Is this the oldest person in the world? Kashmiri man claims he is 141 making him 60 years older than his wife

Feroz-un-Dir Mir says a government certificate proves his March 1872 birth

Mr Mir, from Kashmir, would take title from Misao Okawa, aged 115, if true

He has outlived four wives and is married to Misra, a woman in her 80s



Feroz-ud-Din Mir claims to have a government certificate proving he was born on March 10, 1872 - which would make him the world's oldest person

An Kashmiri man claims he is 141 years old - which would make him the oldest person alive.

Feroz-un-Din Mir, from Kashmir, says he has a government certificate proving he was born on March 10, 1872.

Staff from Guinness World Records are thought to be investigating the claim, which would make him 26 years older than Misao Okawa, the 115-year-old current record holder.

He would also overtake Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment as the oldest person to have ever lived. Ms Calment died in 1997 at the age of 122.



Mr Mir is married to a woman in her eighties, Misra, and has outlived four other wives, reports Kashmir Life.

He can still walk with help from his family, has some of his eyesight left, and can talk about his extraordinary life in his native tongue Pahari.

Mr Mir followed in the footsteps of his father Matulli to become a fruit and nut trader and would often accompany him to Pakistan's capital Karachi.

In the 1890s, he married his first wife and lived with her in Pakistan until her death in the early 1900s.

'There were no boundaries between India and Pakistan at that time. It was easy to go to Muzaffarbad than to Srinagar,' Mr Mir told the magazine.



'I used to work with a business family in Karachi who would buy nuts from me. I would take nuts from Kashmir which were very famous in Karachi.'

Once he became a widower, he moved back to his birthplace in the village of Bihjama in Kashmir's Uri district, and went on to marry four more times.

Misra, his fifth wife, told Kashmir Life: ' His experience of life is cruel. He used to tell me stories of earthquake, which struck Sopore and Pattan area in late 1880s and, while he on a trader trip to Karachi, he saved many lives in Gadiduptata.



'He is witness to some of the most significant events in history in the past century.'

After the earthquake, Mr Mir was: 'so happy' to find his family alive and well.

If Mr Mir's claims are true, they would see him overtake Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment as the oldest person to have ever lived. She died at the age of 122 years, 164 days in 1997

Jiroemon Kimura held the title of the world's oldest living person until last month when he died aged 116

He recalled when Pakistani raiders arrived in Kashmir in the late 19th century and said everyone had hid in the mountains while the raiders destroyed a power house in Mohra and killed the guard.

Mr Mir also said life had become more complicated as modern life became more technologically advanced.

' As the life started becoming easy, people couldn’t live easily with each other,' he said.

His grandson Abdul Rashid said Mr Mir's health and memory had suffered since an eye operation ten years ago.

He told the magazine: 'We used to hear so many stories from him when we were young that we would never get fed up. He is an interesting man who has seen life very closely.'

Before Mr Mir's story emerged, it was thought that the last man to have lived in the 19th century was Jiroemon Kimura, born on April 19, 1897.

Mr Kimura died last month in Kyotango, Japan, at the age of 116, leaving behind seven children, 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great-grandchildren.

The title of the world's oldest living person passed to 115-year-old Ms Okawa, from Osaka in Japan.

