The Book of Mughal Poets


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THE BOOK OF MUGHAL POETS Anthology of Poetry Under the Reigns of the Mughal Emperors of India (1526-1857) Translations & Introduction Paul Smith CONTENTS: The Mughal Empire, Emperor Babur, Emperor Humayun, Emperor Akbar, Emperor Jahangir, Emperor Shah Jahan, Emperor Aurangzeb, Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Sufis & Dervishes: Their Art and Use of Poetry, The Main Forms in Persian, Urdu & Pushtu Poetry of the Indian Sub-Continent. Poets in the Reign of Babur: Babur, Wafa'i, Farighi, Haqiri. Poets in the Reign of Humayun: Humayun, Kamran, Nadiri, Bayram. Poets in the Reign of Akbar: Akbar, Ghazali, Maili, Kahi, Faizi, Urfi, Nami, Hayati, Qutub Shah, Naziri. Poets in the Reign of Jahangir: Jahangir, Rahim, Talib, Shikebi, Tausani, Qasim. Poets in the Reign of Shah Jahan: Qudsi, Sa'ib, Kalim. Poets in Reign of Aurangzeb: Dara Shikoh, Mullah Shah, Sarmad, Khushal, Nasir Ali, Makhfi, Wali, Bedil. Poets in the Reign of Bahadur Shah Zafar: Zafar, Zauq, Ghalib, Momin, Shefta, Dagh. The correct rhyme-structures have been kept and the meaning of these beautiful, powerful, sometimes mystical poems. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" Pages 544. COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ'S 'DIVAN'. "It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished. If he comes to Iran I will kiss the fingertips that wrote such a masterpiece inspired by the Creator of all." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. "I was very impressed with the beauty of these books." Dr. R.K. Barz. Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Hindi, Pashtu and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Lalla Ded, Ghalib, Iqbal, Rahman Baba and others, and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com




Three Mughal Poets


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Poetry of Kings


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This in-depth study of the classical Hindi tradition brings the world of Mughal-era poetry and court culture alive for an English readership. Allison Busch draws on the perspectives of literary, social, and intellectual history to elucidate one of premodern India's most significant textual traditions, documenting the dramatic rise of a new type of professional Hindi writer while providing critical insight into the motives that animated this literary community and its patrons. Busch examines how riti literature served as an important aesthetic and political resource in the richly multicultural world of Mughal India, and provides, for the first time in a Western language, a detailed study of the fascinating oeuvre of Keshavdas, whose seminal Rasikpriya (Handbook for poetry connoisseurs, 1591) was the catalyst for a new Hindi classicism that attracted a spectacular following in the leading courts of early modern India. The circulation of Hindi literature among diverse communities during this period is testament to a remarkable pluralism that cannot be understood in terms of the nationalist logic that has constrained modern Hindi and Urdu to be "Hindu" and "Muslim" languages since the nineteenth century. With the cultural reforms ushered in by colonialism, north Indians repudiated the classical traditions of the courtly past, a complex process given extended treatment in the final chapter. Busch provides valuable insight into more than two centuries of Hindi courtly culture. Poetry of Kings also showcases the importance of bringing precolonial archives into dialogue with current debates of postcolonial theory.




Beloved Delhi


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'A riveting resurrection of the city of poets, the city of history, Saif Mahmood's learned and evocative book takes us to the heart of Delhi's romance with Urdu verse and aesthetics.'--Namita Gokhale Urdu poetry rules the cultural and emotional landscape of India--especially northern India and much of the Deccan--and of Pakistan. And it was in the great, ancient city of Delhi that Urdu grew to become one of the world's most beautiful languages. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, while the Mughal Empire was in decline, Delhi became the capital of a parallel kingdom--the kingdom of Urdu poetry--producing some of the greatest, most popular poets of all time. They wrote about the pleasure and pain of love, about the splendour of God and the villainy of preachers, about the seductions of wine, and about Delhi, their beloved home. This treasure of a book documents the life and work of the finest classical Urdu poets: Sauda, Dard, Mir, Ghalib, Momin, Zafar, Zauq and Daagh. Through their biographies and poetry--including their best-known ghazals--it also paints a compelling portrait of Mughal Delhi. This is a book for anyone who has ever been touched by Urdu or Delhi, by poetry or romance.




Attendant Lords


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Bairam Khan and his son, Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan were soldiers, poets and courtiers whose lives reflected the turbulent times they lived in. In telling their stories, Attendant Lords spans the reigns of four emperors - Babur, Humayun, Akbar and Jahangir - and covers over a hundred years of Mughal history, a time when these two noblemen were at the very heart of the court's labyrinthine politics.After Humayun's untimely death, Bairam Khan was regent to the young Emperor Akbar for four critical years. Bairam's own son, Abdur Rahim, became one of the most important generals of the Mughal Empire, but he is best remembered for his literary prowess, most particularly for his famous 'dohas'. Literature plays a large part in this story.This unusual dual biography traces the lives of these two noblemen against the backdrop of the courtly intrigues, brutal power struggles and the grand literary endeavours of the Mughal court. And it looks at their afterlives - how politics and the Hindi-Urdu debate reincarnated them as national heroes; how both men came to be seen as standing at the confluence of Hinduism and Islam; how their life stories have undergone subtle transformations; and how history, religion and literature combine in the broader context of nationalism and nation building.




The Life & Poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar


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An absorbing, authentic and exemplary chronicle – studded with rare nuggets of information and enthralling anecdotes – of one of the most tragic figures of history who was witness to the end of a glorious dynasty First published in Urdu in 1986, this ‘labour of love’ brings alive the life and poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775 to 1862), the last Mughal Emperor. Zafar presided over a crucial period in Indian history when the country was subjugated and became a colony of the fast-expanding British Empire. Aslam Parvez’s account – with its wealth of detail – stands out in the manner in which it weaves together the strands of the political, the personal, the cultural and the literary aspects of a bygone era. This work is as much about the 1857 Rebellion as it is about Bahadur Shah Zafar, the reluctant leader of the rebels. The pages also evoke the captivating ambience of a period when formidable poets such as Mirza Ghalib, Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq and Momin Khan Momin, apart from Zafar himself, came up with one creative gem after another. The author also provides a vivid and fascinating picture of Delhi during the last days of its cultural and literary splendour as the Mughal capital and as a custodian of Urdu literature and poetry. Finally, he recounts, in a touching manner, how Zafar spent his last days in Rangoon (where he had been exiled by the British) – a lonely and forgotten individual – far away from his beloved Delhi and from the trappings of his empire.




The Last Mughal


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WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE | LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 'Indispensable reading on both India and the Empire' Daily Telegraph 'Brims with life, colour and complexity . . . outstanding' Evening Standard 'A compulsively readable masterpiece' Brian Urquhart, The New York Review of Books A stunning and bloody history of nineteenth-century India and the reign of the Last Mughal. In May 1857 India's flourishing capital became the centre of the bloodiest rebellion the British Empire had ever faced. Once a city of cultural brilliance and learning, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and its ruler – Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last of the Great Mughals – was thrown into exile. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj's Stalingrad: a fight to the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat. The Last Mughal tells the story of the doomed Mughal capital, its tragic destruction, and the individuals caught up in one of the most terrible upheavals in history, as an army mutiny was transformed into the largest anti-colonial uprising to take place anywhere in the world in the entire course of the nineteenth century.




The Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet


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Zikr-i Mir is a rare, autobiographical narrative in Persian and its author, Mir Muhammad Taqi 'Mir', is one of the finest ghazal poets in Urdu.




Prince Dara Shikoh & His Niece Princess Zeb-un-nissa


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PRINCE DARA SHIKOH & HIS NIECE, PRINCESS ZEB-UN-NISSA (MAKHFI) Two Sufi Poet-Martyrs under the Fundamentalist Mughal Emperor of India, Aurangzeb Lives & Selected Poems Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Dara Shikoh (1615-1659) was the oldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan of Mughal India and was known to be a loving husband, a good son and loving father anf Sufi uncle to his neice 'Makhfi'. He was a fine poet, his poems having the influence of Sufism to which he was dedicated. He used 'Qadiri' as his takhallus or pen-name. His Divan of ghazals, ruba'is and qasidas in Persian was not the only work he left us, his five prose works on Sufism and mysticism are popular in India even today. His Majma al-Bahrain or The Mingling of the Two Oceans (included as an appendix) is an explanation of the mystical sameness of Sufism and Vedanta. He also translated the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Yoga-Vasishta into Persian. He was defeated after leading an uprising against his cruel, fundamentalist brother Emperor Aurangzeb and was brutally killed in 1659. This is the largest translation of his poems into English. Introduction: Life, Times & Works of Dara Shikoh, Sufi-Poets Who Knew & Influenced him, Sufis & Dervishes: Their Art and Use of Poetry, Two of the Poetic Forms Used by Dara Shikoh & ''Makhfi'. Four Appendixes including Introduction to his trans. to the Upanishads and exhibition of paintings on his life. Makhfi (1638-1702) pen-name meaning 'concealed', was Zeb-un-Nissa the beautiful and talented oldest daughter of the strict Muslim Emperor of India, Aurangzeb. She was imprisoned for 20 years for her Sufi views and conspiring with a brother (Dara Shikoh) against him. Her ghazals and ruba'is in Persian are deep, spiritual and at times truly heartbreaking. The correct forms and spiritual meaning are preserved in this large selection of both unique poets poetry. Introduction on her Life & Times, Selected Bibliography. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" Illustrated 317 pages. Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Seemab, Huma, Iqbal, Ghalib, Jigar, Baba Farid, and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com




Writing Self, Writing Empire


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A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s new open access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Writing Self, Writing Empire examines the life, career, and writings of the Mughal state secretary, or munshi, Chandar Bhan “Brahman” (d. c.1670), one of the great Indo-Persian poets and prose stylists of early modern South Asia. Chandar Bhan’s life spanned the reigns of four different emperors, Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627), Shah Jahan (1628-1658), and Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir (1658-1707), the last of the “Great Mughals” whose courts dominated the culture and politics of the subcontinent at the height of the empire’s power, territorial reach, and global influence. As a high-caste Hindu who worked for a series of Muslim monarchs and other officials, forming powerful friendships along the way, Chandar Bhan’s experience bears vivid testimony to the pluralistic atmosphere of the Mughal court, particularly during the reign of Shah Jahan, the celebrated builder of the Taj Mahal. But his widely circulated and emulated works also touch on a range of topics central to our understanding of the court’s literary, mystical, administrative, and ethical cultures, while his letters and autobiographical writings provide tantalizing examples of early modern Indo-Persian modes of self-fashioning. Chandar Bhan’s oeuvre is a valuable window onto a crucial, though surprisingly neglected, period of Mughal cultural and political history.