Indo-Persian culture

Last updated
The Mughal era Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh unites Persian and Indian cultural and architectural elements; it is among the most famous examples of Indo-Persian culture as well as a symbol of Indian culture in its own right. Taj Mahal in March 2004.jpg
The Mughal era Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh unites Persian and Indian cultural and architectural elements; it is among the most famous examples of Indo-Persian culture as well as a symbol of Indian culture in its own right.

Indo-Persian culture refers to a cultural synthesis present on the Indian subcontinent. [1] It is characterised by the absorption or integration of Persian aspects into the various cultures of modern-day republics of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The earliest introduction of Persian influence and culture to the subcontinent was by various Muslim Turko-Persian rulers, such as the 11th-century Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi, rapidly pushed for the heavy Persianization of conquered territories in northwestern Indian subcontinent, where Islamic influence was also firmly established. This socio-cultural synthesis arose steadily through the Delhi Sultanate from the 13th to 16th centuries, and the Mughal Empire from then onwards until the 19th century. [2] Various Muslim dynasties of Turkic, local Indian and Afghan origin patronized the Persian language and contributed to the development of a Persian culture in India. [3] The Delhi Sultanate developed their own cultural and political identity which built upon Persian and Indic languages, literature and arts, which formed the basis of an Indo-Muslim civilization. [4]

Contents

Persian was the official language of most Muslim dynasties in the Indian subcontinent, such as the Delhi Sultanate, the Bengal Sultanate, the Bahmani Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and their successor states, and the Sikh Empire. It was also the dominant cultured language of poetry and literature. Many of the Sultans and nobility in the Sultanate period were Persianised Turks from Central Asia who spoke Turkic languages as their mother tongues. The Mughals were also culturally Persianised Central Asians (of Turko-Mongol origin on their paternal side), but spoke Chagatai Turkic as their first language at the beginning, before eventually adopting Persian. Persian became the preferred language of the Muslim elite of northern India. Muzaffar Alam, a noted scholar of Mughal and Indo-Persian history, suggests that Persian became the official lingua franca of the Mughal Empire under Akbar for various political and social factors due to its non-sectarian and fluid nature. [5] The influence of these languages led to a vernacular called Hindustani that is the direct ancestor language of today's UrduHindi varieties.

The Persianisation of the Indian subcontinent resulted in its incorporation into the cosmopolitan Persianate world of Ajam , known today academically as Greater Iran, which historically gave many inhabitants a secular, Persian identity. [6]

History

Alexander Visits the Sage Plato, from Khamsa-e Nizami by the Indo-Persian poet Amir Khusro. Basawan - Alexander Visits the Sage Plato.jpg
Alexander Visits the Sage Plato , from Khamsa-e Nizami by the Indo-Persian poet Amir Khusro.

With the presence of Islamic culture in the region in the Ghaznavid period, Lahore and Uch were established as centres of Persian literature. Abu-al-Faraj Runi and Masud Sa'd Salman (d. 1121) were the two earliest major Indo-Persian poets based in Lahore. The earliest of the "great" Indo-Persian poets was Amir Khusrow (d. 1325) of Delhi, who has since attained iconic status within the Urdu speakers of the Indian subcontinent as, among other things, the "father" of Urdu literature.

Delhi sultanate and the Mughal era

Indo-Persian culture flourished during the period of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526). The invasion of Babur in 1526, the end of the Delhi Sultanate and the establishment of what would become the Mughal Empire would usher the golden age of Indo-Persian culture with particular reference to the art and architecture of the Mughal era.

During the Mughal era, Persian persisted as the language of the Mughals up to and including the year 1707 which marked the death of the Emperor Aurangzeb, generally considered the last of the "Great Mughals". Thereafter, with the decline of the Mughal empire, the 1739 invasion of Delhi by Nader Shah and the gradual growth initially of the Hindu Marathas [7] and later the European power within the Indian subcontinent, Persian or Persian culture commenced a period of decline although it nevertheless enjoyed patronage and may even have flourished within the many regional empires or kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent including that of the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh (r. 1799–1837).

Persian as a language of governance and education was abolished in 1839 by the British East India Company and the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, even if his rule was purely symbolic or ceremonial, was dethroned in 1857 by the British.

Further, C.E. Bosworth writes about the significance of Persian culture that developed a mark within Muslim sultans in this era that: "The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan, and latterly fulfilled a valuable role as transmitters of this heritage to the newly conquered lands of northern India, laying the foundations for the essentially Persian culture which was to prevail in Muslim India until the 19th century." [8]

Deccan

Ruins of a madrassa built by Mahmud Gawan, the Bahmani minister. Complete view of Mahumad Gawan.JPG
Ruins of a madrassa built by Mahmud Gawan, the Bahmani minister.

The Deccan region's integration into the Indo-Persian culture of the north began in the early 14th century, when the Delhi Sultanate made political movements towards the south, and the Deccan was brought into the Sultanate under the conquests of the Tughluq dynasty. Due to the Sultan Muhammad Shah policy of ordering a migration of the North Indian Muslim population of Delhi to the Deccan city of Daulatabad in 1327, in order to build a large Muslim urban centre in the Deccan. This led to a formal introduction of Indo-Persian culture in the Deccan, extending beyond the realm of the court. [9] [10]

Gol Gumbaz, the mausoleum of Mohammed Adil Shah, Sultan of Bijapur. GolGumbaz2.jpg
Gol Gumbaz, the mausoleum of Mohammed Adil Shah, Sultan of Bijapur.

In the middle of the 14th century, the Urdu-speaking immigrant population of Daulatabad staged a revolt breaking off from the Delhi Sultanate, but Indo-Persian culture lived on in the region. [10] The breakaway Bahmani Sultanate was established in 1347, by Hasan Gangu, originally a farmer from Delhi who was one of many inhabitants ordered by the Sultanate to migrate to the Deccan. [11] Its rulers were greatly influenced by Persian culture, they were well-versed in the language and its literature, and promoted Persian language education throughout their empire. The Persianised nature of the court is reflected in the fact that the Bahmanis celebrated festivals like Nowruz. [12] The architecture cultivated by them had significant Iranian influences, even more than that of the Muslims in the north. [12]

For the first half century after the establishment of the Bahmanids, the original colonists and their sons had administered the empire quite independent of either the non-Muslim Hindus, or the Muslim foreign immigrants. However, the later Bahmani Sultans began to recruit foreigners from overseas, whether because of depletion among the ranks of the original settlers, or the feelings of dependency upon the Persian courtly model, or both. [13] The Bahmani Sultans actively recruited Persian or Persianised men in their administration, and such foreigners were in fact favoured over Indians who were known as the Dakhani elite, the latter who were the original founders of the Bahmani state and the real architects of the empire. [14] [15] Sultan Firuz Shah (1397-1422) sent ships from his ports in Goa and Chaul to the Persian Gulf to bring back talented men of letters, administrators, jurists, soldiers and artisans. [16] This included the high-born Iranian Mahmud Gawan (1411-1481) who rose to become a powerful minister of that state during the reign of another Bahmani Sultan. [17]

Bahmani Tombs Bahamani Tombs.JPG
Bahmani Tombs

This led to factional strife between the Dakhanis, the ruling indigenous Muslim elite of the Bahmanid dynasty, being descendants of Sunni immigrants from Northern India, [18] and the foreign newcomers like Mahmud Gawan who were called the Afaqis(Cosmopolitans or Travellers). [19] [20] According to Richard Eaton, Dakhanis believed that the privileges, patronage and positions of power in the Sultanate should have been reserved solely for them, based on their ethnic origin and their sense of pride of having launched the Bahmanid dynasty. [21] [22] [23] Eaton also cites a linguistic divide where the Dakhanis spoke the Dakhni dialect of the Urdu language while the Afaqis favored the Persian language. [24] In 1481, the Dakhanis poisoned the ears of the Sultan, leading to the execution of Mahmud Gawan. [25] What followed was a wholescale massacre of the Iranian Georgian and Turkmen population in the urban centres by Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri, who lead the Deccani faction. [26] [27] Factional strife between the Afaqis and Dakhanis resulted in pitched battles with the Afaqis usually being victims of violence due to the Deccanis' greater ties to local military networks. [28] This frequently resulted in indiscriminate violence towards people of Iranian origin including learned men, pilgrims, petty merchants, nobles and servants, such the massacres of foreigners of Chakan in 1450, Bidar in 1481, and Ahmadnagar in 1591 by the Deccan Muslims. [29] [30] [31] According to Eaton, the Dakhanis and Afaqis represented more than just two competing factions jostling for influence in the court; they stood for differing conceptions of state and society. If the Dakhanis manifested a colonial idea, namely, a society composed of transplanted settler-founders and their descendants, the Afaqis or Cosmopolitans represented a cultural idea, a refined style of comportment, an eminent tradition of statescraft, a prestigious language. Since each class was legitimate in its own way, neither could be fully disloged from the Bahmanid political system or the Deccan Sultanates. [32] However, the activity of the Afaqis, unlike the Dakhani Muslim nobles, were solely dependent on the patronization of their host Dakhani Sultans, so that whenever there was a change or instability in the court, the Afaqis would leave altogether. Sebouh Aslanian described this mobile community as a "circulation society". [33] [34] According to Roy Fischel, more than any other group, the Dakhani Muslims were the social group that were most associated with the Deccan Sultanates, and the most dominant political group when it comes to determining the direction of the Sultanates. [35]

According to Richard Eaton, even the Hindu Vijayanagara empire from the same period was highly Persianised in its culture. The royal quarters of the capital had many Persian architectural elements such as domes and vaulted arches. [36]

The Bahmani Sultanate disintegrated into five Deccan Sultanates, similar in culture. Hyderabad, built by the Golconda Sultanate in the 16th century, was inspired by Isfahan. [37] The use of Persian as a court language in Hyderabad continued under the Nizams of Hyderabad, and was only replaced by Urdu in 1886. [37]

The court language during the Deccan sultanate period was Persian or Arabic, however, Marathi was widely used during the period especially by the Adil Shahis of Bijapur and the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. [38] [39] Although the rulers were Muslims, the local feudal landlords and the revenue collectors were Hindus and so was the majority of the population. Political expediency made it important for the sultans to make use of Marathi. Nevertheless, Marathi in official documents from the era is totally Persianised in its vocabulary. [40] The Persian influence continues to this day with many Persian derived words used in every day speech such as bāg (Garden), kārkhānā (factory), shahar (city), bāzār (market), dukān (shop), hushār (clever), kāgad (paper), khurchi (chair), zamīn (land), zāhirāt (advertisement), and hazār (thousand). [41]

Bengal

Adina Mosque, Pandua Adina Mosque Malda (14).jpg
Adina Mosque, Pandua

Bengal was the easternmost frontier of the Persian cultural sphere. [42] For over 600 years (1204-1837), the Persian language was an official language in Bengal, including during the provincial period of the Delhi Sultanate; the independent period of the Bengal Sultanate; the dominion period of the Bengal Subah in the Mughal Empire; and the quasi-independent Nawabi period. Bengal was the subcontinent's wealthiest region for centuries, where Persian people, as well as Persianate Turks, settled in the Ganges delta to work as teachers, lawyers, poets, administrators, soldiers and aristocrats. [43] The Bengali language continues to have a significant amount of Persian loanwords. A popular literary dialect called Dobhashi emerged which mixed Persian and Bengali words as a writing format. Several Bengali cities were once centres of Persian prose and poetry. Hafez, one of the masters of Persian poetry, kept a notable correspondence with Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah and they composed a poem together. The Mughal period saw the zenith of Persian cultural expression in Bengal.

During the Bengali Renaissance, Persian was studied by not only Muslim but even Hindu scholars, including Raja Ram Mohan Roy. From the mid-eighteenth century towards the 19th century, five to six daily magazines were published in Calcutta, most notably the Durbin and the Sultan al-Akhbar.

The use of Persian as an official language was prohibited by Act no. XXIX of 1837 passed by the President of the Council of India in Council on 20 November 1837. [44]

During the British colonial era

Image of the Punjabi Khaksar Movement's poster for the freedom of British India, written in Persian Image of the Khaksar Tehrik's promissory note.jpg
Image of the Punjabi Khaksar Movement's poster for the freedom of British India, written in Persian

Given that the Mughals had historically symbolised Indo-Persian culture to one degree or another, the dethroning of Bahadur Shah Zafar and the institution of the direct control of the British Crown in 1858 may be considered as marking the end of the Indo-Persian era, even if, after the Indian Rebellion, Persian would still retain an audience and even produce commendable literature such as the philosophical poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938). The British would absorb elements of the culture's architectural style into the buildings of the Raj, producing Indo-Saracenic architecture. For 20th century Indian Muslims, and Urdu poets in particular, learning the Persian language was viewed as necessary for a full understanding of Urdu and central to the comportment of an educated North Indian Muslim man. [45]

Adab

In Indo-Persian cultures in North India, Adab, which could simply be understood as a form of virtue ethnic, is a code of values determining social behavior that forms the defining characteristic in Indo-Muslim culture. [46] [47] [48]

Language

Cuisine

The Indo-Persian synthesis led to the development of cuisine that combined indigenous foods and ingredients with the tastes and methods of the Turko-Persians. This was especially under the Mughals, who invited cooks (bawarchis) from various parts of the Islamic world. This resultant cuisine is referred to as Mughlai cuisine, and has left a great impact on the regional eating habits of South Asia. It was further developed in the kitchens of regional Islamic powers, leading to distinctive styles such as the Awadhi and Hyderabadi cuisines. [49]

Due to this synthesis, the Indian subcontinent shares Central and West Asian food, such as naan and kebab , and is home to unique dishes such as biryani.

Architecture

The Indian subcontinent's Islamic period produced architecture that drew stylistically from Persianate culture, using features such as domes, iwans, minars, and baghs. Early Islamic rulers tended to use spolia from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain buildings, resulting in an Indianised style which would be refined by later kingdoms. Hence monuments came to feature uniquely Indian architectural elements, such as corbelled arches and jali. The main buildings produced were mosques, forts, and tombs. These still stand today and are well-represented in the architecture of cities such as Lahore, Delhi, and Hyderabad, to name a few.

Indo-Persian architecture was not exclusive to Islamic power, as the members and rulers of other religions incorporated it in their monuments. Sikh architecture is a notable example of this. The Hindu Vijayanagara Empire used Indo-Persian architecture in courtly monuments. [50]

Music

Golkonda 1660-1670. Musician plays a form of rubab. Related instruments include the medieval Iranian rubab, the rubab of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, the Indian sarod, sursingar and kamaica, the Nepali-Tibetan-Bhutanese tungana, the Pamiri rubab and the Uyghur rawap. The family of instruments blended Persian and Indian cultures, and has been played by Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. Barbed rubab (lute), 1660-1670 CE, Golkonda.png
Golkonda 1660–1670. Musician plays a form of rubab. Related instruments include the medieval Iranian rubab, the rubab of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, the Indian sarod, sursingar and kamaica, the Nepali-Tibetan-Bhutanese tungana, the Pamiri rubab and the Uyghur rawap. The family of instruments blended Persian and Indian cultures, and has been played by Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims.

Prior to Islamic conquest, the Indian subcontinent had a history of musical practice that drew from Sanskritic culture. The subsequent Indo-Persian synthesis resulted in an influx of Iranian musical elements, leading to further developments in the region's musical culture through the patronage of new Persianate rulers. This appears to have been the impetus for divergence in indigenous music, leading to the divergence of Hindustani classical music from Carnatic Music. Some of the main instruments used in this style, such as the sitar and sarod, are thought to have close historical ties with Persian instruments (for an example, see setar). Musical genres such as khyal and tarana , and the musical performance of ghazals, are examples of the Indo-Persian musical confluence. Notably, the Sufi devotional music of qawwali bears evident impact from Persian influence, such as the frequent usage of Persian poems. [51]

The creation of many of these practices is credited to 13th-century poet, scholar, and musician Amir Khusrau.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindustani language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in India and Pakistan

Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Deccan, Northern India and Pakistan, and used as a lingua franca in both countries. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu. Thus, it is also called Hindi–Urdu. Colloquial registers of the language fall on a spectrum between these standards. In modern times, a third variety of Hindustani with significant English influences has also appeared which is sometimes called Hinglish or Urdish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent</span> Era in South Asia characterized by Muslim rule

Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent is conventionally said to have started in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad Caliphate under the military command of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was followed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delhi Sultanate</span> 1206–1526 empire in the Indian subcontinent

The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was an Islamic late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent, for 320 years (1206–1526). Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deccani language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in India

Deccani also known as Deccani Urdu or Deccani Hindi is a language spoken in the Deccan region of south-central India and the native language of the Deccani people. The historical form of Deccani sparked the development of Urdu literature during the late-Mughal period. Deccani arose as a lingua franca under the Delhi and Bahmani Sultanates, as trade and migration from the north introduced Hindustani to southern India. It later developed a literary tradition under the patronage of the Deccan Sultanates. Deccani came to influence Khariboli, on which Urdu and Hindi are based.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindustan</span> Historic and geographic term for the whole or part of the Indian subcontinent

Hindūstān is the Persian name for India, broadly referring to the Indian subcontinent. Also shortly known as Hind, it is the Iranic cognate of the Indic word Sindh, and originally referred to the tract of land on the left bank of the lower Indus River. Later, the term referred to the Indo-Gangetic plain, and became the classical name of the region in the Hindustani language, and it finally referred to the entire subcontinent since the early modern period. Since the Partition of India in 1947, Hindustan continues to be used to the present day as a historic name for the Republic of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deccan sultanates</span> Former states in India

The Deccan Sultanates were five late-medieval Indian kingdoms—on the Deccan Plateau between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range—that were ruled by Muslim dynasties: namely Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda. The sultanates had become independent during the break-up of the Bahmani Sultanate. The five sultanates owed their existence to the declaration of independence of Ahmadnagar in 1490, followed by Bijapur and Berar in the same year. Golconda became independent in 1518, and Bidar in 1528.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persianate society</span> Society strongly influenced by Persian culture

A Persianate society is a society that is based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art and/or identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bahmani Sultanate</span> Medieval kingdom in Southern India (c.1347–1527)

The Bahmani Sultanate was a Muslim empire that ruled the Deccan Plateau in South India. The Bahmani Sultanate came to power in 1347 during the Rebellion of Ismail Mukh after Ismail Mukh abdicated in favour of Zafar Khan, who would establish the Bahmani Sultanate. The Bahmani Sultanate was in perpetual war with its neighbors, including its rival, the Vijayanagara Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qutb Shahi dynasty</span> Rulers of Golconda Fort

The Qutb Shahi dynasty was a Persianate Shia Islamic dynasty of Turkoman origin that ruled the Sultanate of Golkonda in southern India. After the collapse of the Bahmani Sultanate, the Qutb Shahi dynasty was established in 1512 AD by Sultan-Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, better known though less correctly referred to in English as "Quli Qutb Shah".

Hindustani is one of the predominant languages of South Asia, with federal status in the republics of India and Pakistan in its standardized forms of Hindi and Urdu respectively. It is widely spoken and understood as a second language in Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Persian Gulf and as such is considered a lingua franca in the northern Indian subcontinent. It is also one of the most widely spoken languages in the world by total number of speakers. It developed in north India, principally during the Mughal Empire, when the Persian language exerted a strong influence on the Western Hindi languages of central India; this contact between the Hindu and Muslim cultures resulted in the core Indo-Aryan vocabulary of the Indian dialect of Hindi spoken in Delhi, whose earliest form is known as Old Hindi, being enriched with Persian loanwords. Rekhta, or "mixed" speech, which came to be known as Hindustani, Hindi, Hindavi, and Urdu, also locally known as Lashkari or Lashkari Zaban in long form, was thus created. This form was elevated to the status of a literary language, and after the partition of colonial India and independence this collection of dialects became the basis for modern standard Hindi and Urdu. Although these official languages are distinct registers with regards to their formal aspects, such as modern technical vocabulary, they continue to be all but indistinguishable in their vernacular form. From the colonial era onwards, Hindustani has also taken in many words from English, with an urban English-influenced variety emerging known as Hinglish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adil Shahi dynasty</span> Muslim dynasty that ruled southwest India as the Sultanate of Bijapur from 1490 to 1686

The Adil Shahi or Adilshahi, was a Shia, and later Sunni Muslim, dynasty founded by Yusuf Adil Shah, that ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur, centred on present-day Bijapur district, Karnataka in India, in the Western area of the Deccan region of Southern India from 1489 to 1686. Bijapur had been a province of the Bahmani Sultanate (1347–1518), and member of the Deccan Sultanates, before its political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century and eventual break-up in 1518. The Bijapur Sultanate was fully absorbed into the Mughal Empire on 12 September 1686, after its conquest by the Emperor Aurangzeb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad bin Tughluq</span> Sultan of Delhi

Muhammad bin Tughluq, also named Jauna Khan as Crown Prince, also known by his epithets, The Eccentric Prince, or The Mad Sultan, or The Wisest Fool was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the young Muhammad was sent by his father to the Deccan Plateau to fight a military campaign against the Kakatiya dynasty. In 1323, the future sultan successfully laid siege upon the Kakatiya capital in Warangal. This victory over King Prataparudra ended the Kakatiya dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent</span> 8th to 18th-century Muslim conquests across the Indian subcontinent

The Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent mainly took place between the 13th and the 18th centuries. Earlier Muslim conquests in the subcontinent include the invasions which started in the northwestern subcontinent, especially the Umayyad campaigns during the 8th century. Mahmud of Ghazni, Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire, preserved an ideological link to the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate and invaded vast parts of Punjab and Gujarat during the 11th century. After the capture of Lahore and the end of the Ghaznavids, the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor laid the foundation of Muslim rule in India in 1192. In 1202, Bakhtiyar Khalji led the Muslim conquest of Bengal, marking the easternmost expansion of Islam at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indo-Islamic architecture</span> Islamic architecture in Indian subcontinent

Indo-Islamic architecture is the architecture of the Indian subcontinent produced by and for Islamic patrons and purposes. Despite an initial Arab presence in Sindh, the development of Indo-Islamic architecture began in earnest with the establishment of Delhi as the capital of the Ghurid dynasty in 1193. Succeeding the Ghurids was the Delhi Sultanate, a series of Central Asian dynasties that consolidated much of North India, and later the Mughal Empire by the 15th century. Both of these dynasties introduced Islamic architecture and art styles from West Asia into the Indian subcontinent.

The composite Turko-Persian, Turco-Persian, or Turco-Iranian is the distinctive culture that arose in the 9th and 10th centuries AD in Khorasan and Transoxiana. According to the modern historian Robert L. Canfield, the Turco-Persian tradition "was "Persianate" in that it was centered on a lettered tradition of Iranian origin; it was Turkish in so far as it was for many generations patronized by rulers of Turkic ancestry; and it was "Islamicate" in that Islamic notions of virtue, permance, and excellence infused discourse about public issues as well as the religious affairs of the Muslims, who were the presiding elite."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah</span> Founder of the Bahmani Sultanate

Ala-ud-Din Hasan Bahman Shah whose original name was Zafar Khan or Hasan Gangu, was the founder of the Bahmani Sultanate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmadnagar Sultanate</span> Southern Indian kingdom (1490–1636)

The Ahmadnagar Sultanate or the Nizam Shahi Sultanate was a late medieval Indian Muslim kingdom located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur, ruled by the Nizam Shahi or Bahri dynasty. Malik Ahmed, the Bahmani governor of Junnar after defeating the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on 28 May 1490 declared independence and established the Nizam Shahi dynasty rule over the sultanate of Ahmednagar. Initially his capital was in the town of Junnar with its fort, later renamed Shivneri. In 1494, the foundation was laid for the new capital Ahmadnagar. In 1636 Aurangzeb, then Mugal viceroy of Deccan, finally annexed the sultanate to the Mughal Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persian language in the Indian subcontinent</span>

The Persian language in the Indian subcontinent, before British colonisation, was the region's lingua franca and a widely used official language in North India. The language was brought into South Asia by various Turkic and Afghan dynasties from the 11th century onwards, notable of which were the Ghaznavids, Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Dynasty. Persian held official status in the court and the administration within these empires. It largely replaced Sanskrit as the language of politics, literature, education, and social status in the subcontinent.

Persian people were one of the major ethnic groups, who accompanied the ethnic Turco-Mongol ruling elite of the Mughal Empire after its invasion of the Indian subcontinent. Throughout the Mughal Empire, a number of ethnic Persian technocrats, bureaucrats, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, poets, artists, theologians and Sufis migrated and settled in different parts of the Indian Subcontinent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deccanis</span> Ethnoreligious community in India

The Deccanis or Deccani people are an ethnoreligious community of Urdu-speaking Muslims who inhabit or are from the Deccan region of Central and Southern India, and speak the Deccani dialect of Urdu. The community traces its origins to the shifting of the Delhi Sultanate's capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in 1327 during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq. Further ancestry can also be traced from immigrant Muslims referred to as Afaqis, also known as Pardesis who came from Central Asia, Iraq and Iran and had settled in the Deccan region during the Bahmani Sultanate (1347). The migration of Muslim Hindavi-speaking people to the Deccan and intermarriage with the local Hindus whom converted to Islam, led to the creation of a new community of Urdu-speaking Muslims, known as the Deccani, who would come to play an important role in the politics of the Deccan. Their language, Deccani Urdu, emerged as a language of linguistic prestige and culture during the Bahmani Sultanate, further evolving in the Deccan Sultanates.

References

  1. Alka Patel, Karen Isaksen Leonard (2012). Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition. p. 3. ISBN   978-9004212091.
  2. Sigfried J. de Laet. History of Humanity: From the seventh to the sixteenth century UNESCO, 1994. ISBN   9231028138 p 734
  3. Franklin D. Lewis (2014). Rumi - Past and Present, East and West: The Life, Teachings, and Poetry of Jalâl Al-Din Rumi. ISBN   9781780747378.
  4. Abd Allāh Aḥmad Naʻīm (2002). Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 202. ISBN   9781842770931.
  5. Alam, Muzaffar. "The Pursuit of Persian: Language in Mughal Politics." In Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 2. (May, 1998), pp. 317–349.
  6. Muzaffar, Alam (2003). "The Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan". In Pollock, Sheldon I. (ed.). Literary cultures in history : reconstructions from South Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN   978-0-520-92673-8. OCLC   835227498.
  7. Delhi, the Capital of India By Anon, John Capper, p.28. "This source establishes the Maratha control of Delhi before the British"
  8. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ghurids Iranica: GHURIDS or Āl-e Šansab; a medieval Islamic dynasty of the eastern Iranian lands.
  9. Eaton 2008, p. 22-24.
  10. 1 2 Kousar.J. Azam (2017). Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad. Taylor & Francis. p. 8.
  11. A. Rā Kulakarṇī; M. A. Nayeem; Teotonio R. De Souza (1996). Mediaeval Deccan History: Commemoration Volume in Honour of Purshottam Mahadeo Joshi. Popular Prakashan. p. 34. ISBN   9788171545797.
  12. 1 2 Ansari, N. H. "Bahmanid Dynasty". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
  13. Richard Maxwell Eaton (2015). The Sufis of Bijapur, 1300-1700 : Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India. p. 42. ISBN   9781400868155.
  14. Eaton 2008, p. 67-68.
  15. Jaswant Lal Mehta (1979). Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India:Volume 2. Sterling. p. 276. ISBN   9788120706170.
  16. Eaton 2008, p. 51-52.
  17. Eaton 2008, p. 59-72.
  18. Sir Wolseley Haig (1907). Historic Landmarks of the Deccan. Pioneer Press. p. 4.
  19. Jamal Malik (2020). Islam in South Asia: Revised, Enlarged and Updated Second Edition. Brill. p. 168. ISBN   9789004422711.
  20. Burjor Avari (2013). Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent. Routledge. p. 89. ISBN   9780415580618.
  21. Richard Eaton (17 November 2005). A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761:Eight Indian Lives · Part 1, Volume 8. Cambridge University Press. p. 76. ISBN   9780521254847. On the one hand, the court was obliged to patronize the descendants of those north Indian settlers who had migrated to the Deccan in the fourteenth century, and who, rebelling against Delhi, had launched the dynasty.
  22. Indian History. Allied Publishers. 1988. p. 137. ISBN   9788184245684.
  23. Marika Sardar, Navina Najat Haidar (2011). Sultans of the South: Arts of India's Deccan Courts, 1323-1687. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN   9781588394385. considerable resentment among Muslims born in the Deccan, many of whom were descendants of the original Muslim settlers who had migrated from North India in the previous century and who had in fact launched the Bahmani state. These were the "Deccanis", people who were just as proud of their local origins as the Westerners were of their foreign origins.
  24. Sanjay Subrahmanyam (1996). Merchant Networks in the Early Modern World. Variorum. p. 75. ISBN   9780860785071.
  25. Yazdani, 1947, pp. 10.
  26. History: Mediaeval period. 1967.
  27. Pran Nath Chopra; T. K. Ravindran; N. Subrahmanian (1979). History of South India: Medieval period. p. 77.
  28. The Cambridge Shorter History of India. CUP Archive. p. 290.
  29. John Bowman (2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. Columbia University Press.
  30. Annemarie Schimmel (2022). Islam in the Indian Subcontinent. Brill.
  31. Manu S. Pillai (2018). Rebel Sultans:The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji. Juggernaut. p. 141.
  32. Richard Eaton. A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761:Eight Indian Lives · Part 1, Volume 8. Cambridge University Press. p. 76.
  33. Keelan Overton (2020). Iran and the Deccan:Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation, 1400–1700. Indiana University Press. p. 139.
  34. Roy S. Fischel (2020). Local States in an Imperial World:Identity, Society and Politics in the Early Modern Deccan. Edinburgh University Press. p. 138. ISBN   9781474436090.
  35. Roy S. Fischel (2020). Local States in an Imperial World:Identity, Society and Politics in the Early Modern Deccan. Edinburgh University Press. p. 94. ISBN   9781474436090.
  36. Eaton 2008, p. 99-101.
  37. 1 2 "'Persianate culture forms intrinsic part of Hyderabad' - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  38. Gordon, Stewart (1993). Cambridge History of India: The Marathas 1600-1818. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University press. p. 16. ISBN   978-0-521-26883-7.
  39. Malik Mohamed, The Foundations of the Composite Culture in India, 2007, p. 249, p. 434
  40. Kulkarni, G.T. (1992). "DECCAN (MAHARASHTRA) UNDER THE MUSLIM RULERS FROM KHALJIS TO SHIVAJI : A STUDY IN INTERACTION, PROFESSOR S.M KATRE Felicitation". Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute. 51/52: 501–510. JSTOR   42930434.
  41. Abdul Karim, Influence of Persian on Marathi Language, Indo-Iran society, 1974, pp.163–174
  42. "Bengal". Encyclopædia Iranica .
  43. Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir, eds. (2012). "Iranians, The". Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN   984-32-0576-6. OCLC   52727562. OL   30677644M . Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  44. Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah (2012). "Persian". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN   984-32-0576-6. OCLC   52727562. OL   30677644M . Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  45. A. Sean Pue (2014). I Too Have Some Dreams: N.M. Rashed and Modernism in Urdu Poetry. University of California Press. p. 44. ISBN   9780520283107.
  46. Tabassum Ruhi Khan (2015). Beyond Hybridity and Fundamentalism Emerging Muslim Identity in Globalized India. OUP India. ISBN   978-0-19-908950-5.
  47. RICHARD SHUMACK (2020). Jesus Through Muslim Eyes. SPCK. ISBN   9780281081943.
  48. Avril Ann Powell · (2013). Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India. ISBN   9781136100420.
  49. Laudan, Rachel (2013). Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History. University of California Press. pp. 161–164. ISBN   978-0520266452.
  50. Eaton, Richard M. (2005). The new Cambridge history of India (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 99–101. ISBN   9780521254847.
  51. "The Indo-Persian Musical Confluence". Stanford Center for South Asia.

Bibliography

Further reading