Frontiers of the Persianate: Persian Literature in South India

For centuries, Muslim rulers of Persianate origin controlled much of what is now India. The most famous are the Mughal emperors of the North, but various Persianate sultans ruled the Deccan Plateau until they too were brought into the Mughal domain. All of these dynasties produced extensive literature in Persian, both by cultivating the talents of local scholars and by patronizing newly arrived authors from Iran and neighboring regions. On the other hand, most of the state of Kerala remained outside this orbit, and its Muslims largely wrote in Arabic and Malayalam. Moreover, the steady rise of European—especially British—imperialism eventually suppressed the Mughals and other local powers, and with them much of their Persianate cultural sphere. In light of this history, this presentation will survey the Persian manuscripts of southern Indian origin that have been photographed by the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML). I will discuss some of the riches of the Persian literature of the Deccan along with surprising finds from the deeper South. The influence of Persian in Indian literature runs deep.

About the Speaker

Josh Mugler joined the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) as a cataloger of Arabic and Syriac manuscripts in 2018. He now holds the position of Curator of Eastern Christian and Islamic Manuscripts. Mugler catalogs manuscripts from both traditions, manages HMML’s relevant digital and microfilm collections, and supervises a team of catalogers working across numerous languages and manuscript cultures to catalog hundreds of thousands of manuscripts from libraries around the world. He completed his PhD in Theological and Religious Studies in 2019 at Georgetown University, where his research focused on Christian-Muslim relations in 10th- and 11th-century Syria. Originally from the St. Louis area, he lives in Philadelphia with his spouse and two thirteen-year-old cats.