Srinagar, June 17 -- Kashmir lately remembered Ameer Kabir, the saint who crossed snow-clad mountains to cradle masses in the arms of faith.

That beloved Persian priest brought to our vale not just Islam, but an imagination, an aesthetic, and a whisper of Shiraz in every saffron bloom.

The recitations during his urs this year, soft and aching, felt like homecoming.

And for a few tender hours, the Persian influence stirred again in the bones of Srinagar.

The calligraphy, the chinars, thekasabkari, the hush between two lines of a Rumi couplet.

We remembered who we were. Who we loved. And from where that love once came.

But remembrance, too, has its price. Just days later, the saint's homeland was torn open.

The war in Iran erupted li...