The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 52
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI disciples occasionally, it was done secretly. Often the doors were kept shut at such meetings. . In the last decade of the 19th century, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam. Ahmad learned from his friends about the tomb of YUZ ASAF in. Srinagar, capital of Kashmir, who was known as a prophet from ancient times. He became greatly interested and after great deal of research reached firm conclusion that YUZ ASAF buried in Srinagar,. Kashmir, was no one but Jesus who after surviving crucifixion had migrated to Kashmir in search of the lost tribes of Israelites who had settled there a long time before. He expressed his views in 1899 in his book 'Jesus in India'. . The story of Israelite tribes having settled in Kashmir is briefly as follows:. Many centuries before Jesus, as a result of Assyrian and. Babylonian invasions of Palestine, many Israelite tribes were made captive and deported to Assyria, Mesopotamia and Media. Except for a small proportion, these tribes never returned from captivity and henceforth were known as 'The Ten Lost Tribes'. For whatever reasons the majority of these deported tribes never returned to. Palestine and became dispersed in the East. With the varying fortunes of great empires which flourished in the East and with their wars and advancing armies, Israelite tribes in Assyria and Babylon became dispersed to further east of Afghanistan and adjoining regions of. Balkh, Bokhara, Samarkand, Khorasan, Northwest Frontier Province of India (now in Pakistan) and the adjacent region of Kashmir, which is a state in Northwest of India. People of both Afghanistan and. Kashmir claim to be Bani Israel (children or descendants of. Israelites). They are descendants of the lost tribes. Their old historical records confirm this. Many Western historians and writers agree. . Later in history, all these Israelite tribes accepted Islam. . Jesus had referred to the lost tribes as, "The lost sheep of house of Israel" and "The children of God scattered abroad" and as "Other sheep". Jesus had alluded in many quotations about his journey to the East in search of these lost tribes and to preach to them. 52