Kashmir

Kashmir was a Hindu state in the Kashmir valley, ruled from Srinagar. In 1337 Queen Kota Rani governed the valley and had a canal cut to control the Jhelum.

Shah Mir seized power in 1339, founding the Shah Mir Sultanate. Zain-ul-Abidin brought Persian craftsmen and fostered shawl-weaving; the Chaks replaced the Shah Mir dynasty in 1561, and Akbar annexed Kashmir in 1586. The Durranis took it in 1752, before Ranjit Singh's Sikhs conquered it after the Battle of Shopian in 1819. An 1832 famine prompted Sikh governors to halve the land tax.