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==Relics==
==Relics==
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There were numerous relics found inside the tomb. Some have been stolen, some sold off to agents from other countries. There have been some claims that these relics may be fakes, planted by 13th and 14th century forgers, when relic sales were popular business. The Rosary relic, a simple cross on a string, was used to represent Christianity as early as the first century (Wikipedia , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_cross) when it also appeared on coins ( The Fifth Gospel, pp. 271,274). In 1954 Professor Fida Hassnain became the Director of State Archives, Archaeology Research and Museums. The relics found in the tomb were carefully documented by Dr. Hassnain and others over a period of thrity years, and by others who have held the position since then. Dr. Hassnain, a Sunni Muslim, had no personal interest in supporting the claims of Ahmaddi Muslims regarding the history of the tomb and the relics. To date, neither he, nor subsequent researchers for the Government of India, have found anything to suggest the artifacts are fakes or were planted at a later date. Sunni and Shia Muslims have made independent efforts to disqualify the research of Hassnain, the Government of India, and Ahmaddi Muslims. Yet no one has ever been able to establish the relics are fake The relics that remain consist of documents, the carved footprints that match wounds on the feet of the Shroud of Turin, A Rod, 8’2” in length, with filial removed from the end, stone of the sepulcher, a wooden cross or sword embedded in a stone, a wooden sarcophagus, an incense stand, original blue painted trim, a grave in the basement aligned in the Hebrew east-west position, and another grave aligned in the north-south Muslim position.
There were numerous relics found inside the tomb. Some have been stolen, some sold off to agents from other countries. There have been some claims that these relics may be fakes, planted by 13th and 14th century forgers, when relic sales were popular business. The Rosary relic, a simple cross on a string, was used to represent Christianity as early as the first century (Wikipedia , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_cross) when it also appeared on coins ( The Fifth Gospel, pp. 271,274). In 1954 Professor Fida Hassnain became the Director of State Archives, Archaeology Research and Museums. The relics found in the tomb were carefully documented by Dr. Hassnain and others over a period of thrity years, and by others who have held the position since then. Dr. Hassnain, a Sunni Muslim, had no personal interest in supporting the claims of Ahmaddi Muslims regarding the history of the tomb and the relics. To date, neither he, nor subsequent researchers for the Government of India, have found anything to suggest the artifacts are fakes or were planted at a later date. Sunni and Shia Muslims have made independent efforts to disqualify the research of Hassnain, the Government of India, and Ahmaddi Muslims. Yet no one has ever been able to establish the relics are fake The relics that remain consist of documents, the carved footprints that match wounds on the feet of the Shroud of Turin, A Rod, 8’2” in length, with filial removed from the end, stone of the sepulcher, a wooden cross or sword embedded in a stone, a wooden sarcophagus, an incense stand, original blue painted trim, a grave in the basement aligned in the Hebrew east-west position, and another grave aligned in the north-south Muslim position.


Revision as of 18:24, 31 January 2013

Roza Bal shrine - The sign reads "Ziarati Hazrati Youza Asouph and Syed Nasir-u-Din."

The Roza Bal or Rauza Bal or Rozabal is the name of a shrine located in the Khanyaar quarter of the city of Srinagar in Kashmir venerated by some Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. Locals have traditionally referred to the main sage buried there as Yuz Asaf ("Youza Asouph"). The shrine also contains the grave of another holy man Nasir-U-Din. Mention of the site in Lonely Planet India has attracted many backpackers.[1]

Relics

There were numerous relics found inside the tomb. Some have been stolen, some sold off to agents from other countries. There have been some claims that these relics may be fakes, planted by 13th and 14th century forgers, when relic sales were popular business. The Rosary relic, a simple cross on a string, was used to represent Christianity as early as the first century (Wikipedia , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_cross) when it also appeared on coins ( The Fifth Gospel, pp. 271,274). In 1954 Professor Fida Hassnain became the Director of State Archives, Archaeology Research and Museums. The relics found in the tomb were carefully documented by Dr. Hassnain and others over a period of thrity years, and by others who have held the position since then. Dr. Hassnain, a Sunni Muslim, had no personal interest in supporting the claims of Ahmaddi Muslims regarding the history of the tomb and the relics. To date, neither he, nor subsequent researchers for the Government of India, have found anything to suggest the artifacts are fakes or were planted at a later date. Sunni and Shia Muslims have made independent efforts to disqualify the research of Hassnain, the Government of India, and Ahmaddi Muslims. Yet no one has ever been able to establish the relics are fake The relics that remain consist of documents, the carved footprints that match wounds on the feet of the Shroud of Turin, A Rod, 8’2” in length, with filial removed from the end, stone of the sepulcher, a wooden cross or sword embedded in a stone, a wooden sarcophagus, an incense stand, original blue painted trim, a grave in the basement aligned in the Hebrew east-west position, and another grave aligned in the north-south Muslim position.

Structure

The structure stands in front of a Muslim cemetery.[2] The structure consists of a low rectangular building on a raised platform, surrounded by railings at the front and an entry. The small grave is for a muslim saint Syed Nasir-u-Din (buried 1451). The larger shrine is to Youza Asouph. [3] Inside is a rock carving that is said to show feet bearing crucifixion wounds. The body is buried according to the Jewish tradition of directions and not according to the Islamic tradition.[4] However, the building also houses the burial tomb of a local Muslim saint, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin, who was buried in line with Islamic directions.[4] The structure was previously maintained by the local community, but is now maintained by a Board of Directors consisting of Sunni Muslims.[5]

History of Kashmir

The shrine is first mentioned in the Waqi'at-i-Kashmir (Story of Kashmir), also known as the Tarikh Azami (History by Azam)[6] by the Khwaja Muhammad Azam Didamari (d.1765), a local Srinagar Sufi writer. Muhammed Azam simply states that the tomb is of a foreign prophet and prince, Yuz Asuf or in local Kashimiri transcription Youza Asouph. Muhammad Azam wrote in the 1740s under the Durrani Empire; he at no time identifies Yuzu Asaf with the Isa of the Quaran. The shrine is also mentioned in Ancient Monuments of Kashmir by Ram Chandra Kak (India society, 1933). The Sunni Muslim authorities at the shrine believe that Ziarati Hazrati Youza Asouph, along with the later muslim saint (d.1451) on the other side of the shrine, to be a muslim holy man.

Some writers (e.g. Naeem Abdullah, 2011[7]) incorrectly claim that Yuz Asaf is mentioned in the Ikmal al-din of Shia authority Ibn Babawayh (d. 991, called "as-Saduq"). In fact Ibn Babawayh does not mention the name Yuz Asaf, nor India, Ibn Babawayh only mentions Jesus going to a far country. This Ahmadiyya claim about the Ikmal al-din of Ibn Babawayh is rejected by Shia muslims.

19th century

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

The founder of the Ahmadiyyas, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, identified the Roza Bal shrine in his Jesus in India (1899).[8] Ahmad had separately advocated the view that Jesus did not die by crucifixion, but traveled to the Indian subcontinent and died there at age 120.[9][10] The Ahmadiyya writer Khwaja Nazir Ahmad's Jesus in Heaven on Earth (1952) completed Ghulam Ahmad's position.[11][12] There is also the ruins of a Hindu temple near Srinagar which Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be where Jesus had preached aged 80.[13]

J. Gordon Melton states that having assumed the mujaddid (faith renewer) appellation in the 1880s, and having declared himeslf the Promised Messiah for the Christians, Ghulam Ahmad simply picked up the legend that Jesus had visited India in order to increase his self-identification with Jesus.[14] Gerald O'Collins states that no historical evidence has been provided to support Ghulam Ahmad's theory that Jesus died in India.[10] Simon Ross Valentine classifies the theory as a legend and considers the burial of Jesus in Roza Bal a myth in the scale of the legend of Joseph of Arimathea taking the Holy Grail to Britian.[15]

Nicolas Notovitch

Ghulam Ahmad's theory that Jesus died in India is distinct from the 1894 suggestion of Nicolas Notovitch that Jesus traveled to India in his earlier years (before the start of his ministry) during the unknown years of Jesus. Notovitch's claims to have found a manuscript about Jesus' travels to India have been totally discredited by modern scholarship as a hoax.[16] Modern scholars generally hold that there is no historical basis to substantiate any of the claims of the travels of Jesus to India.[17][18]

However, the two hypotheses may be related in that some Ahmadis hold that the Roza Bal structure is not the tomb of Jesus, but a monument to his earlier proposed visit to the location before his crucifixion.[5] Instead of being a tomb for Jesus, Roza Bal may contain the remains of two Muslim holy men who were later buried in the structure.[5]

20th century

Levi H. Dowling

After Notovich and Ahmad the next widely noticed text was the 1908 The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ - Transcribed from The Book of God's Remembrance (Akashic Records), which Levi H. Dowling (1844-1911) claimed he had transcribed from lost "Akashic" records.[19]

Holger Kersten

In 1981 Holger Kersten, a German writer on esoteric subjects popularised the subject in his Christ Lived in India.[20] Kersten's ideas were among various expositions of the theory critiqued by Günter Grönbold in Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende (Munich, 1985).[21] Wilhelm Schneemelcher states that the work of Kersten (which builds on Ahmad and The Aquarian Gospel) is fantasy and has nothing to do with historical research.[22] Gerald O'Collins states that Kersten's work is simply the repackaging of a legend for consumption by the general public.[10]

BBC FOUR made a documentary titled Did Jesus Die? (2004)[23] which explores the survival from the cross theory and in passing mentions theories such as a journey to India, along with a section on the story of Yuz Asaf.[4]

More recently the tomb at Roza Bal began to gain popularity among western tourists as the possible tomb of Jesus.[24] According to a 2010 BBC correspondent report, the old story may have been recently promoted by local shopkeepers who "thought it would be good for business", and its inclusion in the Lonely Planet travel guide to India helped drive the tourist business.[24] A novel The Rozabal Line by Ashwin Sanghi makes reference to the shrine.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lonely Planet India - Page 290 Sarina Singh - 2009 "Khwaja Nazir Ahmad's Jesus in Heaven & Earth further postulates that Jesus (as Isa, Yuz Asaf or Youza Asouph) retired to Kashmir postcrucifixion and was buried in Srinagar. Holger Kersten's Jesus lived in India, widely sold in Indian traveller ..."
  2. ^ map
  3. ^ J. Gordon Melton The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena - Page 337 - 2007 "It stands in front of a Muslim cemetery in the Kan Yar district of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. Inside is a wooden sepulcher surrounded by four recently installed glass walls. The sepulcher is empty, though, and the entombed personage ...."
  4. ^ a b c "Did Jesus die?". BBC. Retrieved 2009-05-25. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ a b c Three Testaments: Torah, Gospel, and Quran edited by Brian Arthur Brown 2012, ISBN 1442214929 Rowman & Littlefield page 196
  6. ^ Khwaja Muhammad 'Azam Didamari, Waqi'at-i-Kashmir [being an Urdu translation of the Persian MSS Tarikh-i-Kashmir 'Azmi, translated by Khwaja Hamid Yazdani), Jammu and Kashmir "Islamic" Research Centre, Srinagar, 1998, p. 117.
  7. ^ Naeem Abdullah Concepts of Islam 2011 - Page 112 "Oral testimony based upon the tradition of the people of Kashmir tells that the tomb belonged to one who bore the name Yuz Asaf, who was known to be a prophet, and had come to Kashmir from the west about 2,000 years ago. The Tarikh A'zami, a historical work written over two hundred years ago says of this tomb, on page 82 “The tomb is known to be that of a prophet, and that he was a prince that came to Kashmir from a foreign land“The tomb is known to be that of a prophet, and that he was a prince that came to Kashmir from a foreign land . . . . His name was Yuz Asaf. The Ikmal al din is an Arabic work, which is over a thousand years old also mentions Yuz Asaf, as having traveled to some lands. evidence shows that the tomb..."
  8. ^ J. Gordon Melton The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena 2007 p377 "His tomb has been traced and found in Khanyar Street, Srinagar. This tradition, though attributed to ... Ahmad specifically repudiated Notovich on Jesus' early travels to India, but claimed that Jesus did go there late in His life. The structure identified by Ahmad as Jesus' resting place is known locally as the Roza Bal (or Rauza Bal)."
  9. ^ Merriam Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia by Mark A. Stevens (Jan 2001) ISBN 0877790175 page 26
  10. ^ a b c Focus on Jesus by Gerald O'Collins and Daniel Kendall (Sep 1, 1998) ISBN 0852443609 Mercer Univ Press pages 169-171
  11. ^ Sarina Singh Lonely Planet India 2009- Page 290 "The Koran (surah 4, verses 156–157) suggests that Jesus' death on the cross was a 'grievous calumny' and that 'they slew him not'. Khwaja Nazir Ahmad's Jesus in Heaven & Earth further postulates that Jesus (as Isa, Yuz Asaf or Youza ..."
  12. ^ Mark Bothe Die "Jesus-in-Indien-Legende" - Eine alternative Jesus-Erzählung? -2011 Page 19 "Der wahrscheinlich erste Autor, der diesen Schritt vollzieht, ist Al-Haj Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, Mitglied der AhmadiyyaBewegung, der sein Buch „Jesus in Heaven on Earth“ 1952 als programmatische Untermauerung von Ghulam Ahmads Thesen verfasst."
  13. ^ Delbert Burkett The Blackwell Companion to Jesus 2011 "This very addition is the origin of the legend of Yuz Asaf's arrival in Srinagar and of his tomb in Mohalla Khaniyar. Ahmad referred to a Persian inscription on a Hindu temple near the city, which had already then been obliterated, but where Yuz Asaf was said to have been ..."
  14. ^ Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices Second Edition, ISBN 978-1-59884-203-6 ABC-CLIO page 55
  15. ^ Islam and the Ahmadiyya Jama'at: History, Belief, Practice by Simon Ross Valentine (Oct 14, 2008) Columbia University Press ISBN 0231700946 page 28
  16. ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (2011). "8. Forgeries, Lies, Deceptions, and the Writings of the New Testament. Modern Forgeries, Lies, and Deceptions". Forged: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are (First Edition. EPub Edition. ed.). New York: HarperCollins e-books. pp. 282–283. ISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |format= requires |url= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. ^ All the People in the Bible by Richard R. Losch (May 1, 2008) Eerdsmans Press ISBN 0802824544 page 209
  18. ^ Van Voorst, Robert E (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 page 17
  19. ^ J. Gordon Melton The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena 2007 Page 337 "The theses articulated by Notovich and Ahmad have generated a variety of writings through the twentieth century, including one relatively famous text, the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ, by Levi Dowling. The idea of the Srinagar site being the grave ofJesus has been severely hindered by antagonism toward the Ahmadiyya movement by mainstream Islam, which has declared the movement heretical. Its most recent exponent is German Holger Kersten......"
  20. ^ Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion by Holger Kersten 1981 ISBN 0143028294 Penguin India
  21. ^ Gregorianum Page 258 Pontificia università gregoriana (Rome) "The whole story of how this legend was simply created (without a shred of evidence in its support), spread widely among a gullible public and still finds such latter-day exponents as Holger Kersten is splendidly told by Günt[h]er Grönbold."
  22. ^ New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 1: Gospels and Related Writings by Wilhelm Schneemelcher and R. Mcl. Wilson (Dec 1, 1990) ISBN 066422721X page 84. Schneemelcher states that Kersten's work is based on "fantasy, untruth and ignorance (above all in the linguistic area)"
  23. ^ Dean R. Eyerly Between Heaven & Hell: The Historical Jesus 2010 Page 106 "In 2004, the BBC aired a special called Did Jesus Die? In this documentary, biblical scholars and scientists concluded “that is certainly a possibility.” "
  24. ^ a b Miller, Sam (27 March 2010). "Tourists flock to 'Jesus's tomb' in Kashmir". BBC. Retrieved 27 November 2010.

Further reading

  • A Search for the Historical Jesus by Fida Hassnain, ISBN 978-1878115171 2006 Down-to-Earth Books
  • The Fifth Gospel by Fida Hassnain and Dahan Levi ISBN 978-1577331810 Nevada, Bluedolphin Publishing
  • Ancient Monuments of Kashmir by Ram Chandra Kak, India society, 1933
  • Jesus in Heaven on Earth by Khawaja Ahmad Nazir, ISBN 0913321605, Ammadiyya Anjuman Ishʻat Islam Lahore, reprint 1998
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