MITTEILUNGEN

IMPRESSIONS FROM A JOURNEY TO THE DECCAN

In October 1979 I had the opportunity to visit Poona, Madras, , Bidar, Gulbarga, and Bijapur as well as Patna. My experience showed that the Muslim minority in southern very carefully preserves their cultural heritage, and I had the good fortune to be introduced not only to the well-known libraries such as the Khudabakhsh Library in Bankipore/Patna and the in Hyderabad but also to some private and semi-private libraries which certainly deserve the interest of the Islamicists.These libraries, housed in the -yi Muhammadiyya in Madras, the Sayeediya(Sa'idiyya) Library in Hyderabad, and in the homes of various individuals in Hyderabad, form part of the heirloom of one of the leading nawä'it families who came from Arabia in the Middle Ages, served in various capacities at the Muslim courts in South India (thus as qadis in Goa; after the annexion by the Portuguese of Goa in Bijapur, further at Mahmud Gawan's madrasa in Bidar), and finally settled partly in Madras, partly in the Nizam's Hyderabad. The role of some of these scholars for South Indian culture has been described by Prof. Mohd. Yousuf Kokan, Madras University, in his book and Persia in Carnatic (Madras 1974) and his Urdu work about al-'ulamci Qadi Badr ud-daula (121 1/1792 - 1280/1863).This scholar served as qacii al-qu(idt of Carnatic State, helped the cause of Urdu in South India and, like some of his descendants, advocated female education. Dr. Kokan took me to the Madrasayi Muhammadiyya in Madras which is supervised by Dr. Muhammad Ghauth, a member of the Badr ud-daula family. Among the many thousands of manuscripts I saw during my all too short visit, is an autograph of 'Umar Suhrawardi of his dated 608/1211-12; a fine copy of G5mi's Laic,f 'il1,dated 889/1484, i.e., during the author's life, and a volume of Gami's maflwlviswith some fine miniatures on colored, gold sprinkled paper, written by Mir 'All al-katib. An autograph of Gami's gawami ` al-bayan .?itajÛr al-qur'än, dated 855 / 1 45in a FineMS (some pages missing) is preserved in the Sayeediyyalibrary in Hyderabad. In Madras, a 17th century copy of the Diwan of with lovely miniatures; a medical work, Ihtiyarat-i badi'i by 'AM ibn Husain, dated 984/1576-77 with five interesting minia- tures ; a beautiful copy of Amir Husrau's Diwan dated 830/1436-37; a Risäla-yi müsiqi by one Saif ud-din 'Abd al-Mu'min al-Bagd5d! in a beautiful hand as well as a Koran, written in Kashmir in 1050/1640-41 in a superb tulut with blue and gold caught my eyes. The main treasures of the library consist of works on hadit, fiqh, history and all kinds of Arabic sciences,among them quite a number of unica and autographs. In the related Sayeediya Library, Janbagh Road, Hyderabad, I saw inter alia a copy of Ibn 'Asäkir's Tärib Dimasg in the handwriting of his son, dated 574/ l 178-79; al-Hatib a1-Bagdädï's Kitdb al-asmci al-muhhama, dated 586/ l 190, and besides the autograph of Gami in his elegant hand autographs of at-Tal)äwï (808/1405-6) and Ibn Hagar al-'Asqal5ni (839/1435-36). Among the Persian MSS., the Kulliyät of Ni'mat Khan 'Ali, who participated in Aurangzeb's Deccan wars (d. 1709), was remarkable for its fine calligraphy and illumination; the Turcologist would enjoy a good copy of Nawa'i's Diwän, dated 948/1541-42 and a Qis,sat al-anbiyä Turki, in Chagatay Turkish. (Incidentally, Chagatay MSS, particularly by the Moghul prince 'All Baht Azfari, 1758-1818,are also preserved in the University Library of Madras, where the prince spent the last years of his life after escaping from Delhi; his Wagi `at i-A?fari has been published by Madras University). For me, the amazingly great 105 number of good copies of Maulana 's Mainawi was particularly interesting; a copy in six volumes with commentary, nicely calligraphed in Ahmadabad in 1152// 1739-40 and numerous older copies with and without commentaries were kept in Madras and various places in Hyderabad (cf. also Kokan's Arabic and Persian ... about the study of Rfmi by various Carnatic authors). A superb manuscript in kubar script, dated 1085/1674-75and written by Muhammad ibn 'All in Shiraz is in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum in Hyderabad where numerous masterpieces of and Indo-Muslim art are preserved. The religious and cultural life of the Muslims in the former , which was incorporated into the Indian Union in 1948,is marked by strong private activities on the educational sector. Besides the famous (founded in 1918) with its immense campus, and the one finds still another University of al-Azhar type: the Gami'a Nizamiyya, founded in 1875 by Maulana Anwdrulldh Khan Fazilat Jung in the center of Hyderabad. Here, classical Islamic education is maintained; in an eight years course the boys are introduced to Koran recitation, sirat, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and English, further History, Geography, Arithmetic and writing; the higher education, six years, comprises tofsir, .figh, hadit, , logic, history, and higher Arabic; finally the student can specialized in a two years' course in tafsir, hadit, fiqh, kaldm, literature or history. Lodging is available for 350 students; the library comprisesca. 25 000books, includingsome 2000 manuscripts. A Department of ifta issues The education is free, and the Arabic booklet offered to the visitor states that the basis of the finances is at-tawakkul 'ald , 'trust in God'. The madrasa issues a journal and has its own publications; it executive committee is headed at present by Maulana Sayyid Qutbuddin. al-Husaini, a member of the Sdbirlyya Chishtiyya and saggadanisin of the shrine of wise spiritual teacher whose discourses deeply impressed me. - Besides, there are special schools where children can learn Urdu in a short time and Muslim ladies have organized an educational society. The tradition of is still strong, a Sufi Academy has recently been founded in Hyderabad. We witnessed the `urs at the tomb of Yusufain where the two saints are buried thanks to whose blessings Aurangzeb's army was able to conquer Golkonda; many scholar and poets, among the great Urdu poet Nawwab Mirzâ Dag (d. 1904) have found their last resting place in its precincts. Worthy of mention is also the enormous dome of Rajf Qattal's tomb (late l7th century), important in history since in his dargjh the cheerful Abii'l-Hasan Tana Shah was living as a before he was married to 'All Qutbshah's daughter to become the last king of Golkonda; he was then deposed by Aurangzeb in 1687. The tombs of the Qutbshahi kings in Golkonda are well kept, although their once so colorful tiles have almost completely fallen off. The style of calligraphy on the sarcophagi would deserve a special study. Among the outstanding events in Hyderabad was an evening in a private home with the recitation of Qa,çida-yiburda. Although not the whole long Arabic poem by Busin but only a small portion of it was recited, the various ways of calling blessings over the Prophet in alternating solo and chorus made this performance, which lasted about 80 minutes, highly interesting. Only recently a new Urdu verse translation of the Burda has been published in Hyderabad, along with the Arabic text and Gami's Persian verse translation. BesidesHyderabad, the centers of the old Deccani kingdoms offer the visitor a wide range of information : Gulbarga, where the Bahmanids began their rule in 1347; Bidar, their second residence after 1422 which was then overtaken by the Barldsh5hi shortly before 1500 (the Barldshdhi tombs have some interesting calligraphy), and finally Bijapur, once a city with 1600 , but now consisting of numerous ruins. Still, the city, to whose spiritual history Richard M. Eaton has recently devoted a useful study (Syfis of Bijapur, Princeton Univ. Press 1977) preserves some extremely beautiful and very well kept monuments: the simple, powerful Great from the mid-16th century excels by its gilded mihrC7b;the G61 Gunbad, 'Ali 'Adil Shdh's