The Persian couplet written in the Diwan-i-Khas of the Red Fort, “Agar firdaus bar ru-ye zamin ast, hamin ast-o hamin ast-o hamin ast” (If there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this), has long had a major position in South Asia’s cultural and historical imagination. The line, traditionally credited to the great Sufi poet Amir Khusrau, is commonly used as a statement of artistic and imperial majesty associated with Shah Jahan’s reign. However, a closer assessment of the textual and historical data contradicts this commonly accepted identification.

According to Rana Safvi’s study, the couplet does not occur in any of Amir Khusrau’s existing diwans. This omission is crucial in terms of textual criticism since the authentication of poetic authorship in the Indo-Persian tradition is strongly reliant on the availability of poems in an author’s assembled corpus. The........

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