Thread by @barbarikon

Really enjoying #TheAnarchy by @DalrympleWill. Great information and gripping narrative really takes you into the events. The characters come through in 3 dimensions and full color. But ....

... the book is marked by a small number of annoying and inexplicable errors in translation of Urdu/Persian/Arabic terms, including the following.....

The glossary at the end gives two meanings for “Alam” - the world, and the battle standard used in Muharram by Shi’as. In fact, these are two different words:

‘aalam عالم = world
‘alam علم = standard

BTW, ‘alam refers to battle standards in general.

Also in the glossary, “firangi” is translated as “foreigner”. In fact, the term refers only to Europeans, and is derived from “Frank”. Non-European, non-white foreigners would never be called “firangi”.....

A truly startling error in the translation of the term “Id” عید in the glossary, which says that “Id-ul-Zuha” (actually “Id-al-Azha”) “commemorates the delivery of Isaac”. Muslims celebrate the deliverance of Isma’il (Ishmael), NOT Isaac.....

Again in the glossary, “Masnavi” is defined as “Persian or Urdu love lyric”, which is incorrect. “Masnavi” refers purely to the form of a poem, where both lines of each couplet rhyme with each other but each couplet has its own rhyme.....

The term comes from “ithnan”, the Arabic word for “two”, indicating the dual rhyme pattern. The most famous Masnavi in the world - by Rumi - is emphatically NOT a “love lyric”. The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi is also a masnavi, but not a love lyric.....

There are fanous masnavis in Persian by Nizami, Khusraw, Jami and many others. In Urdu by Mir Hasan, Daya Shankar Naseem and Nawab Mirza Shaoq. All these great masnavis are book length poems, which is the typical use of this genre .....

There are many short masnavis in Urdu, notably Iqbal’s “Saqi Nama”. Ghalib wrote a whimsical masnavi on mangoes, and another one complaining about his financial problems. Offhand, I can’t think of any masnavis that can be considered love lyrics, though there must be some....

“Muharram” is not a “great Shi’a festival”; it is the first month of the Islamic calendar. Shi’as (and many Sunnis) mourn the martyrdom of Inam Hussain in this month, but not as a “celebration” and certainly not with “gusto”! It is a solemn - if often passionate - occasion.....

A possible typo in the glossary: The word for the filigreed arch is “muqarnas” (r before n), not “marqanas”.

“Omrah” (actually “umaraa”) does not mean “nobleman”; it is the plural of “Ameer”, which does mean “nobleman” or “leader”.....

While it is true that Deccan was one center of Shi’a culture before Aurangzeb, the epitome of this culture was eventually Lakhnau under Shuja-ud-Daula’s dynasty. The Nizams of Hyderabad, for example, were not Shi’a....

For some reason, the title of Ghulam Hussain Khan’s great history “Siyar-ul-Muta’akhkherin” is translated as “Seir Mutaqherin” and translated as “Review of Modern Times”. The word “siyar” is the plural of Arabic “sirah” = biography.....

.... so the title translated literally as “Biographies of Later Individuals”, but more accurately as “Chronicles of Recent Individuals”. The term “muta’akhkharin” متاخرین means “those who came later” in opposition to “mutaqaddimin” متقدمین = the early ones, pioneers, ancients....

The title given to Najaf Khan, “Zulfiqar-ud-Daula” (p. 290) does not mean “The Ultimate Discriminator of the Kingdom”, but something closer to “The Great Sword of the Kingdom”. “Zulfiqar” (Arabic “dhul-faqaar” = cleaver of spines) was the famous sword of ‘Ali.....

Since the meaning of the tern “faqaar” (or “fiqaar”) here is unclear, some have speculated that it might derive from the corruption of the Arabic root f-r-q = to discriminate. But this is not the commonly accepted meaning......

I am also puzzled by the listing of two spellings for

“divan” = poetic collection
“diwan” = prime minister

Neither Urdu nor Farsi has the “w” sound, so the two words are pronounced identically as “divan”. However, the word comes from Arabic, where it has the “w” sound....

In fact, both meanings come from the same source. “Diwan” meant the register of official records, and came to refer to both a court and a comfortable couch (which is now the meaning of the word in English)....

Over time, in India, the officer in charge of the civil courts or a minister came to be called a “divan”, but this was just colliquial usage. And the register in which a poet collected their work also came to be called a “divan”.....

All in all, these are minor issues that would not even be noticeable in a work of lower quality. The reason they rankle is that they mar a great work that deserved more careful editing.

Tamam shud 😊

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