Abdul-Qādir Bedil

Miniature painting of tomb of Abdul-Qādir Bedil

Mawlānā Abul-Ma'ānī Mīrzā Abdul-Qādir Bēdil (Persian: مولانا ابوالمعانی میرزا عبدالقادر بیدل‎, or Bīdel, بیدل), also known as Bīdel Dehlavī (بیدل دهلوی; 1642–1720), was an Indian Sufi, and the greatest Indo-Persian poet, next to Amir Khusrau, who lived most of life during the reign of Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor. He was the foremost representative of the later phase of the "Indian style" (sabk-e hendī) of Persian poetry and the most difficult and challenging poet of that school. He is considered the most difficult and challenging poet of Safavid-Mughal poetry.

Life

Even though he is known as a master of Persian poetry, Bīdel was actually of Turkic/Mongol Central Asian descent, his family originally belonging to the Arlās tribe of the Chaghatay, regarded by some as part of the Mongol or Turkic people. He was born in Azīmābād, present-day Patna in India.

Bīdel mostly wrote Ghazal and Rubayee (quatrain) in Persian, the language of the Royal Court, which he had learned since childhood. He is the author of 16 books of poetry, which contain nearly 147,000 verses and include several masnavi) in that language. He is considered as one of the prominent poets of Indian School of Poetry in Persian literature, and owns his unique Style in it. Both Mirza Ghalib and Iqbal-i Lahori were influenced by him. His books include Tilism-i Hairat (طلسم حيرت), Tur i Ma'rifat (طور معرفت), Chahār Unsur (چهار عنصر) and Ruqa'āt (رقعات).

Possibly as a result of being brought up in such a mixed religious environment, Bīdel had considerably more tolerant views than his poetic contemporaries. He preferred freethought to accepting the established beliefs of his time, siding with the common people and rejecting the clergy who he often saw as corrupt.

Bīdel is much welcomed in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. Bīdel came back to prominence in Iran in 1980s. Literary critics Mohammad-Reza Shafiei-Kadkani and Shams Langrudi were instrumental in Bīdel's re-emergence in Iran. Iran also sponsored two international conferences on Bīdel.

The Indian school of Persian poetry and especially Bīdel's poetry is criticized for its complex and implicit meanings, however, it is much welcomed in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and India than in Iran. The main reason could be his style which is kept a bit Indian. In Afghanistan, a unique school in poetry studying is dedicated to Bīdel's poetry called Bīdelšināsī (Bīdel studies) and those who have studied his poetry are called Bīdelšinās (Bīdel expert). His poetry plays a major role in Indo-Persian classical music of central Asia as well. Many Afghan classical musicians, e.g. Mohammad Hussain Sarahang, Ustad Nashanas have sung plenty of Bīdel's ghazals.

Grave

His grave, called Bāġ-e Bīdel (Garden of Bīdel) is situated across Purana Qila, at Mathura Road next to the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium gates and the pedestrian bridge over Mathura Road in Delhi.

Works

• Bıdil, ‘Abd al-Qadir. Avaz-hayi Bidil: Nasri adabi (Ruq‘at - Nukat – Isharat – Chahar - ‘Unsur). Edited by Akbar Bihdarvand. Tihran: Nigah, 1386 [2007].
• Bıdil, ‘Abd al-Qadir. Kullıyat. Lakhnahu: Naval Kishor, 1287 [1870 or 1871].
• Bıdil, ‘Abd al-Qadir. Ghazaliyati Bidil Dihlavi. Edited by Akbar Bihdavand. Shiraz: Navid-i Shiraz, 1387 [2008 or 2009].

References

Notes

• Erkinov A. "Manuscripts of the works by classical Persian authors (Hāfiz, Jāmī, Bīdil): Quantitative Analysis of 17th-19th c. Central Asian Copies". Iran: Questions et connaissances. Actes du IVe Congrès Européen des études iraniennes organisé par la Societas Iranologica Europaea, Paris, 6-10 Septembre 1999. vol. II: Périodes médiévale et moderne. [Cahiers de Studia Iranica. 26], M.Szuppe (ed.). Association pour l'avancement des études iraniennes-Peeters Press. Paris-Leiden, 2002, pp. 213–228.
• Gould R. "Bīdel," Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Ed. Arvind Sharma.. New York: Springer, 2013.
• R. M. Chopra, "Great Poets of Classical Persian", Sparrow Publication, Kolkata, 2014, (ISBN 978-81-89140-75-5)

Bibliography

• Ahmad, Mohamad Bohari Haji. "The Ideas of Wahdat Al-Wujud in the Poetry of'Abd Al-Qadir Bidil (Persian), Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumlu (Ottoman Turkish), and Hamzah Fansuri (Malay)." PhD diss., 1990.
• Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman. "A stranger in the city: The poetics of Sabk-i Hindi." Annual of Urdu Studies 19, no. 1 (2004): 93.
• Fekrat, Nasim. "Esoteric Keys of Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bidel." MA Thesis., University of Georgia, 2018.
• Ghani, Abdul. Life and Works of Abdul Qadir Bedil. Lahore: Publishers United, 1960.
• Iqbal, Allama Muhammad. Bedil in the light of Bergson. Edited by Tehsin Firaqi. Lahore: Universal Boks/Iqbal Academy Pakistan, 1988.
• Keshavmurthy, Prashant. Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi: Building an Ark. Routledge, 2016.
• Kovacs, Hajnalka. "‘The Tavern of the Manifestation of Realities’: The ‘Masnavi Muhit-i azam’by Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bedil (1644–1720)." PhD diss., University of Chicago (2013).}
• Siddiqi, Mohammed Moazzam. An Examination of the Indo-Persian Mystical Poet Mīrzā ʻAbdul Qādir Bēdil with Particular Reference to His Chief Work ʻIrfān. University of California, 1975.}
• Zipoli, Riccardo. "A computer-assisted analysis of Bidel's' Tur-e Ma ‘refat'." Annali di Ca'Foscari: Rivista della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature straniere dell'Università di Ca'Foscari, 2005, vol. 44 (3), pp. 123-138 (2005).
• Zipoli, Riccardo. Riflessi di Persia-Reflections of Persia. Venezia: Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina, 2013.

External links

• internationaler Kongreß auf Bidel Dehlavi (Tehran 2006) (BBC Persian)]
• [ابوالمعالی بیدل A brief Article in Urdu
• collected poetry of Bīdel in scanned authentic version uploaded by Javed Hussen
• Poems of Bīdel (Persian)
• Some of Bedil's eclectic lines and quatrains.