This paper studies the interest of the early Mughals in the Shahnameh and survey the range of illustrated manuscripts of this text produced in North India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although there were several older copies of the Shahnameh in the imperial library, and the emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) is said to have enjoyed…[Read more]

A study of the imagery of the monsoon season in the poetry of the classical poets Masud Sad Salman and Amir Khusrau.

A close reading of parts of Mohan Lal Kashmiri’s travel account in English to Central Asia and Iran as a Persianate text.

One of the earliest Persian poets in India, Masud Sad (d. 1121) was born in Lahore, now in Pakistan, while his ancestral roots were in Hamadan, Iran. Most of his professional career was spent as a court poet in Lahore and Ghazna (in present-day Afghanistan). His true talent was brought out when he spent eighteen years in India, in prison and…[Read more]