Classical Persian Poetry

Persian poets since Rūdakī have drawn on the letter symbolism of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. Visually, its characters have attracted poets who find the likeness of the beloved in their shapes. Spiritually, it enjoys a special status as the language of the Koran and therefore, in the eyes of some, God. Classical Persian lyric poetry combined these aesthetic and religious connotations, and as one of the foremost voices in that tradition, Ḥāfiẓ was no exception. But a review of the extant literature shows that, as a trope, letter symbolism has been largely overlooked when compared with wine, the moth, or the candle. Through a comprehensive study of the let-ters' use in Ḥāfiẓ's dīvān, this article argues that, by playing with particular letters' connotations, or punning on their physical shapes and homographs, Ḥāfiẓ invokes disparate meanings, only to then reveal their underlying unity, in the process affirming the affinity between love and language, the beloved and the divine.

Examines the literary topos of dawn, the "Alba," in Persian poetry in comparative perspective, first considering the Alba poem in medieval Provencal lyric in southern France and northern Italy, establishing how the theme of the parting of two lovers at dawn was a well-established trope in European poetry of the medieval and renaissance periods.  A close parallel also appears in the Arabic poetry of Andalusia, perhaps with some interchange.  In Persian there are also some examples of the "Alba" theme -- the ghazals of Sa`di but especially Sana'i. Although Hafiz' poems do not use the Alba theme  in the same way, Hafiz does set many of his ghazals (perhaps 1/5 of all his ghazals) in the dawn or early morning.  The article develops how Hafiz uses the topos of dawn and why it is integral to his mythopoetic vocabulary.

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""""""On Not Translating Hafiz
Dick Davis, Ohio State University
Tr. Behnam Mizababazadeh & Mostafa Hosseini
In this paper Dick Davis tries to explain the reasons behind the  difficulty in translating classical Persian poetry in general and Hafiz in  particular. He divides the problems into two categories: the linguistic  and the cultural problems. Lack of exact synonyms especially for
idioms, puns and lack of rhyme in English belong to the first category.  The lore of Shi’i Islam, the prevalence of the cult of pederasty in  Persian poetry, difference in the pattern of the poems and the language of panegyric in Persian poetry belong to the second category. Davis concludes his paper with the following sentences:  And this is why the poets who seem to develop a poetry’s capabilities most tellingly, who seem to their linguistic communities to be the most “poetic” of all, are often precisely those whom it is most difficult to bring over into  another language. Certainly, in Persian literature, the example of Hafiz, and  of the numerous poor poet-translators who metaphorically lie bleeding at  his feet, would seem to bear this out. (B. M. & M. H.)
Keywords: Hafiz, Dick Davis, classical Persian poetry, translation of
poetry, untranslatability of poetry. """"""

Western reception of Rūmī in the last few decades is intriguing, as he is commonly considered a gentle Muslim, different from other sages that Islamic culture produced. Rūmī’s otherness is often based on his powerful and peerless poetry, deploying rich wine imagery, homoerotic love metaphors, and an emphasis on the superiority of the heart and spiritual growth, and dismissing the outward and orthodox tenets. This paper argues that Rūmī belongs to a millennium-old Persian Sufism, and these poetic tropes derive from a firm antinomian tradition, functioning as strong metaphors to express religious piety by transcending all temporal dualities such as unbelief and belief, the profane and the sacred, purity and impurity, and so forth.

This is one of a series of entries about the 14th-century Shirazi poet Hafez, this article focused on questions of sound-patterning in his ghazals; poems set to music during the poet's life time vs. "plain" poems; musical terminology in the poems, including for modes, melody, scales, structures, and for sound itself; for musical instruments; for dance and emotive movement in conjunction with poetry; for singers, songs and musicians. It also discusses modern musical versions of the poems as sung in Persian, plus the use of Hafez' poetry in translation in European classical music.

This is the authorized Persian translation of Rumi: Past and Present, East and West, done by Hassan Lahouti in cooperation with the author.  First printing 1384 / 2006.  The late Hassan Lahouti was an accomplished translator of academic works from English to Persian, especially on the subject of Mowlana Jalal al-Din Rumi . This book is now in its fifth printing in Iran.
  The attached pdf contains the table of contents, the author's foreword to the Persian translation, and the Translator's preface.
ترجمه مرحوم حسن لاهوتی از کتاب فرانکلین لوئیس، مولانا: دیروز تا امروز، شرق تا غرب با مشورت مؤلف انجام شده است.  جناب لاهوتی مفقود مترجم زبردست بودند با معللومات مخصوصی درباره مولانا . این  پرونده  پی دی اف دارای فهرست مندرجات است همراه با "دیباچۀ مؤلف بر ترجمۀ فارسی" و "سخنی از مترجم

Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (ca. 715-792 AH/1315-1390 AD) known by his pen name Hafez/Hafiz is the influential Persian poet whose love poems constitute a major part of the masterpieces of classical Persian poetry. The present article studies the function of garden and vegetative imagery in Hafez’s poetry. The authors of the present study argue that in Hafiz’s poems, three worlds are discernible: a) the paradise as the transcendental, divine world, b) nature as the terrestrial, material world, and c) beloved as the human world. In this article we show how the image of garden as well as man’s approach toward garden, connect these three mains worlds to each other and finally bring forth an aesthetic composition in Hafiz’s Divan. In these poems, the transcendental world is presented under the titles such as Paradise, Heaven, Garden of Eden, etc. By referring to the Islamic-Iranian religious and literary tradition, these terms evoke the image of garden. This familiar garden provides the background for the familiar story of fall of man, but this story is narrated differently by Hafiz. According to Hafez, man abandons willingly the world of heaven which is presented by the image of garden. Abandoning paradise, man descends to the earth or the material world. However this world is not described as a contrast to the spiritual world of paradise. The earth is presented with the familiar vegetative imagery, and using these similar images leads to the disturbance of the dichotomy of paradise/earth. The earth stands in parallel with the paradise, not inferior to it. The reason for shattering down the established relation of paradise/earth is the presence of the beloved in this material world. In Hafiz’s poetry, nature is not presented by itself but always appears with the beloved. The close relationship between the beloved and the material world of nature, and the application of vegetative imagery in describing the beloved makes him/her turn to be a garden-like world. In this sense nature mingles with the beloved and the beloved gradually dominates nature and turns himself/herself to be the macrocosm. Besides investigating the connections that garden brings about in Hafiz’s poetry, the present article addresses a significant term that is “bāgh-e nazar” (“garden of glance)” and other similar terms. The researchers claim that “garden of glance” indicates the active role of the human subject in making connection between the above mentioned worlds.

Key Words: Hafez, garden, vegetative imagery, transcendental world, terrestrial world, human world, beloved, bāgh-e nazar (“garden of glance)

The great Persian lyric poet Hafiz was first translated into English by Sir William Jones in the 1780s. In the course of the nineteenth century many further translations would appear, initially intended for the use of oriental scholars and students of the Persian language, but increasingly also for the general reading public. The paraphrasers or ‘popularizers’ who devised the latter category of translation competed with professional scholars to shape the dissemination and popular perception of Persian poetry. Owing to a variety of factors, the middle of the nineteenth century
saw a marked decline in the number of new Hafiz translations, and it is not until 1891 that a complete edition of Hafiz’s works finally appeared in English. This led to an unusual situation, particular to Britain, in which scholars (Edward H. Palmer, Henry Wilberforce-Clarke, Gertrude Bell), and popularizers (Richard Burton, Herman Bicknell, Justin McCarthy, Richard Le Gallienne, John Payne) all jostled to fill the vacuum created by the absence of a definitive version. Their competition created, in short order, a diversity of versions presented to consumers, which allowed Hafiz’s influence to be felt in twentieth-century poetry untrammelled by the impress (as became the case with Omar Khayyam) of one dominant translator. While the refraction of Hafiz through the biases and predispositions of multiple translators has been regarded as hopelessly distorting by Julie Scott Meisami, I argue instead that it highlights lyric, in the richness and diversity characteristic of Hafiz, as the Persian poetic mode which has been more influential on English writing and yet the most difficult to categorize and integrate. Lastly, by paying heed to the popular transmission of Hafiz in English, we might better understand the reception of Persian poetry in its generic, rather than only its formal character.

The immensity of the corpus and diversity of genres of Classical New Persian in Judeo-Persian garb is remarkable, comprising a wide-ranging multitude of genres from translations of the Tanakh and rabbinic works to chronicles, lexicographies, religious poetry, translations of medieval Hebrew poems, and a large corpus of non-Jewish Classical Persian literature transcribed in Hebrew script. Yet, Judeo-Persian literary corpora remain incompletely catalogued as well as unsatisfactorily studied. While detailed studies of the genres of Judeo-Persian literature-in-transcription, as well as comparisons with literature in the common Perso-Arabic script, are still desiderata, this article aims to undertake a preliminary survey of the extant Judeo-Persian versions of the Dīvān of Šams od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ of Shiraz (d. 792/1390) and address some contextual aspects of its popularity among Iranian Jewry.

"Study of Rumi's circle (his father, his teacher Borhan al-Din, Shams of Tabriz, Salah al-Din Zarkub, Hosam al-Din Chelebi and Sultan Valad), his life, his poetry, his teachings and his reception history around the world.  Winner of the British-Kuwaiti Friendship Prize for 2001.
Translations of this book have been published as:
two in Persian: (Mowlana: Diruz ta emruz, sharq ta gharb. Tehran: Nashr-e Namak, translated by Hassan Lahouti  &  as Mowlavi:  Diruz o emruz, sharq o gharb.  Tehran: Nashr-e Saless, translated by F. Farahmandfar)
Turkish (http://www.kabalciyayinevi.com/kitap.asp?KitapId=337)
Danish (http://www.forlagetvandkunsten.dk/107561/)"
Arabic (  http://syrbook.gov.sy/index.php?ACT=2&Cid=4&id=151&Mod=2
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See on the Publisher's Website:  https://oneworld-publications.com/rumi-past-and-present-east-and-west-pb.html

The attached file contains: Table of Contents and preface to the 2008 revised edition

This article constitutes a preliminary attempt to explore the geographical dimension of premodern Persian lyric poetry from the perspective of the relationship between the historical adherence of a text to external reality and the rhetorics of intertextuality and performativity. The pretext for this exploration is the poem known as “Tork-e Shirazi” or “The Turk from Shiraz,” one of the most celebrated ghazals of Hafez of Shiraz. The analysis focuses in particular on the first two lines of the ghazal, whose rich and ambiguous imagery has challenged the community of readers, interpreters, and scholars for centuries. On the basis of historiographical, formalist, and poststructuralist approaches to the study of lyric poetry, the article outlines a generative paradigm that analyzes a given text from the perspective of its abstract, genre-specific, conventionally negotiated, and referential levels of meaning. The contribution of geocritical studies will be combined with rhetorical analysis to conceive of Hafez’s text as a geopoetic map in which the cities of Shiraz, Samarkand, and Bukhara are put in conversation with the mental and historical representations of Iran and India between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, during the transition from the Mongol to the Timurid models and ideals of power.

In 2003, I was commissioned by the now defunct International Society for Iranian Culture to update translations of classical Persian literature. Selections from Saadi's Bustan, which was published by Global Scholarly Publications (and is now out of print) was the second book I did, using G. M. Wickens 1974 translation as a trot. This is a PDF of the uncorrected proof.

E. Shavarebi (ed.), Мунҷики Тирмизӣ, Деван: Ашъори Пароканда [Monjik-i Tirmizī, Divān: Collected Poems], Tajik transl. by R. Abdulloev, Tashkent: Yangi Nashr, 2016.

A Tajik transliteration of my Persian edition of the Divan-e Monjik-e Termezi (Tehran: Miras-e Maktoob, 2012), with an introduction in Uzbek by Ramazon Abdulloev.

کامه‌ران موکری و فه‌ڕوخی یه‌زدی وه‌ک دوو له‌ شاعیره‌ دیار و به‌رجه‌سته‌کانی ئه‌ده‌بیاتی فارسی و کوردی و شاعیرگه‌لێکی دەروەست و خاوه‌ن‌‌هه‌ڵوێست، هه‌میشه‌ شیعره‌کانیان له‌ خزمه‌تی کۆمه‌ڵگادا بووه‌ و ویستوویانه‌ له‌ ڕێی قه‌ڵه‌مه‌که‌یانه‌وه‌ ده‌رد و ئازار و مه‌ینه‌تییه‌کانی خه‌ڵکی پیشان بده‌ن. ئه‌وان وێڕای ئه‌وه‌ی قه‌ڵه‌مه‌که‌یان بۆ هه‌ڵوێست‌نواندن دژ به‌ سته‌م و نادادییه‌کان به‌کار خستووه‌،‌ خه‌ڵکیشیان دژ به‌ زوڵم و سته‌م و بێدادییه‌ کۆمه‌ڵایه‌تیی و سیاسیی و ئاینییه‌کان هان‌داوه‌. سه‌ره‌ڕای ئه‌وه‌ی له‌ ڕووی کاته‌وه‌ به‌ته‌واوی هاوسه‌رده‌می یەکتر نه‌بوون، بەڵام به‌ روونی دیاره‌ که‌ که‌ش­وهه‌وای ژیانیان له‌ جوغڕافیای ڕۆژهه‌ڵاتی ناوه‌ڕاستی سه‌رده‌می نێوان شه‌ڕی جیهانی یەکه‌م و دووهه‌م­دا زۆر وێک چووه‌. هه‌ر بۆیه‌ش هه‌ڵسه‌نگاندنیان له‌ ڕووی ئه‌ده‌بی به‌راوردکارییه‌وه‌ شیاو و جێی سه‌رنجه‌. بیر و سۆزی به‌رچاوی نه‌ته‌وه‌یی به‌شێوه‌یەکی پته‌و و به‌ هێز، هه‌وڵی بێوچان بۆ ڕوون­کردنه‌وه‌ی بارودۆخی سیاسی و کۆمه‌ڵایه‌تی وڵات بۆ به‌رده‌نگ و به‌ تایبه‌ت چینه‌ ژێرده‌سته‌کان، به‌ره‌وڕوو بوونه‌وه‌ی بێ پێچ­و­په‌نا له‌گه‌ڵ ناڕێکیی کرده‌وه‌ و خه‌یانه‌ته‌کانی که‌سایه‌تییه‌ سیاسی و حکوومییه‌کان، به‌رنگاری و گازنده‌ دژ به‌ ده‌ست­تێوه‌ردانی هێز و هزره‌ بیانییه‌که‌ن له‌ ناوخۆی وڵات و به‌رنگاری و هێرش­کردنه‌سه‌ر فێڵبازی و چه‌وتیی که‌سایه‌تییه‌ ئایینیه‌کان یان ئه‌و که‌سانه‌ی به‌ ناوی ئایین به‌هره‌ی ئابووری و کۆمه‌ڵایه‌تی بۆخۆیان ده‌سته‌به‌ر ده‌که‌ن، ئه‌و خاڵانه‌ن که‌‌ به‌شێوه‌ی هاوبه‌ش، وێنه‌یەکی زه‌ق و به‌رچاو له‌ هه‌ڵوێست­دار بوون و سۆزی گشتگیری هونه‌ری و بیری قووڵی سیاسی-کۆمه‌ڵایه‌تی له‌ به‌رهه‌مه‌کانی هه‌ردووک نووسه‌ردا وه‌ده‌رده‌خات. به‌راوردکاریی بۆچوونی ئه‌و دوو نووسه‌ره‌ سه‌باره‌ت به‌ ئایین و چه‌مکه‌ ئایینیه‌کان، ده‌رخه‌ری جیاوازییه‌کی ورده‌ له‌ نیگایان بۆ دین؛ گه‌رچی خودی ئایین وه‌ک چه‌مکێک و پێگه‌یێکی کۆمه‌ڵایه‌تی‌ و بگره‌ مێژوویی بۆ نزیک­کردنه‌وه‌ و ڕێک­خستنه‌وه‌ی چینه‌کان له‌ شیعری فه‌ڕوخی ­یه‌زدیدا ئاماژه‌ی پێ­کراوه‌، به‌ڵام دین، به‌و شێوه‌یه‌ له‌ به‌رهه‌مه‌کانی مۆکری­دا ده‌رنه‌که‌وتووه‌ و ته‌نانه‌ت ئاماژه‌ی نه‌رێنیشی پێ­نه‌کراوه‌.

Вниманию читателей предлагается филологический перевод первых 120 бейтов (двустиший) поэмы-маснави “Язык птиц” великого персидского поэта XII–XIII вв. Фарид ад-Дина ‘Аттара, одного из ярчайших представителей иранского извода суфизма – мистического движения, зародившегося на мусульманском Востоке в VIII в. и существующего до нашего времени.

This article approaches Saʿdi's little-studied panegyric production. The contribution focuses on an encomiastic modality that is almost completely neglected when it comes to the study of the Persian qasida as a performative text that enacts the political , ethical, and aesthetic values of the court. This modality is primarily amatory, and combines the standard erotic discourse of the Ghaznavids and late Saljuq poems of praise with Saʿdi's original theo-erotic lyricism, which is mostly known through his ghazals. This critical approach will unfold by unearthing its underlying functions in a broad variety of qasidas that relate to the courtly conversations between Saʿdi and two young rulers who patronized the majority of Saʿdi's literary activities: the Salghurid prince Saʿd b. Abi Bakr (d.1260), and the minister of finances (sāheb divān) of the Il-khanid empire, Shams al-Din Jovayni (d. 1284).

[from p. 10, Preface, by P.M. Taylor, editor for the English translation:]

The poems presented in English translation here have been selected to illustrate the range of topics encompassed and the types of poetry produced by the great eighteenth century poet of the Turkmen people, Magtymguly Pyragy. These poems have been selected from the 393 Turkmen-language poems compiled by Dr. Annagurban Ashirov of Turkmenistan’s Institute of Manuscripts, and published in 2013. That two-volume compilation was itself a sampling of over 700 surviving poems thought to have been composed by Magtymguly. These poems were traditionally sung by Turkmen singers known as "bagshy," who as they sang played the two-stringed Turkmen instrument called "dutar." While many of Magtymguly’s poems are known from early manuscripts (though currently no manuscripts from the poet’s own hand have been located), many others survived only in these traditionally sung formats, up until recent efforts to record the songs and transcribe the poems (lyrics) in written form. NOTE: a video of the book-launch event in Ashgabat, hosted by Turkmenistan's Institute of Manuscripts (National Academy of Sciences), can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8jXO9vqp_Y&index=1&list=PL__mMoD16eH3np-sZHH_O6dtcGEkXbB83

In 1979, in relation to understanding the poetry of Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad, known as Ḥāfiẓ-i Shīrāzī, I proposed that in the Ṣūfic sonnets of Ḥāfiz, form was as important as meaning.  I also added that when interpreting those pieces one needs more than a mere knowledge of Persian and assistance from medieval and modern dictionaries. Those poems need to be interpreted in the philosophical and/or Ṣūfic contexts in which they have been composed. In that article, and another one called "Hafiz and the Sufic Ghazal," I analyzed four sonnets, each dealing with a particular aspect of the Ṣūfic way of life.  In 2008, I used the same technic and argument in presenting an analysis of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī's "Az jamādī mordamu nāmī shodam."
In the analysis of the Ṣūfic poem of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī that follows, I intend to follow the same line of argument as in the previous articles and show that like Ḥāfiz and Rūmī, Jāmī, too, expresses his sublime thoughts using powerful Ṣūfic imagery. There is, however, a major difference. In Jāmī content supersedes form. In other words, Jāmī pays more attention to the correct development of the idea that he presents than to the way in which the idea is presented. Thus, while Ḥāfiz's ghazals are memorized and recited as exemplary pieces of poetry by almost everyone in the Persian-speaking world, Jāmī's poetry does not evoke similar reactions. It does, however, leave an indelible mark on the reader who can follow his thoughts.

This is an extensively corrected edition in one volume of the two previously published volumes of A.J. Arberry's translations of 400 ghazals of Jalal al-Din Rumi.  With new formatting and new foreword, as well as new notes, by Franklin Lewis. 
The first volume was published in 1968 toward the end of Arberry's life, with notes prepared by Hasan Javadi, who had been a Lector at Cambridge and assistant to Arberry. Prof. Javadi also prepared and annotated the second volume of Arberry's translations for publication after Arberry's death, which appeared in 1979. 
After teaching as Professor of English at the University of Tehran, Prof. Javadi returned to the US, where he taught me Persian literature at UC Berkeley in the early 1980s. Prof. Javadi has retained the handwritten translations made by Arberry, and together we went over these in 2007-8 to help correct the many mistakes that appeared in the original 1979 publication (Prof. Arberry suffered from Parkinson's and his handwriting was very difficult to read, leading to many errors).
The new edition I have prepared brings together both volumes of Arberry's translations of Rumi's ghazals in one corrected edition with new notes and a new introduction.
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The first book of the series —  Amir Mu‘izzi Nishapuri. The Siyasat-nama/Siyar al-muluk (The Book of Government/The Vitae of Rulers): a fabrication ascribed to Nizam al-Mulk — is a classic text well known to every Iranist by the two cited titles. This text was translated into at least 11 languages, including Russian, is still published and reprinted in Iran under the authorship of Nizam al-Mulk.
However, as demonstrated by the results of historical, codicological, textual and stylometric analysis, the text was compiled by Muhammad Mu‘izzi Nishapuri (d. between 518—522 / 1124—1128), Head of the Department of Poets (the Amir al-shu‘ara), under the Saljuqid Sultan Malik-shah (poisoned in 485/1092), and then intentionally ascribed to the murdered Nizam al-Mulk, with a very specific purpose – to obtain a high-status position at the Court of the new Saljuqid ruler. Mu‘izzi’s innovative idea was to comment on the articles of the legal document, i.e., the labor agreement (muwada‘a) of Nizam al-Mulk with the Sultan-employer, with various stories, legends, tales, etc. The main method of compilation was to add this comment whenever possible to every article of this agreement.
This was how the first redaction of the text appeared. After that the second redaction followed, created by an unknown medieval editor. He reduced the original text, partially edited it and made changes to the foreword, presenting it to be authored by Nizam al-Mulk. These summarized conclusions are drawn from the analysis performed in the Introduction to the translation of the first redaction.

The year 1859 is a seminal moment for both Persian and English poetry. In that year, the English poet Edward Purcell FitzGerald (1809–1883) published an adaptation of the quatrains attributed to the Persian philosopher poet Omar Khayyam, under the title The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia. It was to become one of the world’s best-known poems. Although several poets before FitzGerald had translated specimens of Persian literature into English, his translations transmitted the Persian sentiments into English poetry, and have remained popular in world literature ever since. At first the translation was not successful at all, as the history of the first edition indicates. The book contained 75 quatrains and was published anonymously in an edition of 250 copies, 40 of which were bought by FitzGerald himself. With this poor start, the remaining books were sent to Bernard Quaritch’s bookshop, where they were shelved and later placed in a box outside the door for sale. In 1861, Whitley Stokes and John Ormsby discovered the book. Stokes purchased copies of the Rubáiyát for his friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who introduced the book to the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Its enthusiastic reception among the Pre-Raphaelites led FitzGerald to publish a second edition of the Rubáiyát in 1868 to which he added 35 quatrains. The cult of Rubáiyát was born. The Rubáiyát ran to a third edition in 1872, a fourth in 1879, and a fifth, posthumous, edition in 1889 (Karlin 2009, l–lvi). FitzGerald’s quatrains have been the source for hundreds of translations in various languages. Some 310 editions have sold millions of copies around the world.

In 2003, I was commissioned by the now defunct International Society for Iranian Culture to update translations of classical Persian literature. Selections from Saadi's Gulistan, which was published by Global Scholarly Publications (and is now out of print) was the first book I did, using Edward Rehatsek's 1888 translation as a trot. This is a PDF of the uncorrected proof.

A Historical Survey of the Original Romance It is remarkable how the love between Layla (Laylā) and Majnun (Majnūn) has become a source of inspiration for generations of poets and artists, crossing the boundaries of languages, cultures, and religions. The romance lives on in pop songs, novels, poetry, and the visual and material arts, showing people's fascination with unrequited love, immense faithfulness, the madness that creates art, the relationship between male and female, and the mystery of love. The romance proposes a type of love that at once ennobles and degrades, and a ladder to the divine that is also a catastrophic renunciation. These and several other subjects appeal to a large audience irrespective of cultural specificities, making Layla and Majnun important for World Literature. The plot of the original seventh-century Arabian story is simple. Layla and Majnun fall in love at an early age. When Majnun asks for her hand in marriage, her father rejects him, suggesting that Majnun should be brought to the House of God (the Ka  bah) to cure his madness. At the Ka  bah, Majnun begs God to increase his love for Layla. Layla is given in marriage to another man. At hearing this, Majnun becomes mad, shies away from the community of men, and seeks refuge in the wilderness, where he wanders half-naked, composing love poems for Layla. Due to his intense love, he cannot eat and lives among animals. His father intervenes several times, but all attempts serve only to intensify his A Companion to World Literature. Edited by Ken Seigneurie.

"The Necklace of the Pleiades is a volume on Persian literature, culture and religion by Persian scholars from around the world. This book reflects the state of the field of Persian literary studies and will be of substantial interest not only to scholars of Iranian culture, history and religions, but of Middle Eastern and South Asian studies, as well.

The topics of the 24 essays range from the Persian Alexander romance, to Ferdowsi’s Shahnama and other epics, the poetics and imagery of the ghazal and the qasida, Mughal court poetry, Sufism, Ismaili history, Baha’i literature, Iranian linguistics, the modern writer Sadeq Hedayat, and the reception of Salman Rushdie’s novel in Persian translation.

In Persian literature the Necklace of the Pleiades is a metaphor for the six or seven stars (Parvin, or Sorayyâ, high up in the constellation Taurus) which the heavens bestow, like precious pearls, upon a poet in gratitude and reward for composing a beautiful poem. The poem itself is compared to a string of pearls, with its carefully chosen words bored like unique pearls and strung in perfect metrical proportion. As Hafiz puts it:

You’ve sung a ghazal, pierced the pearls, come and sing it sweetly, Hafiz!
The heavens strew the very Necklace of the Pleiades upon your verse. "

This volume was presented as a Festschrift for Prof. Heshmat Moayyad of the University of Chicago on his 80th birthday.  Originally published by (Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publishers and West Lafayette, Indiana:  Purdue University Press, 2007)
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Unlike the Persian mystical works, most notably Rumi’s Mathnavi in which the stories are narrated in the service of conveying a spiritual message and are usually followed by some keys to their deeper meanings, the epical Shahnameh is silent for the most part on the possible symbolic readings of the stories therein. In preface to the Shahnameh, however, Ferdowsi invites the reader to understand symbolically (=بر رﺭهﻩ رﺭمز) the things that are not compatible with her wisdom (=خردﺩ), and thus leaves the task of contemplating the deeper meanings of the stories to the reader. In this study, we present a few medieval and pre-modern works that offer symbolic readings for the Shahnameh and examine their methods of interpretation and their motivations for offering mystical readings for an essentially epical work. The examined works are: the mystical readings of the stories of Jamshid, Bijan and Manijeh and occultation of Kaykhosrow in Elāhī Nāmeh(EN) by Attar (13th century AD), the story of Rostam and Esfandiar in Kadū Maṭbakh-i Qalandarī (KM) by Adham Khalkhalī (died ca. 1642 AD) and the story of Siyavash and Afrasiyab in Latīfe-ye Gheybīyeh(LG) by Muhammad Dārābī Shīrāzī (died ca. 1717 AD).
Regarding the methods of interpretation, most of the accounts read the stories allegorically by projecting the conflicts in the original story onto internal conflicts among man’s various faculties, e.g., KM makes the following parallels: Esfandiar=the carnal soul, Rostam=mind of a disciple (عقل سالک), Rostam’s arrows with no effect on Esfandiar=disciple’s thoughts and practices, etc. The conflict between Rostam and Esfandiar, therefore, represents the situation where the disciple is unable to save himself on his own; rather, he needs the help of a perfect master just as Rostam could only win with the help of Zal. In EN’s account of Jamshid and Kaykhosrow, the author uses the contrast between the rather different destinies of the two figures to convey the distinction between the literal meaning of the cup of Jamshid, i.e., mastering the world’s mysteries, and its real meaning, i.e., the heart of a realized mystic who can see the Truth.
Finally, we argue that in spite of Ferdowsi’s silence on the symbolic interpretations of the Shahnameh, medieval authors who considered Ferdowsi as a sage (حکﯿﻴم), do offer symbolic meanings for the stories to the extent that for some of them, reading the stories otherwise is not worth it, even though ‘they are as sweet as sugar’.

Fakhr al-Din Ahmad At’ema of Shiraz (d. 850 H./1446), one of the imitators of Bushāq-e At’ema, by using names of foods and drinks and kitchen terminology, have composed poetry in the manner of Bushaq’s parodies. Due to the similarity of name and literary style, these two poets were until recently taken as one and the same poet, this leading to a whole variety of arguments.
With respect to a newfound manuscript of Ahmad At’ema’s poetry (at the National Library, N. 38894) our findings presented in this article leave no doubt whatsoever that there existed two poets in the 9th century Shiraz. This manuscript contains over 400 distiches of Ahmad At’ema in which some important information can be obtained regarding the life story and poetry of several of Ahmad At’ema’s contemporaries and the persons he eulogized; information not referred to in other sources. The newly discovered MS also includes the introduction to Ahmad’s Divan, written by Mohammad Qāri, Za’farāni. The text of this introduction will be presented at the end of this article.

HIakim NizAri Quhistani (d. 721/1321),2 one of the eminent and original Persian poets of the Mongol period, was born in 645/1247 in the village of Ffidaj which lies in the suburbs of the city of Birjand in southeastern Khurasan. He was, according to some authorities (see below, V), a scion of the last Isma'ili Nizari Imam, Rukn al-Din Khurshah (653-54/ 1255-56). Since the only reliable facts about his life are those that can be deduced from his own works,3 it is mostly to these that I will be directing my attention in the following brief sketch of his life and times. In this essay I shall summarise (i) Nizari's biography, before proceeding to discuss (ii) his life as a courtier, vizier and panegryrist, (iii) the literary influences on his verse, (iv) his bacchanalian poetry, (v) various theories about the origins of his pen-name, (vi) the Isma'ili motifs and (vii) Sufi topoi and symbolism of his homiletic mathnawi and erotic lyrical poetry. Finally, some general conclusions (viii) will be drawn to resolve some of the apparent contradictions ostensibly present in the different (Sufi-Isma'ili) religious persuasions and spiritual doctrines expressed in his verse, while situating his poetry in its historical, literary, and spiritual contexts. Some reflections will also be offered on the place and significance of his poetry in the pantheon of mediaeval Persian poets, and comments made on the trans-sectarian context and mystical content of his verse as an expression of both Sufi symbolism and theosophy, and Isma'ili doctrine.

When reading poetry from divans, one always wonders how classical Persian poetry, bound by the seemingly strict rules of fasahat and balaghat, was performed; all the more so since we know for certain that this poetry was not meant to be read, but to be recited or sung...

This article explores the influence of Sainte-Beuve’s article, ‘Le Livre des Rois, par Firdousi’ (1850), a review of Julius von Mohl’s translation of Firdausi’s Shahnameh, on the conception of Arnold’s ‘Sohrab and Rustum’ (1853), exposing the paradoxical nature of this influence, since Sainte-Beuve both enabled Arnold to write the poem, and implicitly challenged the ‘authority’ of any modern poet to rival a ‘primary’ epic poet such as Firdausi. In order to expound the conflicting nature of this influence, this study first investigates the underlying constituents of Firdausi’s ‘Sohrāb’ and then focuses on Arnold’s version of it. Knowledge of Firdausi’s original is crucial not because Arnold knew it, but because he did not. In the chain of interpretation from Mohl to Sainte-Beuve to Arnold, only Mohl had access to the Persian text; Sainte-Beuve relied on the fidelity of Mohl’s translation, and Arnold had access only to what Sainte-Beuve selected from Mohl.

This article concerns the historical genesis of Rumi's works, prose and poetry.  Using the primary biographical evidence from the poems and discourses, this article analyzes them in the light of the hagiographical tradition, using the hagiographies quite cautiously to tease out further information.  Contrary to the view that the poetry of Mawlana Rumi emerged from a trance or other orphic means, this article shows that Rumi was a careful reader of the literary tradition and responded to it, as we might expect a modern reader or critic to do.  While it may be ultimately impossible to date many of the poems, based on internal evidence and histroical allusions, we can glean some information by attentively readng about the relative dating of many poems.
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'I had often wondered when Zuleika went to Cambridge. And now I know beyond any shadow of a doubt.,' said Sir Max Beherbohm about a pamphlet Zuleika in Cambridge published in 1941 by Sir Sydney Castle Roberts, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and Master of Pembroke College

... Document Details : Title: Insects in Classical Persian Literature Subtitle: The Case of the Ant Mayazar muri ki danakish ast ki jan darad u jan-i shirin khush ast Author(s): SEYED-GOHRAB, AA Journal: Persica Volume: 16 Date: 2000 Pages: 109-144 DOI: 10.2143/PERS.16.0 ...