(^200) NOTES TO PAGES 55-59
thirteenth century, to designate the space within which literary production
in Persian is occurring, I believe we should apply either the 'A;am-o-Hind or
simply the Persianate. "'Ajam-o-Hind" being a geographic designation is pref-
erable but has limited or no purchase in secondary literature. The late Shahab
Ahmed makes a case for "Balkans-to-Bengal" and also notes that "Per-
sianate" detracts from the centrality of Arabic or Sanskrit discursive tradi-
tions as well as giving false witness to Iranian nationalism of more con-
temporary times. I am persuaded by the argument, but this conversation has
just begun. For now, we should remember that the Persian cosmopolis was
always intimately linked to Arabic and Sanskrit. In other words, literary cul-
tures linked to political worlds always overlapped their attendant geogra-
phies. Finally, see Shahab Ahmed, What is Islam/ The Importance of Being
Islamic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016), pp. 83-85.
- Such as Firdawsi's Shahnama, composed at Ghazna, or the office of the malik
shu'ara. See Muzaffar Alam, The Languages of Political Islam: India 1200-
1800 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp. n6-n7. - Ibid., pp. 141-143.
- Andrew C. S. Peacock, Medieval Islamic Historiography and Political Le-
gitimacy (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 76. - Ibid., p. 84.
I6. Jbid., pp. IOO-I02.
17. He provides his full genealogy: "Speaking is the weakest of supplicants and
the lowest of servants the elderly Muhammad son of Mansur son of Sa'id son
of Abi I-Farah son of Jalil son of Ahmad son of Abi Nasr son of Khalaf son of
Ahmad son of Shu'ayb son of Talha son of 'Abdallah son of 'Abd Rahman Abi
Bakr Siddiq at-Taymi Qurashi (may God bless him), entitled Mubarakshah
colloquially known as Fakhr-e Mudabbir." See Fakhr-i Mudabbir, Ta'rikh-i
Fakhru'd-Din Mubtirakshtih, ed. E. Denison Ross (London: Royal Asiatic So-
ciety, 1927), pp. 62-63. - Nazir Ahmed, "The Earliest Persian Work Completed in Gujarat," in The
Growth of Inda-Persian Literature in {Ju;arat, ed. M. H. Siddiqi (Baroda: M. S.
University of Baroda Press, 1985), pp. 1-10. - See Sadiduddin Muhammad 'Awfi, Lubabul al-bab, ed. Sa'id Nafisi (Tehran:
Chap-i Ittihad, 1914), p. 19, p. 2. - Ibid., p. 19.
- Tabaqat-i NasirI, p. 155.
- In the biographies, Juzjani's signaling of nobility, the core of justice, and fe-
alty are key to interpreting his work. His history highlighted the role of com-
manders and governors in maintaining the kings in Delhi. For example, in
his profile of the second ruler of Uch, Saifuddin Aybek Achh, Juzjani noted
that after Iltutmish died, he successfully defended the state against other
claimants, such as Malik Safiuddin Hussain Karlugh. This was a critical and
important victory because it signaled that the late sovereign's key governors
had remained loyal to him. See Tabaqat-i NasirI, p. 583. On the relationship
between governor and rulers, see Ali Anooshahr, "On the Imperial Discourse
of the Delhi Sultanate and Early Mughal India," f ournal of Persianate Studies
71 no. 2 (2014), p. 161.