This chapter considers the importance of scribal skills, particularly letter writing, through a focus on the insha (epistolary) treatises of the Bahmani vizier, long-distance merchant and scholar, Mahmud Gavan. Against a background of court factionalism, Gavan advocated the cultivation of a genre of writing, insha or letter writing, which not only had strong practical uses for communication at court, but had the potential, if manipulated adroitly enough, to transform society, the recipient of the letter, and the individual writing the letter.

The introduction contains a discussion of the theoretical understandings of theoretical understandings of three key terms used in this book: the court, ethics and the Persian Cosmopolis.

This chapter considers the importance of scribal skills, particularly letter writing, through a focus on the insha (epistolary) treatises of the Bahmani vizier, long-distance merchant and scholar, Mahmud Gavan. Against a background of court factionalism, Gavan advocated the cultivation of a genre of writing, insha or letter writing, which not only had strong practical uses for communication at court, but had the potential, if manipulated adroitly enough, to transform society, the recipient of the letter, and the individual writing the letter.

Certain key themes, subjects and texts were considered to constitute a crucial educational foundation for an individual aspiring to achieve success in the court societies of the Persian Cosmopolis. This chapter argues that the character of this general education was deliberately ‘cosmopolitan’: based on a widely agreed canon of texts, both literary and scientific, whose importance was recognised across the Persian Cosmopolis. Rather than mere knowledge acquisition, the aim of this education was the formation of a specific type of disposition: a particular orientation towards the court society and towards the self. Underlying the external traits of this courtly disposition was a widely shared medico-philosophical understanding of the connections between mind, body and soul and the way in which the perfection of one, presupposed the engagement of the others. The implication of the body in the acquisition of knowledge and the perfection of the soul provides the rationale for directing attention to bodily practices and the influences of objects on bodies, a theme that recurs throughout this book.

Certain key themes, subjects and texts were considered to constitute a crucial educational foundation for an individual aspiring to achieve success in the court societies of the Persian Cosmopolis. This chapter argues that the character of this general education was deliberately ‘cosmopolitan’: based on a widely agreed canon of texts, both literary and scientific, whose importance was recognised across the Persian Cosmopolis. Rather than mere knowledge acquisition, the aim of this education was the formation of a specific type of disposition: a particular orientation towards the court society and towards the self. Underlying the external traits of this courtly disposition was a widely shared medico-philosophical understanding of the connections between mind, body and soul and the way in which the perfection of one, presupposed the engagement of the others. The implication of the body in the acquisition of knowledge and the perfection of the soul provides the rationale for directing attention to bodily practices and the influences of objects on bodies, a theme that recurs throughout this book.

One of the most crucial aspects of courtly life, in the Deccan, as elsewhere, was the ability to make friendships, enabling worldly success, movement to, employment at and escape from one court to another. This chapter examines the ways in which two individuals, Abd al-Karim b. Muhammad Nimdihi and Hajji Abarquhi managed to mobilise webs of interconnected networks that spanned the Persian Cosmopolis, in order to travel to, find employment at, and succeed at the courts of the Deccan sultanates. As well as networks, spaces and occasions for the demonstration and performance of friendship assumed a particular significance, and this chapter will examine one of these occasions: the majlis (courtly assembly).

Through an examination of the Nujum al-?Ulum, an encyclopaedia written by the sultan of Bijapur, Ali Adil Shah, which served three important ends, both personal and political, this chapter focuses on esoteric skills like magic, astrology and divination. As an invaluable manual of esoteric practices aimed at transforming the body of the individual and his place in the social world, the encyclopaedia served both the pragmatic ends of worldly success and ethical self-fashioning. Secondly, knowledge about esoteric practices became an arena for a concerted attempt by a powerful clique at the Bijapuri court to find conceptual commensurabilities for divergent cosmologies, in order to unite a society riven by factionalism. Finally, in its engagement with specific vernacular esoteric traditions, rooted in local geography, Adil Shah’s encyclopaedia addressed the broader political scenario of the contemporary Deccan where multiple courts jostled for prestige and power and eagerly tried to recruit each other’s personnel.

The political and geographical peculiarities of the medieval Deccan meant that trade, together with military and revenue-collection duties, formed a crucial component of both the financial resources and the administrative responsibilities of the courtly elite. In this chapter, through an examination of the biographies of three individuals who combined trade and statecraft, and an analysis of the mercantile language in the cultural products of the Deccani courts, I discuss how these strikingly mercantile aspects of courtly society demonstrate that as an ethic, courtliness had both a practical, mundane aspect as well as an internal, spiritual aspect.

The conclusion asks how the understanding of courtliness put forward in this book might stimulate new paths in research on the Deccan.

This chapter focuses on the martial skills of sword fighting, archery and wrestling. Courtiers were the military elite: a high position was frequently the reward of prowess in battle, and the ability to direct men and attract followers in daily life was directly related to one’s skill in battle. However, martial skills were not merely a prerequisite for worldly success. I examine the tale of Yusuf, who – by virtue of his skills as a wrestler – rose from lowly service in the kitchens of the sultan’s palace to become one of the most powerful courtiers in the Bahmani sultanate, and eventually the founder of the independent sultanate of Bijapur. In historical accounts like this, the refinement of martial skills and the perfection of one’s physical body came to be framed as a key ethical endeavour through the ideal of javanmardi, or ‘young manliness’.