Nusrati

File:Nusrati.jpg

Muḥammad Nuṣrat (died 1674), called Nuṣratī ('victorious'),{{harvnb|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}}. His (nick)name is also spelled "Naṣrat(ī)". was a Deccani Urdu poet.{{sfn|Haywood|1995}}

Life

Nuṣratī was born in the Carnatic region into an elite Muslim family of Brahmin origin.{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Zaidi|1993|pp=42–43}}. He lived as a Sufi dervish before moving to Bijapur.{{sfn|Haywood|1995}} There he was made a mansabdar under Sultan ʿAlī II ({{reign|1656|1672}}) of the ʿĀdil-Shāhī dynasty.{{sfn|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}} For his poem ʿAlī-nāma ({{circa|1665}}), he was named poet laureate (malik al-shuʿarāʾ).{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=409}}; {{harvnb|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}}. He died at an old age in 1674{{harvnb|Naim|2017}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=402}}. or 1683.{{harvnb|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}. {{harvnb|Zaidi|1993|pp=42–43}}, says that he died after the fall of Bijapur (1686) and was laureated by Sultan Aurangzeb.

Works

Nuṣratī wrote in the Deccani variety of Urdu and Persian.{{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=402}}; {{harvnb|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}}. His poetry uses archaic language and a complex style.{{sfn|Haywood|1995}} He was a prominent practitioner of the qaṣīda, ghazal and especially mathnawī forms.{{harvnb|Naim|2017}}; {{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}. One of his earliest works, Miʿrāj-nāma, was written for Sultan Muḥammad ʿĀdil Shāh ({{reign|1627|1656}}).{{sfn|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}

His most original work is the ʿAlī-nāma, an epic celebration of ʿAlī II's wars against the Mughals and Marathas.{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=409}}; {{harvnb|Dayal|2020|p=428}}. It is the earliest panegyric of a ruler in Deccani.{{sfn|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}} Nuṣratī himself claimed to have invented a new poetic form with this work, which is "the only thing of its kind in Urdu".{{sfn|Sadiq|1995|pp=55–56}} It is patterned on the Persian Shāh-nāma.{{sfn|Zaidi|1993|pp=42–43}} Grahame Bailey calls it the greatest poem ever written at Bijapur.{{sfn|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}

Nuṣratī's final poem, written in a similar vein, is Taʾrīkh-i Sikandarī (also called the Taʾrīkh-i Bahlol Khani), a celebration of Bahlol Khan's victory over Shivaji at the battle of Umrani in 1672. It was written for ʿAlī II's successor, Sikandar.{{sfn|Dayal|2020|p=428}} Unlike the ʿAlīnāma, written at the height of Bijapur's power, it is "largely in a minor key".{{sfn|Sadiq|1995|pp=55–56}} Other works of Nuṣratī's include Gulshan-i ʿishq (1658), a collection of odes and the lyric collection Guldasta-yi ʿishq.{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=409}}; {{harvnb|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}. Gulshan-i ʿishq is a highly conventional romance.{{harvnb|Sadiq|1995|pp=55–56}}; {{harvnb|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}.

Notes

Works cited

{{cite book |last=Bailey |first=Thomas Grahame |title=A History of Urdu Literature |year=1932 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit0000bail/}}
{{cite book |last=Dayal |first=Subah |title=Iran and the Deccan: Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation, 1400–1700 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-253-04894-3 |editor-last=Overton |editor-first=Keelan |pages=421–446 |chapter=On Heroes and History: Responding to the Shahnama in the Deccan, 1500–1800}}
{{EI2 |first=J. A. |last=Haywood |title=Nuṣratī |volume=8 |page=154 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_6004}}
{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |edition=4th |editor-first=Roland |editor-last=Greene |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2017 |title=Urdu Poetry |first=C. M. |last=Naim |author-link=C. M. Naim}}
{{cite book |first=Muhammad |last=Sadiq |title=A History of Urdu Literature |edition=2nd |year=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-563145-6 |orig-year=1964 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit00sad_eg9/}}
{{cite book |first=Ram Babu |last=Saksena |title=A History of Urdu Literature |publisher=Asian Educational Services |year=1990 |isbn=978-81-206-0616-6 |orig-year=1927 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit0000saks/}}
{{cite book |last=Sharma |first=Sunil |title=Iran and the Deccan: Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation, 1400–1700 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-253-04894-3 |editor-last=Overton |editor-first=Keelan |pages=401–420 |chapter=Forging a Canon of Dakhni Literature: Translations and Retellings from Persian}}
{{cite book |first=Ali Jawad |last=Zaidi |title=A History of Urdu Literature |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |year=1993 |isbn=978-81-7201-291-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit0000zaid/ |author-link=Ali Jawad Zaidi}}

Nusrati

Life

Works

Notes

Works cited

Further reading