Izzatullah Bangali

Izzatullah Bangali (18th century) persian writer, resident of Murshidabad. His only extant work is Tajalmulk Gule Bakaoli (1722), a Persian prose romance. The Library of the university of dhaka has a manuscript version of the work (No. H/R 66.7).

Tajalmulk Gule Bakaoli is the romantic story of Prince Tajalmulk and a fairy named Gule Bakaoli. Prince Tajalmulk needs a special flower to cure his father's blindness. This special flower is available only in the garden of Gule Bakaoli- Gul-e-Bakaoli literally means 'flower of Bakaoli'. The prince has several adventures before he is finally able to get the flower and win the love of the fairy.

The story of Prince Tajalmulk and Gule Bakaoli became very popular. In the 17th century, nawajish khan wrote a poetic version titled Gule Bakaoli in Bangla. Izzatullah's prose version, however, was based on a Hindi text. Later, Nehalchand Lahori, a munshi of fort william college translated Izzatullah's work into Urdu as Mazhabe Ishq (The Religion of Love, 1803). [Wakil Ahmed]