Hazratbal Shrine: visiting Srinagar’s shrine of the holy relic

What is Hazratbal famous for?

For the relic. J&K’s tourism corporation, JKTDC, says that “according to local beliefs, it houses Moi-e-Muqqadas – the sacred hair of Prophet Muhammad’s beard”. Kashmir Life calls the shrine “Kashmir’s most sacred Muslim site”. It is also known as Assar-e-Sharief, Dargah Sharif and Madinat-us-Sani, according to JKTDC and the Ministry of Tourism’s Incredible India.

The building you see today is white marble “crowned with a single sweeping dome”, completed in 1979, in Kashmir Life’s description. Since about 1700 the descendants of Inayat Begum, the Banday family, “have served as the formal custodians of the relic”, the magazine adds, and they oversee its public display on the main occasions of the Islamic calendar. The J&K Waqf Board is “the body responsible for managing Hazratbal and other shrines across the Valley”.

Hazratbal shrine history

1. 1623
   Sadiq Khan, Shah Jahan’s subedar, built the Ishrat Mahal and a garden on the site, according to JKTDC.
2. 1634
   Shah Jahan ordered the palace converted into a place for offering prayers.
3. About 1700
   The relic reached Kashmir. It was kept at Naqashband Sahib for a time before it was enshrined at Hazratbal.
4. 1963–64
   The relic was found missing on the night of 26–27 December 1963 and reinstalled in the shrine on 10 January 1964, Kashmir Life recounts.
5. 1968–1979
   The present marble shrine was built under the supervision of the Muslim Auqaf Trust, JKTDC says.
6. 3 Sep 2025
   The Waqf Board’s months-long renovation was inaugurated, Kashmir Life reported. The work included papier-mâché panels, khatamband ceilings and pinjrakari latticework.

How the relic came to Kashmir is told in more than one way. In JKTDC’s version, it was brought to Bijapur by a descendant of the Prophet, and his descendants sold it to a Kashmiri businessman, Nurud-Din Eshai. Aurangzeb then seized it and sent it to the Ajmer Dargah, “but later restored it to the owner”, and Eshai’s daughter, Inayat Begum, built the shrine to house it. Kashmir Life says Syed Abdullah Madani brought it from Medina to India around 1635, and that his son entrusted it to Eshai. JKTDC dates the relic’s arrival in Kashmir to 1699 in one paragraph and 1700 in another.

When is the holy relic displayed?

The relic is shown to the public only on special occasions. These are the latest dated reports we found for each one.

Sources: Kashmir Life (KNO), 16 Jan 2026 and 26 Aug 2026; Greater Kashmir, 23 Jan 2026 and 6 Jan 2024; IANS in Telangana Today, 26 Aug 2026; AP photos by Mukhtar Khan via BTA, 28 Aug 2026.

JKTDC says the shrine “experiences an influx of visitors on special occasions, when holy relics are displayed”. On the Friday following Eid-e-Milad in 2025, “around one lakh devotees” came, Kashmir Life reported on 12 September 2025, and the traffic police issued a route plan. Before Shab-e-Meraj in 2026, the Waqf Board deployed volunteers for crowd regulation, and the health department set up a medical camp near the shrine.

Shab-e-Meraj fell in January in 2025 and 2026, and is expected in early January 2027. Kashmir Reader described the 2025 night prayers as held “amid freezing temperatures”, and on the Friday following in 2026 devotees came “despite intermittent rain, biting cold and waterlogged roads”, Greater Kashmir reported. See Kashmir in January.

How the 2027 dates are set

Friday prayers

The shrine “is frequented by locals on Fridays for mass prayers”, according to JKTDC, and Incredible India also notes that locals come for the Friday prayers. In the market beside the shrine, a shopkeeper, Farooq Ahmad, told Greater Kashmir in February 2026: “Fridays and festivals are our peak business days.”

Visiting rules

• Photography and video: the Waqf Board issued an advisory “asking visitors not to take photos or videos of the revered shrine of Hazratbal here without permission”, with posters put up around the shrine, Kashmir Reader reported on 21 December 2022. Earlier that month the Board’s chairperson said it had “issued orders for prior permission for all for any shoot in shrine complexes”, Kashmir Despatch reported.
• Women: “Women are allowed only till the first part of the mosque,” says JKTDC’s page, which is undated. We found no Waqf Board notice on this. Reports of the display days describe men and women among the devotees.
• Head covering: a February 2026 Greater Kashmir feature on the market beside the shrine mentions “head coverings purchased before entering the shrine”.
• Visitors: Incredible India and JKTDC both present the shrine to tourists, and neither mentions a restriction based on faith.

Hazratbal shrine timings

JKTDC lists “09:30 am – 05:30 pm (Daily)”. Incredible India gives the same hours but adds “(Sunday closed)”. The two listings are undated and disagree about Sundays. A Srinagar resident told Kashmir Life in September 2025 that she had prayed at the shrine every Sunday for two decades. On display days, prayers run through the night before the relic is shown. We found no published entry fee.

Getting to Hazratbal

• By road: an estimated 20–30 minutes from Srinagar city centre, according to the Go Kashmir app as of 24 October 2026. For taxi rates, see Srinagar taxi fares.
• By shikara: JKTDC says the shrine “can be reached by a shikara on the Dal Lake or by road through the city”. The Tourism Department’s notified rate from Ghats 23, 24 and 25 to Hazratbal (Ruplank) is ₹1,400 per shikara, Greater Kashmir reported on 2 June 2023. See Dal Lake shikara prices.
• On display days: the traffic police issued a route plan for the roads to the shrine on display days in 2025, Kashmir Reader and Kashmir Life reported.

Estimated road times to Hazratbal from the Go Kashmir app, as of 24 October 2026:

What’s near Hazratbal

1. University of Kashmir

   “The University of Kashmir is situated at Hazratbal in Srinagar,” says the university, and its campus is “flanked by the world famous Dal Lake on its eastern side and Nigeen Lake on the western side”.

2. Nigeen Lake

   The Srinagar district administration places the locality of Hazratbal to the north-east of Nigeen Lake, which it calls “deeper and less crowded than the Dal lake”. Houseboat rates are in Srinagar houseboat prices.

3. Taqdeer Park

   The garden beside the white dome is “popularly called Taqdeer Park”, Kashmir Life says. It reopened on 17 June 2025, PTI reported.

4. Hazratbal market

   Shopkeepers next to the shrine “arrange prayer caps, veils, dry fruits, handicrafts and souvenirs”, Greater Kashmir’s February 2026 feature says. In 2021 Anadolu Agency found vendors near the shrine selling fried snacks, and named monji gaade (fish) and nadir monji (lotus stem) among Kashmir’s famous ones. For Kashmir’s formal feast, see wazwan.

JKTDC also lists Char Chinar and Nigeen Park among the attractions around Hazratbal. To pair the shrine with others in Srinagar on the same day, the Go Kashmir app’s Spiritual Journey planner builds a route of sacred places from where you set out, with directions for each stop.

Is Hazratbal open?

• OpenHazratbal is not on the official list of closed tourist destinations as on 7 July 2026, which we checked on 24 October 2026. Thousands gathered there for night-long prayers on the eve of Eid-e-Milad, Kashmir Life reported on 26 August 2026.
• Closedelsewhere around Srinagar, the list’s entries are the “Archeological site at Burzhama”, “Dachigam Area”, “Theed - Dara - Faqir Gujri Axis”, “Khambir - Astanmarg -Chatterhama Axis”, “Mameth & Mahadev Hills (via Faqir Gujri)” and “Buddhist Monastery Harwan”, closed to tourists under orders that run to 31 December 2026. See what’s closed in Kashmir.

Hazratbal questions