Add MS 7875

This volume contains notices of contemporary poets writing in both Persian and Chagatai compiled by Mir Alisher Navoiy.

Mir Alisher Navoiy is considered to be one of the most prolific writers in Chagatai. His contemporary, Babur, who gave an account of him in the Baburname, remarks that, although born and raised in Herat, Alisher Navoiy made use in his writings of the Turkic dialect spoken in Andijon, Fergana Valley.

The author mentions in his preface two previous biographies of poets, namely Jāmī’s Bahāristān and the Tazkirat al-Shuᶜarā of Devlet Shah, and describes the present work as a continuation of the same, including poets who lived in the period extending from the birth of the reigning sovereign, Sultan Husayn (842 AH/1438-39), to the date of composition, 896 AH (1490 CE).

Navoiy stands alone among the writers of tazkiralar for the supercilious and disaparaging tone which he adopts towards most contemporary poets. His notices are scanty and deal more with the social status of and private life of their subjects than with their poetic merit. The quotations from their works are usually confined to one or two lines.

The work consists of eight books (majlis), the headings of which have been translated by Belin (l. c., p. 177). The contents of the present copy are as follows: Preface (ff 1v-3v); Majlis I, great poets who died in the author's lifetime, but whom he never met (ff 3v-19r); Majlis II, poets whom the author knew in his youth and who died before 896 AH (1490 CE) (ff 19r-46v); Majlis III, living poets whose tuition or friendship the author enjoyed (ff 46v-62v); Majlis IV (Majlis VI in other copies), poets of countries other than Khorasan (ff 62v-73r); Majlis V (Majlis IV in other copies), men of letters who, although not known primarily as poets, have written poetry (ff 73r-89v); Majlis VI (Majlis V of other copies), nobles of Khorasan and other countries who occasionally composed poetry (ff 89v-105r); Majlis VII, Sultans and princes who demonstrated poetic taste (ff 105r-112v); Majlis VIII, poetical compositions of His Majesty (Sultan Husayn) (ff 112v-129r).

This copy appears to have been transcribed from a manuscript the leaves of which had been transposed. The order of the books has been inverted, their ordinal numbers have been altered, and a considerable portion of Majlis III has been transferred to Majlis VI.

The sixth Majlis contains on f 92r a notice of Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, the author of the Shaybānī-nāmah. Navoiy says that he used Ṣāliḥ as a poetical surname, and that his father,

Nūr Saᶜid Beg, was a powerful Amir in the reign of Sulṭān Abū Saᶜīd, but a wicked man. The son was, unlike his father, a gentle and well-behaved youth, but, in consequence of some indiscretion, he had lately deserted the service of the Sulṭān (Husayn) and taken to evil ways.

Nūr Saᶜid Beg was the son or grandson of Shah Malik, the greatest Amir of Timur. We learn from the Maṭlaᶜ al-Sāᶜdayn (f 364) that he held command in Khwarezm and was recalled by Sulṭān Abū Saᶜīd in 872 AH (1467-68 CE) on suspicion of having secretly favoured the cause of Sulṭān Husayn.

Mīr Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ is also mentioned by Sām Mirzā in the Tuḥfat-i Sāmī (f 151), and in the Ātashkadah (f 9), where it is stated that he died in Bukhara in 941 AH (1534 CE). The same date is given by Riẕā Qulī Khān in the Mijmaᶜ al-Fuṣaḥā (volume I, p 56).

The text contains an unvan and gold headings.

The manuscript was copied by Malik Muḥammad al-Kātib al-Tabrīzī in 987 AH (1579-80 CE).