Yousuf Shah Chak

Yousuf Shah Chak (Urdu; یُوسف شاہ چک‬) was a ruler of Kashmir. He was successor of his father Ali Shah Chak and ruled Kashmir from 1579 to 1586 AD. The Hindu Chaks coming from Gurez,Kashmir converted mostly to the Shia sect of Islam. The recently converted Chaks continued to maintain Hindu names such as Shanker, Pandu, etc. They were formidable fighters of huge structure and soundly defeated the great Mughal Emperor Akbar twice and that too with a much smaller army. Some disgrunted Kashmiri nobles were often pushing Akbar to annex Kashmir.

Yousuf Shah Chak sought refuge in Sialkot,^[1] before he was brought to Delhi for talks with Akbar. Akbar's forces betrayed Yousuf, and imprisoned him for the rest of his life. It is narrated that Habba Khatoon, Yousuf's love interest and a well known poetess of Kashmir, had opposed Yousuf's travel to Delhi, for she sensed Akbar's offer as a bait. She later made mentions of this in her writings. Chaks were a naturalized Kashmiri tribe of dardic ancestry from Gurez.^[2] They successfully resisted the attempts of Babur and Himayun to annex Kashmir.^[3]

Yusuf was succeeded by his son Yakub Shah Chak (a great warrior as well) who ruled Kashmir for three years until 1589 AD, when it was annexed to Mughal Empire by Akbar.

Yousuf was jailed in Bengal and later shifted to Bihar where he died. His grave remains in Bihar.^[4][5]

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