Category: Poets and Poetry

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.”

Khajeh Shams od-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi

He was born in 1319 in Shiraz, southwestern Iran. As a child, he had memorized the Qur’an by listening to his father’s recitations, which earned him the title Hafez (a title given to those who had memorized the Qur’an by heart). He had also memorized many works by his hero, Saadi, as well as Attar, Rumi, and Nezami. His father, who was a coal merchant, died, leaving him and his mother in many debts. Hafez and his mother went to live with their uncle. He left kindergarten to work in a textile workshop and later in a bakery. While working in the bakery, he gave bread to a rich man in the city and saw Shakh-e Nabat (branch of sugar cane), a young woman of incredible beauty. Many of his poems are directed to her. In his quest to reach his beloved, Hafez watched for forty days and forty nights at Baba Kuhi’s tomb. Having succeeded, he met Attar and became his disciple. Hafez became the court poet of Abu Ishak, which resulted in him gaining fame and influence in Shiraz. This is considered the phase of “spiritual romanticism” in his poetry. Hafez left some 500 ghazals (gazelle), 42 rubaies (quartets) and some qasidas, composed over 50 years. Hafez only composed when inspired by divinity, so he only composed an average of 10 gazelles a year. His goal was to write poetry worthy of the Beloved.

Forugh Farrokhzad

Born in Tehran in 1935, a time of great social change, the third daughter of seven children, Forugh studied art and soon turned to poetry. She went to school until the eighth grade, and then learned to paint and sew at an arts and crafts school for girls. At sixteen, she married Parviz Shapur, a well-known satirist. Forugh continued her studies by attending painting classes and moved with her husband to Ahvaz. A year later, she gave birth to her only son, Kamyar (the subject of one of her poems). After three years of marriage, she was forced to choose between divorce and poetry and chose the latter, which deprived her of seeing her son forever.

Fereydun Moshiri

He was born in Tehran in September 1926. His well-known family was known for their poetic legacy and, while his father held administrative positions, his school years were divided between Tehran and Mashhad. With the outbreak of World War II, his family moved to Tehran and the young Moshiri continued his studies at Dar-ul Funun and later at the Adib institute. During these years, his first poems were published in progressive magazines such as Iran-e-Ma (Our Iran). This was the beginning of the literary journalism career that Fereydun followed for more than thirty years. In 1946, Moshiri joined the telecommunications department, where he worked until his retirement. In 1954, she married Eqbal Ajavan, who was a painting student at the University of Tehran.

Ferdowsi

He was born in the province of Khorasan, in a village near Tus, in 935. He was responsible for the rebirth of Persian cultural traditions after the Arab conquest in the 7th century. In his lifetime, various medieval texts describe the lack of interest of the new ruler of Khorasan, Mahmud Gaznavida, in Ferdowsi and his work. Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 AD. in poverty and embittered by royal abandonment, although he trusts in his final fame and in his poem. The “Shahnameh” (Book of Kings) is one of the world’s best-known classics and tells the epic of the heroes of ancient Persia. The content and style of the description of the events by the poet make the reader go back to antiquity feeling them. Ferdowsi strove for thirty years to perfect this masterpiece. For almost a thousand years, the Persians have continued to read and listen to the stories of their masterpiece, in which the Persian national epic found its final form. It is the story of Iran’s glorious past, forever preserved in sonorous and majestic verses. Although it was written about 1000 years ago, this work is also understandable to modern Iranians. The language, an original Pahlavi, is a pure Persian with few Arabicisms.

Baba Taher Oryan Hamadani

According to one source, he died in 1019 AD. and, in the case of being reliable, Baba Taher was a contemporary of Ferdowsi and Avicenna and an immediate forerunner of Omar Khayyam. It is said that he lived to be 75 years old. It is claimed that he was a member of the “Ahl-e Haq” sect (dervish or follower of the truth) and that his sister Bibi Fatimeh is also respected by this community. Baba Taher Oryan Hamadani was one of the most eminent mystics of his time. He was from Hamadan, a cultured and omniscient man (which means hama dan in Persian). His popular name Oryan means “naked.” Baba Taher is known for his do-beytis (couplets) and quartets. Baba Taher’s poems are accompanied by sehtar (a three-stringed musical instrument). The Baba Taher quatrains are written with a local accent, so they should be recited with the strong accent of his city, Hamadan. Baba Taher’s quatrains were sung in the Pahlavi dialect and have adopted their present form over time, and have a loving, mystical and philosophical connotation.