Remapping Persian Literary History, 1700-1900

246 Pages·2020·3.917 MB·English

by  Kevin L. Schwartz

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KEVIN L.
Cover image: © The British Library Board, Tarjūmah-’ al-Masālik wa al-Mamālik in
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad al-FārisīManuscript No or BL Shelfmark: IO Islamic 1026
Cover design: Rebecca Mackenzie and Stuart Dalziel SCHWARTZ
Remapping Persian Literary History, 1700–1900
Edinburgh Historical Studies of Iran and the Persian World
Published in association with Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali, Founder and Chair,
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute
Series General Editor: Stephanie Cronin, Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Research
Fellow, University of Oxford
Series Advisory Board: Professor Janet Afary (UC Santa Barbara), Professor Abbas
Amanat (Yale University), Professor Touraj Atabaki (International Institute of
Social History), Dr Joanna de Groot (University of York), Professor Vanessa
Martin (Royal Holloway, University of London), Professor Rudi Matthee
(University of Delaware), Professor Cyrus Schayegh (The Graduate Institute,
Geneva)
Covering the history of Iran and the Persian world from the medieval period to the
present, this series aims to become the pre-eminent place for publication in this
field. As well as its core concern with Iran, it extends its concerns to encompass
a much wider and more loosely defined cultural and linguistic world, to include
Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Xinjiang and northern India. Books in the
series present a range of conceptual and methodological approaches, looking not
only at states, dynasties and elites, but at subalterns, minorities and everyday life.
Published and forthcoming titles
Religion, Orientalism and Modernity: The Case of the Babis and Baha’is in Iran
Geoffrey Nash
Remapping Persian Literary History, 1700–1900
Kevin L. Schwartz
Muslim–Christian Polemics in Safavid Iran
Alberto Tiburcio
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/ehsipw
Remapping Persian Literary
History, 1700–1900
Kevin L. Schwartz
For Sage and Ansel
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
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© Kevin L. Schwartz, 2020
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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The right of Kevin L. Schwartz to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
Note on Transliteration and Translation xi
Introduction 1
1 Remembering Iran, Forgetting the Persianate: Persian Literary
Historiography of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 35
2 Reformation and Reconstruction of Poetic Networks: Isfahan
c.1722–1801 81
3 A Market for the Masters: Afghanistan c.1839–1842 124
4 Debating Poetry on the Edge of the Persianate World: Arcot
c.1850 163
Conclusion 202
Bibliography 208
Index 230
Figures
2.1 The Isfahani Circle of poets associated with Mushtaq’s literary
society 101
2.2 Expansion of the Isfahani Circle of poets under the patronage of
Mirza ʿAbd al-Wahhab 101
2.3 Literary bonds among the Isfahani Circle of poets 105
3.1 Cover of Hamid Allah Kashmiri’s Book of Akbar (Akbarnama)
published by the Historical Society of Afghanistan in 1951–2 126
3.2 Cover of War Ballad (Jangnama) by ‘Ghulami’ published by the
Historical Society of Afghanistan in 1957 127
3.3 Frontispiece of Munshi ʿAbd al-Karim’s Battle of Kabul and
Qandahar (Muharaba-yi Kabul va Qandahar), lithographed at
Lucknow 1850–1 149
3.4 Market-place of Anglo-Afghan war-ballads and other Persian
imitations of the Shahanama in nineteenth-century Afghanistan
and South Asia 155
4.1 Portrait of the last Nawab of Arcot, Muhammad Ghaws Khan
Bahadur ‘Aʿzam’ (d. 1855) 168
4.2 General overview of the literary networks of Carnatic as
reconstructed from the biographical anthology of Persian Poets,
Binish’s Notices (1848–9) 173
4.3 Network map of instructional and family connections among
poets in nineteenth-century Carnatic 178
4.4 Network map of poetic instruction in nineteenth-century
Carnatic and the isolation of the poet Vasif 181
Acknowledgements
The transregional expanse and cultural reach of the Persianate world may
not be what it once was, but networks of camaraderie, scholarship and
exchange have remained available to a Persianist exploring its historical fea-
tures, whether at Berkeley or inside the Beltway, across libraries and archives,
during springtime in Washington, DC or winter in Prague. The route from
Isfahan to Delhi – or any other of the myriad routes frequently traversed
by Persian poets and littérateurs of a bygone era – it was not, but one of
discovery, wandering, enrichment and distraction nonetheless.
At the University of California, Berkeley, I was fortunate to have a series
of mentors and friends who inspired me to pursue this project from its earliest
days and helped shape its completion: Wali Ahmadi, whose ways of prob-
lematising the categories of literary history and rethinking the boundaries
of Persian literary belonging drew me to Berkeley in the first place; Hamid
Algar, who taught me that one’s scholarly sensibilities are defined as much by
the accumulation of knowledge as by the ability and willingness to effectively
share it; and Munis Faruqui, who reminded me that addressing complex
historiographical questions is only worthwhile if one can do so in a practical
and clear manner.
During the course of completing this project, I benefited from several
sources of institutional support. My year as a Social Science Research Council
Transregional Fellow, spent in residence at Roshan Institute for Persian
Studies at the University of Maryland, provided me with the opportunity to
connect and converse with like-minded colleagues studying the Persianate
world. Many thanks to Ahmet Karamustafa, Fatemeh Keshavarz, Matt Miller
and the participants of my workshop, ‘Wide World of Persian: Connections
and Contestations, 1500–Today’, for the many wonderful conversations and
viii | remapping persian literary history
enriching insights. To Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, I am grateful for your men-
torship during that year and all the guidance that has followed since.
The Library of Congress in Washington, DC, as will be clear from the
opening pages of the Introduction, is about as dear to me as any place could
be. I am grateful to the entire staff of the African and Middle East Division,
led by the grace and guidance of Mary-Jane Deeb, who provided me with an
unending amount of research assistance over the years. My thanks to Hirad
Dinavari, who, in addition to supporting my research in every possible way,
always welcomed me to the library like I was coming home. For a wonderful
year at the Kluge Center as a Research Fellow, my thanks to Travis Hensley,
Mary Lou Reker, Ted Widmer and my fellow cohort for providing such an
enjoyable and active scholarly environment amid chaotic times.
New colleagues at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy Sciences
welcomed me to Prague with open arms. Ondřej Beránek and Jan Zouplna
helped make the transition across the Atlantic an easy one and remain great
advocates of my research. Stefano Taglia, since the first days of my arrival,
has offered indispensable advice and, just as importantly, ensured that I’ve
grasped the finer points of Italian coffee-making. Táňa Dluhošová and Lenka
Starkova went to great lengths to teach me about digital mapping and to help
me visualise my research in new and exciting ways. For all your patience,
especially when my data sets were a mess and I had no idea what I wanted to
achieve, I am grateful.
A cast of colleagues and interlocutors have provided critical insights,
commentary and encouragement at crucial moments over the years, without
which this project would not have come to fruition. Aria Fani has been a valu-
able voice in pushing me to explore new directions in my work while keeping
me moored to my truest beliefs. Samad Alavi, since the beginning, has been
a constant presence to critique, advise and listen in the most understanding
of ways. Mana Kia has served as a crucial interlocutor for many discussions
about the Persianate world in ways of which I’ve lost count. Arthur Dudney
has been my most adept guide through the wild world of South Asia literary
culture, Persian or otherwise. Sunil Sharma always seems to be close at hand,
ready to listen, enlighten and encourage. I have learned from a great many
colleagues along the way, especially Faiz Ahmed, Sergio Alivernini, Hannah
Archambault, Hunter Bandy, David Boyk, Dominic Brookshaw, Robert
acknowledgements | ix
Crews, Purnima Dhavan, Michael Hill, Sam Hodgkin, Domenico Ingenito,
Nile Green, Walt Hakala, Daniel Majchrowicz, Alexander Jabbari, Houshang
Jeirani, Prashant Keshavmurthy, Rajeev Kinra, Justine Landau, Ira Lapidus,
Frank Lewis, Paul Losensky, Margaret Larkin, Afshin Marashi, Stefano
Pellò, Jaleh Pirnazar, Nasrin Rahimieh, Simon Rettig, Giedrė Šabasevičiūtė,
Elizabeth Saylor, Daniel Sheffield, Matthew Smith, Nathan Tabor, Kamran
Talattof, Amin Tarzi, Mandy Terc, Ernie Tucker and Ahmed Zildzic.
Portions of this book have been presented in various conferences, col-
loquia and workshops. I would like to thank the many organisers, partici-
pants and audience members for inviting me to share my work and provide
thoughtful feedback. Some portions of this book originally appeared else-
where. An earlier version of Chapter 4 was originally published in The Indian
Economic and Social History Review under the title ‘The Curious Case of
Carnatic: The Last Nawab of Arcot (d. 1855) and Persian Literary Culture’.
Certain portions of Chapter 2 first appeared in the Journal of Persianate
Studies under the title ‘The Local Lives of a Transregional Poet: ʿAbd al-
Qader Bidel and the Writing of Persianate Literary History’. My sincere
thanks to Sage Publishing and Brill, respectively, for the permission to reprint
here. Many thanks to the entire editorial team at Edinburgh University Press,
especially Nicola Ramsey, Kirsty Woods, Rebecca Mackenzie, Michael Ayton
and Eddie Clark, and to Stephanie Cronin as editor of the series Edinburgh
Historical Studies of Iran and the Persianate World.
Friends and family, from the Midwest to the Southwest and beyond,
have held me close and kept me honest. I will always be the better for it. I
am grateful for the lightheartedness and encouragement provided by Polly
Dement, Karen Feldman, Simon Galed, Julie Goshorn, Ciara Knudsen, Ken
and Terra Kuhne, Jason Ladnier, Janet Lewis, Larry Malm, John Mayer,
Ahsiya and Omar Mencin, Gary Milante, Nadia Motraghi, Yaser Nosrati,
Dari and Jon Pogach, Debby Rager, Gobind and Ravneet Sethi, Todd Shaw
and Frank Sweet. To my DC collective, Dan Mahanty, Josh Volz and Patrick
Worman – your friendship is as unvarnished as it is unwavering. There is
simply no place like Salon 2110. To my family, Elizabeth, Joe and Abby
Cason, Brian Harris, Everett Harris, Jessica Rocher, Andrew Schwartz, Erin
Schwartz and Kersti Yllo, I am indebted to your unyielding affection. Special
thanks to my father-in-law David Potter, who has been both a fierce advocate