HYDERABAD: As old as city’s pride Charminar, documents from that bygone era, which could add to city’s unmatched historical legacy, are taking a digital shape at the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute in the city. And, in the last two years, close to 6,000 Persian manuscripts dating back to the Mughal era between 1606 and 1669 AD have been translated into English and catalogued by a single individual, Mohd Abdul Moeed.
At least, 1.55 lakh such administrative manuscripts from the Mughal era, belonging to the regimes of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, between 1606 and 1701 AD are in the possession of the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute. According to officials at the institute, it is the richest collection of Mughal-era archives in India.
The 44-year-old research scholar in Persian Historiographs in Deccan at the Osmania University has been working with Dr Zareena Parveen of the institute. Dr Parveen, director of TSARI and only expert of Shikasta Persian in the entire South India, has been guiding Moeed in the labourious job of translating into English and cataloguing these rare documents. “Any language changes its form every 100 years and Shikasta Persian, an older version of Persian, is written in cursive form.
The documents I have catalogued belong to the 10th and 11th regnal year of Aurangazeb,” said Moeed, who is doing PhD in Persian Historiographs in Deccan. A regnal year is calculated from the date of a ruler’s accession to throne. The process of cataloguing involves reading, understanding and translating a document into English.
An example of one interesting document that has been catalogued is the death certificate for Haji Bahadur’s horse that died on the 15th day of 1075 as per Hijri, the Islamic calendar. While a short document like this death certificate takes an hour, some documents need an entire day for Moeed to decode.
“This is a learning process,” he said. Though he enjoys his time at the institute amidst the old documents, the father of three daughters and one son is unhappy that he has been hired on contract basis. More than a 100 sanctioned posts of the 180 in the institute remain vacant as there is no recruitment by the government. “Though the job is one of a kind, and I am one of the few scholars who can decipher Shikasta Persian, I earn very less. ,” he explained. Moeed also said that the government should start recruiting people to various sections of the institute which can ensure safekeeping of the rich database of archives.
Work on 6,000 manuscripts completed
At least, 1.55 lakh administrative manuscripts belonging to the regimes of Shah Jahan and Aurangazeb between 1606 and1701 AD are in the possession of the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute. OU scholar Mohd Abdul Moeed, working along with Dr Zareena Parveen of the institute, has completed the work on 6,000 manuscripts so far.