Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T10:15:36.093Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Road: The Life and Verse of Mir Zeyn al-Din ʿEshq, a Forgotten Eighteenth-Century Poet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2022

James White Open the ORCID record for James White [Opens in a new window]
James White*
Affiliation:
Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Warwick University, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using newly discovered materials, this article introduces readers to the career and poetry of Mir Zeyn al-Din ʿEshq, a now forgotten poet who was connected to many prominent political and literary figures in India during the eighteenth century. The primary source for the research is John Rylands Library, Persian MS. 219, a holograph copy of the poet’s divān, which he presented to John Macpherson, acting Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William, in May 1785. The divān contains a considerable amount of contextual commentary which allows us to reconstruct Mir Zeyn al-Din’s biography and working practices, casting light on how his verse was produced and consumed. An Iranian émigré, he circulated throughout the Punjab, North India and Bengal, accompanying the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shāh Dorrāni on his Indian campaigns, participating in professional symposia with some of the leading literary personages of Delhi, Lucknow and Patna, and entering the ambit of colonialist British patrons in Kolkata.

Keywords

Mir Zeyn al-Din ʿEshqBook HistoryMigrationPicture Poems (Carmina FigurataMovashshahāt)Poetic Symposia (moshāʿerāt)Ahmad Shāh DorrāniJohn MacphersonSir William Jones
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 5-6 , December 2020 , pp. 789 - 820
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article was written within the framework of the Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘Oriental Poetry, Latin Scholarship and the European Enlightenment: The Case of William Jones’ (grant number RPG-2016-266), which is based at the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Warwick University, UK. Exploratory research on Persian MS. 219 was conducted while the author was Soudavar Memorial Trust fellow at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, in 2018. The author would like to thank John T. Gilmore for reading a draft of this article; John Hodgson and Elizabeth Gow for their help with practical matters at the John Rylands Library; Julia Bray for sharing two articles on picture poems prior to their publication; and the readers at Iranian Studies for their detailed feedback on this submission. Images of Persian MS. 219 are reproduced with the permission of the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

References

ʿAbd al-Vahhāb. Daqāʾeq al-ashʿār. Bodleian Library MS. Elliot 37.Google Scholar
al-Jilyānī, Abū l-Faḍl. Dīwān al-tadbīj: fitnat al-ibdāʿ wa-dhirwat al-imtāʿ. Ed. Deeb, Kamal Abu. Beirut: Dār al-Sāqī, 2010.Google Scholar
Mohammad Tabrizi Esfahāni, Abu Tāleb ebn. Kholāsat al-afkār. Bodleian Library MS. Elliot 181.Google Scholar
Khān, ʿAli Ebrāhim. Sohuf-e Ebrāhim: bakhsh-e moʿāser taʾlif-e ʿAli Ebrāhim Khān Khalil Benārasi dar 1206 h.q. Ed. Mohaddes, Mirhāshem. First printing. Tehran: Anjoman-e āsār va mafākher-e farhangi, 1385s/2006.Google Scholar
Khān, ʿAli Ebrāhim. Golzār-e Ebrāhim. Bodleian Library MS. Ouseley Add. 42.Google Scholar
Allāhābādi, Amr Allāh. Tazkereh-ye Masarrat-afzā. Bodleian Library MS. Ouseley 219.Google Scholar
Lindesiana, Bibliotheca. Hand-List of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish. [Aberdeen]: Privately printed [Aberdeen University Press], 1898.Google Scholar
Bray, Julia, “From Spain to Syria: What Did al-Jilyānī Bring With Him?” In Re-defining a Space of Encounter. Islam and Mediterranean: Identity, Alterity and Interactions. Proceedings of the 28th Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, Palermo 2016, ed. Pelliterri, A., Sciortino, M.G., Sicari, D., and Elsakaan, N.. Leuven: Peeters, 2019.Google Scholar
Bray, Julia, “Picture-poems for Saladin: ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Jilyani’s mudabbajat.” In Syria in Crusader Times: Conflict and Co-Existence, ed. Hillenbrand, C.. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Canaan, Tewfik, “The Decipherment of Arabic Talismans.” Reprinted in Magic and Divination in Early Islam, ed. Savage-Smith, E., 125–177. Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 2004.Google Scholar
Cannon, Garland, ed. The Letters of Sir William Jones. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.Google Scholar
De Tassy, Garcin, Histoire de la littérature hindouie et hindoustanie. 2nd ed. Paris: Adolphe Labitte, 1870–1871.Google Scholar
Dudney, Arthur, “Going Native: Iranian Émigré Poets and Indo-Persian.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 37, no. 3 (2017): 531–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusof ʿAli, Ebn Gholām ʿAli Khān. Hadiqat al-safāʾ. Bodleian Library MS. Elliot 155, 156.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, Joshua, “Empire and Enlightenment in Three Letters from Sir William Jones to Governor-General Sir John Macpherson.” The Historical Journal, published online, January 28, 2019: 1–11. doi:10.1017/S0018246X1800050X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kāvus, Feyruz ebn. The George-Námah of Mulla’ Feruz Bin Ka’wus. Ed. Bin Kaikoba’d, Mulla’ Rustam. Bombay: Lithographed by R. Prera, 1837.Google Scholar
Kāteb Hazāreh, Feyz Mohammad. The History of Afghanistan Online: Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s Sirāj al-tawārīkh. Ed. and trans. McChesney, R.D., and Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi. Brill Online. https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/history-of-afghanistan (last accessed 20th July 2019).Google Scholar
Fodor, Sándor, Sufism and Magic: Amulets from the Islamic World. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd University, 2009.Google Scholar
Franklin, Michael, Orientalist Jones: Sir William Jones, Poet, Lawyer, and Linguist, 1746‒1794. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Hamdāni Moshafi, Gholām. ʿEqd-e sorayyāʾ. Ed. al-Haqq Sāheb, Mowlavi ʿAbd. Delhi: Jāmeʿ Barqi Press, 1934.Google Scholar
Haywood, J.A., “Maẓhar.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, ed. Bearman, P., Bianquis, T., Bosworth, C.E., van Donzel, E., and Heinrichs, W.P.. http://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharif, Jaʿfar. Qanoon-e-Islam, or the Customs of the Mossulmans of India: Comprising a Full and Exact Account of Their Various Rites and Ceremonies from the Moment of Birth Till the Hour of Death. Trans. Herklots, G.A.. London: Parbury, Allen and Co., 1832.Google Scholar
Jones, William, Notebook. Yale University, Beinecke Library MS. Osborn c400.Google Scholar
Hosayn Vāʿez-e Kāshefi, Kamāl al-Din. Badāyeʿ al-afkār fi sanāyeʿ al-ashʿār. Ed. Kazzāzi, Mir Jalāl al-Din. Tehran: Nashr-e Markaz, 1369s/1990.Google Scholar
Kerney, Michael, Handwritten catalogue of Persian manuscripts belonging to the Earl of Crawford, n.d., n.p.Google Scholar
Chand Ekhlās, Keshan. Hamisheh Bahār. Ed. Qoreyshi, Vahid. Karachi: Anjoman-e tarraqi-ye ordu, 1973.Google Scholar
Kiānrād, Sārā. Gesundheit und Glück für seinen Besitzer: schrifttragende Amulette im islamzeitlichen Iran (bis 1258). Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2017.Google Scholar
Kriss, Rudolph, and Kriss-Heinrich, Hubert. Volksglaube im Bereich des Islam. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1960‒62.Google Scholar
Lewis, Franklin, “To Round and Rondeau the Canon: Jāmī and Fānī’s Reception of the Persian Lyrical Tradition.” In Jāmī in Regional Contexts: The Reception of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī’s Works in the Islamicate World, ca. 9th/15th–14th/20th Century, ed. d’Hubert, Thibaut, and Papas, Alexandre, 463–567. Leiden: Brill, 2019.Google Scholar
Lienhard, Siegfried, “Carmina figurata dans la poésie sanskrite.” Bulletin d’études indiennes 10 (1992): 203–214.Google Scholar
Lienhard, Siegfried, A History of Classical Poetry: Sanskrit—Pali—Prakrit. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1984.Google Scholar
Losensky, Paul E., Welcoming Fighānī: Imitation and Poetic Individuality in the Safavid-Mughal Ghazal. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 1998.Google Scholar
Losensky, Paul, “Utterly Fluent, but Seldom Fresh: Jāmī’s Reception among the Safavids.” In Jāmī in Regional Contexts: The Reception of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī’s Works in the Islamicate World, ca. 9th/15th–14th/20th Century, ed. d’Hubert, Thibaut, and Papas, Alexandre, 568–601. Leiden: Brill, 2019.Google Scholar
Macpherson, John, Correspondence, British Library MSS. Eur F291/202.Google Scholar
Macpherson, William Charles, ed. Soldiering in India 1764‒1787: Extracts from Journals and Letters Left by Lt. Colonel Allan Macpherson and Lt. Colonel John Macpherson of the East India Company’s Service. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1928.Google Scholar
Marshall, P.J., “Hastings, Warren (1732‒1818), Governor-General of Bengal.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/12587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, P.J., “Warren Hastings as Scholar and Patron.” In Statesmen, Scholars and Merchants: Essays in Eighteenth-Century History Presented to Dame Lucy Sutherland, ed. Whiteman, Anne, Bromley, J.S., and Dickson, P.G.M, 242–262. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Dust Sanbhali, Mir Hoseyn. Tazkereh-ye hoseyni. British Library MS. Or. 229.Google Scholar
Mir, Mir Taqi. Nekāt al-shoʿarāʾ. Ed. al-Rahmān Khān, Mohammad Habib. Badāyun: Matbuʿeh-ye Nezāmi Press, n.d.Google Scholar
ʿEshqi of Patna Miyān Rahmat Allāh. Tazkereh-ye ʿEshqi. Bodleian Library MS. Elliot 396.Google Scholar
ʿAli Hazin, Mohammad. Tazkerat al-moʿāserin. Ed. Sālek, Maʿsumeh. Tehran: Nashr-e Sāyeh, 1375s/1996.Google Scholar
ʿOmar Rāduyāni, Mohammad ebn. Tarjomān al-balāghat. Ed. Ateş, Ahmed. Expanded by Sobhāni, Towfiq H., and Hakimi, Esmāʿel. Tehran: Anjoman-e āsār va mafākher-e farhangi, 1380s/2001.Google Scholar
Abi l-Qāsem Tabātabā, Mohammad Rezā ebn. Naghmeh-ye ʿandalib. British Library MS. Or. 1811.Google Scholar
Muehlhaeusler, Mark, “Eight Arabic Block Prints from the Collection of Aziz S. Atiya.” Arabica, T. 55, Fasc. 5/6 (Oct. 2008): 528‒582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anis, Muhān Laʾl. Anis al-ahebbāʾ. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, MS. Sprenger 340.Google Scholar
Naim, C.M., “Poet-Audience Interaction in Urdu Mushaʿiras.” In Urdu and Muslim South Asia: Studies in Honour of Ralph Russell, 167–173. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1989.Google Scholar
Naqavi, ʿAli Rezā. Tazkereh-nevisi dar hend o pākestān. Tehran: Moʾasseseh-ye matbuʿāt-e ʿelmi, 1964.Google Scholar
Nashef, Khaled, ed. Ya Kafi, Ya Shafi … The Tawfik Canaan Collection of Palestinian Amulets: an exhibition, October 30 1998–February 25 1999. al-Bireh: Birzeit University, 1998.Google Scholar
Nejatie, Sajjad, “The Pearl of Pearls: The Abdālī-Durrānī Confederacy and Its Transformation under Aḥmad Shāh, Durr-i Durrān.” PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2017.Google Scholar
Orsini, Francesca, “Between Qasbas and Cities: Language Shifts and Literary Communities in North India in the Long Eighteenth Century.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 39, no. 1 (2019): 68–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pritchett, Frances W., “A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, Part 2: Histories, Performances, and Masters.” In Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, ed. Pollock, Sheldon, 864–911. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Khān Ommid, Qezelbāsh. Divān. Ed. Khurshid, Nāʿemeh. Lahore: University of the Punjab, 2002.Google Scholar
Khān Ommid, Qezelbāsh. Divān. Bodleian Library MS. S. Digby Or. 43.Google Scholar
Rahman, Munibur, “The Mushāʿirah.” Annual of Urdu Studies 3 (1983): 75–84.Google Scholar
Rahman, M. Raisur, Locale, Everyday Islam and Modernity: Qasbah Towns and Muslim Life in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rieu, Charles, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1879‒83.Google Scholar
Savage-Smith, Emilie, and Maddison, Francis. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Volume XII: Science, Tools and Magic. London: The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Schaefer, Karl, Enigmatic Charms: Medieval Arabic Block Printed Amulets in American and European Libraries and Museums. Leiden: Brill, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ʿAbd al-Heyy, Seyyed. Tazkereh-ye shoʿarā-ye ordu mowsum be gol-e raʿnā. ʿAzamgarh: Dār al-musannefin, 1924‒25.Google Scholar
Hoseyn Shuresh, Seyyed Gholām. Tazkereh-ye shuresh. Bodleian Library MS. Elliot 398.Google Scholar
Qeys, Shams-e. al-Moʿjam fi maʿāyir ashʿār al-ʿajam. Ed. Shamisā, S.. Tehran: Enteshārāt-e Ferdows, 1373s/1994.Google Scholar
ʿAli Khān Ludi, Shir. Tazkereh-ye merʾāt al-khayāl. Ed. Hasani, Hamid, with Safarzādeh, Behruz. Tehran: Rowzaneh, 1377s.Google Scholar
Sprenger, Aloys, A Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian and Hindu’sta’ny Manuscripts, of the Libraries of the King of Oudh. Calcutta: Printed by J. Thomas, at the Baptist Mission Press, 1854.Google Scholar
Steingass, Francis, A Comprehensive Persian‒English Dictionary. Reprint. New Delhi: Manohar, 2007.Google Scholar
Tabor, Nathan Lee Marsh, “Heartless Acts: Literary Competition and Multilingual Association at a Graveside Gathering in Eighteenth-Century Delhi.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 39, no. 1 (2019): 82–95.Google Scholar
Toutant, Marc, Un empire des mots: pouvoir, culture et soufisme à l’époque des derniers Timourides au miroir de la Khamsa de Mīr ʿAlī Shīr Nawāʾī. Paris: Peeters, 2016.Google Scholar
Tubb, Gary, “Kāvya with Bells On: Yamaka in the Śiśupālavadha.” In Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kāvya Literature, ed. Bronner, Yigal, Shulman, David, and Tubb, Gary, 142–194. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar