Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ferdosi 940-1020
Hakim Abulqasim Ferdosi, first and foremost of all Iranian poets, was born near Tus outside Mashhad. He deve-
loped the
ruba
'
i
(quatrain) style of 'epic' historic poems and is remembered primarily for the
Shahnamah
(Book of
Kings), which took 33 years to write and included almost 60,000 couplets. Ferdosi is seen as the saviour of Farsi,
which he wrote in 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 and Ferdosi is credited with having done much to help shape
the Iranian self-image.
Hafez 1325-1389
Khajeh Shams-ed-Din Mohammed, or Hafez (meaning 'One Who Can Recite the Quran from Memory') as he be-
came known, was born in Shiraz. His poetry has a strong mystical quality and regular references to wine, courtship
and nightingales have been interpreted in different ways (is wine literal or a metaphor for God?). A copy of his col-
lected works, known as the Divan-e Hafez, can be found in almost every home in Iran, and many of his verses are
used as proverbs to this day.
Omar Khayyam 1047-1123
Omar Khayyam (Omar the Tentmaker) was born in Neishabur and 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 Fitzger-
ald. In Iran he is more famous as a mathematician, historian and astronomer.
Rumi 1207-1273
Born Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Balkhi in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan), Rumi's family fled west before the
Mongol invasions and eventually settled in Konya in present-day Turkey. There his father and then he retreated into
meditation and study of the divine. Rumi 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 -
and is also known as Maulana ('the Master').
Sa'di 1207-1291
Like Hafez, Sheikh Mohammed Shams-ed-Din (known as Sa'di), 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 conversa-
tion. His most famous works, the
Golestan
(Rose Garden) and
Bustan
(Garden of Trees), have been translated into
many languages.
Moral and religious poetry became popular following the success of Sa'di's most fam-
ous 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; the most famous
qazal
poet is Hafez.
Early in the last century modernist Persian poetry changed the poetic landscape. This
style is exemplified by the work of Nima Yushij. 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.
