About This Edition and Introduction

About This Edition

This book gives the complete Urdu text and a new English translation of *Shahi Sair-e-Kashmir* (The Royal Tours of Kashmir) by Munshi Muhammad Din Fauq. It is an account of the journeys to Kashmir of four Mughal emperors, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb Alamgir, which the author drew from histories such as the *Akbarnama*, the *Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri*, the *Iqbalnama*, the *Tabaqat-e-Akbari* and the *Badshahnama*, and retold in his own words.

Source of the Urdu text: Urdu Wikisource (ur.wikisource.org), the contents page "شاہی سیر کشمیر" and its six sub-pages (five chapters and the notes), taken from the Wikimedia dump of October 2026. The end of the first chapter states that it is taken from the April 1910 issue of the magazine *Makhzan*.

What is left out and what was changed: the whole of the author's text is given in his order, with his notes and the contemporary note by the editor of *Makhzan*. The Wikisource page headers are left out. The notes, which are on a separate page in Wikisource, are placed after the last chapter. Each chapter title is the author's own. Nothing modern has been added to the Urdu.

Copyright: Munshi Muhammad Din Fauq died in 1945; works of Urdu authors who died in 1961 or earlier are out of copyright in Pakistan and India. The English translation, this introduction and the glossary are new.

Translation: the English follows the Urdu sentence by sentence. The Persian passages and verses from Abul Fazl and others that the author quotes in the original are translated, with a translator's note [TN: ...] saying that they are in Persian in the original. Hijri dates are given with the Western year in a note. Terms kept in the translation are explained in the glossary at the end.

Introduction

The first chapter describes Akbar's first journey to Kashmir in 997 AH: from Lahore across the Ravi to Bhimbar, Rajauri and over the snows of the Pir Panjal to Hirapur and Srinagar, with Persian passages from Abul Fazl's *Akbarnama*. The second chapter covers all three of Akbar's journeys, including the revolt of Mirza Yadgar, the Diwali illuminations, the Zaina Lank and the building of the fort on Hari Parbat.

The third chapter belongs to Jahangir and is drawn mostly from his memoirs: the flowers and bridges of the road, the submission of the Raja of Kishtwar, the history of Kashmir, the city of Srinagar, the revenue, the spring, the customs of the people, the saffron fields, and his orders about the customs of Rajauri. The fourth chapter covers Shah Jahan's four journeys, with his orders for protecting the subjects, the *Milad* gathering, the building at Vernag, flood and famine, and his meeting with Mulla Shah Badakhshi.

The fifth chapter is a short account of Aurangzeb Alamgir's single journey to Kashmir in 1073 AH, which, through the hardships of the road and the death of his minister, gave him little joy. All through the book the author stresses the justice of the emperors and their care for their subjects, and now and then mentions the Kashmir of his own day, with its houseboats and *tongas*.