Title Page; In Praise of God and the Prophet

Nasr-e-Benazir

*Nasr-e-Benazir* ("Benazir in Prose"): the masnavi *Sihr-ul-Bayan*, whose author is Mir Hasan, put into prose by Mir Bahadur Ali Husaini for the New College [TN: the College of Fort William, Calcutta], in the time of the cream of great nobles, the special counsellor of the king of England, whose court is as high as Saturn, the Marquess Wellesley, Governor General Bahadur, may his shadow last, by order of my lord and benefactor John Gilchrist Sahib Bahadur, may his fortune last. A verse:

Your mouth, O parrot, cannot dispute with me;
Only listen to my speech, more colourful than the garden;

My speech is the rival of my speech, and I of it,
For I am famous through speech, and speech through me.

Printed in the year 1803 of the Christian era, corresponding to the year 1218 of the Hijra, at the Hindustani Press of Munshi Aftab-ud-Din.

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

In Praise of God and the Prophet

With my pen let me first write the name of God,
That the wish of my heart may be granted;

What is it, that this tale may be finished?
By the right of the Prophet, the lord of high and low.

Praise in its beauty befits the Creator who made both the immaterial and the material beings, and gave to those that were capable of it understanding and the senses. Among them He made man the noblest, and granted him beauty and love. Who can find the secrets of His workmanship? He alone, who has need of none, knows them. The adornment of perfect mercy is due to that Prophet for whom He sent such a miracle as the Quran, and in it told the story of every prophet. What strength has man to understand the hints of its separate letters [TN: the mysterious letters that open some chapters of the Quran] or to reach the layers of meaning of its compound words? The gift of greeting is fit for his family and companions, whose rank is higher than the Throne and whose knowledge is greater even than the angels'.

God has praised them again and again;
What mouth have I to sing their praise?

After this: the tale of Benazir and Badr-e-Munir had been composed in verse by the peerless poet, the unique master of style, the splendour of the gathering of poetry, the late Mir Hasan, whose pen name was Hasan, the blessed from eternity, the worthy son of Mir Ghulam Husain Zahik of Delhi. (In truth every line of it is *benazir*, peerless, in eloquence and elegance, and every couplet is like *badr-e-munir*, the shining full moon, in beauty and grace. Those masters of speech who are fair-minded and of a lover's temper know its worth, and those who have power over such poetry recognise its style well. Who could make verse to rival it? Indeed, who could even reach its subtleties? The tongue falls short in its praise; high and low alike are busy in admiring it.) Now, in the reign of Shah 'Alam the emperor, and under the rule of the noble who is all good counsel, of Plato's temper and Aristotle's wisdom, the cherisher of the poor, the adornment of army and host, the cream of great nobles, the special counsellor of the king of England, whose court is as high as Saturn, the Marquess Wellesley, Governor General Bahadur, may his fortune last, in the year 1217 of the Hijra, corresponding to the year 1802 of the Christian era, by order of my lord and benefactor, of enlightened mind, high spirit and lofty counsel, John Gilchrist Sahib Bahadur, may his grandeur last, the sinner Mir Bahadur Ali Husaini has written it in prose from the beginning of the tale, according to the idiom of polite speech. Before this, this humble one had already written this tale in an easy style, in the everyday speech of high and low, for gentlemen who are beginners [TN: i.e. the College's English students]; now it came into my heart to put this sweet story (which is in truth sweeter than the story of Shirin) into prose in such a manner that every master of the language and every poet who hears it should cry out in delight, and that a memorial of this worthless one should remain in the world.