A DIWAN OF BIDEL DEHLAVI, PERSIA (1860-1870)

Poetry, Persian manuscript on paper, each folio with 9ll. of elegant black nasta'liq script arranged in two columns and divided by a gold double borders, the text ruled in blue and gold borders, headings in red and blue ink, two opening folios with elegant illuminated headpiece, the text reserved in clouds on a gold ground, other four pages throughout the book similarly decorated, final folio with illuminated margins and signed " written by the order of Sardar Yar Mohammad Khan".
in leather binding. 14 by 9.5 cm.

CATALOGUE NOTE
Abul-Ma'ani Mirza Abdul-Qadir Bedil, also known as Bedil Dehlavi ( 1642–1720), was an Indian Sufi, and considered one of the greatest Indo-Persian poets, next to Amir Khusrau, who lived most of his life during the reign of Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor. Bedil mostly wrote Ghazal and Rubayee (quatrain) in Persian, the language of the Royal Court, which he had learned during his childhood. He was the author of 16 books of poetry, which contained nearly 147,000 verses and included several masnavi in that language. He is considered one of the prominent poets of Indian School of Poetry in Persian literature, and is regraded as having his own unique style. Both Mirza Ghalib and Iqbal-i Lahori were influenced by him. His books include Tilism-i Hairat , Tur i Ma'rifat, Chahār Unsur and Ruqa'āt.