Mughal Persian Poetry and Persianate Cultures | Sunil Sharma

E442 | In this episode, Professor Sunil Sharma shares his research on the cast of poets who wrote Persian poetry in India, and the poetic idea of Mughal India as a paradise, or an “Arcadia.” (He also shares some excerpts of this lovely poetry with us!) We discuss how specific regions, like Kashmir, became a hot new topic in Persian poetry, and explore the kinds of competitions that emerged between poets from different places across a broader “Persianate” world. The courtly environments in which these poets found patronage were multilingual and multiracial environments — where someone could enjoy poetry in Persian, Braj Bhasha, Hindavi and Chaghatai Turkish — but in this time, Persian poetry was what got you a job. By studying both poetry and painting, he reflects on the racial differences mentioned by poets, especially the initial difference between those born in India and those who had migrated from Iran and were “native speakers” of Persian. Finally, we discuss different meanings of the term “Indo-Persian,” in the study of the centuries that Persian was used as a language of governance, literature and science in India. More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2019/12/mughal-arcadia.html Sunil Sharma is Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Boston University. His teaching and research interests are in Persian(ate) literatures, visual culture, and travel writing. Shireen Hamza is a doctoral candidate in the History of Science department at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the history of medical exchange in the medieval Indian Ocean world. She is also the managing editor of the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. Naveena Naqvi is Assistant Professor of Persianate Islamic cultures of South Asia at University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Her research interests include the Persianate world (ca. 13th-19th centuries), with a focus on non-courtly writers in regional contexts during early colonial rule. CREDITS Episode No. 442 Release Date: 16 December 2019 Recording Location: Boston, MA Audio editing by Chris Gratien and Shireen Hamza Music: Chad Crouch; Sergey Cheremisinov; Komiku; Soft and Furious; kara güneş