Persian MS 646 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Summary of Contents: An incomplete Bayāz̤ anthology of older poems compiled by poet Shīr Afgan Jang Bandah ʿAlī Khān Bāsiṭī. A brief biographical prose text appends the main work bears a date of 1162 AH (1748–49 CE), hence during the author's lifetime, which suggests that this volume may be a holograph. Born into a prominent family in Shāhjahānābād (Delhi), the author attended the court of the Mughal ruler Emperor Muḥammad Shāh (b. 1702, r. 1719–1748), whom awarded him the title Shīr Afgan Khān (Tiger-seizer) previously held by his grandfather. He initially studied poetry under Muḥammad Afz̤al-Dīn S̱ābit Allāhābādī, during which time he employed the nom-de-plume Sabqat, but after he moved to Awadh (Oude) in 1160 AH (1748 CE) he continued under ‘Abd al-Bāsiṭ, from whom he ultimately derived his pen name. According to several accounts, when he visited the preeminent poet Muḥammad ʻAlī Ḥazīn in Benares (Varanasi) and asked for a critique, the latter replied that he should wash all of its pages of his dīvān from start to finish and urged him to only write quatrains, advice that he thereafter followed. He ultimately passed away in Lucknow in 1199 AH (1784–85 CE).