"Indo-Persian culture" refers to those Persian aspects that have been integrated into or absorbed into the culture of South Asia, and in particular, intoNorth India, modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Persian influence was first introduced to the South Asia by Muslim rulers, especially with the Delhi Sultanate from the 13th century, and in the 16th to 19th century the Mughal Empire. There are, however, scattered traces of pre-Islamic Persian influence in the South Asia.[1][not in citation given]
Persian was the official language of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and their successor states, as well as the cultured language of poetry and literature. Many of the Sultans and nobility in the Sultanate period werePersianised Turks from Central Asia who spoke Turkic languages as their mother tongues. The Mughals were also from Persianized Central Asia, but spoke Chagatai Turkic as their first language at the beginning, before eventually adopting Persian. Persian became the preferred language of the Muslim elite of north India. Muzaffar Alam, a noted scholar of Mughal and Indo-Persian history, suggests that Persian became the lingua franca of the empire under Akbar for various political and social factors due to its non-sectarian and fluid nature.[2] The influence of these languages on Indian apabhramshas led to a vernacular that is the ancestor of today's Urdu, Hindi, and Hindustani.
See also: Persian language in South Asia and Persian and Urdu
Indo-Persian culture has helped produce certain composite traditions within the South Asia that survive to this day, of which the Urdu language and literature is notable. The legacy of Indo-Persinate culture moreover can also be seen in much of the Mughal architecture within Lahore, Delhi and Agra, latterly of which the Taj Mahal is world renowned. Indian classical music also owes much, including some ragas and instruments, to the Persian culture. In many ways, the absorption and assimilation of Persian or Persianate culture within India may be compared to the gradual (if sometimes problematic) absorption of English, British or Western culture generally of which the English language is perhaps the most notable and controversial within both India and Pakistan today. The influence of Persian language moreover may be seen in the considerable proportion of loan words absorbed into the vernaculars of the north and north-west of the South Asia includingPunjabi, Urdu-Hindi and its dialects, Kashmiri and Pashto.
History
With the presence of Muslim culture in the region in the Ghaznavid period, Lahore and Uch were established as centers ofPersian literature. Abu-al-Faraj Runi and Masud Sa'd Salman (d. 1121) were the two earliest major Indo-Persian poets based in Lahore. The earliest of the "great" Indo-Persian poets was Amir Khusrow (d. 1325) of Delhi, who has since attained iconic status within the South Asia as, among other things, the "father" of Urdu literature. Taj Mahal Theory[edit]In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak claims that the Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva temple and a Rajput palace named Tejo Mahal seized by Shah Jahan and adopted as a tomb. He says that Mahal is a word to describe a royal palace and not a tomb and after seizure by Shah Jahan, the name was changed to Taj Mahal.[19]
Indo-Persian culture and to varying degrees also Turkic culture flourished side-by-side during the period of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526). The invasion of Babur in 1526, the end of the Delhi Sultanate, and the establishment of what would become the Mughal Empire would usher the golden age of Indo-Persian culture with particular reference to the art and architecture of the Mughal era.
The Mughal Era to the British Raj: Persian persisted as the language of the Mughal regime up to and including the year 1707 which marked the death of the Emperor Aurangzeb, generally considered the last of the "Great Mughals". Thereafter, with the decline of the Mughal empire, the 1739 invasion of Delhi by Nadir Shah and the gradual growth ofEuropean power within the South Asia, Persian or Persian culture commenced a period of decline although it nevertheless enjoyed patronage and may even have flourished within the many regional "empires" or kingdoms of South Asia including that of the Sikh "Maharaja" Ranjit Singh (r. 1799–1837).
Persian as a language of governance and education was abolished in 1839 by the Britishand the last Mughal emperor Bahadhur Shah Zafar, even if his was rule was purely symbolic or ceremonial, was overthrown in 1857 by the British.
Further, C.E. Bosworth wrote about the Central Asian's Persian (Tajiks→Ghurids) influence on India: "...The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan, and latterly fulfilled a valuable role as transmitters of this heritage to the newly conquered lands of northern India, laying the foundations for the essentially Persian culture which was to prevail in Muslim India until the 19th century..."[3]
After the British Raj
Given that the Mughals had historically symbolized Indo-Persian culture to one degree or another, the overthrow of Bahadhur Shah Zafar and the institution of the British Raj in 1858 may be considered as marking the end of the Indo-Persian era, even if, after 1857, Persian would still retain an audience and even produce commendable literature such as the philosophical poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938).
Persian influence was first introduced to the South Asia by Muslim rulers, especially with the Delhi Sultanate from the 13th century, and in the 16th to 19th century the Mughal Empire. There are, however, scattered traces of pre-Islamic Persian influence in the South Asia.[1][not in citation given]
Persian was the official language of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and their successor states, as well as the cultured language of poetry and literature. Many of the Sultans and nobility in the Sultanate period werePersianised Turks from Central Asia who spoke Turkic languages as their mother tongues. The Mughals were also from Persianized Central Asia, but spoke Chagatai Turkic as their first language at the beginning, before eventually adopting Persian. Persian became the preferred language of the Muslim elite of north India. Muzaffar Alam, a noted scholar of Mughal and Indo-Persian history, suggests that Persian became the lingua franca of the empire under Akbar for various political and social factors due to its non-sectarian and fluid nature.[2] The influence of these languages on Indian apabhramshas led to a vernacular that is the ancestor of today's Urdu, Hindi, and Hindustani.
See also: Persian language in South Asia and Persian and Urdu
Indo-Persian culture has helped produce certain composite traditions within the South Asia that survive to this day, of which the Urdu language and literature is notable. The legacy of Indo-Persinate culture moreover can also be seen in much of the Mughal architecture within Lahore, Delhi and Agra, latterly of which the Taj Mahal is world renowned. Indian classical music also owes much, including some ragas and instruments, to the Persian culture. In many ways, the absorption and assimilation of Persian or Persianate culture within India may be compared to the gradual (if sometimes problematic) absorption of English, British or Western culture generally of which the English language is perhaps the most notable and controversial within both India and Pakistan today. The influence of Persian language moreover may be seen in the considerable proportion of loan words absorbed into the vernaculars of the north and north-west of the South Asia includingPunjabi, Urdu-Hindi and its dialects, Kashmiri and Pashto.
History
With the presence of Muslim culture in the region in the Ghaznavid period, Lahore and Uch were established as centers ofPersian literature. Abu-al-Faraj Runi and Masud Sa'd Salman (d. 1121) were the two earliest major Indo-Persian poets based in Lahore. The earliest of the "great" Indo-Persian poets was Amir Khusrow (d. 1325) of Delhi, who has since attained iconic status within the South Asia as, among other things, the "father" of Urdu literature. Taj Mahal Theory[edit]In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak claims that the Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva temple and a Rajput palace named Tejo Mahal seized by Shah Jahan and adopted as a tomb. He says that Mahal is a word to describe a royal palace and not a tomb and after seizure by Shah Jahan, the name was changed to Taj Mahal.[19]
Indo-Persian culture and to varying degrees also Turkic culture flourished side-by-side during the period of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526). The invasion of Babur in 1526, the end of the Delhi Sultanate, and the establishment of what would become the Mughal Empire would usher the golden age of Indo-Persian culture with particular reference to the art and architecture of the Mughal era.
The Mughal Era to the British Raj: Persian persisted as the language of the Mughal regime up to and including the year 1707 which marked the death of the Emperor Aurangzeb, generally considered the last of the "Great Mughals". Thereafter, with the decline of the Mughal empire, the 1739 invasion of Delhi by Nadir Shah and the gradual growth ofEuropean power within the South Asia, Persian or Persian culture commenced a period of decline although it nevertheless enjoyed patronage and may even have flourished within the many regional "empires" or kingdoms of South Asia including that of the Sikh "Maharaja" Ranjit Singh (r. 1799–1837).
Persian as a language of governance and education was abolished in 1839 by the Britishand the last Mughal emperor Bahadhur Shah Zafar, even if his was rule was purely symbolic or ceremonial, was overthrown in 1857 by the British.
Further, C.E. Bosworth wrote about the Central Asian's Persian (Tajiks→Ghurids) influence on India: "...The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan, and latterly fulfilled a valuable role as transmitters of this heritage to the newly conquered lands of northern India, laying the foundations for the essentially Persian culture which was to prevail in Muslim India until the 19th century..."[3]
After the British Raj
Given that the Mughals had historically symbolized Indo-Persian culture to one degree or another, the overthrow of Bahadhur Shah Zafar and the institution of the British Raj in 1858 may be considered as marking the end of the Indo-Persian era, even if, after 1857, Persian would still retain an audience and even produce commendable literature such as the philosophical poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938).
