Persian Studies Under the Sultans of Bengal

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The present work under the title "Persian Studies under the Sultans of Bengal", a maiden work on this topic, covers a wide range of discussions on various episodes relating to the efflorescence of Persian language and literature in medieval Bengal. It encapsulates multifaceted activities of the Sultans and governors, nobles and princes, officers and landlords, poets and writers, Sufis and savants who either visited or settled in this part of the globe and made significant contribution to the promotion of Persian. It focuses on the hitherto uncharted field of study and adds a brilliant chapter to the history and culture of Bengal.

After rummaging various sources such as anthropology, geography, hagiography, numismatics, historiography, Sufi literature etc. the author portrays a graphic picture of the socio- cultural life of the people shedding extensive light on the progress and development of Persian, which reigned supreme as the official language of the court under the Sultans of Bengal. The book would cater to the need of research interested in the socio-cultural life of medieval Bengal.

Dr. Gholam Sarwar, M. A. (Gold Medalist), LL.B., Ph.D., a research scholar and an academician, has retired as an Associated Professor and Head of the Department of Persian from Maulana Azad College, Kolkata. He has participated in many national and international seminars and conferences and contributed a good number of research articles to esteemed journals of India. Ha has the authorship of "Persian Linguistics" to his credit. He has also edited Anis-ul-Ghuraba written by Hazrat Nur Qutb Alam, and compiled Persian Selection in two volumes. A life-member of the Asiatic Society Kolkata, he is attached with Iran Society, Kolkata, West Bengal Urdu Academy and several other academic institutions.

It gives me immense pleasure to publish the book entitled Persian Studies under the Sultans of Bengal authored by Dr. Gholam Sarwar. A research work of outstanding merit, it sheds light on the efflorescence of Persian language and literature in the length and breadth of Bengal during the Sultanate period and brings to light many significant literary works written by prominent scholars and Sufi saints of the time. This apart, it focuses on the role of the governors, who represented the Delhi Sultans and independent rulers of Bengal under the Ilyas Shahi, Husain Shahi and Karrani Sultans for the promotion of Persian. It discusses the contribution of madrasas and khanqahs of Bengal for the encouragement of Persian studies and delineates the influences of Persian on Bengali too. Hope, this work will serve as a beacon of guidance for the coming generation in the field of research on cultural advancement of the people of Bengal in medieval era.

Bengal has always been a centre of art and culture and cradle of syncretistic traditions. It has entertained progressive ideas and embraced alien cultural and religious impacts with greater indulgence. Like its alluvial plains, Bengal, through the ages, proved itself fertile for the growth and development of art and craft, culture and refinement, language and literature, faith and tradition etc.

The introduction of Persian in this distant land forms a brilliant as well as an interesting chapter of the cultural history of Bengal. The genesis of Persian in Bengal is closely linked with the advent of Persian language and culture in the north-western plains of India in the first half of tenth century of the Christian era following the expeditions of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna in 1026 A.D.

Although the poets and writers had started migrating into Sind and the Punjab much before Mahmud's incursion, its due recognition at the court as an official language could only be possible with the consolidation of the Ghaznavids and Ghurids in India. Briefly speaking, the establishment of the Ghaznavids in India gave a fillip to Persian language and literature in the sub-continent. The early Muslim rulers being Turkish by origin and Persian by culture played a significant role in the promotion of Persian language and literature on the Indian soil.