Persian Narrative Poetry in the Classical Era, 800-1500: Romantic and Didactic Genres : A History of Persian Literature, Vol III

The third volume in this ground-breaking series, Persian Narrative Poetry in the Classical Era, 800-1500: Romantic and Didactic Genres , introduces masterpieces of Persian literature from these seven centuries to an international audience. In the process, it underlines the remarkable tenacity of their malleable tradition: the perennial dialogue and the interconnectedness which binds together a vast and varied literature composed of many threads, romantic and didactic, in many lands, from Anatolia and Iran to India and Central Asia. In its companion volume, Persian Lyric in the Classical Era, 800-1500 , the readers of the series will have already met in passing all the mythical and historical figures who appear with far more aplomb on the stage here, with their lives narrated in detail by poets of different caliber from different perspectives. The first two chapters of this volume recount the literary history of the entire period, focusing on didactic and romantic narratives. The central chapters take a closer look at the towering figure of the poet Nezâmi Ganjavi. The final chapter takes the reader to a wider landscape tracing the footsteps of Alexander across the globe, offering insights to the cultural preoccupations refracted in so many versions past and present. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Contents 9 Contributors 15 Introduction 17 Chapter 1: Secular Didactic Mathnavis (J.T.P. de Bruijn) 25 1. Didacticism in Persian Literature 25 2. Didacticism in Early Mathnavis 30 Rudaki 30 Abu-Shakur Balkhi 32 Meysari 33 Ferdowsi 35 Asadi Tusi 44 3. The Emergence of the Didactic Mathnavi 47 Nâser-e Khosrow 47 Sanâ’i 51 The Journey of the Servants 53 The Garden of Reality 57 4. The Aftermath of Sanâ’i’s Didactic Mathnavis 67 Khâqâni, Tohfat al-Erâqeyn 72 Farid-al-Din Attâr 73 Jalâl-al-Din Rumi, Mathnavi-ye ma’navi 77 Nezâmi, Makhzan al-asrâr 81 Sa’di, Bustân (Sa’di-nâme) 88 Owhadi, Jâm-e Jam 97 5. In the Footsteps of Nezâmi Ganjavi 102 Amir Khosrow 102 Khwâju Kermâni 103 Emâd-al-Din Kermâni 104 Mowlânâ Jâmi of Herat 105 Jâmi as a Didactic Poet 106 Salamân va Absâl 107 Selselat al-dhahab 109 6. Conclusion 112 Chapter 2: Romantic Mathnavis (Pre-Safavid Period) (J.T.P. de Bruijn) 114 1. Love Stories in Romantic Mathnavis 114 2. Early Romantic Poems 119 Vâmeq va Adhrâ 121 Varqe va Golshâh 124 Vis va Râmin 128 Khosrow-nâme 135 Chapter 3: Nezȃmi’s Romantic Poems And Their Cultural Afterlife: Reception And Responses (Paola Orsatti) 143 1. Overview and Critical Assessment of the Poems 143 The Narrative Material and Principal Themes 143 2. Types of Intertextuality in the Tradition of Response to Nezâmi’s Poems 149 3. Narrative Poetry: Some Critical Issues 157 Tradition and Originality 157 Narrative Poetry and Historical Truth 159 Narrative Poetry of Non-Islamic Content: Subject Matter, Form, and Interpretation 164 4. Problems of Research on the Tradition of Response to Nezâmi’s Poems 168 Chapter 4: Khosrow And Shirin And The Poems of Love And Adventure (Paola Orsatti) 173 1. Nezȃmi’s Khosrow va Shirin 173 The Historical and Geographic Context of the Poem 173 The Date of the Composition 179 Love, Passion, and Marriage: A Reading of Nezâmi’s Poem 181 Falling in Love on the Basis of a Description: Nezȃmi’s Language of Images 192 Between History and Legend: The Characters in Nezâmi’s Poem 196 Shirin 196 Maryam 206 Shakar 209 Farhâd 209 2. Responses to Nezȃmi’s Poem 212 Shirin va Khosrow by Amir Khosrow 212 Jamȃli’s Mehr va Negâr 221 Hȃtefi’s Shirin va Khosrow 226 Critical Responses: The Farhȃd-nȃme by Âref Ardabili 234 3. The Poems of Love and Adventure and their Relationship to Nezâmi’s Poem 239 The Main Characters in the Poems of Love and Adventure 242 Main Narrative Features of the Poems of Love and Adventure 244 Khwâju Kermâni’s Gol va Nowruz 246 Salmân Sâvaji’s Jamshid va Khworshid 247 Amin-al-Din Mohammad Sâfi’s Bahrâm va Golandâm 248 4. Allegory in Narratives of Love 251 Gol va Nowruz by Jalȃl Tabib 251 Jâmi’s Poems 254 Salâmân va Absâl 255 Yusof va Zoleykhâ 260 Chapter 5: Leyli And Majnun (Paola Orsatti) 271 1. The Legend of Majnun 271 2. Majnun’s Concept of Love 274 3. Nezâmi’s Poem Leyli va Majnun 276 The Problem of the Text of the Poem 278 The Legend of Majnun in Nezâmi’s Re-Reading 285 Leyli and Other Main Characters of the Poem 292 Descriptions, Apologues, and Lyrical Passages: The Poem’s Formal Characteristics 296 4. The Poem Majnun va Leyli by Amir Khosrow 301 5. Mahzun va Mahbub by Jamȃli 310 6. The Legend of Leyli and Majnun in the Fifteenth Century 314 7. Leyli va Majnun by Jȃmi 317 8. Other Poems 326 Leyli Majnun by Hȃtefi 327 Leyli va Majnun by Maktabi 333 Chapter 6: Nezâmi’s Haft Peykar And Its Tradition In Persian Literature (Paola Orsatti) 336 1. Nezȃmi’s Haft Peykar 336 The Dedicatee of Haft Peykar: His Relationship to the Poem 339 Bahrȃm in Nezâmi’s Poem 341 The Problem of the Sources 350 Nezȃmi’s Seven Tales: Analysis and Sources 352 2. The Development of the Bahrâm Gur Romance Before Nezȃmi 361 Bahrȃm Gur in the Shâh-nâme 365 Nezȃmi’s Bahrȃm Gur and the Influence of the Bahrȃm Chubin Romance 367 Astrology and the Occult Sciences: The Healing Properties of the Seven Cupolas and other Palaces of Iranian Myth 372 The Hunt with the Handmaid: The Problem of Love in Bahrȃm Gur’s Story 376 3. Hasht Behesht by Amir Khosrow 382 Sources and Structure of the Poem 382 The Frame-Narrative: First Paradise 385 The Seven Tales and the Death of Bahr?m 388 4. Hȃtefi’s Poem Haft Manzar 391 5. Other Poems 393 6. The Fortunes of the Saga of Bahrȃm 396 Chapter 7: The Alexander Legend In Persian Literature (Mario Casari) 402 1. Alexander the Great in Iran 402 Alexander the Accursed: Historical Antefacts and the Zoroastrian Tradition 409 Alexander the Persian King: The “Pseudo-Callisthenes” Inheritance 414 Alexander the Two-Horned: The Account in the Qur’an 427 2. Alexander amidst Conquest and Mission 433 The Builder of the Barrier: Eskandar in Religious Literature 434 The Conquest of Asia: Eskandar in Historiography 446 Until the End of the World: Eskandar, the King of Anecdotes 456 3. Alexander Romances 467 The Talking Tree: Eskandar in the Shâh-nâme 467 A Court of Sages: Eskandar in Nezâmi’s Khamse 485 Mirrors of Alexander: Eskandar Mathnavis after Nezâmi 515 Eskandar Ayyâr: The Prose Romances 544 4. Alexander’s Boundaries: A Conclusion 561 Abbreviations 567 Abbreviations of Books and Journals 567 Bibliography 569 Chapters 1-2 569 Chapters 3-6 576 Chapter 7 597 Primary Sources 597 Secondary Sources 603 Index 628 "Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia. It has been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others and praised by William Jones, Tagore, E. M. Forster and many more. Yet Persian literature has never received the attention in the West, which it merits. Whereas Persian art and architecture, and more recently Iranian cinema, have been written about extensively and at different levels for a varied audience, Persian literature - the greatest achievement of the Iranian people, and one of the major literatures of the world - has largely remained the exclusive domain of specialists. And although in the past few years the poems of Rumi have attracted the kind of popular attention enjoyed by Omar Khayyam's quatrains in the 19th century, Persian literature has never had the impact of the recognition outside the Persianate world of a major world literature. A History of Persian Literature responds to this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This multi-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian nation. Prominent scholars in the field bring a fresh critical approach to bear on this important topic and each volume includes representative samples of this literature. The third volume in this ground-breaking series explores mainly the poems written in the couplet form (mathnavi) including narrative mathnavis, allegorical mathnavis such as Conference of the Birds by Attâr as well as didactive mathnavis such as Sa'di's Bustân and Rumi's Mathnavi-ye Ma'navi. Included in this volume are also Strophic Poetry, Satirical and Invective Poems and Occasional Poems (qat'e) and some rarer forms of Persian poetry. Exploring these genres of Persian poetry and the major figures of each genre such as Rudaki, Nezâmi, Sanâ'i, Attâr, Sa'di and Rumi, there is a detailed examination of the intricate interplay between form and content. Through expert and revealing analysis of these distinctive Persian poetic genres this volume provides invaluable insights into their creation and development. Examining the contribution of the great practitioners of the era, some of the most distinguished authorities on the subject lend their expertise to unravel the complex but central role played by poetry in its golden age. This volume is an invaluable companion for anyone who wants to understand the continuing relevance and influence of Classical Persian Poetry."-- Provided by publisher Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia and been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others. Yet Persian literature has never received the attention it truly deserves. A History of Persian Literature answers this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This 18-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian experience. It includes extensive, revealing examples with contributions by prominent scholars who bring a fresh critical approach to bear on this important topic. The second volume in this ground-breaking series presents the reader with an extensive study of Persian Poetry from the time of Iran's early encounter with Islam up to the end of the Timurids and the arrival of the Safavids. The authors explore the development of poetic genres, from the panegyric qaside, to short lyrical poems (ghazal), and the quatrains (roba'i), tracing the stylistic evolution of Persian poetry between 800-1500 and offering an essential examination of the vital role these poetic forms play within the rich landscape of Persian Literature.