
The Roza Bal, Rouza Bal, or Rozabal is a shrine located in the
Khanyar quarter in
downtown area of
Srinagar in
Kashmir, India
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompass ...
. The word ''roza'' means tomb, the word ''bal'' mean place. Locals believe a sage is buried here,
Yuz Asaf,
alongside another
Muslim holy man, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin.
The shrine was relatively unknown until the founder of the
Ahmadiyya
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 ...
movement,
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 metaphori ...
, claimed in 1899 that it is actually the
tomb of Jesus.
This view is maintained by Ahmadis today,
though it is rejected by the local
Sunni caretakers of the shrine, one of whom said "the theory that Jesus is buried anywhere on the face of the earth is blasphemous to Islam."
Building
The structure stands in front of a Muslim cemetery. It consists of a low rectangular building on a raised platform, surrounded by railings at the front and an entry. Within is a shrine to
Youza Asouph. The building also houses the burial tomb of a Shia Muslim saint, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin, a descendant of
Imam Musa-Raza, 8th Imam of the Shia Muslims whose shrine is in
Mashhad
Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province and has a po ...
.