This may be utterly juvenile, especially for those who contemplate the rhetoric of language and the politics of discourse, but whilst reading a Mughal historical source I came across this awesome sentence:
حضرت بزبان هندستانی فرمودند که ای گاندو، چرا اتکهٔ مارا کشتی؟
Silly I know, but I did not expect it to pop up. I guess whats good for the bazaars is good for the emperors.
Okay, enough lollygagging, back to writing a paper that has been due for quite a while, after which I have four papers to write on; (i) a late Mughal prosopography (ii) late Timurid court culture (iii) something on the Ottomans (most likely eunuchs at the court), and finally (iv) Zoroastrians in Mughal India.
Source?
ReplyDeleteIt's from Bayazid Bayat's Tarikh-i Humayun/Tazkhirat-i Humayun wa Akbar/Mukhtasar. There is a Thackston edition and a M. Hidayat Hosayn edition. In Thackston's its at the start of fol. 105b.
ReplyDeleteNow that I know that the source is legitimate, I can safely have a belly laugh.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the date of composition?
ReplyDeleteIts funny right? It was composed in 999/1590-1.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely unrelated note, this query popped up on the H-ASIA listserve: 'I remember a conversation with Phil Barker many decades ago about a board game he created, Mughal Monopoly. "Go to jail" became "Go on hajj," for example. Does anyone actually have that game?'
ReplyDeleteIt just so happened I subscribed to H-ASIA listserve maybe two or three days ago (since I realized I wasn't on any listserve that covered South Asia) and I saw that. Wouldn't it be utterly wonderful if there was such a game. I have half a mind to ditch working on Khwandmir for tomorrow and try and re-create such a game.
ReplyDeleteSimon Digby published an essay in the journal South Asian Studies on a "Mughal" board game called ganj; I wonder if that was the inspiration?
ReplyDeleteOh Simon Digby! Thanks for the reference Notes. I just started reading the article. I think it's fair to say I know what I shall be doing this weekend.
ReplyDelete