Roza Bal

Srinagar, India

The Roza Bal or Rauza Bal or Rozabal is the name of a shrine located in the Khanyaar quarter in Downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir. The word rauza means tomb, the word bal mean place. Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuzasaf or Yuz Asaf (or Youza Asouph), alongside another muslim holy man, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin. The shrine was relatively unknown until the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, claimed in 1899 that it is actually the tomb of Jesus. This belief is shared by many Ahmadis today, though the local Sunni caretakers of the shrine believe that "the theory that Jesus is buried anywhere on the face of the earth is blasphemous to Islam."