Shaikh ul Aalam Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies, or SACMS, has had a distinguished history within the University of Kashmir. The Centre was established in 1998 as Markaz-i-Noor Shaikh ul Alam Chair. The chair bore the honorific accorded to the renowned Sufi saint of Kashmir, and the progenitor of the indigenous Rishi Sufi order, Shaikh Nur ud Din, also known as Nund Rishi. Its building, a unique specimen of Kashmiri architecture, was completed in 2004. The Chair was transformed into a research centre in 2012, and was renamed as Markaz-i-Noor-Centre for Shaikh ul Aalam Studies (CSAS). This centre promoted scholarship around Sufism, especially around the life and thought of Nund Rishi through different publications, including a journal titled “The ‘Alamdar,” which started in 2008. Scholars from History, English, Islamic Studies, Linguistics, Arabic, Urdu, Kashmiri, etc. were admitted in the M.Phil and PhD. programme of the centre, to research the afore mentioned topics through a multidisciplinary prism. In 2022, the Centre metamorphosised into a full-fledged multidisciplinary Centre, enlarging it scope and reach.  The Centre, in its current form, promotes scholarship across the spectrum of humanities and social sciences, while keeping intact its relationship with Spirituality, Sufism, and Nund Rishi.



Vision

Shaikh ul Aalam Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies, or SACMS, is a research centre promoting research and scholarship across the streams of humanities and social sciences.  In consonance with the guidelines and recommendations of the New Education Policy (NEP-2020), the centre encourages multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship of critical nature on topics such as spirituality, linguistics, culture, society, pluralism, history etc. The centre aims to equip scholars with diverse techniques to enhance their capabilities to understand contemporary issues and bring forth unique and novel perspectives to ameliorate them. In these respects, this centre is one of its kind among the different departments of the University of Kashmir.  Additionally, the centre through its publications, especially the peer-reviewed and UGC-CARE listed journal, “The ‘Alamdar,” seeks to promote the exploration on issues of societal significance and cultural importance. In particular, the journal and publications of the centre attempt to promote and disseminate the Sufi epistemology of Kashmir, including the Rishi order, and in particular, Nund Rishi.  SACMS aims to become a leading centre of multidisciplinary research across the country, an arena of foundational research of interdisciplinary nature, and a platform to promote social cohesion, interfaith harmony, brotherhood, prosperity, and peace.