Mubārak’s earliest work appears to have been composed in 1893, and his last one in 1902. As he himself in the concluding part of his Dīvān-i Kulliyāt asserts: “On Saturday 1320 (1902) while īd-i Qurbān (
īd al- a
ā) was in progress, I stopped writing poetry”. He died in the following year.
Almost all of Mubārak’s books have the same title format, a combination of geometric and decorative vegetal patterns, and the following common opening phrase in Arabic: “This book is (title) of Mubārak-i Wakhānī”. The statistical data about Mubārak’s poetry is provided on the basis of his museum-shrine’s chronicle accounts, with the author’s introductory remarks.
MSS 01, Qalb al-afā
(the Heart of Purity) is said to have been completed on the 39th day of Mubārak’s chilla-nishīnī (forty days of spiritual meditation in a cave) on the fifth of Rajab, 1310 (23/01/1893). It is a lyrical poem consisting of twenty-seven chapters with 5003 bayts (distiches) in 233 folios. The first twelve folios contain a prose prologue. The manuscript is in the museum.
MSS 02 (1310/1893), Kalām-i- Saādat (the Book of Felicity) is a huge collection of poems dwealing with the interpretation of the famous Umm al-Kitāb. It consists of 384 folios and is preserved in the private collection of Lutfullah Zaraboev in Yamg.26
MSS 03 (1313/1896), Pand-Namā-yi Risālat (the Prophet’s Pearls of Wisdom), is a relatively small collection of ethical poems and some ghazals, derived from the Prophet Muhammad’s adīth. In this book, Mubārak transforms the sayings of the Prophet from prose into poetry. It consists of an introduction, 21 chapters (bāb), each representing a single
adīth concerning certain Islamic moral issues, and 5 additional chapters (fasl). The original manuscript is preserved in the museum.
MSS 04 (1314/1896), Kashf al-Salavāt (Unveiling the Prayers) consists of five chapters (called manzil), including 10087 bayts in 354 folios. This poem discusses how humans praise the divine essence, which, according to him, can be demonstrated only through strong morality and the regular fulfilment of religious duties. It also deals with a number of moral issues in which the three main human qualities are emphasised: patience (sābirī), asceticism (parhīzkarī) and gratitude (shakirī). The original manuscript is in the museum.