Youza Asaf, Youza Asaph, Youza Asouph, Yuz Asaf, Yuzu Asaf, Yuzu Asif, or Yuzasaf, ( ur, ) are Arabic and Urdu variations of the name Josaphat, and are primarily connected with Christianized and Islamized versions of the life of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

found in the legend of ''

Barlaam and Josaphat Barlaam and Josaphat, also known as Bilawhar and Budhasaf, are legendary Christian saints. Their life story was based on the life of the Gautama Buddha, and tells of the conversion of Josaphat to Christianity. According to the legend, an Indian ...

''. According to Ahmadiyya thought, the name Yuz Asaf is of Buddhist derivation, and possibly from ''Yusu'' or ''Yehoshua'' (Jesus) and ''Asaf'' (the Gatherer).

Overview

According to Ahmadiyya thought, the Yuz Asaf was a prophet of the ''ahl-i kitab'' (People of the Book) whose real name was ''Isa'' – the Quranic name for

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. The prophet Yuz Asaf came to Kashmir from the West (Holy Land) during the reign of Raja Gopadatta (c 1st century A.D) according to the ancient documents held by the current custodian of the tomb. According to ''

Tarikh-i-Kashmir The ''Tarikh-i-Kashmir'' (History of Kashmir) refers to several history books of Kashmir's Sultanate period, some of them lost and partially used as sources for the others. Lost sources Earlier lost sources include; * History of Mullah Ahmad Kash ...

'', a history of Kashmir written between 1579–1620, Yuzu Asaf was a Prophet of God who travelled to Kashmir from a foreign land. In 1747, a local Srinagar Sufi writer,

Khwaja Muhammad Azam Didamari Khwaja Muhammad Azam Kaul Didamari (died 1765) was a Sufi Kashmiri writer in the Persian language. Khawaja Khawaja ( Persian: خواجه ''khvâjəh'') is an honorific title used across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central ...

, stated that the

Roza Bal The Roza Bal, Rouza Bal, or Rozabal is a shrine located in the Khanyar quarter in downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir, India. The word ''roza'' means tomb, the word ''bal'' mean place. Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuz Asaf, alongsi ...

is a shrine to a foreign prophet and prince, Youza Asouph. Indologist

Günter Grönbold Günter Grönbold (Munich, 18 September 1943) is a German Indologist and Tibetologist. He was head of the Oriental Section at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich. He is an authority on the Pāli Canon and the Buddhist art of the Silk Road and ha ...

in his ''

Jesus in Indien ''Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende'' is a 1985 book by the German indologist Günter Grönbold investigating the Islamic, Christian and Buddhist source material used by the Ahmaddiya Muslim founder Ghulam Ahmad in his book ''Jesus in Indi ...

'' assesses that the shrine was previously Hindu, before the Islamization of Kashmir and is possibly the grave of a Buddhist or Hindu saint rather than a Sufi, but, in any case, has no connection with Jesus or Christianity.

Ghulam Ahmad and Ahmadiyya belief

Having stumbled upon research by Russian explorer

Nicolas Notovitch Shulim or Nikolai Aleksandrovich Notovich (russian: Николай Александрович Нотович) (August 13, 1858 – after 1916), known in the West as Nicolas Notovitch, was a Crimean Jewish adventurer who claimed to be a Russian ar ...

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metaphoric ...

, the founder of the

Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

movement, identified Yuz Asaf as a name that

of Nazareth may have assumed following his crucifixion and migration from Palestine. Ahmad further identified the

shrine located in

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

as the tomb of Jesus. Drawing on Kashmiri oral traditions, as well as the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...

and accounts by

explorers Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad postulated that Jesus travelled to

, where he settled and married a woman called Maryam (Mary), and that Maryam bore Yuz Asaf children, before he died aged 120 years. He discusses this belief in the book ''

Jesus in India The unknown years of Jesus (also called his silent years, lost years, or missing years) generally refers to the period of Jesus's life between his childhood and the beginning of his ministry, a period not described in the New Testament. The " ...

''. More recent Ahmadiyya writers assert that the tomb of Mary, the mother of Jesus is in

Murree Murree ( Punjabi, Urdu: مری) is a mountain resort city, located in the Galyat region of the Pir Panjal Range, within the Muree District of Punjab, Pakistan. It forms the outskirts of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area, and is about ...

, Pakistan. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's use of various Hindu and Islamic sources have been deemed to be misunderstandings or distortions by various scholars of Buddhism including the Swedish scholar

Per Beskow Per Erik Beskow (23 December 1926 in Stockholm − 3 March 2016 in Visby) was a Swedish biblical scholar, theologian, church historian, patrologist and associate professor at Lund University. Biography Per Beskow was born on December 23, 1926 as ...

in ''Jesus in Kashmir: Historien om en legend'' (1981), the German indologist

, in '' Jesus in Indien - Das Ende einer Legende'' (1985) and

Norbert Klatt Norbert Klatt (24 December 1949 – 1 October 2015) was a German scholar of Buddhism and Christianity and publisher; he was the founder of Norbert Klatt Verlag, Göttingen. Klatt proposed Buddhist influence on some New Testament narratives (1982), ...

, in ''Lebte Jesus in Indien?: Eine religionsgeschichtliche Klärung'' (1988). His views are considered heretical by the majority Sunni Islamic scholars, who assert that Jesus is alive in heaven. Muslims living near the shrine believe Yuz Asaf was a Sufi saint.

References

;Sources {{DEFAULTSORT:Asaf, Yuz Year of birth missing Year of death missing Srinagar Kashmiri Sufi saints Ahmadiyya Swoon hypothesis Jesus in Islam Indian Sufi saints

Overview

Ghulam Ahmad and Ahmadiyya belief

See also

References