APPROACH
Introduction: Persian literature in history of medieval period.
THE BODY
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- Explain with examples that How the Persian literary sources of medieval India reflect the spirit of the age.
Conclusion: The medieval Persian writings in India were reflective of medieval age.
The medieval period from the Sultanate age saw the rise of Persian literature. Muslim invaders and rulers came from different societies like Turks, Arabs, Persians and they also composed in different languages but ultimately Persian became the most popular language of their creative, derivative, translation and descriptive writing and the official language.
1. In the Sultans’ age Albiruni the Arab came who was a polymath, whose major writings are in Arabic but he also saw to it that his works should be in Persian also; his book of science ‘Al Tafhim’;in Persian became very popular. In the medieval age there were three kinds of Persian literature; one were the books of admiration and adulation of different Sultans and their victories, the second were descriptions of different kingdoms and dynasties which also qualify as history and the third type was books of history e.g. the book Tarikh e Firishta was by a Persian history but it claimed to be book which included the history of Vijay Nagar and the Decani sultans.
2. The important books of adulation were Akbar Namah, Shah Namah, the Persian translation of Ibn Tuzuki by Babar was translated as Babar Namah in Persian. In the same manner books of praise were written about Tughlaks. The life story of many saints was also written.
3. Many books were written about the war victories like the one by Amir Khosrow on the victory trail of Allaudin Khaljee ‘Khazain e Futuh’. There were many such books. A book ‘Burhane Mahathir’ was also written at the time of Decani Sultans.
4. Some books containing folk stories which were locally popular were written by Sufi saints to popularize their message like Tuti Namah’. There were many travelogues like Abdur Razzaque who was the ambassador of Persia to Vijay Nagar wrote about them in detail.
The medieval Persian writings in India were reflective of that age. They were supportive of feudalism but all tried to exposit the glory of Islam. The translations of Ramayan, Mahabhart, Panchatantra also reflected the spirit of the age that they supported obedience to God as well as to the lord. They were of various type and most of them were secular with heavy dose of religion.
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