The history of our family names

Today most of the members of our family only use the last name Shahdad in their full names. But actually, we have a full family name which has been passed on to us by our ancestors. For example, the full name of Mohammad, one of the younger members of our family, is Qazi Mir Syed Mohammad Shahdad Bukhari. The importance of each name in our full family name is very significant and tells us a lot about our ancestors and their history.

The surname Bukhari was used by our first ancestor in Kashmir, Mir Mohamed Ali Bukhari. He was not originally from Kashmir and our family tradition believes that he came from Central Asia, specifically from Bukhara in the present day Uzbekistan. Unfortunately very little is known about the history of our family before he arrived in Kashmir. But having this surname links us to our Central Asian heritage.

While studying the history of Kashmir by Hassan (Gulshan-i-Kashmir), this fact has come to light that in Kashmir there are two uses of the surname Mir, either before or after a person's name. Whenever the surname Mir occurs at the head of a name like Mir Mohamed Amin Mantaqi, Mir Hassan Mantaqi, etc. it means being a descendent of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and wherever Mir occurs at the end of a name like Ghani Mir, Maqbool Mir, Samad Mir, etc. it means a title holder of the great family of Mughals, and is a short form of Mirza or Amirzada. In this background Khwaja Mohamed Azam Dedmari, the famous historian of Kashmir, while touching on the reign of Sultan Zainulabidin Budshah has reported that one of the great sons of Moghal dynasty and a great Mughal by the name of Mir Mohamed Ali Bukhari, our first ancestor in Kashmir, had laid the basis of this Mughal dynasty in Kashmir. He came to Kashmir during the reign of Sultan Zainulabidin Budshah as a guest of the king. He was the first ancestor of our family in Kashmir.

The surname Qazi is given to a person who has a say in the religious affairs of the state. During the reign of Sultan Zainulabidin Budshah, our ancestor Mir Mohamed Ali Bukhari was made the Qazi of the state and he used to issue religious dictums.

The way in which our family got the now famous surname Shahdad is very interesting. Khwaja Mohamed Azam Dedmari, while continuing to report on our ancestor, says that once a respectable person asked one of the sons of our ancestor, Mir Mohamed Ali Bukhari, as to who gave them the title of Qazi. He replied that it was given to them by the king (Mera ien laqab SHAHDAD). It was from this occasion that Shahdad became a part of our name.