Fida Muhammad Hassnain (Urdu فدا حسنین;

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its ...

, 1924 – 2016) was a Kashmiri writer, lecturer and

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

mystic. __NOTOC__ He was born in 1924 in Srinagar, Kashmir, as the child of schoolteachers. His father fought with the British Indian forces in the Boer War in South Africa in 1902. Fida Hassnain graduated from the

University of Punjab The University of the Punjab (Urdu, pnb, ), also referred to as Punjab University, is a public, research, coeducational higher education institution located in Lahore, Pakistan. Punjab University is the oldest public university in Pakistan. ...

and the

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

, and became a barrister, but the events surrounding the partition of colonial British India made him lose faith in the law, and after a short period of social work he became a lecturer in 1947 at the Sri Patrap (SP) College in Srinagar. In 1954, he became Director of the Kashmir State Archives, retiring in 1983. Fida Hassnain on died 9 July 2016 in Srinagar, Kashmir. His study tours resulted in the salvaging of several hundred manuscripts in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

and Persian, which were housed in the Archives and Oriental Research Libraries. As an archaeologist, he conducted several excavations. He has written several books on the subject of

Lost years of Jesus The unknown years of Jesus (also called his silent years, lost years, or missing years) generally refers to the period of Jesus's life between his childhood and the beginning of his ministry, a period not described in the New Testament. The " ...

and Kashmir, which have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Japanese. He has made frequent guest appearances in documentaries about the tomb of

Roza Bal The Roza Bal, Rouza Bal, or Rozabal is a shrine located in the Khanyar quarter in downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir, India. The word ''roza'' means tomb, the word ''bal'' mean place. Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuz Asaf, alongs ...

supporting the teaching of the founder of

Ahmadiyya Islam Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metapho ...

(1899) that Jesus of Nazareth died in India. Christian theologians have been highly critical of Hassnain's works - Christian academics dismissing these claims include Günter Grönbold,

Wilhelm Schneemelcher Wilhelm Schneemelcher (21 August 1914, Berlin – 6 August 2003, Bad Honnef) was a German Protestant theologian and expert on the New Testament Apocrypha. Career He obtained through Hans Lietzmann a post researching Latin and Greek manuscripts ...

Norbert Klatt Norbert Klatt (24 December 1949 – 1 October 2015) was a German scholar of Buddhism and Christianity and publisher; he was the founder of Norbert Klatt Verlag, Göttingen. Klatt proposed Buddhist influence on some New Testament narratives (1982), ...

, Per Beskow, and Gerald O'Collins.Mark Bothe Die "Jesus-in-Indien-Legende" - Eine alternative Jesus-Erzählung? - 2011 - Page 30 "1.4.2 Fida Hassnain - Fida M. Hassnain wurde 1924 in Srinagar, Kaschmir, ..." In January 2009 The Jammu Kashmir Government recognized Hassnain for his lifetime contributions.

Works

; Books * ''Buddhist Kashmir'' (Light & Life Publishers, 1973). * ''Hindu Kashmir'' (Light & Life Publishers, 1977). * ''British policy towards Kashmir, 1846-1921: Kashmir in Anglo-Russian politics'' (Sterling, 1974). * ''Gilgit, the Northern Gate of India'' (Sterling, 1978). * ''Freedom struggle in Kashmir'' (Rima Publishing House, 1988). * ''The Islamic Revolution in Iran'' (Rima Publishing House, 1989). * ''A Search for the Historical Jesus: From Apocryphal, Buddhist, Islamic and Sanskrit Sources'' (Down-to-Earth Books, 1994). . ; Edited works * ''Kashmir Misgovernment'' (Gulshan Publishers, 1980). * ''Heritage of Kashmir'' (Gulshan Publishers, 1980).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hassnain, Fida 1924 births 2016 deaths Kashmiri writers Kashmiri people 20th-century Indian historians Sufi mystics University of the Punjab alumni People from Srinagar Scholars from Jammu and Kashmir Swoon hypothesis Writers about the Kashmir conflict Aligarh Muslim University alumni Lecturers