Muḥammad Nuṣrat (died 1674), called Nuṣratī ('victorious'), was a Deccani

Urdu poet Urdu poetry ( ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the culture of India and Pakistan. According to Naseer Turabi, there are five major poets of Urdu: Mir Taqi Mir (d. 1810), Mirza Ghalib (d. ...

Life

Nuṣratī was born in the

Carnatic region The Carnatic region is the peninsular South Indian region between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, in the erstwhile Madras Presidency and in the modern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and southern coastal Andhra Pradesh. During the Bri ...

into an elite Muslim family of

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

origin. He lived as a

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from ) in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage is found particularly in Persi ...

before moving to

Bijapur Bijapur (officially Vijayapura) is the district headquarters of Bijapur district of the Karnataka state of India. It is also the headquarters for Bijapur Taluk. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural importa ...

. There he was made a ''

mansabdar The Mansabdar was a military unit within the administrative system of the Mughal Empire introduced by Akbar later used in all over in early modern India. The word ''mansab'' is of Arabic origin meaning rank or position. The system determined th ...

'' under Sultan ʿAlī II () of the ʿĀdil-Shāhī dynasty. For his poem ''ʿAlī-nāma'' (), he was named poet laureate (''malik al-shuʿarāʾ''). He died at an old age in 1674 or 1683.

Works

Nuṣratī wrote in the Deccani variety of Urdu and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. His poetry uses archaic language and a complex style. He was a prominent practitioner of the '' qaṣīda'', ''

ghazal ''Ghazal'' is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry that often deals with topics of spiritual and romantic love. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss, or separation from the beloved, and t ...

'' and especially '' mathnawī'' forms. One of his earliest works, ''Miʿrāj-nāma'', was written for Sultan Muḥammad ʿĀdil Shāh (). His most original work is the ''ʿAlī-nāma'', an epic celebration of ʿAlī II's wars against the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

and

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

. It is the earliest

panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of - ' ...

of a ruler in Deccani. Nuṣratī himself claimed to have invented a new poetic form with this work, which is "the only thing of its kind in Urdu". It is patterned on the Persian '' Shāh-nāma''. Grahame Bailey calls it the greatest poem ever written at Bijapur. 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 Shivaji I (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale, ; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680) was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the Sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the ...

at the battle of Umrani in 1672. It was written for ʿAlī II's successor, Sikandar. Unlike the ''ʿAlīnāma'', written at the height of Bijapur's power, it is "largely in a minor key". Other works of Nuṣratī's include '' Gulshan-i ʿishq'' (1658), a collection of odes and the lyric collection ''Guldasta-yi ʿishq''. ''Gulshan-i ʿishq'' is a highly conventional romance.; .

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Life

Works

Notes

Works cited

Further reading