“Ruq’at”

This manuscript has the tone of a personal letter. On the page we see not only even lines of nastaliq, but also notes in the margins: the text seems to continue the conversation beyond the frame.
Ruq‘at is a collection of letters or short written addresses by Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bedil. Bedil was one of the major authors of Indo-Persian literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His language was known for intellectual complexity, imagery, and philosophical density. This copy was transcribed in Central Asia in 1817.
For the visitor, the form of the manuscript itself is important. Here literature exists not as a formal divan of poetry, but as thought moving toward another person. The letter preserves the tone of conversation, the trace of reading, and the space for reply.
In the Babur sector, this manuscript shows the later life of the Persian word after the Bbaurid age. Bedil remained a read author in Central Asia, where his texts belonged to scholarly reading, memory, and literary taste.