Literature and Politics intertwined: the case of Muḥammad Ṣadr al-Dīn Āzurda of Delhi
BL Delhi Persian 1241 is a composite codex, comprising two manuscripts, one of which itself contains two works. All three works are commentaries on Persian poetry, composed by Abū al-Ḥasan Ḥusaynī Farāhānī (active in the early-17th century).[1] It has a seal with the name Muḥammad Ṣadr al-Dīn, dated 1230/1814-5.
The same seal is seen in two other copies in the collection; Delhi Persian 1242, a commentary on the Tuḥfat al-ʿIrāqayn by ʿAbd al-Salām, and Delhi Persian 1285; a commentary on ʿUrfī-yi Shīrāzī’s odes by Sirāj al-Dīn ʿAlī Khān Ārizū (completed on 23 Ramadan 1244/28 March 1829).
This seal has been reported in another manuscript of the collection; Delhi Persian 1117, a copy of the Sufi mathnawi poem Muḥīṭ-i Aʿẓam by ʿAbd al-Qādir Bīdil Dihlavī (Bedil, 1644-1721). A fifth codex, Delhi Persian 409, is Lālah Tīk Chand’s Navādir al-Maṣādir, completed on 14 August 1832 for someone with the same name. All the works underscore philological and literary interest of the owner/commissioner, just as DP 1241 does.
The content and the dates suggest that DP 1241, 1242, 1285, 1117 and 409 all belonged to Muftī Muḥammad Ṣadr al-Dīn bin Luṭfallāh Dihlavī (or Kashmīrī) (1804—1866), a scholar and leading Persian and Urdu poet with the sobriquet Āzurda.[2] Ṣadr al-Dīn was on good terms with some of the prominent British Imperial statesmen, namely Sir John Laird Mair Lawrence (1811-79), later Lord and then 1st Baron Lawrence (who went on to become the viceroy of India). In 1844 he was appointed by the British as the chief judge (ṣadr al-ṣudūr) and the mufti of Delhi. He repaired the Dār al-Baqāʿ madrasa, where a generation of Indian intellectuals of the second half of the 19th century studied under him. But during the 1857 revolt against Britain, Ṣadr al-Dīn reportedly issued a fatwa for jihad against the British.
Thus, he was deprived from his appointments, and after the Sack of Delhi, his entire properties were confiscated by the Delhi Prize Agents, while he himself was detained for six months. Although his excuses rescued him from the death penalty and Lawrence’s interception helped him receive his immovable property (house) back, his movable property (library) was forfeited for good. In 1859, two years after the revolt, the Government of India purchased the Delhi Persian collection from the Delhi Prize Agents, alongside which some of Ṣadr al-Dīn’s books found their way to London.
Ṣadr al-Dīn’s appeal at the court was based on the claim that he was forced to sign the jihad fatwa, and his note کىبت ىالحىر (ىالحر) should have been read as کتبت بالجبر (I wrote [this] by coercion) and not بالخیر/بالحر (favourably/freely). Either a clever justification or a deliberate choice during issuing the fatwa while concerning the possible setbacks in case of failure, this demonstrates Ṣadr al-Dīn’s literary mastery. There is evidence in the Delhi Collection indicating that he was preoccupied by the diacritics and letters. In the Delhi Persian 1241 f.82v, a blank page after the first work was filled with a correspondence letter deliberately written with letters which have no diacritics, with the title ruqʿa-yi bī-nuqaṭ (letter with no diacritics) which could well be Ṣadr al-Dīn’s own handwriting.
A sixth manuscript of the Collection, Delhi Persian 1288 must have belonged to Ṣadr al-Dīn as well. It is also a composite volume containing two separate manuscripts; 1288a is a commentary on ʿUrfī Shīrāzī’s odes, while 1288b contains two works: 1288b1 is the Zubdat al-Bayān, a treatise on Rhetoric and figures of speech and 1288b2 is the Javāhir al-Ḥurūf, a treatise on important words and philological/linguistic significance of Persian alphabet. 1288a and 1288b1 are Mīr Shams al-Dīn Faqīr Dihlavī’s compositions, while 1288b2 is a work of the aforementioned Lālah Tīk Chand.[3] Two manuscripts, the second of which itself has two works, and the content of the works are reminiscent of DP 1241. Moreover, in the colophon of the only complete work, i.e., 1288b1 (completed on 17 Ramadan 1229 AH/3 September 1814) the scribe’s name is read al-ʿabd al-mudhnib ṣadr al-dīn. Apparently the young Ṣadr al-Dīn not only commissioned commentaries and lexical/philological works but also copied them for himself.[4]
Ṣadr al-Dīn’s personality and background were diverse and complicated. He studied Quran and hadith with Shāh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Dilhavī – who is one of the first jurists (if not the very first one) who declared lands under British control as dār al-ḥarb – and his calligraphy master was none other than Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor – who was put under trial for 1857 anti-British revolt – while Fażl Imām Khayrābādī – whose son, Fażl-i Ḥaqq was an anti-Wahhabism pioneer – taught him Logic and Philosophy. Ṣadr al-Dīn collaborated with the British but eventually got involved in a revolt against them, and despite achieving success, wealth and influence, spent his last years in poverty and sorrow, to which his sobriquet āzurda (meaning ‘vexed/dispirited’) ironically resonates.
Only six years after the Sack of Delhi, Tafażżul Ḥusayn (Kaukab-i Dihlavī) published an anthology ‘Lament of Delhi’ (Faghān-i Dihlī/Fughan-i Deli).[5] Kaukab’s work gathered 59 poems from 38 most-prominent intellectual figures of the time, including Bahadur Shah Zafar in three chapters (named sharār/spark) on pre-1857 times, 1857 events, and the aftermath. Āzurda-yi Dihlavī’s poems lamenting on the oppression and misery of Muslims appear in the third spark.
Muftī Ṣadr al-Dīn Āzurda-yi Dihlavī was not successful at his contribution to the revolt, nor he managed to repossess his precious library, but further investigation in the Delhi Collection could reveal the scale of his intellectual activity and interests, as well as a part of his library.
[1] Delhi Persian 1241a is an otherwise unknown work, ʿAvānis al-Fikr va Majālis al-Ẕikr, a commentary on Khāqānī Shirvānī’s Hajj travelogue, the Tuḥfat al-ʿIrāqayn. 1241b1 and 1241b2 are commentaries on Anvarī Abīvardī’s odes (qaṣāyid) and stanzas (muqaṭṭaʿāt).
[2] Most of the information here were taken from The Great Encyclopaedia of Islam, ‘Āzurda-yi Dihlavī’ (last updated 11 November 2019; last retrieved 13 August 2024), Storey Online, 2 § 323; Raḥmānʿalī Ṣāḥib, Taẕkira-yi ʿUlamā-yi Hind (Lucknow, 1332q/1914), 93-4.
[3] Lālah Tīk Chand, also known as Bahār, is the author of the famous Persian dictionary, the Bahār-i ʿAjam.
[4] Unfortunately, this codex has lost its bindings, as well as quite a few of its folios, hence no seals nor further information is found in it.
[5] See Eve Tignol, ‘Nostalgia and the City’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 27(4): 559-73 (October 2017), 560-61.
