ism) reached the Karakoram from

Kashmir via Baltistan from about the century, but this by no means im¬

plies that most of the population already converted at that time. Later Sunni

Islam made its inroads from the South. A more thorough conversion to this

orthodox creed apparently started during the course of the IS'"^ century and

continued progressively through the 19''' century. In Indus Kohistan, for

instance, Islamization is connected with different Pakhtun "saints" and

missionaries who came from Swat, Buner, and nearby regions to preach the

new faith.^ Thus, the regional tradition of Islam in the high mountain areas

of Northern Pakistan consists of several streams and waves with differences

in religious faith and practice.

In the central area of Gilgit and in the nearby Hunza-valley, people pre¬

serve the memory of a number of holy men who are thought to have been

missionaries of Islam during the first half of the 16^'^ century.' Thus, Sayyid

Sultan Wali is buried in Amphari and the better known Sayyid Sultan Alif

Shah in Danyor (both villages are situated in the vicinity of Gilgit). In Gilgit

proper, there are the tombs of a few minor saints, namely of Sayyid Safdar

Shah, Sayyid Akbar Shah, and Sayyid Shah Afzal. The most famous bozorg

' Jettmar 1989, pp. 62-64; Dani 1989a, pp. 166-167, 170, 176, 195, 216-217; Caco-

pardo/Cacopardo 2001, pp. 33-34, 38, 54.

2 Frembgen 1999, pp. 83-84.

5 Dani 1989b, pp. 151,153.

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(saint) of the former kingdom of Hunza is Baba Ghundi, whose shrine is

situated in the remote North-Western Chupursan-valley.'' He is vener¬

ated by the majority of the Hunzukuts (Burusho and Shin) as well as by

the Wakhi population of the upper Hunza-valley, who are all adherents of

the Ismailiyya. Other locally important saints are Shah Sultan Talib, who

is buried in the Wakhi-village of Husaini, and Shah-i Shams resp. Shams

ud-Din Tabrizi (Shimshal). In central and lower Hunza many people also

venerate Sayyid Shah Wali, the most prominent saint of Nager, a former

centralized state opposite Hunza, whose inhabitants are strict followers of

the Twelver-Shi'a. His shrine in the Nager-village of Ghulmeth, at the foot

of the majestic Rakaposhi peak, is the largest site of devotion and pilgrimage

in the main Hunza-valley. Generally speaking, the veneration of saints in

the Karakoram tends to reflect the more sober religious "climate" of Cen¬

tral Asia than the emotional and ecstatic Islamic mysticism displayed at the

countless shrines in South Asia.

According to oral tradition. Shah Wali is supposed to have been a descend¬

ant of Jafar as-Sadiq, the sixth Imam of the Twelver-Shi a. A written pedigree,

kept by the guardians of his shrine in Ghulmeth, gives 18 generations be¬

tween the saint and his alleged forefather Imam Mohammad Taqi; thus, the

saint's full name is officially given as Sayyid Shah Waliullah Taqvi Mahbub

Ilahi.* Being identified as a Sayyid, Shah Wali is embued with the charisma

of the Prophet Muhammad. The claim to belong to the religious elite and to

be of Arab origin is a common hagiographical motif, for instance also found

among Muslim saints in the Deccan.* Local North Pakistani hagiography

portrays Shah Wali as a preacher and missionary (dai), who held particular

magical powers. It is not known if he belonged to any dervish brotherhood

such as the Iranian Ni'matullahiyya, Dahabi, or Khaksar. The people of

Nager and Hunza deny that he performed any ecstatic Sufi practices or that

he entered ascetic retreats. Generally they consider him as a powerful saint

who embodies piety and adherence to the orthodox Islam of the Imami Shi'a

sect, but not as a Sufi saint. He actually might have been a Sufi, because of

his honorific name consisting of the titles Shah - "king" - and wall- "friend of God" (lit. "protector", "benefactor"). Wi^/z generally bears connotations

of close friendship, servanthood, and authority. Nor can it be ruled out that

the name/title of the missionary has a connection to the invocation yä 'All

wall ("Oh. saint Ali!") or to the formula 'All wall Alldh ("Ali, the friend of

For the Muslim saints of Hunza cf. Müller-Stellrecht 1979, pp. 236-242.

^ The shajara nasah (genealogy), which I could photograph, was compiled in 1958 by

Darbesh Mohammad from Ghulmeth and gives an alleged pedigree starting with Adam.

<■ Green 2003, pp. 501-502.

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God") which is added to the Shi'a call to prayer. Furthermore, the descend¬

ants of his servant are called Darbeshkuts ("dervishes") in Nager - but no

information on a Sufi affiliation has been handed down to us.

Documents written in Persian as well as oral sources report that Shah

Wali reached Nager in the early 18^'' century at a time when part of the popu¬

lation had already been (superficially) converted to Islam. It is said that he

came to Ghulmeth in the year 1140 Hijri (= 1727 ce)^ when Tham Rahim

Shah ruled Nager (about 1720-1762). The earlier Islamization is attributed

to Sayyid Shah Buria who is said to have reached Nager in the time of Rahim

Shah's father Tham Kamal Khan (about 1120 Hijri = 1708 ce). The saint

originally belonged to Iran and came via Kashmir and Baltistan. According

to local oral and written sources, he was accompanied by the forefathers of

the Kashmiriting, a kinship group whose members are often religious schol¬

ars and functionaries. The names of these companions of Shah Buria are

Abul Hasan Isfahani (who is mentioned in a written order by Tham Kamal

Khan), Aqhon Nuro, and Shah Mohammad with his sons Taimur, Shah, and

Abul Hasan (who all remained in Uyum Nager). Nuro's son Saqi is said to

have later preached Islam in the village of Sumaiyar.

In popular local perception, the historical traditions dealing with Shah

Buria and Shah Wali are sometimes blended with the well-known legend

about a group of six Muslim saints coming from Baltistan via Shigar and

spreading the message of Islam in Nager (allegedly staying seven days

there) and surrounding regions. According to A.H. Dani, Mir Shams ud-

Din Iraqi sent these six missionaries sometime in the first half of the 16'*^

century.* The composition of this group may vary: In addition to Shah

Buria and Shah Wali, informants mention Sayyid Sultan Alif Shah, Sayyid

Sultan Wali, Sayyid Shah Sultan Talib, and Saghe Ali. Also Sayyid Dado,

whose small shrine is situated in the Nager-village of Pheker, Sayyid Safdar

Shah, and Saghe Ali's brother Ashur Ali are associated with them. Shah

Buria and Saghe Ali eventually proceeded further to Chitral.

Within the traditions memorized about Shah Buria, it is reported that

the ruler Tham Kamal Khan (whose mother is said to have been an already

converted princess from Baltistan) and his Wazir Uchano Tuchano as well as

"many Nagerkuts" embraced Islam and that the first small mosque (Kamäl

masjid) was built in the fortified main village of Uyum Nager. Of course,

the construction of this first mosque does not imply that Nager was fully

converted. It is rather unlikely that more mosques (masjid) and places of

assembly (imämbärha, mätam-sarä) existed in Nager at the time of Shah

7 Dani 1989a, p. 200; Dani 1989b, p. 155.

* Dani 1989b, p. 151.

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Wali. Informants are unanimous that also in the course of the 18^'' century-

prayers were still performed on flat stones or on a lawn. Apparently, Shah

Wali was only staying for a relatively short while in Nager (the statements of

informants vary between a couple of months and a few years), before he died

there in the village of Thol, a period too short to supervise the construction

of religious buildings at a time when the pagan religion of the Burusho and

Shina-speaking Dards was still very much alive.

In the present paper, I would like to focus on the hagiography and cult of

Shah Wali in both Nager and Hunza. Special emphasis will be laid on the

oral tradition of the saint's legendary life and wanderings. It is an ideologi¬

cally used tradition which is contested by the former arch-enemies of Nager

and Hunza and appropriated by interest groups within Nager. The saint's

miracle-working and the controversy over his dead body throw a particular

light on the hardships of rural life in the high-mountain areas of Northern

Pakistan. The second part of the article deals with the spatial realization of

the saint's legends and contains a documentation of Shah Wall's shrines and

holy places, including notes on the role of the Darbeshkuts, who are their

hereditary guardians. The article will be rounded off by a discussion of the

local devotional practices.

Hagiography

The Life and Wanderings of Shah Wali (Nager version)

The following version of Shah Wall's migration to Nager and his sojourns

in various villages is based primarily on the narratives of some very knowl¬

edgeable persons from the Darbeshkuts, namely Mozahir Husain, Ghulam

Nabi, and Zawar Abdur Rahim. Their ancestor Mohammad Ali was a com¬

panion and servant of the saint. Additional information on Shah Wall's life-

history was collected particularly in the villages of Hopar, Uyum Nager,

Ghulmeth, and Thol.

It is said that the holy man grew up in a Sayyid-family in Khorasan. He

had two brothers, the elder one was Sultan Alif Shah (buried in Danyor)

and the younger one Safdar Shah (buried in Gilgit-Amphari). When their

mother died, their father remarried and the stepmother started to mistreat

the children. According to hagiographical tradition, the three boys could

fly - a motif which is characteristic for the local Burusho belief in diwaäkos,

i.e. men with superhuman qualities or demon-like supernatural beings. In

order to nullify the boys' saintly ability to fly, the evil stepmother mixed

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hen's eggs into their food. As a result, the brothers decided to leave their

home and set out on their journey to the East.

In Ghazni or Kabul (informants are divided on that point), the young

Mohammad Ali joined them as a servant (khadim). The latter's father had

a dream one day before the arrival of the saints, that he should send one of

his three sons (Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Shah, Abdullah) with them. By

casting lots, it was decided that Mohammad Ali should be their attendant.

When the holy men, who had anticipated the encounter, arrived, they ac¬

cepted the young man and changed his original name Zewardi to the Shi'a

name Mohammad Ali.

From Kabul the small group moved to Badakhshan and proceeded fur¬

ther to Wakhan and into the land of the Kirghiz nomads. On their way,

other male devotees joined the saints and became their servants. In the au¬

tobiography of Mir Mohammad Nazim Khan it is mentioned that Shah

Wali came in fact on a pilgrimage from Badakhshan to visit the tomb of

Baba Ghundi near Ishkuk in the valley of Chupursan.^ Qudrat Ullah Beg

adds in his Tdrikh-i 'ahd-i 'atlq-i riydsat-i Hunza ("History of the old way

of rule in the dominion of Hunza") that Shah Wali found the saint's grave

open and therein the corpse of a newborn child. It held a yamhü (silver bar)

in his hand and the saint took it into his safe-keeping. He then filled up the

grave.'" Eventually, the group reached the Guhjal-area of the upper Hunza-

valley. There are different views in Nager about the continuation of the

journey: Some are of the opinion that the group went to the Shimshal valley

and from there to Hispar, a remote village belonging to Nager. After cross¬

ing a glacier, they came down from Hispar to Uyum Nager. Others narrate

that Shah Wali and his companions first moved to the Ultar mountain range

where they crossed the Ultar glacier. Then they stayed some time in Central

Hunza, where the brothers separated: Sultan Alif Shah and Safdar Shah

went down to Gilgit, whereas Shah Wali went together with Mohammad

Ali and some other khadim^ to Uyum Nager. It should be added that the

relationship between the three saints is obviously not necessarily authentic

and more likely constructed, thereby emphasizing a common identity.

At this point we will not pursue the legend as far as the saint's life in

Hunza is concerned, but instead focus on the saint's wanderings in Nager.

Shah Wali is said to have travelled from Hispar via Basho and Biraldo first

to the pasture land of Huro. There were goats and sheep and also some fields

belonging to the Goshotkuts-clan of Hopar. A man named Huko took care

' Nazim Khan, p. 138.

Qudrat Ullah Beg 1973, p. 126; cf. Müller-Stellrecht 1979, p. 238.

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of the saint and his companion and led them to Ghzmu-das (also called Bon-

chi), a barren area close to the village of Hopar. Legend has it that in those

days all was topsy-turvy in Hopar: water flooded part of the oasis, landslides

came down, animals grazed in the fields, and the wheat grain was black be¬

cause of the mathel disease; there was generally no law and order and all was

haräm (in the sense of "bad" and "forbidden" according to Islam). Basically

the people just had beans (hukdk) to eat and, as a result were constantly fart¬

ing and therefore smelled bad. Shah Wali therefore refused to stay in Hopar

any longer; he blew on the corn to stop the disease and then proceeded down

to Uyum Nager-Tokurkhay. My informant Ghulam Mohammad from

Hopar-Goshoshal told me that his forefather Sukuno (in another version a

man from the Goshotkuts named Mamue Puno) hastened to prepare some

bread made of buckwheat. He then followed the holy man to Tokurkhay and

offered the bread to the saint, who was resting seated on a lawn. As a reward.

Shah Wali gave him his wooden stick. - Analysing this part of the legend,

which is well-known in the whole of Nager, we see that oral tradition here

justifies a hierarchical relationship between the powerful "capital" of Uyum

Nager and the "backward" people of Hopar. Nevertheless, the villagers of

Hopar "retaliated" with their episode of the miraculous stick.

Hagiographical oral tradition records that the saint spend about 2-3 days

in Uyum Nager praying in Manal-guts-das, Tokurkhay, and Melukushal.

In order to strengthen the Shi a faith, he left two khadlms in that village,

who became the ancestors of the Ayubokuts-lineage. Likewise two other

khadims settled in the next village of Sumaiyar to preach Islam. This is con¬

tradicted by the view that he was only accompanied by his faithful servant

Mohammad Ali. After Shah Wali miraculously saved his companion and

himself from rockfall on the steep slope between present-day Shahyar and

Hakuchar (villages which did not exist in those days) he reached Pheker

where the people were just celebrating the sowing festival of Thamo Bo,

mixing barley and gold and dancing enthusiastically. He reprimanded them

and taught them how to say the kalima (the Muslim formula of creed) and

perform the prayers. Before leaving, he blew on the grain to ensure the fertil¬

ity of the crops. According to another tradition recorded in the neighbour¬

ing village of Dadimal, Shah Wali cursed the "unbelievers" (käfir) of Pheker

after they had invited him to join their dance. Thereupon many Phekerkuts

died and the village was partly destroyed by a landslide. Walking further

down through Dadimal, the saint reached Pisan where he stayed in a house

inside the old fortified village. The tradition goes that he loved to pray at an

elevated place above the village (behind the present-day imämbärha) where

he asked the people to bury him after death. Then he came to Ghulmeth

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where the crops were only growing quite low at that time. Through the

blessings of Shah Wali, they attained their proper height and the people

became prosperous. Finally, he reached the village of Thol, where he set¬

tled down. It remains a matter of speculation whether the saint chose this

place because of its still existing pre-lslamic religious structure, a Buddhist

stupa,'' in order to curb local "paganism".'^ The Nagerkuts deny that and

point out the tradition that Shah Wali had spent a few months in each village

of Nager when he finally fell ill in Thol.

In the religious memory of the Nagerkuts, there were at that time only

seven houses in the old khan (fortified village) of Thol, all inhabited by the

Shin-clan of the Manishere. Shah Wali used to live in a small house and was

taken care of by one of the Manishere-families. He remained unmarried. It

is said, that he did not speak or understand the Burushaski or Shina lan¬

guages and therefore could only communicate with a few people in Persian.

The fact that he spoke Persian must be seen in Nager within the context of

a process through ^h\c\y farsi became the court language." Persian became

the medium of the elite used in administration, diplomacy, and trade. In ad¬

dition, it represents the expression of Shi'a religious-cultural heritage.

Shah Wali impressed the local people through his piety and proceeded

to action by performing miracles. In Thol he used to receive the people: he

prayed for them, wrote amulets, and cured them by reciting verses from

the Qur'an and blowing his barkdt (the local pronouncation of the Arabic

baraka) - "power" - on them. While visiting a village, he used to preach

Islam (da'wa, lit. "invitation") and to admonish the Nagerkuts to observe

the religious rules and obligations, particularly to say the daily prayers

in the prescribed way. If the people did not follow him, he became angry.

Sometimes he would even curse them, causing trouble and bad luck. This

is another characteristic trait of many saints that they were held in awe and

feared by the people. Thus, people say that Shah Wali eventually placed a

curse on the family which was supposed to take care of him in Thol, because

the Manishere did not serve him well. He proclaimed that the family would

never have any offspring and this, it is said, became true.

" Even in the 1920s, the stupa was still an impressive monument, as can be gauged from photographs (Stein 1907, no. 4 opp. p. 20; Visser/Visser-Hooft 1935, p. 134). The monument was locally known as moghule cheti and villagers thought that it was used as a watchtower for hunting.

'2 The famous Sufi and founder of the Naqshbandiyya, Baha ud-Din Naqshband, for

example, was buried at a Buddhist centre of pilgrimage called Qasr-i Hindawi - "Hindu Palace" (cf. Ahmad 1999, p. 126).

Frembgen 1986, pp. 574-580.

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My informants from the Darbeshkuts preserve an ideahzed image of the

appearance of the saint (most probably inspired by popular devotional prints

showing Iranian saints), describing him as a slim, bearded man of average

build, wearing a black turban, and a long green or black overcoat ('aba'). He

used to wear the green 'aba' for prayer and the black one during religious

rituals such as the n/^^?^-ceremony at a marriage and at a funeral (kafan-

dafan, where the fätiha, the first süra of the Qur an, is spoken). He is said to

have been very polite, serious, and having good table manners. The tradition

goes, that he usually participated in the joyful seasonal festivals celebrated

in the village (thereby finding a modus vivendi with the still partly "pagan"

Nagerkuts), but when people drank wine and indulged in obscene talk, his

face became hard as stone and he turned away.

The Life and Wanderings of Shah Wali (Hunza version)

According to numerous informants from Hunza, the saints Shah-i Shams

(Shimshal) and/or Shah Sultan Talib (Husaini) did not allow the newly ar¬

rived Shah Wali to proceed through their territories further down the main

Hunza-valley. Therefore, the holy man and his entourage (some informants

mentioned a group of twelve dervishes to D.L.R. Lorimer)" were appar¬

ently miraculously transported across the Ultar mountain range and came

straight through the narrow gorge, reaching Baltit, the capital of the Hunza-

state. The short text about the "Story of Saiyid Shah Wall", collected by

Lorimer In 1923/1924, begins as follows:

"They say that in early times a man called Saiyid Shah had come with his wife

out of the Ulter Ber in Hunza. The people were amazed saying: 'Wherever this

man has come from, and however he has come, there was no road (for him)

anywhere.' " (Lorimer 1935, p. 293)

It Is narrated that the saint first appeared at the Ultar glacier called bdyo

saharan In the high pasture-land of Ultar. Lorimer's informants added that

"... from the Boyo Shabaran the ice broke away under his horse's hoofs, and that the blast of wind from the falling ice struck a man who was ploughing in Ultar and carried him away across the valley." (in Müller-Stellrecht 1979, p. 248)

Then Shah Wali proceeded to Baltit. At that time Tham Silum Khan II was

the ruler of Hunza. The king gave his permission to the saint to settle down

In Shiqaqlants close to the hamlet of Burongoshal.'*

" In Müller-Stellrecht 1979, p. 248.

'5 Qudrat Ullah Beg 1973, p. 124.

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Shah Wali started to preach Islam and helped the people in many ways.

He also worked miracles, so the Hunzukuts held him in great respect. But,

it is told, the Tham soon gave a glad eye to the saint's attractive, young wife.

Once, the Hunza ruler threatened Shah Wali and magically produced a heavy

downfall over Shiqaqlants, but the holy man protected himself by simply

drawing a circle around him - a well-known apotropaic gesture. Other in¬

formants are of the opinion that the queen insisted on Shah Wall's departure

from Hunza, because she became jealous of the saint's wife. Nevertheless,

the relationship between Tham Silum Khan and Shah Wali, as reflected in

local narrative history, is also a striking example of the age-old conflict over

popularity and authority between ruler and saint, the "sultan of the world"

and the "sultan of the heart".'* Eventually, when Shah Wali learned that the

Tham wanted to murder him,'^ he left Hunza and crossed the river to Nager.

My informant Taighun Shah adds that the Nagerkuts welcomed the Shi'a

missionary and offered him food and shelter. In return, he prayed for the

fertility of their fields and for their wellbeing. Many Hunzukuts, who had

pleaded with him to stay on, regretted that he had left and continued to

visit him in Nager to pay their respects and to offer him clothing. The saint

prayed on their behalf to ensure that there would be always plenty of sheep

wool in Hunza and thus it came true. Lorimer's text gives another detail

about the inhabitants of Shiqaqlants:

"They say he gave the people there some of his hair, saying: 'Bury this there'.

And he had said to them: 'When there have come to be seven Saiyid's graves in

this place Hunza will become very prosperous.' "(Lorimer 1935, pp. 293, 295).

Some people in Hunza preserve a particular tradition about Shah Wall's

young wife, whose existence is vehemently denied by the Nagerkuts. It is

said that she worried about her future in case her much older husband died.

But he reassured her that he had already made provision for that. When the

saint died, in the same moment his wife was miraculously transformed into

a pigeon. The bird flew from Thol across the river to the Hunza-village of

Maiyun where it sat on a tree, at the same place where later a shrine for Shah

Wali was built. After some time, the pigeon flew up the main Hunza-valley

and disappeared in the Ultar gorge, from where the saint had originally

come. The inhabitants of Maiyun presumed the existence of a treasure at

the place where the bird had stopped. In fact, a man started to dig and found

gold and other valuables, but, when he returned home, he became sick and

died. Nobody has ever dared to look there for treasure again. The latter

Frembgen 2000, p. 63.

'7 Qudrat Ullah Beg 1973, p. 127.

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theme is well-known from many hagiographies in which sacrilegious deeds

are severely punished by the respective saint.

Miracles and Deeds

Among the Burusho, miracles are called since Islamization by the standard

Arabic term karämät. The miracle stories told about Shah Wali are deeply

embedded in a magical milieu: A particular important one, widely known

in both Nager and Hunza, is either located at the glacier between Hispar

and Uyum Nager or at the Ultar glacier. It is said that the saint and his com¬

panions were wandering on the glacier when Mohammad Ali suddenly fell

into a crevasse. The other khadims cried out for fear, but the saint calmed

them and simply wrote a tumdr (amulet), threw it into the same crevasse and

proceeded on his journey. Two days later, the group reached the end of the

glacier and met Mohammad Ali, who had been miraculously saved. He told

them that he had wandered under the glacier as if promenading on a lawn,

with an illuminated path in front of him, guided by the light which radiated

from Shah Wall's stick. In another version, it was the tumdr which showed

him his way under the glacier.

Some informants narrate that when the saint reached the Nager-village of

Hopar, he was confronted with a famous hitdn (shaman) who challenged his

authority and claimed to be more powerful than the Muslim holy man. Thus

they entered into a competition: First Shah Wali had to demonstrate his

power. He raised his stick and the shaman stretched his arm into the air. But

as soon as the saint had struck the ground with his stick, the hitdn became

paralysed and could no longer move his arm. Only when the latter accepted

Shah Wall's superiority and pleaded for help did the saint pray to God and

finally obtain divine permission to enable the shaman to lower his arm again.

The magician then embraced Islam. Mozahir Husain added that everywhere

in Nager hitdn, pas'uii (seer), and jadügar (practicioners of magic) came to

see Shah Wali and challenged his powers. But in his presence, they became

weak and unable to perform any miracles themselves.

In Manal-guts-das (a hamlet situated on the outskirts of Uyum Nager), in

those days a dangerous place with landslides and hardly any water to irrigate

the land, Shah Wali prayed and water started miraculously to flow under the

earth and to surface at a place where it could be easily distributed by building

canals. One of the Manalokuts living there embraced Islam and was called Ghu¬

lam Ali (he later migrated to Pisan where he married a woman from the Shin).

The piety of the saint, who was constantly on the lookout for a suitable

place to say his prayers, where water for ritual cleansing and a flat prayer

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stone (nimdaz-bat)^^ would be at hand, has especially shaped people's im¬

agination of the topography of Upper Nager. The rise of several springs

(bul), such as the Baaskir-^/</ in fiispar, the Huro-bul between Hispar and

Uyum Nager, and the Tokurkhay-^«/ are all attributed to him. In a miracu¬

lous gesture known from many saints in the Muslim world, Shah Wali used

to strike his stick on a rock and fresh water poured out. Here the notion of

flowing water has different implications: In hagiography it symbolizes Shah

Wall's purgative path and his ritual purity, but for the local peasants it repre¬

sents a source for fresh drinking water and for water to irrigate their fields.

Shah Wall's most famous miracle is connected with the Melukushal-/?«/ in

Uyum Nager. The villagers of Melukushal say that in those days the saint ar¬

rived shortly before the maghrib-przyer. As there was no water for his ritual

ablutions, they hastened to fetch it from the Nager-river with the help of

a calabash (hösar). But when they returned, the saint had already struck his

stick on a huge rock from where a spring had emerged and was busy doing

his wudü' (ritual ablution). Otherwise he would have missed the maghrib

prayer. Then Shah Wali realized that there was no suitable flat nimdaz-hat

available like in Tokurkhay and Hispar. As soon as he expressed his wish

to God, the stone (in most versions the one from Tokurkhay) miraculously

moved through the air and landed in Melukushal. Much later, in the time

of Mir Sikandar Khan (1904-1940), a beautiful flat prayer-stone was found

in Chinishi, a pasture land near Payalokushal, high above the other villages

and hamlets of Uyum Nager. As the area around the holy place in Meluku¬

shal was dirty because of cow dung, it was decided to exchange the stones.

Under the supervision of Wazir Khudaman, labourers carried the original

nimdaz-hat of Shah Wali to Chinishi, which is close to the high mountain

areas considered pure and sacred according to the local beliefs. But twice

both stones flew back to their original places. Thus, Shah Wall's stone is now

again in its right place in Melukushal.

On his way down from Uyum Nager to Thol, the saint is said to have

miraculously saved his group:

"The stone-shoot between Shayar and Hakucher was raining down stones, and

on Saiyid Shah's coming level with it, it sent down stones. A big boulder de¬

scended from above. Saiyid Shah, saying a prayer, spat upwards and made the

stone, which had come rolling down, halt on the face of the slope. The boul¬

der stopped by Saiyid Shah's prayer is there on the slope to the present day."

(Lorimer 1935, p. 295)

Cf. Cacopardo/Cacopardo 2001, p. 143 (on flat stones used for prayer).

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In Nager the people say that the saint took a handful of pepples, blew on

them, and threw them in the direction of the rolling rock, which stopped at

once. This story of the miraculous saving of travellers at the steep slope near

Shahyar is, by the way, also attributed to a golden-haired fairy named zighat

apiP After creating another spring near Bulokot, which is part of Dadimal

situated between the villages of Pheker and Miachar, some informants claim

that Shah Wali performed another miracle in the village of Pisan where he

allegedly pressed a stone in his fist until milk poured out. In Thol it is said

that, in the middle of the winter season, he ordered one of his dervishes to

shake a peach tree and the villagers could enjoy the fruit. This miracle motif

was probably taken over from outside and adapted from dervish stories or

folk tales. For example, a story is told in Anatolia about the famous saint

Haci Bekta§ Veli (13''^ c.) who miraculously made an apple tree blossom and

bear fruit in the middle of the winter.^"

My friend and colleague Ejazullah Beg from Hunza told me the following

story of a karämät which Shah Wali is supposed to have performed when he

resided in Thol: Wandering around Nomal, a big village in the lower Hunza-

valley already belonging to Gilgit, the saint met a man from the Hunza-

village of Hindi (nowadays called Nasirabad), who beseeched him for help

because in those days people suffered severely from the shortage of water

for irrigation. The man asked for an amulet which could solve his problems.

Shah Wali eventually gave him a leather bag (meesh) with the instructions

not to open the bag before he reached the place in Hindi where the spring

would arise. On the way back, the man stayed overnight in his sister's home

in Guachi. He ordered his sister to keep the bag in a safe place and not to

open it under any circumstances, because it contained something very pre¬

cious. However, when her brother was out, the woman could not control

her curiosity and untied the bag. At that moment, a light grey ptarmigan

(buld) shot out of the bag like a rocket across the river and hit straight on a

rockface, from where a spring gushed out. To this day, this buld-bul causes

many dangerous landslides for travellers on the Karakoram Highway near

Jutial. Deeply distressed, the man looked into the bag and saw that only one

feather was left. After his return to Hindi, he opened the bag and the wind

carried the bird's feather towards the mountainside where it created a small

spring, the Phulghu-/?«/. Its water was mixed with blood and even today it is

not potable. Thus, the moral narrative says it happened, because the people

did not respect the saint's authority and failed to follow his instructions.

" Frembgen 1988, pp. 41-42.

2° Kriss/Kriss-Heinrich 1960, p. 298.

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In Hunza, the Aqhonkuts are related through family memory to Shah

Wali. Mumtaz Muluk (Aliabad) told me that his family had preserved the

following episode from the saint's life: Before settling in Shiqaqlants, Shah

Wali stayed for some time with their forefather Mamad (from the Achancho-

Barataling lineage) in Baltit-Shanokushal. The people were surprised that

Shah Wali preferred to live with such a poor family who had no offspring.

Mamad's wife offered him milk, but he did not drink, and only put the lit¬

tle finger of his right hand into the milk. Through this blessing, the family

never lacked for milk. When Mamad returned from the mountains where he

had worked as a shepherd, the saint ordered him to return again to look for

a glittering precious stone. However, he could not find it and only brought

back a flint. Following Shah Wall's instructions, he placed the flint under

the grain box (chdgur). From that day on, the family always had enough

bread to eat. Because they were already old and still childless, Mamad asked

the saint for an amulet. Shah Wali wrote a tumdr and advised Mamad to

wear it permanently on his body. Soon Mamad's wife became pregnant and

from then on, the family always had enough offspring. This stereotypical

motif of the old Zakariya (Zacharias) and his barren wife, who nonetheless

had a son named Yahya, is most probably borrowed from the Qur'an {süra

19/1-16). Later a relative of Mamad was able to steal the amulet and bring it

to his home in Aliabad, where he attached it to a beam. Eventually, the house

broke down because the saint's order had been violated.

Shah Wali's main miracle in Hunza again focuses on the fertility of the soil

and points to one of his particular benign attributes. It is reported by Qudrat

Ullah Beg as well as by Lorimer. The latter reports the story as follows:

"Saiyid Shah possessed supernatural powers, they say. One day he said to the

people: 'O men of Hunza, the water of Baltit is scanty; a Deu is drinking up

all the water. I shall get the Deu out for you, and do you slay him.' At that time

the people were afraid, so Saiyid Shah shot (at the Deu) with a gun; whereupon a

considerable spring of water gushed out. Saiyid Shah said to them: Tf you had

slain the Deu much (more) water would have come out. I shot him just now in

one tooth. The spring will remain to you for ever.' The spring is there now. We

call h the Pfuru.e Bul (the 'Reed Spring')." (Lorimer 1935, p. 293)

In Qudrat Ullah Beg's version, on the other hand, it is said that Shah

Wali did not fire a second time because he was afraid that the demon would

come out and harm the people.^' Therefore the Hunzukuts should be content

with the water available. Lorimer remarked in his notes: "Up to the present

day there is water from the spring for a big field. At the place he fired from

2' Qudrat Ullah Beg 1973, p. 127; Müller-Stellrecht 1979, p. 249.

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they have made a small shelter for herdsmen" (in Müller-Stellrecht 1979,

p. 249). My informant Nasimullah Beg (Baltit) added a further detail, men¬

tioning the saint's prophecy that more water would gush out if one would fire

at a second tooth. This apparently proved right, when in 1996 a contractor

blew up the rock above the H[yderabad-^<«r and plenty of water came out.

The Death of the Saint

The following account was given to me by Ghulam Nabi (Darbeshkuts)

from Ghulmeth: On the day Shah Wali felt that he was going to die, he or¬

dered his servant Mohammad Ali to get a white shroud (kafan) for the burial

and to look for it either at the royal court in Uyum Nager or in Baltit, the

capital of Hunza. Although it was already afternoon, the khadim should be

back by sunset in any case. Thus, Mohammad Ali started his long journey

from Thol to Uyum Nager. As the king was not in the palace, the queen

received him and explained that, in fact, a kafan would be ready, but she

didn't know if it had been borrowed from somewhere and it probably had

been paid for yet either. She would leave it to the servant's discretion to take

it or not, but probably it would be better to look for one in Hunza where

there were usually plenty of woollen kafans due to the flourishing trade

with Eastern Turkestan. As a result, Mohammad Ali went to the ruler of

Hunza and got the shroud there. Miraculously he returned to Thol in time.

In Lorimer's short Hunza-text it is noted in that respect: "Saiyid Shah was

a holy man of God, and they say he had kept the sun from setting. On their

bringing him the shroud Saiyid Shah Wali died" (Lorimer 1935, p. 295). In

Lorimer's notes we find a more detailed, yet differing narrative provided by

informants from Hunza:

"... he sent a man to Hunza and another to Nager for a shroud. A fine clean

shroud arrived first from Hunza while he was still alive. When later a thin

worn-out, rained-on shroud arrived from Nager, Saiyid Shah Wali made a

double blessing for Hunza, cancelling the original curse he had put on it. Ap¬

proving the Hunza shroud, he gave orders, saying: 'Put this shroud on me,' and

then died." (in Müller-Stellrecht 1979, p. 249)

Another version, apparently recorded from Nager, also shows a lukewarm

response to the saint's cause in the capital of the Nager-state, but is concili¬

atory in the end:

"It is related that when the great saint ... was on his deathbed, he despatched a

disciple to the then Mir of Nagar, asking for a shroud. The Mir agreed to give

him one and went inside, keeping the messenger waiting. Time passed; the

messenger had been exhorted to return by sunset when the saint expected to

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breathe his last. In despair, he left, and approached the Mir of Hunza at Baltit,

who promptly provided a shroud with which the messenger galloped back.

Meanwhile the Mir of Nagar emerged, with a shroud all ready, only to be told

that the messenger had already left. He blamed himself bitterly for his dilatory

behaviour; and, by way of making amends, despatched at once meat, vegeta¬

bles, poultry and fruit for a sumptuous funeral feast. The provisions arrived

just at the moment when the shroud came from Baltit; the saint was still alive.

He blessed the Mirs and the people of both states, saying that Hunza should

never lack fine raiment and that Nagar should never lack food." (Rushbrook

Williams 1964, p. 234)

A slightly different version, recorded by John Staley in the Nager-village

of Minapin, mentions the apologetic offering of grain and fruit on the part of

the ruler of Nager. -^^ Here the saint utters the following prophecy (reflecting

widely-held popular stereotypes):

"... because the Mir of Hunza had acted so promptly and had sent a shroud, the

people of Hunza were to be hardworking and were to have good cloth; whereas

the people of Nagar were to be slow and idle, but nonetheless were to have

abundant grain and fruit." (Staley 1982, p. 122)

In this respect legends reflect above all aetiological aspects. Shedding light on

the continual conflict and rivalry between Nager and Hunza, the following

Hunza-version is more focused on delimitation and is clearly ethnocentric.

It is said that Shah Wali requested both the people of Nager and of Hunza to

prepare a bier (tabüt) for him. The Hunzukuts, diligent and obedient to the

holy man's order, were the first to get the bier ready. Therefore Shah Wali

prayed that their kingdom would always prosper and never be conquered.

However, while addressing the negligent Nagerkuts, he prophesied that if

their state declined, it would never be possible to reconquer it. Qudrat

Ullah Beg, on the other hand, even more expressively takes the stance of

Hunza when he writes that the saint wished to be buried in Shiqaqlants and

therefore only requested the Hunzukuts to bring a shroud.-^'

As far as his tomb is concerned, the inhabitants of Thol argue that the

saint had specified that he wished to be buried in the middle of a large boul¬

der in Thol.^'' The villagers asked him how they could actually manage that

with their poor equipment consisting of a few axes and ibex-horns. Shah

Wali just replied that they should recite the basmala-iormula. (invocation

" Staley 1982, p. 122.

" Qudrat Ullah Beg 1973, p. 127.

" This represents, of course, a completely un-Islamic mode of burial. It refers more to the local folk-religious idea that certain superhuman beings, such as deu or phut (demons), inhabit boulders and rocks.

(16)

of God) three times and then wait. They did so after his death and the rock

miraculously split open or, according to another version, burst into many

pieces. Shah Wali was eventually not buried in Thol, but in Ghulmeth, where

subsequently, because of the saint's presence, much more water was flowing

from the Ghulmeth-^««?:^* Villagers from Thol claim that in lieu of the dead

body, a huge rock flew from Ghulmeth to the place in their village where

eventually an astdan (holy place) was built. In later times, some women from

Thol and Gushpur-women (i.e. women belonging to the royal family) from

the neighbouring village of Niit, in fact, saw on Thursdays light emanating

from the rock and moving around. Subsequently, a number of Tholkuts (lit.

"people from Thol") had a dream in which the saint appeared to them and

told that he was staying inside the boulder.

The oral traditions dealing with Shah Wali's death show various "us" vs.

"them" - layers and clearly reflect a powergame over the holy man's barkdt-

filled body between the villages of Thol, Ghulmeth, and Pisan. Eventually,

the numerically more powerful people of Ghulmeth got hold of his mortal

remains and buried him in their village, as mentioned above. Such a theft

or abduction of a saint's body represents a well-known topic in Muslim

hagiography.^'' Repeatedly, the Nagerkuts referred to the weakness of Thol,

where there were allegedly only seven houses at that time. A stronger chal¬

lenge was the claim made by the inhabitants of the old neighbouring village

of Pisan. It is said that Shah Wali had promised Tranpha Ghazi (Hashime)^*

from Pisan that he would be buried slightly above that village, because in those

days there were so many ill people who hoped to be cured in the saint's pres¬

ence. The villagers of Ghulmeth, on the other hand, claimed the holy man's

body in the hope of an effective cure against the wheat-disease (mathel).

Returning to the hagiographical legend, the narrative continues, men¬

tioning that when the news about Shah Wali's death in Thol spread, Tranpha

Ghazi arrived with his men (mention is made of Ghulam Ali and Mir Ali)

from Pisan. According to the saint's earlier instructions, his body should be

taken first to the house of a man in Thol whose name was Mahmud. There

it should be ritually washed, but the soil beneath under no circumstances

25 Cf. Qudrat Ullah Beg 1973, p. 127.

2' Lorimer 1935, p. 295; cf. Skyhawk 1999, p. 192. - A similar competition of people from different villages over the body of a Muslim saint can be found in the oral traditions of Biyori, a village in the area of the Palula in Southern Chitral (Cacopardo/Cacopardo 2001, p. 114).

" For example Dermenghem 1954, p. 17; Müller-Stellrecht 1979, p. 238, note 501

(Baba Ghundi).

2* In Pisan this Tranpha (i.e. an official with authority over a village) is locally only known by the name of Hashim.

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thrown away. When Shah Wali's body was now washed, a woman from the

Manishere poured the running off water in an adjacent cowshed. As a re¬

sult of this sacrilegious act, disregarding the holy man's wish, the family of

Mahmud and the other Manishere had no more offspring. An old woman,

originally belonging to the Nage-lineage, observed in the cowshed that an

intense glowing light was emanating from the ground. She took a little bit

from the moist soil and put it in the corner of her house. From then on, her

family was prosperous.

After the ritual washing, the Pisankuts laid the saint's body on a tabüt

and started to carry it to their village.^' On the way, the Ghulmethkuts

treated them to a good meal and offered them wine.'° Furthermore, the men

of Pisan who were already inebriated were bribed with wheat and their chief,

Tranpha Ghazi, even with gold to leave Shah Wali's body in Ghulmeth. The

latter's inhabitants quickly buried the saint to create a fait accompli. While

walking back to Pisan, Tranpha Ghazi and his small group suddenly heard

in Yz\-parrP^ Shah Wali's voice exclaiming "you have bartered me for gold,

here is more of it" and a big gold-nugget fell on the saddle right in front of

the village-headman. In other versions of the moral tale the voice said: "Do

you like me or do you prefer gold?" or "If you want gold, look in your bag!"

and at that moment all the gold turned into charcoal (hanjü). Now Ghazi

and his companions realized the sacrilege they had committed. They re¬

turned to Ghulmeth, but the people there had already expected them and

emplaced their guns (tumdk). In the ensuing encounter a number of people

were injured, but, finally, the Pisankuts had to retreat empty-handed to their

village. - On the one hand, it is narrated that until the middle of the 1990s,

Tranpha Ghazi's family did not increase and therefore visited Shah Wali's

shrine in Ghulmeth every year on a Thursday to plead for forgiveness and

to sacrifice a bull. Only a few years ago, their plea was heard and Ghazi's

family once again has two households. On the other hand, villagers in Pisan

point out that the families of Tranpha Ghazi and his companions Ghulam

Ali and Mir Ali all died out with the exception of one girl who later married

into another family. This motif of a sole survivor is well-known from vari¬

ous myths and legends in the Karakoram.

2' The following abbreviated Hunza-version leaves out the role of the Pisankuts and is therefore not verified by the people of Nager. According to Lorimer's informant "... the

people of Ghulmit learned what had happened and came to carry off Saiyid Shah's body

from the people of Tol. And they did carry it off, for the people of Ghulmit were many and the people of Tol were few. Overpowering and beating the people of Tol they carried off the body to Ghulmit, where they buried it and made a tomb" (Lorimer 1935, pp. 295, 297).

^° CL Staley 1982, p. 123.

" A very steep and dangerous sliding area near the village of Yal.

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Conceming the blessings of the shrine for the people of Ghulmeth,

Lorimer writes in his notes recorded in Hunza:

"Since it (the shrine) has been there, wheat and barley have ripened there; other¬

wise, the glacier water came out late in Ghulmet and only millet were cultivated.

It was an unhealthy place; many imbeciles and goitrous persons were born there.

Sickness also has now disappeared." (in Müller-Stellrecht 1979, p. 249)'^

In Lorimer's hagiographical text the following is added with respect to the

Ghulmethkuts:

"To the Hunza people too, it is said, they did not surrender the body, (though)

some years after Saiyid Shah had died, the people of Hunza had come up in

armed force against Ghulmit." (Lorimer 1935, p. 297)

This is in line with Qudrat Ullah Beg's and Lorimer's notion that the

saint originally wished to be buried in Shiqaqlants. Shah Wali is thought to

have said:

"Let my shrine be here, and if there are the shrines of seven saiyid with me here, there will be no scarcity of water in Hunza any longer." (Müller-Stellrecht

1979, p. 249)

The Cult: Holy Places and the Practice of Veneration

The Main Shrine in Ghulmeth

Shah Wali's shrine in Ghulmeth is the focal point of spiritual authority in

Nager wielding especially magical powers. It is officially called Dargäh-e

sharif Hazrat Sayyid Shäh Wall, but in the vernacular it is only known as

the astdan (holy place) of Shah Wali. It is situated in the middle of a court¬

yard in the village of Ghulmeth, just on the left side of the old imämhärha

(renovated in 1986). In front of these religious buildings is a huge, magnifi¬

cent plane-tree (chendr) with extremely long branches said to have stretched

once to the ancient gate (khane hingbaltarc) of the nearby fortified village.

The plane is generally venerated by Shi'as because of its hand-shaped leaves

symbolizing the holy family and also evoking the image of hands raised for

prayer. Close to the chendr-tree are the former "place of assembly" (hidak),

where horses were also fastened, and a small mosque in the background.

According to W. M. Conway, who visited Ghulmeth in 1892, Shah Wali's

shrine was apparently a simple wooden construction and allegedly bare

Staley 1982, p. 123.

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with no tomb in it (?).'' One objection to the latter "observation" is that it

seems to be based on a very superficial impression; furthermore, elevations

of tombs in Nager and surrounding regions are generally very slight and not

cenotaph-like. Some time after Conway, in 1933, also R.C.F. Schömberg

saw the shrine, but unfortunately refrained from any closer description.'''

The structure was described to me as a cubic block made of stone with

wooden beams in the local half timbered style, with a few small windows in

the upper part. In the 1960s, Mir Shaukat Ali Khan, the ruler of the Nager,

ordered that a wall be built around the shrine area. Finally, in 1977/1978, the

villagers themselves dismantled the old building and replaced it by an octa¬

gonal solid structure with a cupola, a door, and three arched windows. The

project was executed by the local craftsman Mistri Ali Haidar (Madikuts).

This mausoleum (now containing a cenotaph), made of stone and wooden

beams, had plastered walls and was still of a modest size more like the cham¬

ber of a tomb. A lintel dated 1295 Hijri (= 1878 ce) was most probably taken

from the earlier shrine and reused in the new building.'* In 1986, the villag¬

ers again decided to renovate and embellish the astdan: Instead of having

plastered walls, the mausoleum was now built with grey stone bricks; the

door, the green windows, and the white plastered dome essentially remained

as before. The decoration of the narrow interior consists of a floral ornament

painted by the craftsman Ramazan, two framed genealogies, and two older

poster-prints depicting Imam Husain's horse. The whole site has been rear¬

ranged so that the small mausoleum now has a quadrangular walled enclo¬

sure made of the same brickwork thereby creating a sort of inner courtyard.

The front of the enclosure shows a symmetrical structure with a main door

in the center, flanked on each side by a window. Both corners are marked

by a round, tower-like minaret with two arched openings in its upper part.

It seems that this new architectural design was influenced by popular devo¬

tional paintings (poster-prints) and by embroideries showing the facades of

famous religious monuments of the Twelver Shi'as in Iran and Iraq. In ad¬

dition to this enclosure, the outer courtyard is fenced off by a wall and by a

huge portal for entrance, both made of stone brickwork.

As the shrine of Shah Wali is the most important one in Nager, people

from Chaprot and Bar as well as from the remote Hispar come to Ghulmeth

to pay their respects to the saint and to seek his blessings in all aspects of

life. Usually they utter the formula: yd Shäh Wall, yd farydd dokoyal. The

pilgrims used to stay overnight in small mehmän-khänds (guesthouses)

" Conway 1894, p. 223.

Schömberg 1935, pp. 101-102.

" Dani 1989b, p. 155.

(20)

if they had no relatives in the village. On Thursdays and Fridays whole

families, particularly women with children, visit the astdan. Until the 1960s

Hunzukuts (particularly women) also frequently came to pray and to sub¬

mit their wishes and vows. Nowadays, drivers (from Nager as well as from

Hunza) stop at the Karakoram Highway, utter a short invocation to Shah

Wali to ensure a safe journey, and deposit some money (often 5 rupee notes)

into a donation box.

The Nagerkuts seek Shah Wali's intercession for a number of reasons, but

particularly to ensure fertility. Being a powerful auxiliary saint and media¬

tor to God, many women visit the astdan to pray for the birth of a son. An

exemplary case was reported by Ghulam Nabi: In 1971 one of his female

relatives, who lived in Sumaiyar, was still childless and at a loss, because

neither the use of amulets nor the consultation of medical practitioners

proved successful. She then decided to stay for five days with Ghulam

Nabi's family in Ghulmeth in order to submit her supplication every day to

Shah Wali. Ghulam Nabi had to return to Karachi for work, but when he

finally returned to Nager after five years to settle permanently in Ghulmeth,

he learned that his relative had given birth to five children (three boys and

two daughters). Ghulam Nabi added that the woman complained about her

physical weakness, because every year she had to bear a child. Therefore she

requested the saint to prevent her from becoming pregnant and Shah Wali

eventually granted her wish. In this short narrative the obvious use of the

five as an auspicious number in any Shi'a context already reveals a legendary

trait. Another tale from Ghulmeth also underlines the important quest for

male offspring: About 20 years ago. Raja Nizam ud-Din (Moghlotkuts), who

lives close to the shrine, saw in a dream a nurani bozorg (a saint with radiat¬

ing light) praying in the courtyard of the astdan. Most probably it was Shah

Wali himself. The holy man addressed the Raja and said: "Tell your neigh¬

bour Tranpha Mast Ali he should just pray and donate z phiröoza-buröndo

(finger-ring with a turquoise) to the shrine." A few days before, the Raja had

jokingly promised the Tranpha that he would help him to get a son. He in¬

formed his neighbour about the dream and left it to his discretion to believe

or not to believe the divine message. Mast Ali followed the bozorg's orders

and after two months a son was born to him (today he has even four sons).

Shah Wali is said to help in many different ways: In case of a land dis¬

pute, both opponents went to the astdan and swore on the Qur'an that they

had uttered the truth. Salt was sprinkled on the pages which both men had

to lick up. Usually the one who was wrong was expected to be struck by

misfortune or even die within a couple of days. This sort of oath-taking at

shrines used to be very common in both Nager and Hunza. Today jobless

(21)

men pray to the saint to find a suitable position. Furthermore, the holy man

had the divine powers to cure diseases. People in Ghulmeth say that once

a mother prayed at the astdan for the cure of her sick daughter, who had a

stiff arm. In a flash, her ring was removed from her finger and set itself on

the tomb. Her daughter could soon move her arm again. Another story told

about Zawar Rajab from Ghulmeth (who originally belonged to Dadimal)

highlights the saint's quality as a protector: In the 1960s, Rajab had a dream

in which he met a nurani bozorg with his khadim (apparently Shah Wali

with Mohammad Ali, as my informant concluded), who were on their way

to the Rakaposhi glacier. He asked them in the customary way where they

were going and what they intended to do. They replied: "We are ascending,

because there will be a great misfortune, and we are going to avert it." The

next day a big avalanche occurred, but miraculously no one died, and only

trees and fields were devastated.

In order to remind Shah Wali of a wish and to emphasize its binding effect,

devotees fix 'alams (standard consisting of a small stick with a piece of cloth

attached) or padlocks on the doorhandles of the shrine (formerly a chain). A

wish is usually combined with a vow. Thus pilgrims whose wishes have been

granted (which is expressed in Burushaski as muräd puro mantmi or hajät

qabül mammi), offer wheat-flour, clarified butter ( maltdsh/ghi), and nowa¬

days often money. These donations are taken by the guardians of the astdan.

Depending on the character of the wish, some believers also vow to slaughter

a goat or sheep and to prepare special bread with butter (pushooro, also pro¬

nounced zspirishoro) to be distributed among the poor.'* Cases are known of

an offering being rejected by the saint. Not surprisingly, such stories are told

particularly about devotees from Hunza (for example when g^z was miracu¬

lously separated in lumps and scattered around). Other pious people vow to

circumambulate the astdan three times within the enclosure on a Thursday

evening while praying xht fätiha and a du'ä (personal petitive prayer).'''

A particular expression for such an offering is qbudei. In connection with Shah Wa¬

li's shrine it is said that once in the early 1940s, a big sheep was missing, which belonged to Raja Muzafar ud-Din Shah (Moghlotkuts), the Jagirdar of Ghulmeth. The servants looked for it and found it sleeping in the saint's courtyard, remarkably with its head turned to¬

wards the qibla (i.e. towards Mecca). This was considered very auspicious because, fol¬

lowing the model of Abraham's sacrifice, every animal in Islam is slaughtered with its head turned in the direction of Mecca. The Raja ordered to sacrifice the sheep as qbudei and to distribute the meat to all the villagers. On the next day the message arrived that Muzafar ud-Din Shah was appointed as "Raja" (here in the sense of governor) of Chilas.

'7 It must be emphasized that no religious festivities or celebrations are held on behalf

of Shah Wali, such as commemorating his death, etc. The devotion displayed here defi¬

nitely lacks the fervent character such as is found for instance in Punjab and other parts of

(22)

A way to obtain Shah Wah's blessings is to touch the piqmdr stone lying

in the main courtyard close to the entrance.'* This piqmdr shows the saint's

footprint and was found many years ago lying in the das (desert-like land)

between the Ghu\meth-khan and the small adjacent village of Masot. When,

in 1994, the respective plot was divided among the sons of the owner, the

stone was eventually brought to the astdan. The pilgrims also drink the

rainwater which collects in the deepening of Shah Wali's footprint. The

water, which is "loaded" with his barkdt, is taken with a spoon. On special

request, the mujäwer (guardian) on duty distributes sacred earth from the

tomb, particularly to pregnant women and sick children. He may also pre¬

pare amulets. In the evenings, a man from the Darbeshkuts (the hereditary

guardians of the shrine) blows into a yakhorn to announce the lighting of

the oil lamps, whose residues are taken as substances containg barkdt by

devotees. Later the mujäwer on duty closes the doors of the shrine. It is told

that sometimes in the morning the doors are wide open, which confirms

Shah Wali's presence.

The Role of the Darbeshkuts

The twelve families of the Darbeshkuts, settled nowadays in Ghulmeth as

well as another family living in adjacent Masot, are all descendants of Shah

Wali's servant Mohammad Ali Qadimi.''^ It is said that the village consisted

of only 30 houses at that time about eight generations before. Zawar Abdur

Rahim remarked that the Darbeshkuts had prospered since then, because

they did not desert their saint (otherwise Shah Wali had threatened them

with extinction). Like the local Ulama, they were also exempted from pay¬

ing taxes during the rule of the royal dynasty of Nager.

South Asia. This may also be due to the renewed Shi a faith and the preachings of the local Ulama (religious scholars).

h piqmdr is usually considered to be a sacred stone or rock showing the imprints of the feet or hands of a saint; frequently people see light emanating from them (cf. Müller-

Stellrecht 1979, pp. 243-244). In some cases, for instance in the Nager-village of

Askurdas, a mosque is built over 3. piqmdr. The prayer-stone from Chinishi near Uyum Nager, already mentioned above in the context of Shah Wali's miracle to create a spring for his ablutions, is also considered as d.piqmdr where people go to pray for the birth of a son.

Occasionally people visit such a holy place, distribute lumps of butter (pusbdoro) among children and pray for the betterment of weather. This indigenous custom, which is known 3.S piqmdre pushooro, is still observed in Chinishi.

" To to my knowledge, there are no Darbeshkuts living in other villages of Nager;

only in the time of Mir Sikandar Khan (1905-1940) a certain Darbesh Chiltani migrated from Ghulmeth to the remote village of Bar and died there without leaving any offspring.

(23)

The Darbeshkuts preserve a particular memory about their forefather

Mohammad Ali. They narrate that the latter was treated by the Nager people

only as a mean servant after the saint's death. Being utterly disappointed, he

left and went to the village of Taus in Yasin. While sleeping under a tree, he

had a dream in which the saint admonished him: "Why did you leave me?"

And Mohammad Ali complained: "The Nagerkuts are not treating me well

and they did not give me a wife." Shah Wali reassured him in saying: "Don't

worry, go to the next house and there you will get what you want! Then re¬

turn to Nager and the people will treat you respectfully!" Close to the house

he met a mother with her daughter. Mohammad Ali married the young

woman and also received a letter of recommendation to be handed over to

the Nager people, which the saint had miraculously deposited there. In the

khadim's absence (for about a week), the inhabitants of Ghulmeth had been

unable to open the doors of the shrine. Despite all efforts, the doors remained

firmly locked. On Mohammad Ali's return to Ghulmeth, he blew into his

yakhorn before entering the village, and the doors of the astdan opened by

themselves. The villagers were very impressed by this miracle. The story re¬

flects the well-known motif that people who are at the bottom of the society

and do not have power are eventually validated. Mohammad Ali Qadimi

was later buried in the cemetery close to the saint's tomb.''° His descendants

intermarried with indigenous women from Ghulmeth, they were "put into

chains" (sdngalis'ing egtni), as one of my informants vividly stated. Since then,

they perform their service of guarding and maintaining the shrine, blowing

three times into their horn, burning oil lamps, etc. This is organized in a sys¬

tem of turns called astdane gait, whereby one khadim (also called mujäwer

or darbesh) at a time works at the shrine and another one at the donation

box placed at the Karakoram Highway. The system is organized flexibly: a

khadim whose family owns more land will only work for one or two months,

whereas a khadim belonging to a poor family will earn his living by work¬

ing longer (three to four months). Until the rule of Mir Shaukat Ali Khan

(1940-1972), a smaller group of Darbeshkuts regularly toured the villages of

Nager and Hunza once a year after the harvest to collect nazräna (offerings).

Some poor dervishes also came individually at certain times. They carried

wooden begging bowls (kishti) and blew into their yakhorns when they ar¬

rived at a village. In return for wheat flour, wood, dried apricots, and apricot

oil (used for burning lamps at the shrine)'", they would hand out amulets,

cure through blowing, and distribute ash and sacred earth from Shah Wali's

^° This cemetery was levelled in 1977/1978.

There were no fixed contributions by the villagers.

(24)

tomb. Similarly, in Hunza, a mujäwer of Baba Ghundi would go from village to village to collect offerings (until the 1960s).

Other Shrines and Holy Places in Nager

The following chapter deals with the wider "sacred geography" of Nager as

far as it is related to Shah Wali, whereby emphasis will be given to magical

items and commemorative structures.

Shah Wali's wooden stick (iphdgu), which the saint had presented to the

ancestor of the Mamukuts (lineage of the Goshotkuts) in Hopar, became

a particular object of devotion. It is said that when Mamue Puno touched

the iphdgu, it immediately turned into a gun (tumdk). No one was able to

shoot with that gun and everyone who kept it at his house went mad. Only

for a single family of the Goshotkuts did the "stick-gun" become an object

containing barkdt. Today it belongs to a man named Asmano.

In order to obtain the barkdt of the saint's miraculously transformed

stick, women and men stroke the barrel of the gun three times with their

hands beginning at the upper part and then down to the muzzle, thereby

uttering a dud. Each year the women in Asmano's family make a new gun-

case (yuulgis) out of cloth, which receives the sacred object's barkdt. The

previous one is cut into small pieces which serve as amulets. It is said that

the iphdgu ("stick-gun") helps in all areas of life. Eventually it was also suc¬

cessfully used in peacemaking. Allegedly, during the famous Hunza-Nager

campaign of December 1891 it was carried down to Niit. At the moment

it arrived, the battle ended. More recently, in 1988 during the Sunni-Shi'a

encounters in the vicinity of Gilgit, the situation became critical and dan¬

gerous for the Shi'as and people from Chalt requested the Goshotkuts from

Hopar to bring Shah Wali's iphdgu. First they went down to Ghulmeth

where they circumambulated (tawdf) the saint's shrine three times. Then

they proceeded further down the valley; when they finally reached the vil¬

lage of Danyor, the battle had just finished.

In addition to such objectified sacred power, there is the well-known idea

in popular Sufism that a place where a saint once stayed for some time (gen¬

erally known as maqdm) is thought to be impregnated by his superhuman

power. Thus, for example, Bonchi as well as Sinekar (near Huro) are places

where Shah Wali is said to have rested before going to Hopar. At both places

the people occasionally eat some of the green leaves of a variety of artemisia

called mon. It is a grey-coloured, fragrant plant whose branches are used

as firewood. People say that only the mon growing in those places has the

medical properties to cure the worm disease. They add that one must pull

(25)

down the leaves starting from the top (the same gesture as with stroking

Shah Wall's "stick-gun"); only then the patient will emit the worms. But,

parallel to the related physical movements of the body, an inversed striping

of the leaves from down to top would make the man vomit.

In Uyum Nager-Melukushal, where Shah Wali performed his most fa¬

mous miracle, there is an astdan commemorating the place of his prayer.

The small sanctuary, officially named Sayyid Shäh Wall qadam gdh, is built

around the saint's prayer-stone on which nobody is allowed to step. Within

the enclosure there is a place for prayer (for men only), flags ('alam) con¬

nected with personal wishes, oil lamps, and a box for donations. The local

mujäwer is paid from the little money deposited in the box. Many people re¬

port that they see lights at the astdan in the month of Ramazan. Similar to the

devotion displayed at the m.ain shrine in Ghulmeth, the pious come to pray

in cases of illness and to seek the saint's help in bestowing children. Thus,

for example, the wife of Raja Mohammad Ali Khan (father of Mir Shaukat

Khan, the last ruler of Nager) had several miscarriages and often came to the

astdan for du'ä and to make a vow. Then, after some time, Mir Shaukat Ali

Khan, was born. Once, it is said, a man died beside Shah Wali's prayer stone.

He had entered the shrine in an impure state without performing the ablu¬

tions prescibed after sexual intercourse. After that, the villagers put a second

slab of stone on top of the original prayer-stone. Moreover, horses which are

sick and cannot pass urine are led five times around the shrine.''^

The Melukushal-^«/ or tok-bul, which is thought to have been created by

the saint and is therefore also called Sayyid Shah-bul, is situated only a few

steps away from the astdan up on the mountain slope. Immediately below

there is an hammäm (bath), where also clothes can be washed, as well as the

M.e\ukush.a\-masjid. It is said that if someone pushed a stick into the spring,

it would vanish in the water and the person would be thrown back by a mi¬

raculous power. Furthermore, an amazing feature of the spring is that its

water level remains the same in summer and winter; in addition, in winter

the water is rather warm. The bul has long been used for magically changing

the weather by producing or stopping rain: If there is a draught or if there is

too much rain, the villagers of Uyum Nager pray for the fulfilment of their

wish and bring qhamdli and burum hdnik (bread, butter, fruit), which are

distributed among the poor. According to the rules of purity and pollution,

a woman during menstruation is not allowed to drink from the pure water,

otherwise she will become sick. The spring as well as the astdan are visited

predominantly by the inhabitants of Nager 's "capital village" Uyum Nager,

but sometimes people from other villages also come to these holy places.

« Frembgen 1984, p. 224.

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