Commemorating the Old Style: ʿUnṣurī and the Emergence of New Aesthetic Paradigms in the Mughal-Safavid Era

Abstract

: Maḥmūd of Ghazna (r. 998–1030) led several military campaigns in Central Asia against the Qarakhanids, in South Asia against the Hindu Shahis and Ismaili rulers of Multan, and established the enduring presence of Islam in northwestern India. These campaigns sparked intensified inter-religious encounters and transformed Ghazna from a peripheral city into a cultural hub, where poets flourished under exceptional patronage, giving rise to new literary genres. This paper focuses on ʿUnṣurī (d. c. 1040), the poet laureate (malik al-shuʿarāʾ) at the Ghaznavid court, who was central to both the literary and political life of the period. Despite his significance, the earliest surviving dīwāns of early Ghaznavid poets, including ʿUnṣurī, were compiled during the Mughal-Safavid era (c. 500 years later). During the Mughal-Safavid period, poets were shaping a new poetic style known as tāza-gūʾī (lit. “speaking afresh”), which emphasized innovation (tāzagī). This paper examines how Ghaznavid poets were remembered and canonized in tadhkiras (biographical compendia or commemorative texts), and their role in shaping new literary sensibilities and aesthetic paradigms. It further explores how key literary figures of the Mughal-Safavid period, such as ʿAbd al-Qādir Bedil (d. 1721), engaged with Ghaznavid poetry in their own literary and autobiographical works.