An Intoductio of Masnavi Khetab Fasil

معرفی مثنوئ خطاب فاصل

Abstract

This study focuses on Masnai  Khitab-e Fasil, a Persian masnavi composed by Muhammad Abbas Shushtari (1244–1304 AH), a distinguished scholar, theologian, jurist, poet, and intellectual of the Indian subcontinent. The masnavi is preserved in a unique manuscript housed in the Central Library of the University of the Punjab, Lahore. Composed in 1277 AH and completed in manuscript form in 1284 AH, the work is significant not only from a literary perspective but also as an important source for understanding the intellectual, religious, and polemical milieu of nineteenth-century India.The study introduces the manuscript, its author, the circumstances surrounding its composition, and its position within the tradition of Persian dialectical and theological poetry in the Indian subcontinent.From the perspective of style and structure, the masnavi combines the conventions of classical Persian masnavi composition with the argumentative method of theological debate. The study demonstrates that Khitab-e Fasel is not merely a poetic work but also a valuable document of religious discourse, intellectual debate, and Persian literary culture in the Indian subcontinent.