Zain-ul-Abidin

Who is Zain-ul-Abidin?

Sultan Ghiyas-ud-Din Zain-ul-Abidin was a sultan of Kashmir in the present day Jammu and Kashmir state of India. Mohibbul Hasan has said that "Of all the Sultans who sat on the throne of Kashmir, Zain-ul-Abidin was undoubtedly the greatest ... He acquired a halo in popular imagination which still surrounds his name in spite of the lapse of nearly five hundred years." He was known by his subjects, and indeed still is, as Bud Shah.

The first thirty-five years of his reign are described by Jonaraja in the Rajatarangini Dvitiya, while the subsequent years are described by Jonaraja's pupil, Srivara, in the Rajatarangini Tritiya.