The Babar Ali Foundation has recently published Divān-i Munavvar, a translated collection of poems by the 19th Century Persian poet Faqīr Syed Nūr al-Dīn Munavvar Bukhārī. The Gurmani Centre is pleased to announce that our faculty member, Professor Fatima Fayyaz, was part of the team of Persian scholars that translated and compiled the poetry in this volume. Moreover, the book was edited by Professor Moeen Nizami—Professor of Persian Language and Literature, University of the Punjab and the former director of the Gurmani Centre.
Divān i Munavvar was first edited by M. Abdul Latif and published by Packages Limited, Lahore in 1973. However, some inaccuracies were noticed in the text. It has now been reedited and published with an Urdu translation in 2021. This bilingual edition of Munavvar's Divān—in two volumes—introduces his poetry to Urdu readers by featuring the original Persian text side by side with its Urdu renditions. The Urdu translation has been done by a group of Persian scholars from various universities including Fatima Fayyaz (Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature, LUMS) as well as Aqsa Sajid (Government College University), Anjum Tahira (Lahore College for Women University), and Gohar Iqbal.
Faqīr Syed Nūr al-Dīn Munavvar Bukhārī (1789-1852) was a renowned poet and held political and social prestige in the Sikh Darbar at Lahore. He composed in classical poetic genres such as ghazal, qaṣīda, qiṭa', mukhammas and musammaṭ. His poetry is centered around eulogies of the sacred and spiritual figures, as well as epithets. Munavvar’s poetry reflects not only the literary and religious background he belonged to, but also the dominant literary discourse of his times.