BĪNEŠ KAŠMĪRĪ, ESMĀʿĪL, a Persian poet of India in the 11th/17th century. His ancestors migrated from Iran to settle in Kashmir where Bīneš was born (ʿAbd-al-Moqtader, III, p. 145). He is not to be confused with Jaʿfar Beg, a Persian poet of Iran who was a contemporary of Sultan Ḥosayn Safawī (r. 1105-35/1694-1722) and an author of several maṯnawīs including Mokāfāt-nāma and Del o delbar (Wāleh Daḡestānī, fol. 66; Ebrāhīm Khan Ḵalīl, fol. 134). Bīneš traveled to Lahore and Delhi (Ātaškada, p. 365) and presumably to Iran since he describes several Iranian cities in his poems; however, his biographers mention no such trips. His panegyrics are addressed to Moḥammad-Ṭāher Ṣafšekan Khan (d. 1085/1674-75), a high noble of Awrangzēb ʿĀlamgīr’s reign, and Mīrzā Moḥammad-Qāsem Kermānī, the dīvān of Kashmir, and Mīr Jamšīd Kāšānī. He seems to have died towards the end of the 11th/17th century in Kashmir (Gōpāmavī, p. 1091; Āzād Belgrāmī, p. 54). Sarḵᵛoš, who completed his Kalemāt al-šoʿarāʾ in 1093/1691-82, speaks of Bīneš as dead (p. 10).Bīneš has left six maṯnawīs and a dīvān of ḡazals and qaṣīdas. The first of these maṯnawīs is Bīneš-e abṣār, composed on the pattern of Neżāmī’s Maḵzan al-asrār. In this work the poet eulogizes Awrangzēb, the Mughal emperor and pays glowing tributes to Delhi, its great Sufis (especially Neẓām-al-Dīn Awlīāʾ, d. 725/1325), and the river Yamunā (Jamnā), flowing on the east side of Delhi. Both in this and in other poems the poet praises Kashmir. The second maṯnawī, Ganj-e ravān, contains a description of nature and the four seasons in India. The maṯnawī praises Emperor Awrangzēb, Mīrzā Moḥammad-Qāsem Kermānī, and Mīr Jamšīd Kāšānī and describes three cities of Iran: Kermān, Tabrīz, and Kāšān. The third maṯnawī, Gol-dasta, contains a vivid description of Punjab and its capital Lahore. Its central theme is an account of the manifestations of nature and their mystical meanings. The fourth maṯnawī, Šūr-e ḵayāl, contains the love-story of a Muslim youth and a Hindu girl at Benares on the bank of the holy river Ganges. It is interesting that another poet of this period, Feṭrat Qomī (d. 1101/1689-90), also versified this very love episode (Ansari, pp. 49, 70). The fifth maṯnawī, Rešta-ye gowhar, contains small moral and ethical anecdotes, including the love story of Amīr and Gowhar, two youths from Sārī in Māzandarān. The sixth and last maṯnawī, Jawāher-ḵāna, contains praises of Awrangzēb and an account of Tabrīz and Baghdad.The dīvān of Bīneš consists of ḡazals and panegyrics. Sarḵᵛoš says that the dīvān of Bīneš contains only two good couplets (Sarḵᵛoš, p. 10), but in fact his ḡazals are sweet and charming and capture the scenic beauty of Kashmir.
Bibliography:
Aḥmad-ʿAlī Khan Hāšemī Sandīlavī, Maḵzan al-ḡarāʾeb, Ms. Aligarh Muslim University, fol. 58.
N. H. Ansari, Fārsī adab be-ʿahd-e Awrangzīb, Delhi, 1969, pp. 43ff., 70.
Āteškada, Bombay, 1299/1881-82, p. 365.
Āzād Belgrāmī, Yad-e bayżā, ms. Aligarh Muslim University, p. 54.
Mīr ʿAẓamat-Allāh Bīḵabar Belgrāmī, Safīna-e Bīḵabar, ms. Aligarh Muslim University, p. 54.
Bīneš Kašmīrī, Majmūʿa-ye maṯnawīyāt-e Bīneš, Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, no. 1094 (contains all six maṯnawīs).
Idem, Dīvān-e Bīneš, Bankipore Library, Patna, Ms. no. 547.
Cat. Bankipore III, p. 145.
Ebrāhīm Khan Ḵalīl, Ṣoḥof-e Ebrāhīm, Bankipore Library, Patna, Ms. no. 228, fol. 134.
Moḥammad Qodrat-Allāh Gōpāmavī, Natāʾej al-afkār, Bombay, 1336 Š./1957, p. 109.
Sayyed Ḥasan-ʿAlī Khan, Sobh¡-e golšan, Bhopal, 1295/1878, p. 75.
Ḥosaynqolī-Khan ʿAẓīmābādī, Neštar-e ʿešq, Bankipore Library, Patna, Ms. no. 241, p. 285.
Rieu, Persian Manuscripts II, p. 695.
Moḥammad-Afżal Sarḵᵛoš, Kalemāt al-šoʿarāʾ, ed. Ṣādeq-ʿAlī Delāvarī, Lahore, 1942, p. 10.
ʿAlīqolī Khan Wāleh Dāḡestānī, Rīāż al-šoʿarāʾ, Ms. Aligarh Muslim University, fol. 66.
Search terms:
| بینش کشمیری، اسماعیل | binesh keshmiri esmail | binesh kashmiry esmaeil | kashmeery beenesh esmaeel |
| ismaeil binesh keshmiri |
(N. H. Ansari)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: December 15, 1989
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 3, pp. 263-264
