SOURCES IN ENGLISH (AND FRENCH)

NOTE: Because there is so little English-language material available on Mir, I am planning to put everything I can find on this page. Maybe later I will divide them up somehow, or mark the ones I think are particularly helpful.

 

Ahmed Ali, 'The Anguished Heart: Mir and the Eighteenth Century', from The Golden Tradition: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry, selected, translated, and with an introduction by Ahmed Ali. New York: Columbia University Press, 1973. Pp. 23-54: [on this site]

Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman, 'The Poet in the Poem; or, Veiling the Utterance.' From A Wilderness of Possibilities: Urdu Studies in Transnational Perspective (a festschrift in honor of C. M. Naim). d. by Kathryn Hansen and David Lelyveld. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 173-91. DRAFT version, rather than the final published form: [on this site]

Garcin de Tassy, M., trans. and ed., intro. Conseils aux Mauvais Poetes, Poeme de Mir Taki. Paris: Dondey-Dupre, 1826. [French]

Kanda, K. C., trans. and intro. Mir Taqi Mir: Selected Poetry. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1997.

Kumar, Ish. Mir Taqi Mir. New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, 1996 [1982].

Matringe, Denis, trans and ed. Masnavis: Poemes d'amour de l'Inde moghole par Mir Taqi "Mir." Paris: Gallimard, 1993. [Translations of daryaa-e ((ishq and mu((aamilaat-e ((ishq .]

Naim, C. M., trans. and ed., intro. Zikr-i Mir: The Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet: Mir Muhammad Taqi 'Mir'. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

C. M. Naim, 'Mir and his Patrons' and 'Mir on his Patrons', in Annual of Urdu Studies 14 (1999).

Pritchett, Frances W., 'Convention in the Classical Urdu Ghazal: the Case of Mir,' Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 3,1 (Fall 1979):60-77: [on this site]

Pritchett, Frances W., 'A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, Part 2', Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, ed. Sheldon Pollock. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Pp. 864-911: a DRAFT version is [on this site]. (The article discusses Mir's tazkirah.)

Pritchett, Frances W., in association with S. R. Faruqi, trans. and ed. Ab-e Hayat: Shaping the Canon of Urdu Poetry. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001. A slightly corrected version of this work is online through DSAL, with page numbers linked to the original Urdu text. The discussion of Mir is here.

Russell, Ralph, and Khurshidul Islam. Three Mughal Poets: Mir, Sauda, Mir Hasan. Foreword by Annemarie Schimmel. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. "Mir: the Man and his Age" (Chapter 6): [on this site]

Sadiq, Muhammad. A History of Urdu Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984 [first ed. 1964]. Discussion of Mir: pp. 127-38: [on this site]

Saxena, Ram Babu. A History of Urdu Literature. Allahabad, 1927. On Mir: pp. 70-80: [on this site]. (This was the first history of Urdu literature to be written in English.)

Verma, Rajinder Singh, trans. and ed. Pick of Mir. Foreword by Gopi Chand Narang. Afterword by Mulk Raj Anand. New Delhi: Enkay Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1989.
 

SOURCES IN URDU

Abbasi, Zill-e Abbas. kulliyaat-e miir , jild-e avval , mukammal chhih diivaan-e ;Gazaliyaat , ed. by :zill-e ((abbaas ((abbaasii , corrected and augmented by a;hmad ma;hfuu:z (New Delhi: qaumii kaunsil baraa-e furo;G-e urduu , 2004).

Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman. shams ur-ra;hmaan faaruuqii -- Tumultuous Verse: A Selection and Detailed Examination of the Ghazals of Mir / shi((r-e shor-angez ; ;Gazaliyaat-e miir kaa inti;xaab aur mufa.s.sil mu:taali((ah -- New Delhi: Taraqqi Urdu Bureau, 1997 [1990] (vol. 1); 1997 [1992] (vol. 2); 1997 [1992] (vol. 3); 1997 [1994] (vol. 4).

Because of the importance of Faruqi's work for this website, his own advice about resources is of great interest. He names (Shi'r 1:16) as his three favorite anthologies [inti;xaab]: that of Asar Lakhnavi [a;sar lakhnavii], called The Relish of Mir [mazaa-e miir]; that of Muhammad Hasan Askari [mu;hammad ;hasan ((askarii], which was published in a special number of the journal saaqii ; and above all that of Sardar Jafari [sardaar ja((farii].

Most fundamentally, here is his own list of the sources he used for his own commentary (Shi'r 1:21-22):

1) The Fort William edition [nas;xah-e for;T vilyam] (Calcutta 1811). This edition was presented to me by my dear friend Nisar Ahmad Faruqi. At the expense of his own work, he let the edition remain with me for a long period. I am grateful to him.

2) The Naval Kishor edition [nas;xah-e naval kishor] (Lucknow 1867). This edition was obtained from Naiyar Masud. To thank him is both necessary and, for certain reasons, also unnecessary.

3) The Asi edition [nas;xah-e aasii] (Naval Kishor, Lucknow, 1941). This almost unobtainable edition was graciously given to me by my dear friend, the late Athar Parvez. God will reward him for it.

4) The Complete Ghazals [kulliyaat-e ;Gazaliyaat], edited by Zill-e Abbas Abbasi [.zill-e ((abbaas ((abbaasii] (Ilmi Majlis, Delhi, 1967). This one I have adopted as the basic text, because it has been edited in the light of the Fort William edition.

5) The Complete Works [kulliyaat], volume 1 edited by Ihtisham Husain [i;htishaam ;husain], volume 2 edited by Masih uz-Zaman [masii;h ul-zamaa;N] (Ram Narayan Lal, Allahabad, 1970).

6) The Complete Works [kulliyaat], volumes 1, 2, and 3 (only four divans), edited by Kalb-e Ali Khan Fa'iq [kalb-e ((alii ;xaa;N faa))iq] (Majlis Taraqqi-e Adab, Lahore, 1965). The rest of the volumes, which remained incomplete, were not published.

7) The First Divan [diivaan-e avval], from the Mahmudabad manuscript [ma;x:tuu:tah-e ma;hmuudaabaad], edited by Akbar Haidari [akbar ;haidarii] (Srinagar, 1971).

8) A manuscript of the First Divan, in the possession of Naiyar Masud. (The date is not give, but it's possible that this manuscript might be even older than the Mahmudabad one. A number of difficulties in the First Divan were solved by means of it.)

Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman. shams ur-ra;hmaan faaruuqii -- Poetry, Non-poetry, and Prose / shi((r ;Gair shi((r aur na;sr -- Allahabad: Shabkhun Kitab Ghar, 1973.

Lari, Maqbul Ahmad [maqbuul a;hmad laarii], compiler and editor. Stories of Mir [;hadii;s-e miir], Lucknow: All-India Mir Academy, 1967. [Facing-text pages in Urdu and Hindi.]

Mir, Mir Muhammad Taqi [miir mu;hammad taqii miir] -- Fine Points About the Poets [nikaat ush-shu((araa]. Ed. by ((abd ul-;haq . Karachi: Anjuman Taraqqi-e Urdu, 1979. [Reprint of 1939 ed.]