https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Muhammad_Sadr_Ala-iMuhammad Sadr Ala-i - Revision history2026-10-21T13:45:41ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Muhammad_Sadr_Ala-i&diff=518796&oldid=prevVictornkd at 12:49, 13 February 20242024-02-13T12:49:45Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Muslim Delhi-based author (1301–1351)}}<br />
<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2023}}<br />
[[File:Shah Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq arrives in Tirhut. Depicted by eyewitness Muhammad Sadr Ala-i in his BasaUn al-uns, ca.1410. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum Library, Ms. R.1032.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|1410 [[Jalayirid dynasty|Jalayirid]] depiction of [[Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq]] leading his troops in the capture of the city of [[Tirhut]] in 1324, based on the ''Basātin al-uns'' by Ikhtisān-i Dabir, a member of the Tughluq court and an ambassador to [[Ilkhanids|Ilkhanid]] Iran. Ca.1410 copy of 1326 lost original. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum Library, Ms. R.1032.<ref name="FG"/>]]<br />
[[File:The ruler of Akhin listens to an ascetic. Basätin al-uns, ca. 1410 copy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|"The ruler of Akhin listens to an ascetic". ''Basātin al-uns'', ca. 1410 copy]]<br />
'''Taj al-Dīn Muhammad Sadr Ala-i bin Ahmad Hasan Dabir-i Abdusi Dehlavi''' (1301–1351),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Nazir (Professor) |title=Basateen ul-Uns - Muhammad Bin Sadr Taj 'Abdoosi Akhsitan Dehlavi (Farsi) |date=2010 |publisher=Center for Persian Research |location=New Delhi |page=Title page |url=https://archive.org/details/BasateenUl-Uns-MuhammadBinSadrTajAbdoosiAkhsitanDehlaviFarsi/page/n323/mode/1up}}</ref><ref name="CR752"/> also known as '''Ikhtisān-i Dabir''', was a 14th-century [[Muslim]] author who was born in [[Delhi]], [[India]], at the time of the [[Delhi Sultanate]], where he was a hereditary servant of the Court of the [[Tughlaq dynasty]], and a secretary to the Royal Chancelry.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Nazir (Professor) |title=Basateen ul-Uns - Muhammad Bin Sadr Taj 'Abdoosi Akhsitan Dehlavi (Farsi) |date=2010 |publisher=Center for Persian Research |location=New Delhi |url=https://archive.org/details/BasateenUl-Uns-MuhammadBinSadrTajAbdoosiAkhsitanDehlaviFarsi/page/n324/mode/1up?q=hindi |page=xii, xiv |quote=He is also called al-Hindi, which indicates that he was from India}}</ref><ref name="CR752"/><ref name="PJ153"/> He held the high title of ''[[Malik]]'' at the Court.<ref name="NA">{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Nazir (Professor) |title=Basateen ul-Uns - Muhammad Bin Sadr Taj 'Abdoosi Akhsitan Dehlavi (Farsi) |date=2010 |publisher=Center for Persian Research |location=New Delhi |page=xii, xiv, xiii|url=https://archive.org/details/BasateenUl-Uns-MuhammadBinSadrTajAbdoosiAkhsitanDehlaviFarsi/page/n323/mode/1up}}</ref> According to several accounts, he was also sent as an ambassador to [[Iran]] by [[Muhammad bin Tughluq]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Nazir (Professor) |title=Basateen ul-Uns - Muhammad Bin Sadr Taj 'Abdoosi Akhsitan Dehlavi (Farsi) |date=2010 |publisher=Center for Persian Research |location=New Delhi |page=xiv |url=https://archive.org/details/BasateenUl-Uns-MuhammadBinSadrTajAbdoosiAkhsitanDehlaviFarsi/page/n323/mode/1up}}</ref><br />
==Birthplace==<br />
The author speaks very highly of his birthplace Delhi, whereby he is called ''Dehlawi''. He is also called ''al-Hindi'' which indicates that he came from India.<ref name="NA"/> He described "the great metropolis Delhi" as his place of origin, whose earth is "soul rearing", and that "it was in this paradise-like capital that the bud of his youth blossomed in the garden of his body". He excelled there in various branches of knowledge, and had many friends.<ref name="NA"/><br />
<br />
==Works==<br />
He is known for a work in Persian entitled ''Basātin al-uns'' ("Gardens of Fellowship"), a partial copy of which, date ca.1410, is now in the [[Topkapi Museum]] in Istambul (Ms. R. 1032).<ref name="FG">{{cite journal |last1=ÇAĞMAN |first1=FİLİZ |last2=TANINDI |first2=ZEREN |title=Selections from Jalayirid Books in the Libraries of Istanbul |journal=Muqarnas |date=2011 |volume=28 |pages=230–232 |jstor=23350289 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23350289.pdf |issn=0732-2992}}</ref> This was a Persian translation of a Hindi (Sanskrit) work about a Hindu king Kishwagir, which showed that he was one amongst many Indian Muslim scholars who exhibited their great interest for Indian culture.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Nazir (Professor) |title=Basateen ul-Uns - Muhammad Bin Sadr Taj 'Abdoosi Akhsitan Dehlavi (Farsi) |date=2010 |publisher=Center for Persian Research |location=New Delhi |url=https://archive.org/details/BasateenUl-Uns-MuhammadBinSadrTajAbdoosiAkhsitanDehlaviFarsi/page/n319/mode/1up?q=hindi|page=xiv, xvii}}</ref> <br />
<br />
His work was dedicated to [[Muhammad bin Tughluq]] (r. 1325–51), ruler of the [[Delhi Sultanate]].<ref name="FG"/> Muhammad Sadr Ala-i was a member of the Delhi Sultanate royal chancery accompanying [[Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq]], founder of the [[Tughluq dynasty]], in his conquest of [[Tirhut]] in northeastern India (the "Lakhnawtī campaign" of 1324).<ref name="FG"/><ref name="PJ153"/> He fell ill on the way back from Tirhut, but was treated by a physician named Muhammad Khujandi. During his illness, he was provided with a Persian translation of a Hindu story, which he would use as material for his book.<ref name="FG"/> The main protagonists of the story are a [[vizier]], an ascetic (zähid), the king of [[Ujjain]] and [[Kannauj]] whom he calls King "Kishvargir", and the daughter of the Chinese emperor named Queen ''Mulkarai'' of ''Serendib'' ([[Ceylon]]).<ref name="FG"/> He wrote his book in a few months, adding poems in Persian and Arabic verses from the [[Koran]], and completing it in AH 726 (1325–26), when still 26 years old.<ref name="FG"/> The material details described in the book are considered as having good documentary and historical value, explained by the contemporary eyewitness status of the author.<ref name="FG"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jha |first1=Pankaj Kumar |title=Beyond the local and the universal: Exclusionary strategies of expansive literary cultures in fifteenth century Mithila |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |date=January 2014 |volume=51 |issue=1 |page=10, note 32 |doi=10.1177/0019464613515549|quote="Ikhtisān’s eyewitness account, titled Basātin ul-Uns..."}}</ref><ref name="PJ153">{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Peter |title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History |date=16 October 2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-54329-3 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC&pg=PA153 |language=en}}</ref> His book concludes with the expression of his gratitude for the generosity Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq "who had given him sixty thousand dinars and sixty horses" for a single ''[[qasida]]'' poem.<ref name="FG"/><br />
<br />
The copy of the book known to us, and dated to ca.1410, is a [[Jalayirid Sultanate|Jalayirid]] copy and is unfinished.<ref name="FG"/> This copy probably dates to the time of [[Ahmad Jalayir]] of the [[Jalayirid dynasty]], in [[Iraq]].<ref name="FG"/> The space for around 12 miniatures has remained empty, but 2 miniatures, also partially complete, have reached us. One depicts the [[Rajah]] of the Indian city of [[Tirhut]] surrendering to [[Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq]] and his troops. The other miniature depicts the ruler of Ahin conversing with scholars.<ref name="FG"/><br />
<br />
Few other, non-illustrated, copies are known: a 17th-century copy in the [[British Library]] (Ms. Add. 7717),<ref name="CR752">{{cite book |last1=Rieu |first1=Charles |title=Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British museum |date=1883 |publisher=London : British Museum |pages=752–753 |url=https://archive.org/details/catalogueofpersi02brituoft/page/752/mode/2up}}</ref> and possibly another copy by Qavam al Din Muhammad al-Mazandarani in 836 (1433) in the People of Asia Collection (Moscow).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=ÇAĞMAN |first1=FİLİZ |last2=TANINDI |first2=ZEREN |title=Selections from Jalayirid Books in the Libraries of Istanbul |journal=Muqarnas |date=2011 |volume=28 |page=263, note 76 |jstor=23350289 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23350289.pdf |issn=0732-2992}}</ref><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==Sources==<br />
* Askari, S.H. ‘Historical Value of Basatin-ul-Uns: A Rare Literary Work of the Early Fourteenth Century’, Journal of Bihar Research Society, Vol. XLVIII, 1962, pp.&nbsp;1–29.<br />
* {{cite book |last1=Siddiqi |first1=Iqtidar Husain |title=Perso-Arabic Sources of Information on the Life and Conditions in the Sultanate of Delhi |date=1992 |publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers |isbn=978-81-215-0535-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAxuAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}<br />
* ''Basātin al-uns'' in Persian: {{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Nazir (Professor) |title=Basateen ul-Uns - Muhammad Bin Sadr Taj 'Abdoosi Akhsitan Dehlavi (Farsi) |date=2010 |publisher=Center for Persian Research |location=New Delhi |page=xiii |url=https://archive.org/details/BasateenUl-Uns-MuhammadBinSadrTajAbdoosiAkhsitanDehlaviFarsi/page/n323/mode/1up}}<br />
[[Category:Tughlaq dynasty]]<br />
[[Category:Indian Muslims]]<br />
[[Category:People from the Delhi Sultanate]]</div>Victornkd