Zuhuri (poet laureate of Bijapur)

For Mark Zebrowski, Zuhuri belonged to the wave of Iranian painters and writers forced to emigrate to India in search of patrons; he came to the Deccan from the court of Shah Abbas in 988 AH/1580–81, worked first at Ahmadnagar for the sultans Murtaza I, Husain II and Burhan II, and then, like many cultivated Persians, left for Bijapur during the civil wars and the Mughal invasion. ¹

He became poet laureate of Ibrahim Adil Shah II; his major work there is the Seh Nasr, which includes the preface to the Kitab-i Nauras. In it he counts himself among six courtiers and says of the painter Farrukh Husain that nothing better than his painting can be imagined and that expert painters take pride in being his pupils. ^{1 2} The author finds his prose metaphorical praise with few facts, like Deccani literature generally. ³