SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The existing material bearing on the first part of the subject was meagre and in certain important respects misleading and incorrect necessitating extensive research in manuscripts. I. Concerning the author of the Nau Tarz i Murassa I have traced fresh particulars, examining 34 sources, the following being new:- (1) 'Ayarush Shu'ara. (2) Tazkira e Sarvar. (3) 'imadus Sa'adat. (4) Tazkira of Hindustani Poets. (5) Anonymous Tazkira e Shu'ara e Shu'ara e Urdu. II. Discovered:- (a) a work by Tahsin, hitherto unknown, namely, the Ruqqa'at i Nadirat i Rozmarra Navisi; (b) the original name of the Nau Tarz i Murassa'; (c) the fact that the composition of the Murassa' was begun in 1768 and not after as hitherto supposed by all authorities; (d) move manuscripts of the Nurassa', and in Germany, of one of which I secured Photostats, collating its 9 copies, tracing, out important omissions, rehandlings and interpolations and preparing its complete text for publications; (e) Poetry by Tahsin of which critical estimate is given. III. (a) Cleared the confusion about the sources of the Murassa' and the real author of the stories by comparing it with 8 manuscripts of the Persian Cahar Darvesh and by determining Anjab, the Spaniard, as the probable author of the Persian. (b) Shown that the Murassa' was probably translated into Persian. IV. Discovered one more Urdu version, the Car Gulshan, of the Cahar Darvesh and compared the Murassa' with seven Urdu renderings in all, providing much new information. The scope of the second part of the thesis is videned by manuscript-study. I. Traced out and discussed (a) Six new prose writers:- (1) shekh Mahmud; (2) Ketelaer, (a Dane); (3) Schultz, (a German); (4) 'Uzlat; (5) Sh seirou Ihrda renderings in all providing much now information. kir; (6) Asrarullah. (b) Two unkown prose works:- (1) The Dakhni incomplete translation of Abdul Fazl's abridged Tuti Nama. (2) The Bengali - Hindustani rendering of the Anvar i Suhaili. (c) Two known but hitherto untraceable pieces of prose:- (1) Sauda's Preface; (2) Fazli's Preface. II. Furnished further information regarding:- (1) Gesu Daraz; (2) Shah Miraji; (3) Miraji of Hyderabad. Many errors of catalogues and writers on the subject have been datected and rectified, and the present writer has set forth original views on numerous points at issue.