{{Short description|Urdu poet}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Use Indian English|date=July 2025}} upright=1.25|thumb|Nusrati writing the ''Gulshan-i ʿishq'', from a manuscript of 1743 '''Muḥammad Nuṣrat''' (died 1674), called '''Nuṣratī''' ('victorious'),<ref>{{harvnb|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}}. His (nick)name is also spelled "Naṣrat(ī)".</ref> was a Deccani Urdu poet.{{sfn|Haywood|1995}}
==Life== Nuṣratī was born in the Carnatic region into an elite Muslim family of Brahmin origin.<ref>{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Zaidi|1993|pp=42–43}}.</ref> He lived as a Sufi dervish before moving to Bijapur.{{sfn|Haywood|1995}} There he was made a ''mansabdar'' under Sultan ʿAlī II ({{reign|1656|1672}}) of the ʿĀdil-Shāhī dynasty.{{sfn|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}} For his poem ''ʿAlī-nāma'' ({{circa|1665}}), he was named poet laureate (''malik al-shuʿarāʾ'').<ref>{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=409}}; {{harvnb|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}}.</ref> He died at an old age in 1674<ref>{{harvnb|Naim|2017}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=402}}.</ref> or 1683.<ref>{{harvnb|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}. {{harvnb|Zaidi|1993|pp=42–43}}, says that he died after the fall of Bijapur (1686) and was laureated by Sultan Aurangzeb.</ref>
==Works== Nuṣratī wrote in the Deccani variety of Urdu and Persian.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=402}}; {{harvnb|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}}.</ref> His poetry uses archaic language and a complex style.{{sfn|Haywood|1995}} He was a prominent practitioner of the ''qaṣīda'', ''ghazal'' and especially ''mathnawī'' forms.<ref>{{harvnb|Naim|2017}}; {{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}.</ref> One of his earliest works, ''Miʿrāj-nāma'', was written for Sultan Muḥammad ʿĀdil Shāh ({{reign|1627|1656}}).{{sfn|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}
His most original work is the ''ʿAlī-nāma'', an epic celebration of ʿAlī II's wars against the Mughals and Marathas.<ref>{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=409}}; {{harvnb|Dayal|2020|p=428}}.</ref> It is the earliest panegyric of a ruler in Deccani.{{sfn|Saksena|1990|pp=39–40}} Nuṣratī himself claimed to have invented a new poetic form with this work, which is "the only thing of its kind in Urdu".{{sfn|Sadiq|1995|pp=55–56}} It is patterned on the Persian ''Shāh-nāma''.{{sfn|Zaidi|1993|pp=42–43}} Grahame Bailey calls it the greatest poem ever written at Bijapur.{{sfn|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}
Nuṣratī's final poem, written in a similar vein, is ''Taʾrīkh-i Sikandarī'' (also called the ''Taʾrīkh-i Bahlol Khani''), a celebration of Bahlol Khan's victory over Shivaji at the battle of Umrani in 1672. It was written for ʿAlī II's successor, Sikandar.{{sfn|Dayal|2020|p=428}} Unlike the ''ʿAlīnāma'', written at the height of Bijapur's power, it is "largely in a minor key".{{sfn|Sadiq|1995|pp=55–56}} Other works of Nuṣratī's include ''Gulshan-i ʿishq'' (1658), a collection of odes and the lyric collection ''Guldasta-yi ʿishq''.<ref>{{harvnb|Haywood|1995}}; {{harvnb|Sharma|2020|p=409}}; {{harvnb|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}.</ref> ''Gulshan-i ʿishq'' is a highly conventional romance.<ref>{{harvnb|Sadiq|1995|pp=55–56}}; {{harvnb|Bailey|1932|pp=28–29}}.</ref>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==Works cited== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book |last=Bailey |first=Thomas Grahame |title=A History of Urdu Literature |year=1932 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit0000bail/}} *{{cite book |last=Dayal |first=Subah |title=Iran and the Deccan: Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation, 1400–1700 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-253-04894-3 |editor-last=Overton |editor-first=Keelan |pages=421–446 |chapter=On Heroes and History: Responding to the ''Shahnama'' in the Deccan, 1500–1800}} *{{EI2 |first=J. A. |last=Haywood |title=Nuṣratī |volume=8 |page=154 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_6004}} *{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |edition=4th |editor-first=Roland |editor-last=Greene |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2017 |title=Urdu Poetry |first=C. M. |last=Naim |author-link=C. M. Naim}} *{{cite book |first=Muhammad |last=Sadiq |title=A History of Urdu Literature |edition=2nd |year=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-563145-6 |orig-year=1964 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit00sad_eg9/}} *{{cite book |first=Ram Babu |last=Saksena |title=A History of Urdu Literature |publisher=Asian Educational Services |year=1990 |isbn=978-81-206-0616-6 |orig-year=1927 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit0000saks/}} *{{cite book |last=Sharma |first=Sunil |title=Iran and the Deccan: Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation, 1400–1700 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-253-04894-3 |editor-last=Overton |editor-first=Keelan |pages=401–420 |chapter=Forging a Canon of Dakhni Literature: Translations and Retellings from Persian}} *{{cite book |first=Ali Jawad |last=Zaidi |title=A History of Urdu Literature |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |year=1993 |isbn=978-81-7201-291-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofurdulit0000zaid/ |author-link=Ali Jawad Zaidi}} {{refend}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |title=Nusrati: The Poet-Laureate of Bijapur (A Critical Study of his Life and Works) |publisher=Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu |location=New Delhi |editor=Abdul Haq |editor-link=Abdul Haq (Urdu scholar) |date=n.d. |url=https://archive.org/details/nusratihaqa00haqauoft/ |language=ur}} *{{cite book |last=Haidar |first=Navina Najat |editor1-last=Parodi |editor1-first=Laura E. |editor2-last=Eaton |editor2-first=Richard M. |title=The Visual World of Muslim India: The Art, Culture and Society of the Deccan in the Early Modern Era |date=2014 |publisher=I. B. Tauris |location=London |isbn=978-0-7556-0561-3 |pages=295–318 |chapter=Gulshan-I ‘Ishq: Sufi Romance of the Deccan|oclc=1128174855}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Year of birth unknown Category:1674 deaths Category:Sufi poets Category:Urdu-language Indian poets Category:17th-century Indian poets Category:17th-century Indian Muslims Category:People from Bijapur Category:Indian Sufis Category:Dervish Category:Ghazal Category:Mathnawi Category:Shahnameh Category:People from the Sultanate of Bijapur Category:Poets laureate Category:17th-century Indian male writers