The accompanying memoir, though small in size, amply gives us glimpse of the state of Persian learning in Bengal in the latter half of the eighteenth century when, politically speaking, the province along with the entire country was in the throes of revolution consequent upon the disintegration of the mighty Moghul Empire. The chaotic political situation in the country led to the migration of poets and writers from centres like Delhi, Kashmir, Patna and the Deccan to Murshidabad where they found the atmosphere more congenial and encouraging for the cultivation of their art. The Zamima-1-Takira 1-Yani stimulates our interest in the study of the literary contributions of many more of such men of culture who flourished in the Bengal Subah at that time.
I am beholden to the Council of the Asiatic Society for having under- taken the publication of this memoir in its Bibliotheca Indica Series some Ume back. My thanks are particularly due to Mr. D. C. Ghose and Dr. S. K. Mitra. General Secretary and Publication Secretary respectively of the Society, who have taken necessary care to see the book through the press.
I am deeply obliged to the authorities of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and those of the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna, for providing me with the photostats of the Zamima portion of the Hadiqat u-Safa for the purpose of collation. Mr. Amalendu Sikdar of the Joyguru Printing Works, Calcutta, deserves my gratitude for being prompt in printing the work la time, despite professional difficulties.
During the late 18th century, the period with which the subject matter of the present work is associated, Persian continued to be a vigorous language of the Bengal Sabah, as it was in other parts of Moghul India Besides enjoying official patronage, the language was learnt and cultivated by all and sundry among the Muslims and the non-Muslins alike. Often the Hindus, particularly the Kyasthas, and the Muslims vied with each other in producing the belles letters of the finest variety in Persian, their dominant interest being composing verses in that language. The court of the contemporary ruler of Bengal, Nawab Alivardi Khan, was a rendezvous of leading Persian poets and litterateurs of the day. With twenty of such literary luminaries the present work, Zamima-1 Tadhkira Yanfi, is concerned. Its author Yusuf Ali Khan, who compiled it in 1184/1770, calls it Zamima or Appendix, as it constitutes the concluding portion of his three-volume compendium of general history, entitled Hadiqatu 'l-Safa. These short biographical notices, presented here for the first time in a Collated form, gives us a fairly good insight into the excellence of the poetic art in Persian as practised by the administrators, soldiers, physicians and merchants of the time, besides the professional versifiers themselves. That the author was intimately connected with almost each of them underlines the significance of the comments which he makes on the poetical merit of each individual poet. What makes the Zamima singularly important is that these profiles are not found even in the Majma'u I-Nafa'is of Siraju '-Din 'Ali Khan Arz, the most exhaustive contemporary radhkira. Of these literary personages many are not mentioned by any other memoir of that period; several are known as Urdu poets too, while there are some who are not noted as poets but are eminently connected with the historical events of the time such as Nawab 'Alivardi Khan and Nigimu 'I-Mulk Asafjih. In short, the radhkira signifies a valuable enrichment of the historical-cum-biographical literature written in Persian in Bengal.
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