Mirza Ghulam Ahmad The founder of Ahmadiyya, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, inferring from the Verse 23:50 of the Quran, believed that the only occasion in the life of Jesus, son of Mary, that his life was seriously threatened, when an attempt was made to kill him by the cross. The Quran saying that "We...prepared an abode for them in an elevated part of the earth, being a place of quiet and security, and watered with running springs"; Ahmad says, may very fittingly apply to the Valley of Kashmir. In his book
Jesus in India, he elaborately claimed that Roza Bal was the tomb of Jesus (Urdu 1899, English 1944 مسیح ہندوستان میں
Masih Hindustan-mein). The book was fully published in 1908, and the first complete English translation in 1944.
Per Beskow states that Ghulam Ahmad separated Yuzasaf into two components Yuz and Asaf, interpreted Yuz as Jesus and Asaf (the Hebrew for gather) as signifying "Jesus the gatherer". The Ahmadiyya writer
Khwaja Nazir Ahmad's
Jesus in Heaven on Earth (1952) developed Ghulam Ahmad's ideas. There are ruins of a Hindu temple near Srinagar where Ghulam Ahmad claimed Jesus had preached. Due to the lack of other western sources, the Ahmadi rely on the 3rd century
apocryphal
Acts of Thomas and generally post-15th century Muslim sources in their reconstruction of an eastern travel path for Jesus.
J. Gordon Melton states that having assumed the
mujaddid (faith renewer) appellation in the 1880s, and having declared himself the
Promised Messiah for the Christians, Ghulam Ahmad simply picked up the legend that Jesus had visited India to increase his self-identification with Jesus.
Gerald O'Collins states that no historical evidence has been provided to support Ghulam Ahmad's theory that Jesus died in India.
Paul C. Pappas states that from a historical perspective, the Ahmadi identification of Yuzasaf with Jesus was derived from legends and documents which include a number of clear historical errors (e.g. confusing the reign of
Gondophares) and that "it is almost impossible to identify Yuz Asaf with Jesus". Ghulam Ahmad's theory that Jesus died in India is distinct from the 1894 suggestion of
Nicolas Notovitch that Jesus travelled to India in his earlier years (before the start of
his ministry) during the
unknown years of Jesus and Ghulam Ahmad specifically disagreed with Notovitch. Notovitch's claims to have found a manuscript about Jesus' travels to India have been totally discredited by modern scholarship as a hoax. Notovitch later confessed to having fabricated his evidence. Modern scholars generally hold that in general there is no historical basis to substantiate any of the claims of the travels of Jesus to India.
20th century Khwaja Nazir Ahmad 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.
Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, an Ahmadi missionary in Woking, developed Ghulam Ahmad's ideas in the 1940s. He also claimed that Moses was buried at Boot on Mt. Niltoop near Bandipur. His book (1952) contained a translated section of the Ikmal al-din of Shia authority
Ibn Babawayh (d. 991, called "as-Saduq") where Yuzasaf (Ahmad "Yuz Asaf") is mentioned. The claim that this text relates to Isa (Jesus) and not
Barlaam and Josaphat originates in Ahmad's earlier 1902 use of the same text. Ahmadiyya claims that this section of the
Ikmal al-din of
Ibn Babawayh relates to Isa (Jesus) is rejected by Shia Muslims. The Orientalist
Max Müller had already translated this section into German (1894) when refuting the claims of
Nicolas Notovitch. Ahmadi websites and print sources cite various local documents and traditions in support of Ghulam Ahmad's identification of the Srinagar shrine as Jesus's tomb. These include: (1) Islamic versions of the legend of
Barlaam and Josaphat, in Arabic Budasaf or Yuzasaf: •
Ikmal-ud-Din of
Ibn Babuyah (d.962 AD) – regarded by scholars as concerning the
Barlaam and Josaphat legend. •
Qisa-shazada, Qisa Shazada Yuzasaph wo hakim Balauhar (The Story of the Prince Yuzasaph and the Philosopher Balauhar) 18th–19th century Urdu version of the Book of
Balauhar and Budasaf. • The
Ain-ul-Hayat of
Ibn-i-Muhammad Hade Muhammad Imail, Allamah Majlisi (1616–1698) (2) Texts mentioning Jesus (Isa) •
Rauzat-us-Safa of
Mir Muhammad Bin Khawand (1417, published 1852 Bombay) – which contains a version of the legend of
Abgar concerning the conversion of the king of
Edessa (called
Nasibain or
Nisibis in Persian) in Turkey before Jesus' crucifixion. Ghulam Ahmad (Urdu, 1899, English 1978) gives a paraphrase of the original. •
Bhavishya Maha Purana (after 1739), a Hindu text with a section discussing Jesus and Mohammed, also Queen Victoria (3) Local history of Kashmir • A 1946 photograph of a single page purporting to be from
Tarikh-i-Kashmir, (History of Kashmir) a lost history by
Mullah Nadri 1420 AD, used as a source by
Haidar Malik (1620s).
Khwaja Nazir Ahmad printed this photograph in
Jesus in Heaven on Earth (1952) The text in the photograph contains mention of Yuzasaf, but the standard text of the Mullah Nadri traditions transmitted by
Haidar Malik contain no mention of Yuzasaf, and no historian cites Tarikh-i-Kashmir as containing a Yuzasaf tradition. The original page, which Ahmad tried to buy in 1946 is now lost, so no tests can be conducted to the age of the document. •
Waqiat-i-Kashmir of
Muhammed Azam Didamari (1747) History of Kashmir, mention of Prince Yuzasaf • Official Decree of 1770 court case, – identifying the two saints at the Rozabal as Yuzasaf and Sayyid Naseeruddin. •
Bagh-i-Sulaiman (The Garden of Solomon) of
Mir Saadullah Shahabadi Kashmiri (1780), a history of Kashmir which comments on the other Muslim holy man buried at the Roza Bal shrine, Sayyid Naseeruddin. •
Wajeesut Tawarikh of
Abdul Nabi Khanyari (1857) – History of the Sikh period of Kashmir which mentions the Rozabal as grave of Sayyid Naseeruddin and prince Yuzasaf. •
Takhat Sulaiman (Throne of Solomon), remains of a temple on hill near
Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir •
Tahrik-i-kabir-Kashmir, of
Haji Mohiuddin, (Amritsar, Suraj Prakash Press, 1902) – the first source to mention that some believe the Roza Bal to be the tomb of Jesus (Isa), three years after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's identification.
Pappas states that the analysis of any possible combinations of date assignment to Nazir Ahmad's theory about the travels of Jesus indicates that none of the scenarios can be consistent with the generally accepted historical dates such as the reign of Gondophares, in part because Nazir Ahmad relied on the dating methods used in the court of
Zain-ul-Abidin (1423–1474).
Andreas Faber-Kaiser and Holger Kersten In 1976
Andreas Faber-Kaiser, a Spanish
UFOlogist, and in 1983
Siegfried Obermeier and
Holger Kersten, two German writers on esoteric subjects, popularised the subject in
Christ died in Kashmir,
Christ in Kashmir and
Christ Lived in India respectively. Kersten's ideas were among various expositions of the theory critiqued by
Günter Grönbold in
Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende (Munich, 1985).
Wilhelm Schneemelcher a German theologian states that the work of Kersten (which builds on Ahmad and
The Aquarian Gospel) is fantasy and has nothing to do with historical research.
Gerald O'Collins an Australian Jesuit priest, states that Kersten's work is simply the repackaging of a legend for consumption by the general public. and Ahmadiyya official magazines
Islamic Review 1981 and
Review of Religions 1983. Ahmadis claim that this is supported by the reference from
Ibn Babawayh's version of the
Yuzasif-
Gautama Buddha story in
Ikmal al-Din "Then he stretched out his legs and turned his head to the west and his face to the east. He died in this position."
Ahmaddiya claims in Popular media Richard Denton wrote and produced a documentary for
BBC Four titled
Did Jesus Die? in 2004. It is narrated by
Bernard Hill and features
Elaine Pagels,
Peter Stanford,
John Dominic Crossan,
Paula Fredriksen, Father
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor,
Tom Wright, Thierry LaCombe (French
Knights Templar conspiracy theorist),
Richard Andrews,
James Tabor,
Steve Mason, and Ahmadi editor
Abdul Aziz Kashmiri. The documentary explores the
survival from the cross theory and, in passing, mentions theories such as a journey to India by Jesus, with a section on the story of Yuz Asaf. In 2007
Channel 4 showed the documentary
The Hidden Story of Jesus presented by
Robert Beckford, which included filming inside Roza Bal, and an interview with Fida Hassnain about the shrine and Jesus "Indian connection". Gerald O’Collins criticised several aspects of the documentary, and stated that Hassnain "showed how he lives in an odd world of fantasy and misinformation." Around 2010 the tomb at Roza Bal began to gain popularity among western tourists as the possible tomb of Jesus. 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. In 2010, a 53-minute documentary was launched by the Indian film director Rai Yashendra Prasad with the name
Roza Bal Shrine of Srinagar. ==Mainstream Muslims belief==