Dissertation
Reimagining Sufi Poetics in South Asia: The Literary Works of Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2020
DOI: 10.17077/etd.005358
Abstract
This dissertation seeks to understand why and how an early modern Indian poet survived in the cultural memory of South Asian and Persian societies. Under what circumstances were his life and literary oeuvre remembered, appreciated and/or forgotten? These questions are posed to elucidate the contexts of reception that shape the development of literatures and literary histories in South Asia and the wider Persian world. To that end, my dissertation explores the life, works and legacy of Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī (1253–c.1336), an Indian poet who wrote exclusively in Persian and whose writings circulated in all parts of the wider Persian world—from Daulatabad in India to Samarqand in Uzbekistan and Shiraz in Iran. To document the reception history of Ḥasan’s biographies and literary works, I pursued archival research in different parts of India, Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, England, France and the US. I chanced upon some two hundred new manuscripts—as opposed to about twenty previously known ones—containing Ḥasan’s works. Additionally, I conducted ethno-historiographic research on Ḥasan’s living legacy in north India, Rajasthan and the Deccan region. Apart from shedding new light on his biographies, Sufi poetics and cultural reception, these archival and ethnographic data allow my dissertation to address some of the cardinal issues in South Asian literary history and historiography.
Contemporary historiography is fundamentally concerned with the nature and limits of the intercultural interactions among Muslims and other religious communities in early modern India and their formative role in the making of modern South Asia. Literary historians, on the other hand, grapple with the issue of how Persian genres—originally conceived in Iranian and Central Asian cultural milieux—were made amenable to the diverse literary tastes, cultural values and religious worldviews of Indian readers and audiences. Although most historical sources acknowledge that Ḥasan and his close friend Amīr Khusrau (d. 1325) played a foundational role in the spread of sufi poetry and Persian genres in early modern South Asia, a detailed exposition of the cultural reception of Ḥasan’s literary writings and sufi poetics is still unavailable. This dissertation attempts to amend this academic oversight by offering a critical appraisal of his literary works and their reception history.
Ḥasan’s literary oeuvre and its cultural reception illuminate the communal ethos of people of diverse cultural, social and religious backgrounds in early modern India. As a poet, he frequently participated in cultural gatherings, literary circles, religious festivals and social events. Apropos to his close association with both royal courts and Sufi khānqāhs, his poetry had transformed courtly literary genres and adapted them to religious, mystical, ethical and even secular themes relevant to a larger and more diverse audience in India and abroad. As attested by the reception history of his literary works and manuscripts, his literary oeuvre became immensely popular among Indians and left a deep impact on the literary traditions and Sufi discourses of the wider Persian world.
This dissertation is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on Ḥasan’s final years in Daulatabad as they were reimagined at different points in history. The second part grapples with the narratives of his courtly life and his association with religious and cultural elites. The third part explores his poetics and literary contributions as they were appreciated by diverse readers in South Asia and the wider Persian world. This inquiry ultimately seeks to find out how his poetry resonated with readers and audiences of diverse cultural backgrounds at different points in history.
Literary critics, anthropologists and sociologists have offered critical reflections on the notion of “resonance,” particularly on its relevance for affirming the primacy of auditory experiences over literate practices, emotions over rational faculties, democratic values over elite judgments, and a sense of belongingness in human interactions and cultural history. Resonance thus foregrounds and elaborates the dynamic of social connection and intimacy in a pluralistic cultural milieu. Since it is the primary mode of historical reception and transmission, it essentially constitutes the raison d’être of literary history. This ebb and flow in the history of cultural recognition, literary appreciation and religious canonization characterizes much of the life, works and legacy of Ḥasan. Whereas the echo of his poetics was heard loud and clear in certain regional genres and manuscript traditions (for example, (Avadhī Sufi premākhyāns, Hindūstānī ghazals, and Persian bayāż), its resonance was considerably subdued in modern print culture, orientalist discourses and nationalist historiography. Although the decline of Persian in South Asia adversely affected the reception of his Persian songs, his poetry continued to hold its sway among Sufi saints and Muslim intellectuals. Moreover, his tomb in Khuldabad emerged as an active site of pilgrimage and worship, often attracting visitors suffering from speech disorders and learning disabilities, all of whom believe that Ḥasan’s “sweet speech” can cure the illness of ineloquence. The resonance of his Sufi poetics thus affirms its relevance for the literary and religious history of South Asia.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Reimagining Sufi Poetics in South Asia: The Literary Works of Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī
- Creators
- Pranav Prakash
- Contributors
- Frederick M Smith (Advisor)Philip A Lutgendorf (Committee Member)Carl W Ernst (Committee Member) - University of North Carolina at Chapel HillPaul R Greenough (Committee Member)Morten Schlütter (Committee Member)Paul Dilley (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Religious Studies
- Date degree season
- Spring 2020
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.005358
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- ix, 344 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2020 Pranav Prakash
- Language
- Arabic; English
- Description illustrations
- color illustrations
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 230-344).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
This dissertation seeks to understand why and how an early modern Indian poet survived in the cultural memory of South Asian and Persian societies. Under what circumstances were his life and literary oeuvre remembered, appreciated and/or forgotten? These questions are posed to elucidate the contexts of reception that shape the development of literatures and literary histories in South Asia and the wider Persian world. To that end, my dissertation explores the life, works and legacy of Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī (651/1253–737/1336), an Indian poet who wrote exclusively in Persian and whose writings circulated in all parts of the wider Persian world—from Daulatabad in India to Samarqand in Uzbekistan and Shiraz in Iran. To document the reception history of Ḥasan’s biographies and literary works, I pursued archival research in different parts of India, Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, England, France and the US. I came across some two hundred new manuscripts—as opposed to about twenty previously known ones—containing Ḥasan’s works. Additionally, I conducted ethno-historiographic research on Ḥasan’s living legacy in north India, Rajasthan and the Deccan region. Apart from shedding new light on Ḥasan’s biographies, Sufi poetics and cultural reception, these archival and ethnographic data allow my dissertation to appraise how his poetry resonated with readers and audiences of diverse cultural backgrounds at different points in history.
- Academic Unit
- Religious Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9983956192902771
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