City of My Heart: Four Accounts of Love, Loss and Betrayal in Nineteenth-Century Delhi by Rana Safvi

Author:Rana Safvi
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Hachette India
Published: 2018-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

Qila-e-Mu’alla ki Jhalkiya’n

Glimpses of the Exalted Fort

Mirza Ahmad Salim ‘Arsh’ Taimuri

Qila-e-Mu’alla ki Jhalkiya’n (Glimpses of the Exalted Fort) is written by Mirza Ahmad Salim ‘Arsh’ Taimuri,1 a descendant of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar.

In the aftermath of the fall of Delhi in 1857 and the fall of the Mughal empire, many of the Mughal princes and nobles were killed. Those who escaped, hid in states that were not governed by the British. Arsh Taimuri’s great grandfather settled in Hyderabad, and Arsh was born (in 1921) and brought up there.

One noteworthy point about this text is that it was published in 1937, when Arsh-e-Taimuri was only 16 years old. In his preface, he has written that the book was finished in Delhi on 23 May 1937. On 25 May 1937, Syed Yusuf Bukhari2 wrote the introduction, after which it was published by Maktaba Jahannuma, Urdu Bazaar, Jama Masjid. The first edition of the book was priced at eight annas and 1,000 copies were printed.

In this introduction to the books, Yusuf Bukhari writes that Arsh-e-Taimuri had finished writing his book of verses, Khurshid Khavar, and four other books before this volume, and these books were to be published soon. Arsh wrote his first book at the age of 12, and thereafter he wrote a book every year. According to the genealogy set out by Bukhari, Arsh-e-Taimuri was born in the fifth generation in Bahadur Shah Zafar’s lineage. He was the great grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s son Mirza Shahrukh Beg, who died in 1847.

In this book, Arsh attempts to show the last glimpses of the Mughal court under Akbar Shah II and Bahadur Shah. Since he was neither born nor brought up in Delhi, his book is not steeped in Delhi’s culture. He was also quite young when he wrote the book and many of the historical events he mentions in it are based on hearsay.

The book is dedicated to Bahadur Shah Zafar, whom Arsh refers to as ‘Hazrat Zafar’.

The dedication in the book says, ‘Dedicated to the sacred soul of Hazrat Zafar.’

He goes on to write ‘I am grateful to my respected father Hazrat Labeeb for recounting such priceless and unique events for me to write this book.’

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