Explore

Six ways into Kashmir’s past and its living traditions.

The Library

Rare books on Kashmir and its spiritual traditions, free to read online or download.

History

Kalhana’s River of Kings, and the travellers who wrote about the valley.

Heritage & Crafts

Pashmina, papier-mâché, walnut carving, silk and the crafts of Srinagar.

Poetry

Lal Ded, Habba Khatoon and the voices of Kashmiri verse.

Sufism & Religion

The saints and shrines of Kashmir, and classics of the Sufi path.

Calligraphy

Masterpieces of Islamic calligraphy, with their text, translation and story.

Start here

Four essential reads for anyone discovering Kashmir.

Lal Ded

The mystic whose sayings are the oldest poetry in Kashmiri.

Nund Reshi

Sheikh Nooruddin and the Rishis, Kashmir’s own Sufi order.

Travellers in Kashmir

Four centuries of visitors, from Bernier to Younghusband.

The Kashmir Shawl

Pashmina, kani weaving and the motif that became the paisley.

New in the Library

Public-domain books, scanned by the world’s great libraries and free for everyone.

• 
  Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, a Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir, Vol. II (translated by M. A. Stein)
• 
  Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab, Vol. II by William Moorcroft and George Trebeck
• 
  Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, Vol. II by G. T. Vigne
• 
  Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz (Rumi), translated by R. A. Nicholson
• 
  The Mystics of Islam by Reynold A. Nicholson
• 
  Gulshan-i-Raz: The Mystic Rose Garden of Mahmud Shabistari, translated by E. H. Whinfield

See all books in the Library →

Latest articles

• 
  The Temples of Naranag: Bhutesha and Jyeshtesha below Mount Haramukh
  The ruined temples of Naranag in the Wangath valley, read alongside Kalhana’s Rajatarangini: the kings who built and endowed them, the story of the bitter offering, how Aurel Stein matched ruins to chronicle, and the old pilgrim road to Gangabal.
• 
  A Secret of God in the Calligrapher’s Hand: An Ottoman Qit’a of 1785
  “In the hands of the calligraphers is one of the secrets of God.” A small Ottoman panel of 1785, written by a schoolboy who grew up to be a famous physician, and what it says about the art.
• 
  O Soul at Peace: Surat al-Fajr in an Illuminated Qur’an of 1874
  “O soul at peace, return to your Lord.” The end of Surat al-Fajr on a page of an illuminated Qur’an of 1874, and how the Sufis read those four verses.
• 
  Habba Khatoon: The Nightingale of Kashmir
  Zoon of Chandhar, the village girl who became the queen of Yusuf Shah Chak and gave Kashmiri its best-loved songs of longing: the story, the history of Yusuf Shah’s exile, the lol, and an older tradition recorded by Knowles in 1885.
• 
  Pashmina and Kani: The Shawls of Kashmir
  The Kashmir shawl from wool to market: Akbar’s parmnarm, Moorcroft’s eyewitness account of the spinners, dyers and kani weavers, the talim, the boteh that became the paisley, and the collapse of the trade after 1870.
• 
  Kashmiri Papier-mâché: The Art of Kar-i-Qalamdani
  How Kashmiri craftsmen turn paper into glowing pen cases, bowls and painted shrine interiors: Moorcroft, Baden-Powell, Lawrence and Watt on the materials, methods, patterns and decline of kar-i-qalamdani, and the craft today.