Title:
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Influence of Persian literature on Shah Muhammad Sagir's Yusuf Zulaikha and Alaol's Padmavati
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This thesis addresses the question of how Shah Muhammad Sagir's Yusuf Zulaikha and
Alaol's Padmavatl were influenced by Persian literary tradition. Beginning with a study of
historical and cultural relations between Bengal and Persia, the thesis focuses on the
process of development of the stories along with their background and source materials.
Through a reading of selected literary works, manuscripts and rare books, it uses
comparative and intertextual methods to examine how many existing theories and
observations, especially regarding the influence, dating, sources and patrons of the poets,
are contradictory and in some instances unfounded.
With regard to Sagir's poem, the thesis investigates how the story of Joseph in the Bible
and of Yusuf in the Quran was transformed into a romantic love story Yusuf va Zulaikha
by Persian poets, and how Sagir transformed it into Bengali with a local flavour. It also
addresses how Perso-Arabic literary and Sufi tradition, especially the Yusuf va Zulaikha of
Firdausi, the tradition of commentaries on the Quran (Ta/sIr) and tales of the prophets
(Qi~a~), influenced Sagir's poetic thoughts. Regarding Alaol's Padmavatl, after looking at
the process of development of the story by analysing ancient and medieval local and
foreign elements such as drama, fables, Sufi love poems and mythology, it assesses how
Alaol transformed Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Hindi poem Padmavatl into Bengali. It
examines how Perso-Arabic literary and Sufi themes, especially fana, annihilation, and
baqa, subsistence, in Attar's Man!iqu'!- fair, influenced Jayasi in writing the Hindi poem
Padmavatl and Alaol in transforming it into Bengali. The thesis also addresses the Persian
lexical influence on Sagir's YusufZulaikha and Alaol's Padmavatl.
The thesis concludes that Sagir developed Yusuf Zulaikha by taking elements and materials
from Perso-Arabic multiple sources, especially Firdausi's poem of the same title and
Ghazzali's commentary on the Quran (XII). With regard to Alaol's translation, his
curtailment of the episodes in Jayasi's poem and additions from Persian and local historical
and cultural traditions, as well as his Sufi interpretation, glorify his Padmavatl as an
independent creation rather than a mere translation of Jayasi.
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