Bahadur Shah Zafar is famous for his literary aspect. He was a good poet and patronized a number of poets. Poets like Ghalib and Zauq were attached to his court.
It is interesting to note that both the "life and poetry" of the late ruler find their rightful space in the book and there is no overlapping of the two.
A remarkable new book highlights the various aspects of a bygone era, and the life and poetry of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar.
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Written by Aslam Parvez, a poet himself, The Life and Poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar (translated by Ather Farouqui; Hay House/Rs 599) focuses upon various known anecdotes from the life of the late Mughal ruler and succeeds in maintaining an admirable balance between the political, personal and literary aspects of Zafar.
It is interesting to note that both the “life and poetry” of the late ruler find their rightful space in the book and there is no overlapping of the two.
Zafar presided over a crucial period in Indian history when the country was subjugated and became a colony of the fast-expanding British Empire. Parvez’s account — with its wealth of detail — stands out for the manner in which it weaves together the strands of the lesser-known life of the late ruler.
This work is as much about the 1857 rebellion as it is about Bahadur Shah Zafar, the reluctant leader of the rebels. The pages also evoke the captivating ambience of a period when formidable poets such as Mirza Ghalib, Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq and Momin Khan Momin, apart from Zafar himself, came up with one creative gem after another.
But to understand the reign of Zafar, one must first look at the Mughal dynasty. The author has provided a brief nutshell in the introduction, where he starts right from the beginning of the Mughal empire with Babar, the first emperor in 1526.
Then he travels all the way through the pages of history and comes to the life of the subject, Zafar, who had just become a nominal emperor. The author aptly mentions that when Zafar was ruling, the Mughal empire existed in name only and his authority was limited to Delhi.
In the ruler’s own verse, he laments over the loss of his empire, saying: “Le udi khakh baha le gya sailab mujhe” (I was swept away by the dust, washed away by the swirling waters in spate)