ʿABD-AL-ḤAYY AWRANGĀBĀDĪ

 

ʿABD-AL-ḤAYY B. ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ, “ṢĀREM” AWRANGĀBĀDĪ (1142-96/1729-82), administrator, poet, and biographer. In 1162/1749 the Neẓām of Hyderabad, Nāṣer Jang (1161-64/1748-50), appointed him dīvān (civil governor) of Berar, and under Ṣalābat Jang he served as governor of Awrangabad and commandant of the fort of Dawlatabad. He fell from power after his father’s dismissal in 1170/1757 but later was restored to favor, becoming dīvān of the Deccan under Neẓām ʿAlī Khan (1175-1217). He received the title of Ṣamṣām-al-molk (or Ṣamṣām-al-dawla) Ṣamṣām Jang on his father’s death in 1171/1758; previously he had borne the title of Ṣamṣām-al-dawla Delāvar Jang. On 15 Jomādā I 1196/28 April 1782, ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy died, after a brief illness and while still in the Neẓām’s army. He was buried in Hyderabad.

Although ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy is described as a notable poet by Ḡolām-ʿAlī Āzād Belgrāmī, a close friend of ʿAbd-al-Razzāq, no collection of his poetry is extant. Āzād states that he first wrote under the pen name Vaqār but then changed to Ṣārem. ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy’s surviving works are recensions and completed editions of his father’s writings. The first, Maʾāṯer al-omarāʾ, consists of biographies of Mughal nobles, arranged by title and date of death. ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy’s edition with 730 biographies, represents a considerable step beyond Āzād’s edition, which assembled the scattered pieces of the work but contained a maximum of 287 lives. ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy completed his version in 1194/1780. It was edited by Mawlavī ʿAbd-al-Raḥīm and Mawlavī Mīrzā Ašraf ʿAlī and published in three volumes (Bib. Ind., Calcutta, 1888-91). It was partially translated by Henry Beveridge and Baini Prasad (I, 1914-41; II, 1952). The Hindi Prachārnī Sabhā, Benaras, published a Hindi translation of those notices dealing with Hindu nobles, while a complete Urdu translation appeared in three volumes under the auspices of the Urdu Development Board (Lahore, 1968-70). The second of ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy’s surviving works, Bahārestān-e soḵan, is a taḏkera of earlier and contemporary poets and was completed in 1194/1780. It has been edited by Afżal-al-ʿolamāʾ Boḵārī, Madras, 1957.

Bibliography:

Belgrāmī, Ḵezāna, pp. 296-97.

Storey, I, pp. 854, 1097-99.

Rieu, Cat. Pers. Man. I, p. 340b. Fehrest ... Āṣafīya I, p. 316; III, p. 162.

Alphabetical Index of Manuscripts in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, 1893, p. 542.

Ḡolām Hamadānī Moṣḥafī, ʿEqd-e ṯorayyā, Delhi, 1934, p. 37.

Qodratallāh Gopāmvī, Nataʾeǰ al-afkār, Bombay, 1334 (faṣlī), pp. 428-29.

M. Ṣeddīq Ḥasan Khan Bahādor, Samāʿ-e anǰoman, Bhopal, 1293/1877, pp. 259-60.

(M. Baqir)

Originally Published: December 15, 1982

Last Updated: July 14, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 2, p. 116

Cite this entry:

M. Baqir, “'Abd-Al-Hayy Awrangabadi,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, p. 116; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-hayy-awrangabadi (accessed on 12 January 2014).