Iran - Andrew Burke [51]
These days Ferdosi is seen as the saviour of Farsi, which he chose to use at a time when the language was under threat from Arabic. Without his writings many details of Persian history and culture might also have been lost. All in all, Ferdosi is credited with having done much to help shape the Iranian self-image.
Hafez
Khajeh Shams-ed-Din Mohammed, or Hafez (meaning ‘One Who Can Recite the Quran from Memory’) as he became known, was born in Shiraz in about 1324. His father died while he was still young so the boy was educated by some of the city’s leading scholars. Apart from memorising the Quran at an early age, he also became interested in literature and wrote many verses still used in everyday speech. His collection of poems, known as Divan-e Hafez, has a strong mystical quality and is often virtually untranslatable; much of it was also about nightingales, courtship and wine. Although he lived in turbulent times, Hafez refused many generous invitations to some of the great courts of the day, both inside and outside Iran, because of his love for his birthplace. He died in 1389.
Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (Omar the Tentmaker) was born in Neishabur in about 1047. He is probably the best-known Iranian poet in the West because many of his poems, including the famous Rubaiyat, were translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald; in Iran he is more famous as a mathematician, historian and astronomer, in particular for his studies of the calendar and algebra. Although there is some speculation about what he actually wrote, Omar Khayyam is famous for his ruba’i poems. He died in 1123.
Rumi
Born Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Balkhi – known as Rumi – in 1207 in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan). His family fled west before the Mongol invasions and eventually settled in Konya in present-day Turkey, where first his father and then he retreated into meditation and study of the divine. His first great work was the Masnevi. He was inspired by a great dervish, Shams-e Tabrizi, and many of his poems of divine love are addressed to him. He is credited with founding the Maulavi Sufi order – the whirling dervishes. He is also known as Maulana (‘the Master’ in Arabic).
Sa’di
The other great Shirazi poet, Sheikh Mohammed Shams-ed-Din (known as Sa’di), lived from about 1207 to 1291. Like Hafez, he lost his father at an early age and was educated by some of the leading teachers of Shiraz. Many of his elegantly phrased verses are still commonly used in conversation. His most famous works, the Golestan (Rose Garden) and Bustan (Garden of Trees), have been translated into many languages.
* * *
* * *
Modern Persian Poetry (An Anthology in English), edited by Mahmud Kianush, is a thorough anthology that includes 129 poems by 43 poets of the 20th century. Featured poets include all the modern innovators, such as Nima Yushij, Fereydun Tavalloli and Forough Farrokhzad.
* * *
Moral and religious poetry became enormously popular following the success of Sa’di’s most famous poems, the Bustan and Golestan. By the 14th century, smaller qazal poems, which ran to about 10 nonrhyming couplets, were still being used for love stories. Qazal poetry, which developed around the same time as qasideh, was made famous by Hafez and is still practised today.
Early in the last century modernist Persian poetry changed the poetic landscape. This style is exemplified by the work of Nima Yushij. Poets such as Forough Farrokhzad and Sohrab Sepehri were influential from the 1950s onwards. Ahmad Shamloo’s Fresh Air, a book of poems published in 1957, marked the introduction of a lyrical style that was also political and metaphoric. Parvin E’tesami is a noted female poet, renowned for her religious poems, Mecca of the Heart and Eye and Heart. She died in 1941 at 35.
Novels
More and more Iranian novels are now available in English. The 20th-century writer Sadeq Hedayat is the best-known Iranian