ABSTRACT
The incorporation of the Shahmir state into the Mughal Empire during the sixteenth century comes as no surprise to those who are aware of the ruinous conditions to which the medieval Kashmiri state and society were reduced under the Shahmir Sultans. After the death of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin in ad 1470, the medieval state in Kashmir lost its hegemonic position and failed to register any steady progress despite the promising beginnings made by Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin. The reign of Sultan Hassan Shah saw an increase in the authority of the various factions of nobility at the expense of the state and society of medieval Kashmir. Sultan Haider Shah and Sultan Hassan Shah restored to the Sayyids the spheres of power within which the Sayyids sought to define their interests, with the moreorless obvious intention of strengthening their ties of kinship with the ruling aristocracy. The interest of the Mughals in Kashmir’s polity had developed much before Emperor Akbar.
