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Lot Essay
Mir Hasan Dihlavi is one of the most accomplished 18th century poets. He spent most of his life at the court of Awadh, and wrote this present work, which was dedicated to and includes a eulogy to the local ruler Asaf al-Dawla, in 1785. Indeed Bosworth writes that 'under its local rulers, Oudh, and especially the capital Luknow, with its court circle, witnessed a burgeoning of Urdu literature' (Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh, 2004, p.337). This text tells of the love of Prince Benazir and Princess Badr-i Munir, the kidnap of the Prince at the hands of Mahrukh, the enamoured fairy and the hero's eventual marriage.
The colouring and European influences found in the present copy are typical of the style of Lucknow, and this was in fact copied there in the court studio. The manuscript cannot be precisely dated on account of a partly obliterated colophon, but what is legible is a reference to a regnal year of Akbar Shah. The manuscript seems most likely to date to the first quarter of the 19th century.
The colouring and European influences found in the present copy are typical of the style of Lucknow, and this was in fact copied there in the court studio. The manuscript cannot be precisely dated on account of a partly obliterated colophon, but what is legible is a reference to a regnal year of Akbar Shah. The manuscript seems most likely to date to the first quarter of the 19th century.