Visiting Professor and Examiner of National Museum Institute of History of Arts, a deemed University, for determining antiquities, member expert for the committee of Archaeological Survey of India, National Museum, Indian Museum, Kolkata.
After retirement from the post of Director, Expedition Abroad, Archaeological Survey of India, the Department of Culture, Government of India deputed him to administer Asia's renowned Rampur Raza Library in 1993.
The unique repository of manuscripts, miniature paintings, and art objects and old printed books in different languages. The collections were never physically verified or scientifically listed. These were physically verified and accessioned under his able supervision. More than fifteen percent of the rare paintings and 3000 specimens of calligraphy were never accessioned and were subjected to pilferage. The maintenance of the collection was precarious. These were scientifically classified and computerised under his supervision only. A conservation laboratory was established in February 1995 without any additional financial burden on the government. More than one thousand damaged manuscripts, paintings and specimens of calligraphy have been chemically treated and restored in a short span of time. He has established digitization and website www.razalibrary.com of the library. Under his supervision and command 38 research books and journals have been published within seven years.
He has been appointed a member of High Power Committee, constituted by the Hon'ble Minister of Tourism and Culture, Government of India, for advising and supervising conservation work of Red Fort, Delhi.
Dr. W. H. Siddiqi is a distinguished archaeologist, art historian, epigraphist and numismatist of India. Retired from the post of Director, Expedition Abroad, Archaeological Survey of India, he had explored and excavated scores of archaeological sites including Kalibangan, Purana Qila, Dak Pathar, Rishikesh, Champaner, Karwan, Fatehpur Sikri etc.
Besides he was responsible for the scientific conservation of dozens of national monuments including the famous Angkorwat temple in Cambodia whose project he monitored for six years. He participated in many International Symposia in more than fifteen countries and was elected Vice-President of Silk Route Project of UNESCO at Alma-Ata (Kazakhastan) Jin 1985.
His works on Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Gujrat Sultanat, Qutb Shahis of Golconda and Indo-Muslim art and architecture have been widely recognized and appreciated. His discovery of a Tughluq garden in south Delhi has added a new chapter to the history of ornamental gardens in Central Asia and South Asia.
The editing and translation with summary of the manuscript Waqa-i-uz-Zaman (Fath Nama Nur Jahan Begam) by Dr. W. H. Siddiqi, is the masterpiece of work, as it was unpublished and unknown to the historians. For more than three decades, he has worked and published hundreds of research articles and books in the field of Indo-Islamic art and architecture.
He has been teaching in the Institute of Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, since 1968, Medieval Archaeology, Indo-Islamic art, architecture, numismatics, epigraphy and calligraphy etc. Visiting Professor, Examiner and Expert for selection of lecturers in M.S. University, Baroda, Delhi University and Aligarh Muslim University, Meerut University and Jamia Millia Islamia.
Mahabat Khan's coup d'etat is an event of gigantic significance in the history of the Mughal empire. It was the first revolt of a Mughal noble which reduced the Emperor Jahangir to the position of a prisoner and transferred all normal government for the moment, into the hands of Mahabat Khan. The relevant factors, personal, political and religious, combined to determine Mahabat's attitude towards Jahangir and led to a serious though short-lived crisis in the Mughal empire. This dissertation was submitted to the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University in 1956 in lieu of paper fourth of M.A. final examination, dealing with a contemporary account of this incident.
Kami Shirazi, a poet of Jahangir's reign, prepared a contemporary history entitled Waqa-i-uz-Zaman, dealing with some of the important events of Jahangir's reign. Unfortunately the major portion of the Waqa-i has disappeared. What remains is a fragment dealing with the Mahabat Khan episode, preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. It was in view of its importance as a contemporary source of information that my supervisor Professor S. Nurul Hasan advised me to edit its Persian text along with English translation, introduction and notes for which I am extremely grateful to him.
In preparing the text and collecting the corroborative evidence I have made as extensive use of other contemporary sources as the material available at my disposal and the scope of the dissertation permitted. The Iqbal Nama-i-Jahangir of Mu'tamad Khan, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri and Maathir-i-Jahangiri of Khwaja Kamgar Husaini have been carefully examined ant it was found that the accounts of the rebellions of Shah Jahan and Mahabat Khan are almost the same version which was most probably inserted at the instance of Shah Jahan in all the above mentioned works when he became the Emperor, for accusing Nur Jahan Begam for the unpleasant happenings in the last years of Jahangir's reign.
The Department of History had promised to publish the dissertation but it remained unpublished so far. Now it was decided to publish it by the Rampur Raza Library for which the author will remain indebted to his Excellency Shri Vishnu Kant Shastri, Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Chairman of Rampur Raza Library Board and its members who strongly pleaded for its publication. Thanks are also due to the Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Tourism and Culture for providing sufficient financial grants for the publication programme of Rampur Raza Library.
I am thankful to Professor Samiuddin Ahmad of the Department of Persian Aligarh Muslim University who had helped me in translating the text of the manuscript. My thanks are also due to Professor Sharif Husain Qasemi of the Department of Persian, University of Delhi, who compared the text with the translation with me and offered useful suggestions in finalizing the work. I wish to thank my wife Naaz Siddiqi for helping me in completing the work early. Thanks are also due to Dr. Abusad Islahi, Mrs. Bilqees Faruqi and Miss Mohini Rani of the Raza Library for helping me during the preparation of the work. Tanzim Raza Qureshi, Prop. of Islamic Wonders Bureau deserves appreciation for printing the book nicely.
Like several poets basking under the sunshine, generosity and patronage of the Mughal court, Kami Shirazi also came from Shiraz and enjoyed the patronage of Nur Jahan Begam and Jahangir. He himself admits that fortune elevated him in place as high as Venus. Little is known about his life. No medieval or modern Tazkira Navis has referred to him. The autobiographical information in this work is tantalizing in its meagerness. Two things are however clear, first that he was a Shia and very orthodox in his view. He does not praise of the orthodox caliphs except 'Ali'. He says that Ali was the real successor of the Prophet, again a view commonly held by the Shias. He claims that the Prophet went for 'Miraj' only on one occasion while Ali had the Miraj every night. His staunch Shiasim is beyond every criticism.
Secondly his work Waqa-i-uz-Zamán, according to his account, was a series of work and the present document is a part of a bigger work. The other parts except this work are not known. The date of compilation is given as AH 1035 (AD 1625-26) by the author himself. He further mentions that what he had recorded in the work was either heard or seen in the court by himself. His account is one sided and partial to Nur Jahan, Asaf Khan and Jahangir.
The Fath Nama-i-Nur Jahan Begam is the most contemporary account of Jahangir's last years. However, in the end of the work he says that this Fath Nama is meant for the praise of Nur Jahan. This title that have been given by the persons who had it in their possession. The poet does not appear to be as great as other contemporary court poets. He indulges in self-praise and thinks himself greater than Firdausi. However, he was a poet of lesser ability. The choice of words is not sound that construction of verses and the impression created by him is not forceful. Kami has travelled far and wide and he records that "I gathered materials for the composition of this work from Shiraz, Isphan, Tabriz, Baghdad and Aleppo. I talked of Hind and spoke of Kashmir indeed what precious pearls did I preporate from the historical events of the country of India".
Persian was the official language in the subcontinent for more than six hundred years therefore Iranian poets, sufis, calligraphers and painters frequently visited India and a good number of them settled here permanently. Among the large number of Persian poets who lived in India their accounts are available in the Persian histories and Tazkiras of the period. But some of the eminent poets whose works are extant but their accounts of life and works are not available. Similar is the case with Kami Shirazi whose Mathnawi, Fath Nama-i-Nur Jahan Begam, is the subject of study of the present work, is not mentioned in the contemporary, histories of the times of Akbar and Jahangir. In the Tazkiras Kami's namesake Kami Lahijani, Kami Qazvini and Kami Sabzwari are mentioned in some detail but Kami Shirazi is not referred to at all.
The Fath Nama-i-Nur Jahan Begam was the part of a bigger work entitled Waqa-i-uz-Zaman of Kami Shirazi which survived and its two copies are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. One of them was scribed in AH 1035 (AD 1625-1626) and the other was scribed in the concluding era of the seventeenth century.
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist