Sarmad

Sarmad ( _ar. سرمد "everlasting") was a Persian mystic, poet and saint in India of Jewish [ [http://www.jstor.org/pss/3270192 The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad, a Jewish-Yogi-Sufi Courtier of the Mughals, Nathan Katz, Numen, Vol. 47, No. 2 (2000), pp. 142-160] ] and Armenian origin [ [http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2007/August/opinion_August54.xml&section=opinion&col= Khaleej Times Online - The Armenian Diaspora: History as horror and survival ] ] during the 17th century. He arrived in India from a Jewish, Persian-speaking Armenian merchant family, [ [http://www.apnaorg.com/columns/majid/col2.html Sarmad the Armenian and Dara Shikoh ] ] only to renounce his religion and adopt Islam, which he allegedly later renounced in favor of Hinduism, which he is also supposed to have renounced. Sarmad was known for espousing and ridiculing the major religions of his day, but also wrote beautiful religious poetry in the form of quatrains. He wandered the streets and the courts of the emperor completely naked and fell in love with a 14 year old Hindu boy.

Sarmad was close to Dara Shikoh, the heir presumptive to Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor. However, the actual successor to Shah Jehan, Aurangzeb, beheaded Sarmad in 1661 for poetry deemed heretical.

During his life, Sarmad produced a translation of the Torah in Persian. [Fishel, Walter. “Jews and Judaism at the Court of the Mugal Emperors in Medieval India,” Islamic Culture, 25:105-31.]

Sarmad's ambiguous religious affiliation is disputed today by Jews, Muslims and Hindus. His grave is located near the Jama Masjid in Delhi, India.

Colonial India Reference

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, one of the leading political personalities involved actively in India's struggle for freedom, had equated himself with Sarmad in an essay which he had written at the age of 23. He had identified himself with Sarmad for his freedom of thought and expression. [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071007/spectrum/book1.htm]

References

Further reading

*Gupta, M.G. Sarmad the Saint: Life and Works, Revised Edition. MG Publishers, 2000. ISBN 81-85532-32-X.
*Ezekial, Isaac A. Sarmad: (Jewish Saint of India). 2nd ed. Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1974. ASIN B0006EXYM6.

External resources

* Annemarie Schimmel, And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration Of the Prophet In Islamic Piety, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill And London.
* [http://www.crda-france.org/fr/6histoire/par_pays/inde_sarmad1.htm Sarmad, The Mystic Poet]
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=257&letter=S&search=sarmad Sarmad, Mohammed Sa'id]
* [http://www.chowrangi.com/jurisdiction.html Sarmad and Aurangzeb]