THE SAA'DH MAQQAARS ( FRAUDULENT SYEDS ) OF KASHMIR

                                                                                  

( A Typical Saa'dh Maqqaar )
 (Photo source ..Brij Krishan Dass)

He was at our door at 7AM. Wearing a long Kashmiri Pheran and  a cap on his head , he entered  our house  with a big knock  and  loudly declared in chaste kashmiri ..

'Tche nai poshan na .Ba gaalukh byol.  Sakh kooshish karikh me dyotukh na votalanaa.  Bachaa ma aasukh vopar garan sozaan......Allhum di Soo ..Vallhum di zoo....Aasmaen kotur  gutur goo gutur  goo.... Bhabi...vala ann niyaaz baapat kharch ta tomul’
    
" They can't touch you. I shall destroy them from their root. They tried hard but i did not encourage them. Do not send your children to houses of strangers."Allhum di soo ...Vallhum di zoo....The pigeon in the sky ..  Gutur goo gutur  Goo....Lady , now bring  some cash and rice for the niyaaz." 

By word " They ", he meant some so called evil forces , which according to him , were out to harm   our family.His job was done.

And by the time i came to know what had actually happened ,he was out with 20 rupees and a kg of rice given by my mother.Mother would say that he is a dangerous man.Better he leaves the house.He was a Saa'dh Maqaar or a fraudulent  religious man  in the guise of a Syed. A tricky beggar posing as a saint or a faquir    .

Then one day i saw him sipping tea inside the shop of Mohd Sidiq Sofi ( kashmiri bakery shop owner ) and our neighbour. Mohd Sidiq's mother known as Sondhar Dedh was from Pampore town near Srinagar city . I immediately asked her who he was. She promptly replied   that he was Ramzaan Saa'dh Maqaar ( Ramzaan the fraudulent syed ) actually from pampore outskirts. She continued that he belonged to a family that  had no agricultural land and as such practiced Saa'dh Maqaari profession  in far off villages or city localities. Sondhar Dedh added that these Saa'dh Maqaars cheated innocent people  outside some shrines and ziyarats as well.  

That day onwards Ramzan Saa'dh Maqaar was not seen in Rainawari.

 Later i came to know  that  during winters , these Saa'dh Maqaars would visit   Amritsar , Ludhiana , Phagwara , Jalandhar , Pathankote  and many other cities of  Punjab  to   rob innocent  and poor kashmiri muslim labourers of their hard earned savings. Posing as Peer sahib or a  Dervish , they  would entice  people in their trap  . At times ,locals too fell to their well laid out trap. Before 1947, they were also seen in Lahore during winter months .

His words ‘Allhum di soo,  Vallhum di zoo ,Aasmaen kotur  gutur goo gutur  goo ‘ appeared mysterious at that time.I thought he was probably warning the so called evil forces to keep off from our family. These lines remained etched in my memory..And the fraudulent faquir  had succeeded in making me to remember something which actually meant nothing.

I have also seen these Syed Maqaars coming in groups. Their leader   would always be an elderly person with white beard. The would  say loudly :

" Jai gosaein  ! Veshnaarpan deeytuv "

‘ Victory to the  sadhu , for god’s sake , give something ’

I end this write up wiih a couplet of urdu poet Majrooh Sultanpuri……

"Tere khanumaan kharabaan ka na chaman na koyi sahra,

Ye jahaan bhi baith jaayein waheen unn ki baargaahein.."

(Those rendered homeless by you,

Neither do they belong to the garden

Nor to the desert.

Wherever they sit ,

They create their own audience halls,)

(Avtar Mota)

PS
According to Walter R Lawrence
“ The Saiyad Makkaar Fraternity are fraudulent faquirs who pretend to be saiyads and wander about Kashmir and India cheating Public . Many have taken to trade .They intermarry among themselves. ”
( Refer Page 308 “The Valley Of Kashmir  “ By Walter R Lawrence )

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