THE DIBACHA TO AMIR KHUSRAW DEHLAVI'S "TUHFAT US-SIG'AR": MANUSCRIPT CONTEXT, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AND POETICS

This article examines the dibacha (authorial preface) to Amir Khusraw Dehlavi’s first divan, “Tuhfat us-Sig‘ar,” on the basis of the manuscript Kulliyat preserved at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan under Inventory No. 9661. The study investigates the preface as a composite source for the history of the divan, the poet’s early biography, and his literary-aesthetic views. Textological, structural-poetic, historical-comparative, and source-critical methods are used to identify the principal components of the dibacha and to compare its testimony with later biographical and literary accounts. The results show that the preface combines conventional hamd and naʿt with an original theory of poetic maturation based on the four elements—earth, water, air, and fire. It also preserves detailed autobiographical evidence about Khusraw’s education, calligraphic training, early poetic tests, and entry into literary circles. Most importantly, the manuscript complicates the conventional assertion that Tajiddin Zahid independently compiled the first divan: the dibacha presents Zahid as a critical assistant while emphasizing Khusraw’s own selection, revision, arrangement, and naming of the collection. The preface therefore functions simultaneously as a literary manifesto, an autobiographical document, and a textological record of authorial self-fashioning.