Medieval-indian-history / Delhi Sultanate / Literature and Languages during Delhi Sultanate
Literature and Languages during Delhi Sultanate
The growth of Arabic literature remained severely constrained, primarily characterized by the translation of Sanskrit texts. This limitation stemmed from the dominance of invading dynasties, which were of Turkish descent but deeply steeped in Persian culture. These rulers prioritized the advancement of Persian literature, overshadowing the progress of Arabic literature.
- Persian became the official language of Delhi sultanate
- Al-Beruni penned his magnum opus, Kitab-ul-Hind, in the Arabic language.
- Amir Khusrau's writings marked a new era in Persian literature development in the subcontinent
- Court chronicles were important literary features during Delhi sultanate
- Ziauddin Barani's Tarikh-I Firozshahi and Fatwa-I Jahandari were important works of Persian literature
- Minhaj-us-Siraj's Tabaqat-iNasari was a general history of Muslim dynasties up to 1260
- Abu backer's Chachanamh was the first geographical treatise dealing with the conquest of Sindh
- During this era, only a single historical work was crafted in Arabic, namely ‘Abdullah al-Makki’s Zafaru’l-Walih, which delves into the history of Gujarat. The emergence of regional empires fostered the growth of local languages and literature. Jaunpur championed Awadhi and Hindi, Vijayanagar fostered Telugu, and the Bahmani Sultanate encouraged Marathi.
Many works were translated into Persian during this period, including the Tuti Nama by Zia Nakshabi, which was the first Persian translation of Sanskrit stories
- Urdu emerged as a new language during the 14th century
- The growth of regional languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, and Telugu was a significant development during this period.
- Zainul Abidin of Kashmir commissioned translations of the Mahabharata and Rajatarangini into Kashmiri.
- Firuz Tughlaq mandated the translation of medical theses from Sanskrit.
- Additionally, various compendiums on astronomy, astrology, music, and wrestling were rendered into Sanskrit.
- Surprisingly, there were no endeavors to translate Persian into Sanskrit or any other vernacular language.
