The first building of the shrine was constructed in 17th century by Mughal subedar Sadiq Khan during the emperor Shah Jahan's reign.

[5] The relic was first brought to Kashmir by Syed Abdullah Madani, a purported descendant of Muhammad who left Medina (in present-day Saudi Arabia) and settled in the South Indian city of Bijapur in 1635, at a time when the Islamic Mughal Empire was rapidly expanding across India.

Finding himself unable to care for the relic, he passed it to Khwaja Nur-ud-Din Eshai, a wealthy Kashmiri businessman.

[7][8] When the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was informed of its existence and transfer, he had it seized and sent to the shrine of Sufi mystic Mu'in al-Din Chishti in Ajmer, and imprisoned Eshai in Delhi.

[10] The relic is displayed for public view only on special Islamic occasions, such as the birthdays of Muhammad and his four main companions.

[citation needed] On 31 December, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made a broadcast to the nation on the disappearance of the relic, and sent a team from the Central Bureau of Investigation into Jammu and Kashmir to probe the suspected theft.

[9][12][11][13][14] The incident led to communal tensions and riots in the Indian state of West Bengal and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), due to which India saw a refugee influx of around 200,000 people between December 1963 and February 1964.