Enter This Door with Bismillah: A Persian Inscription at the Shrine of Shaykh Hamza

 بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

There are inscriptions that do not merely record a date. They teach a way of entering.

At the shrine of Shaykh Hamza Makhdoomi in Kashmir, there is a short Persian inscription carved in stone. It is brief, but it carries the fragrance of an older adab. The stone does not simply say: come in. It tells the visitor how to come in.

 The text appears to read:

بَا اَدَب، زَائِرِ عَقِیدَت‌کِیش
اَنْدَرِین دَر دَرآ بِه بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ
هَم بِسَالِ بِنَاش مَا هَم گُفْت
دَرْگَهِ شَیْخ حَمْزَه، بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ

A cautious translation would be:

With adab, O pilgrim of devotion,

enter this door with Bismillah.

Concerning the year of its construction, it was said:

“The threshold of Shaykh Hamza — Bismillah.”

Starts with a beautiful line:

بَا اَدَب، زَائِرِ عَقِیدَت‌کِیش

With adab, O pilgrim of devotion.

The visitor is not addressed merely as a passer-by. He is called زائرِ عقیدت‌کیش — a pilgrim whose way is reverence, whose path is devotion. This is not the language of tourism. It is the language of inward posture.

Then comes the instruction:

اَنْدَرِین دَر دَرآ بِه بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ

Enter this door with Bismillah.

This is more than a phrase said before entering a building. It is a reminder that the body should not cross a sacred threshold before the heart has lowered itself in seeking the help, blessings and permission of God. A shrine is not entered like a market, a courtyard, or an ordinary room. It is entered with remembrance. It is entered with humility. It is entered in the name of Allah.

Adab is not only in the tongue. It is in the way we approach. It is in how we stand at a door. It is in whether we enter as owners or as servants.

The third line is the most difficult part of the inscription. The visible reading seems to be:

هَم بِسَالِ بِنَاش مَا هَم گُفْت

This line is not straightforward Persian if read literally as ما هم گفت, because “we also said” would normally be ما هم گفتیم, not ما هم گفت. It is possible that the word is a worn personal name, or a compressed epigraphic form, or that part of the carving has become unclear with time. For this reason, I would not build the meaning of the inscription on that uncertain phrase. Its function is clear: it introduces the chronogram that follows.

The final line gives the date:

دَرْگَهِ شَیْخ حَمْزَه، بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ

The dargah of Shaykh Hamza — Bismillah.

This is a مادّهٔ تاریخ, a chronogram. The letters themselves carry the date through their abjad values. The phrase is not only devotional. It is also numerical. Hidden inside the words درگه شیخ حمزه بسم الله is the year 1367 Hijri.

There is something very fitting in that. The date is not written as bare information. It is concealed inside a phrase of reverence: the threshold of Shaykh Hamza, in the name of Allah. The year is carried by the same words that teach the visitor how to enter.

The inscription begins with adab and ends with Bismillah. Between the two is the whole path of a seeker.

Before entering, remember.

Before asking, lower yourself.

Before stepping through the door, say the Name.

Abjad check

The chronogram is the final phrase:

دَرْگَهِ شَیْخ حَمْزَه، بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ

Word	Abjad value
دَرْگَه	د 4 + ر 200 + گ/ک 20 + ه 5 =                          229
شَیْخ	ش 300 + ی 10 + خ 600 = 910
حَمْزَه	ح 8 + م 40 + ز 7 + ه 5 = 60
بِسْم	ب 2 + س 60 + م 40 = 102
ٱللّٰه	ا 1 + ل 30 + ل 30 + ه 5 = 66
Total	1367

So the chronogram reads:

دَرْگَهِ شَیْخ حَمْزَه، بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ = ۱۳۶۷

The spelling درگه is important. If the word were read as درگاه, the extra alif would add 1, making the total 1368. But درگه gives 1367, matching the Hijri date of the inscription.