Tadhkira-yi nishtar-i ?ishq. Volume 2

In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshah Samarqandi's Tadhkirat al-shu?ara? (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and afterwards. The present work, completed in India in 1233/1818, finds it origin in the circumstance that its author, Husayn Quli Khan ?Azimabadi, wanted there to be a tadhkira work on Persian poets who wrote about love. And since he could not find any, he decided to make one himself. It took him ten years, during which he went through most of the relevant sources available in his time, more than thirty in all. The work lists 1.470 poets from all over the Persianate world and not just the Indian subcontinent. Contains biographies and sample poems, with notes and indices added by the editor.