woolen goods became the first Muslims to settle
in Nepal when they were permitted to migrate
there during the reign of Ratna Malla in Kantipur
(now Kathmandu). Oral history tells us that the
first Muslim to settle in Nepal was a 16th-century
Kashmiri faqir (dervish) by the name of Miskeen
Shah who, through his magical powers, convinced
the king to give him land to establish a mosqUe.
This is corroborated by records indicating that a
Muslim saint who entered Kathmandu in 1524
built the first mosque in Nepal, which today
is called the Kashmiri Taqiyya, the mosque of
Nepal’s Kashmiri Muslim population and the site
of the saint’s dargah (shrine). In the 17th century
Muslims from India began migrating to Nepal,
and they were given royal permission to build a
mosque in Kathmandu, the Nepali Masjid, which
today serves as a major center of Muslim social
and devotional activity in the Kathmandu Valley.
The kings of Nepal’s Malla Dynasty (13th–18th
centuries) were influenced by the style of the
Muslim imperial courts at delhi and emulated
their imperial portraiture style, adopted Persian
words into Nepali language, and struck their own
imperial coins modeled after those of the Delhi
courts. Following the Indian Revolt of 1857, sig-
nificant numbers of Indian Muslims migrated to
various parts of Nepal. Many Muslims in the Terai
are descendants of Indians who migrated to the
region in the 17th through 19th centuries.
Though the relationship between the Muslim
minority and Hindu majority in Nepal has been
a historically peaceful one, in September 2004
Nepali Muslims became the target of religious
violence following the murder of 13 Nepali
workers in Iraq, marking the second major inci-
dent of anti-Muslim violence in the country’s
history. Mosques, madrasas, and Muslim homes
and businesses throughout Nepal suffered heavy
damage. This tragedy led to the establishment of
the National Muslim Forum, an organization of
Muslim leaders from throughout Nepal that aims
to bring together Nepali Muslims across ethnic,
regional, and sectarian differences into a united
forum. Many of its leaders are also members
of Nepal’s largest Islamic organization, Islami
Sangh Nepal, which conducts Islamic educa-
tion programs throughout the country, oversees
Kathmandu’s Islamic library and the Al-Hira
Educational Society, and publishes Paigham, a
quarterly Muslim journal in Urdu. It also pub-
lishes Madhur Sandesh, a monthly Muslim maga-
zine in Nepali.
See also barelWi, sayyid ahmad; bUddhism and
islam; deoband; hindUism and islam; kashmir.
Megan Adamson SijapatiFurther reading: Hamid Ansari, “Muslims in Nepal,”
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 2, nos. 2–3, (Win-
ter 1980–Summer 1981): 138–158; Mollica Dastider,
Religious Minorities in Nepal: An Analysis of the State of
Buddhists and Muslims in the Himalayan Kingdom (New
Delhi: Nirala Publication, 1995); Marc Gaborieau,
“Muslim Minorities in Nepal.” In The Crescent in the
East: Islam in Asia Major edited by Raphael Israeli,
79–101 (London: Curzon Press, 1982).New Zealand
New Zealand, also called Aotearoa by the Maori,
its original inhabitants, is an island nation in the
South Pacific, separated from Australia by the
Tasmanian Sea. It consists of two main islands and
a number of smaller ones. Its land area is approxi-
mately 103,000 square miles, making it about the
same size as Japan. It is home to some four mil-
lion people. The Maori people constitute about 14
percent of the population. Their hegemony over
Aotearoa was challenged early in the 19th cen-
tury by the arrival of the British. Europeans had
become aware of New Zealand’s existence in the
17th century and Captain James Cook (1728–79)
had rediscovered it in 1769.
The Maori had originally settled Aotearoa in
the 9th century c.e. In 1642 Abel Tasman (ca.
1603–59), a Dutch sea captain, named it New
Zealand. Then Captain Cook surveyed the islands
and produced an initial map. The establishmentNew Zealand 527 J