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Rudaki

Abdollah Jafar Ibn Mohammad Rudaki, founder of Perso-Tajik literature. Rudaki was born in 858 in the village of Pandj-Rudak, near Pandjikent, situated between Samarkand and Bukhara (in Transoxiana, Central Asia). From a young age he began to write verses, he liked to play the lute (chang in Persian) and had a beautiful voice. He was one of the first poets to use the newly developed Persian alphabet, a transcription of the Pahlavi language with the Arabic alphabet. Rudaki’s poetry captivated the hearts and minds of his contemporaries. His Ghasidas  were the adornment of the parties of the royal palaces and of the meetings of scholars whose philosophical content surprised any listener. The poet reflected on the essence of phenomena and the constant movement of natural and social changes through his poetry at times at specific times. According to some documents, Rudaki’s literary heritage included more than one hundred thousand beyts (verses) of poetry. Rudaki died in 941 AD.  and his tomb is in his native town marked by a blue and white marble mausoleum. His poetry is simple in style, as court poetry should be, reflecting the charm of pre-Islamic Iranian poetry. Avoid Arabism and do not use verses from the Qur’an. Above all, his poetry is accessible to today’s schoolchildren who can enjoy his verses without the need for explanations or interpretations.

The Poetry and Classical Poets of Iran

Main forms and rhythmic patterns

The ancient Persian language of the Achaemenid Empire, preserved in numerous cuneiform inscriptions, was an Indo-European language with strong affinities with Sanskrit and Avestan (the language of Zoroastrian sacred texts). After the fall of the Achaemenids, the ancient language evolved into Middle Persian or Pahlavi (a name derived from Parthavi meaning Parthian) in the province of Pars. Pahlavi was used throughout the Sassanid period, although little remains today of what must have been considerable literature. About 100 texts are preserved in Pahlavi, most on religion and all in prose. However, the Pahlavi novel collections provided much of the material for Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

After the Arab conquest, knowledge of Arabic became necessary, since it was not only the language of the new rulers and the State, but also the religion that they brought with them and, later, the new knowledge. Although Pahlavi continued to be spoken in private life, Arabic dominated in official circles for a century and a half. With the weakening of the central power, a modified form of Pahlavi emerged, with its Indo-European grammatical structure intact but simplified, and heavily infused with Arabic words. This was the modern Persian spoken today.

Persian: the language spoken in Iran

Indo-Iranian is one of the main branches of the linguistic family, whose speakers are one of the first Indo-European peoples integrated into history. One of the languages ​​of this family has become the classical language of a culture as ancient and special as that of Iran. In the first millennium BC, the Indo-Iranians appeared definitely divided into its two branches, Hindu and Iranian, and settled in a continuum from Iran to India, passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan. From this moment on, the two peoples must be considered separately. Therefore, one of these languages ​​is precisely Persian, that is, modern Persian. Farsi is of Indo-European origin and completely different from Semitic languages ​​such as Arabic or Hebrew.

Parvin Etesami

Born in Tabriz, she is a 20th century Iranian poet. From childhood, Parvin learned Persian, English and Arabic from her father. From an early age, she began composing poems under the supervision of her father and talented teachers such as Dehkhoda and Bahar.

Persian and Arabic literature always amazed her and at the age of eight she began to write poetry, especially structured and delicate pieces that her father translated from foreign books (French, Turkish and Arabic). In this way, she naturally experienced her literary talent developing a particular multilingual style.

In her poems, Parvin follows the style of the pioneers, especially Nasser Khosrow, and her poems contain mainly moral and mystical themes. She expresses wisdom and moral issues with such simple and eloquent language.

Omar Khayyam

He was a prominent Persian astronomer, mathematician, and poet. Being the court astronomer of the Seljuk Sultan of Persia, Omar reformed the Persian solar calendar, but his fame, especially among the Anglo-Saxons, in Europe and America, is due to his quatrains due to the English poetic adaptation of a selection of them made by E. Fitzgerald with a beautiful sense of art. He lived between 1044 and 1123 AD. and his full name was Ghiyath ad-Din Abul Fateh Omar Ibn Ibrahim Khayyam. In “History of Western Philosophy”, Bertrand Russell points out that Khayyam is the only man recognized as both a poet and a mathematician at the same time. His work on algebra was highly appreciated throughout medieval Europe.

Nima Yushij

Nima Yushij (1897-1960), the first great poet of nimaic poetry, developed a poetic form that was later called new poetry or free verse to remove the restrictions of traditional rhyme and meter. Although he was not the only, or even the first, to attempt to modernize Persian poetry, he has been credited with the title of “father of modern Persian poetry.”

He was born on November 11, 1897 in Yush, a town in Nur, a city in northern Iran. His father, Ebrahim, was a strong supporter of constitutionalism. He could read and write, which made him a member of the Iranian elite of the early 20th century. Nima’s mother, Tuba, was the granddaughter of Hakim Nuri, a poet from the Qajar period.

Nezami Ganjavi

In 1141, he was born in Ganja, one of the ancient cultural centers of Azerbaijan and the capital of the Atabey state, which is part of the present Republic of Azerbaijan. It is the representative figure of the Eastern Renaissance.

His first wife, Afaq, bore him an only son named Muhammad Afaq. When Nezamí wrote “Khosrow and Shirin”, Afagh died. After her death, he remarried. His second wife died while writing “Leyli and Majnún.” He married for the third time and his wife died while writing the book “Eqbalnameh”. In one verse, Nezamí bitterly declared: “It seems that with every Masnaví I write, I make a sacrifice.”

Known as a poet, scholar, and philosopher, Nezamí is also known for using poetry to observe the actions of human beings in society. His epic romantic poems are filled with passionate emotions and philosophical comments about humanity.

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

He was born in 1207 in Balkh, in the province of Great Khosrasan of Persia (present-day Afghanistan), into a Pharisee family. His father, Baha ad-Din, was a renowned religious scholar. Under his patronage, Rumi received his early education from Syed Burhan-al-Din. At the age of about 18, to avoid Mongol invasions, they moved west through Iran, Iraq, and Syria, meeting famous writers and mystics, such as the revered poet Attar, author of the most beautiful spiritual parable in Persian, “The language of the birds.” The family’s flight ended in 1226 in the Anatolian city of Konya, capital of the Turkish Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, for which the poet is named. Rumi settled there, taught and composed until his death in 1273. Despite the fact that the Konya sultans were forced to pay tribute to the Mongols in 1243, the city continued to be a haven for Islamic culture, bringing together exceptional minds from faraway places in hard times. Mevlana was sent to Aleppo (present-day Syria) for advanced education and then to Damascus. He continued his training until he was 40 years old, although when his father died, Rumí succeeded him as a teacher in the famous Konya madrasa at the age of about 24. He received his mystical training first from Syed Burhan al-Din, and then he was trained by Shams-e Tabrizi. He became famous for his mystical vision, his religious knowledge, and as a Persian poet. He taught a large number of disciples in his madrasa and also founded the Sufi order of Mevlevi dervishes and instituted the ecstatic dance ritual for which “Whirling Dervishes” are still known today. He died in 1273 in Konya (present-day Turkey), which later became a sacred place for the dervishes of the Mevlevi order.

Mehdi Akhavan Sales

He was born in 1928 in Mashhad, Khorasan province, where he completed his secondary education. In the early 1950s, he participated in the anti-government riots, common in Iran at the time, and was briefly jailed after the fall of the government of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953. His first collection of poems, “Organ” (Arqanun), was published. published in 1951. Between 1959 and 1965, he worked as a high school teacher and elementary school principal. He also assisted in dubbing educational films, as well as writing articles for popular newspapers and magazines.

In 1959, Sales published his book “The End of Shahnameh” (Akhar-e Shahnameh), in which he analyzed some of the contemporary socio-political problems of Iran in the context of the ancient myths and legends of the country, related by Ferdowsi. A year later he created a complementary vision of the same in his “From this Avesta” (Az in Avesta), again indirectly criticizing the government. In revenge, the government persecuted him and his followers for being anarchists. Similar activities in 1967 brought the poet to Qasr prison for a brief period. Upon his release, Akhavan joined the Ministry of Education and the National Radio and Television Organization of Iran. He died in 1990 in Tehran. His grave is in Tus, near Mashhad, next to that of Ferdowsi. According to critics, Mehdi Akhavan Sales is one of the best contemporary Persian poets. He is one of the pioneers of free verse in Persian literature, especially modern-style epics. For a long time he had the ambition to introduce a new style to Persian poetry.

Nur ad-Din Abd ar-Rahman Jami

The son of Mowlana Nezam o-Din, Ahmad was born in Jam, a small town in Khorasan, in 1414. His nickname is Jami, which means “cup of wine” in Persian and Nur ad-Din means “Light of faith”. As a child, he learned Persian and Arabic from his father. He attended a school in Herat (present-day Afghanistan) and then a school in Samarkand, where he studied with Ghazi-zadeh Ruhm, one of the greatest scholars of the time. Jami returned to Herat to study mathematics and philosophy. Hakim Jami then joined Saaduddin, the leader of the Naqshbandis and became his disciple. It is said that when Saaduddin met other dervishes in the Jomeh mosque in Herat, every time Jami passed by the mosque, Saaduddin would tell him: “I am fascinated by this man, he is really worthy. I don’t know how to attract him to be my disciple.” Jami was known for his sense of humor. He paid special attention to Saadi and Hafez in poetry and followed Nezami in his masnavi. In 1472, Jami began his pilgrimage to Mecca, as every Muslim who can afford it is supposed to do once in their lifetime. One of Jami’s commendable characteristics is that he had conviction in what he said and wrote. Jami said: “There are many seekers, but mostly seekers of self-improvement. There are very few seekers of the real truth.”