Amir Khusraw: English 2005

(For US customer $ 40) This book studies an important icon of medieval south asian culture, Indian courtier, poet, musician and Sufi, Amir Khusraw. Khusraw is chiefly remembered for his poetry in Persian and Hindi, which today is an integral part of the performative qawwali tradition. KhusrawYs lyric and narrative poetry in Persian was influenced by SaYdi and Nizami and was circulated widely across the cosmopolitan persianate world that stretched from Turkey to Bengal. As a writer of Persian in India, he was conscious of local tastes and preferences and wrote a vast amount of innovative historical material, in prose and poetry, that is a record of and commentary on the politics of his times. KhusrawYs works also have a complex and interesting tradition of manuscript illustration and have been of interest to art historians. Khusraw is regarded as being the architect of an indian culture that synthesized Muslim and Hindu elements, which, among other things, produced hindustani classical music and the qawwali.