The Wisdom of the East Series
Edited By
L. CRANMER BYNG
S. A. KAPADIA
THE DIWAN OF ZEB-UN-NISSA
THE FIRST FIFTY GHAZALS
RENDERED FROM THE PERSIAN BY
MAGAN LAL AND JESSIE DUNCAN WESTBROOK
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
[1913]
Scanned, proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com, July 2009. This text is in the public domain in the US because it was published prior to 1923.
Zeb-un-Nissa (b. 1637, d. 1702) was the oldest daughter of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir. Her name means ‘most beautiful of all women.’ A Sufi, she was well educated in both the Quran and the sciences, and was fluent in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. She started to write Persian poetry secretly at the age of 14. She never married, preferring her literary work. Her works included the Diwan, a collection of her poetry, excerpts from which are included in this Wisdom of the East volume.