PERSIAN NT VE AWS AVY YTS TO THE MYSTICAL USE OF CLASSICAL aS BAM 2a) 6 SMa ee) eee Ru Cun a ree etn Pre er eats or Sea ee Cte eR ec ea Phe oc stn tg ns of abstinence Dee ee eas oe cies eae cee est ee peace love Ce ee eer eee eg tere ens landers A specimen Pre are a ree er peers een os‘CURZON SUF SERIES Seties editor: lan Richard Netton Profesor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies, noe Persian Sufi Poetry An Introduction to the Mystical Use ' of Classical Persian Poems “The Caron Su Seis auenpts wo provide sha notions w & varity of fae of the subj, which are sceanle oth othe gener ‘der andthe det sd elaine ld Each wile eter ‘athens of caving Knoredgs or « dato! consivion to, sd ‘tenon of, Kowa ofthe pata opie Te two major unde Ing pans ofthe Stn sound wlan ond rnb ‘i ITP. de Bruijn EYOND FAITH AND INFIDELITY } “The Sut Poy and Teachings of Mahmud Shabir, “emer Lech ALHALLAI Hebot W. Nason ; RUZBIHAN BAQLI Matis andthe Rhetoric of Saiathood in Persian Sufism Cal W. Est ABDULLAH ANSARI OF HERAT ‘An Early Saf Master ‘AG. Revan Ferhat ‘THE CONCEPT OF SAINTHOOD IN EARLY ISLAMIC MYSTICISM, Bernd Rath and Jobe O'Kane SUHRAWARDI AND THE SCHOOL OF ILLUMINATION ‘Me Amin Raza ea =(© 1997 /TP de Ben “Types in Hokey Old Sle by Lasexpt Lud, Mitcham "ted ad bur i Grn tain ids Limi, Galfer td King’ yon All sige eee. No prof hie bok may be erated oe tepetaced ed many frm by any done “Bethan o ther meant, now knoe of bree invented ining petroping ned vecordinge nay infratin stage rival ssn without perio a “ring ton the publishes. Brin Ler Ctl in Putin Data catgut tc for ha Dok arden the Bech Larry ISBN 0-707-0674-7 (sb) TSBN 0-7007-0312-8 (pb) Contents Introduction 1. Mystical Epigrams Persian qustraine “The case of ‘Umar-i Khayyim Biba Tahir ‘Uryan ‘Shaykh Aba Se'td Bubs Afzal “The Mukhear-name of ‘Apae Anthologies Commentaries 2. Poems of Abstinence “The qasida in secular and religious poetry Khigiat and other 12th century poets of the gasida ‘The qasdas of ‘Attar 3 Poetry of Love ‘The theme of love ‘The ghazal as 2 prosodic form and as a genrePain Sof Pay The ghazal inthe history of literature “The scope of ghazal poetry ‘The ghazal as a mystical poem Unbelievers and qalandars A specimen from the ghazal of Hafiz ‘Teachers and Story-tellers ‘The magnavt Didactical poetry ‘The magnavie of Sana't \NigamY's Makan al-asrar ‘The masnavts of ‘Attar Ram's Masnavi-yi Ma‘navt Sultin Valad Se'd’s Bastin ‘Auhadt's Jim-i Jam Khwaja Kiemant Gulshan-i riz Sufi practices Mystical allegories ‘The Seven Thrones of Jimi 4 6 68 n 7 “ 4 86 a8 a 108 1 113 us 116 118 18 at 123 128 135 Introduction ‘The tite ofthis book isthe sme a the working title which was suggested when [was invited to write it. Now that the writing is done, I do not fel the need to lok fora more descriptive name because the provisional tite, if correctly understood, expresses almost exactly what the reader wil find onthe fllowing pages. It tells simply, but clealy enough, that poems will be discussed ‘which were writen in the clasical Persian language oa themes related to the mystical tradition of Iam Ifa few words of explanation ae sill needed, the reason is, first ofall thatthe subject thus defined is too extensive to be fully surveyed in a concise volume ike this Since the beginning of the tleventh century aD, the date ofthe oldest specimens known to ‘san enormous amount of mystical poems has been composed in Persian, ‘The poets lived not only in present-day Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikittan, the countries whore Persian is at home both as a spoken and a writen language, but also in other parts of Asia ~ in particular the Indian Subcontinent, Central ‘Asia and Turkey ~ where literary Persian was used for centuries ‘8 an important cultural language. Certain limits of time and seography had therefore to be drawn. ‘Although in the course of this almost millearian period beautiful and interesting mystical poems have been writen a ll times and in all places, the history of Persian Sufi poetry has known a ‘golden era’, 9 it was called by AJ. Arberry, whose 1Pain Su Petry CCassical Persian Literature covers the same period a the present survey: The greatest Sufi poets who created the mot influential oem all lived during 2 period roughly corresponding to the European Middle Ages. As a convenient final date 1492 was chosen, the year when Mulls ‘Abd ar-Rabmén Jami died, a great Sufi sheikh gs well as a very productive writes, whose mystical poetry provided suitable material to conclude each of the four ‘hapters ofthis book. ‘Shortly after Jams death the Sofavds united the greater part of the Persian homelands under their rule. This political incident greatly changed the religious and cultural climate, notably through the introduction of Shiite Islam asthe nation eligion| of the country we now know as Iran. Classical Persian literature survived al this and, upto the present century, continued to be the most conspicuous element ofthe Persian cultural identity. Ie ‘was even strong enough to penetzate the civilisations of other ‘Asian nations, From the sixteenth century onwards Indian and ‘Turkish Muslims partcjpated increasingly in the tradition of Persian poetry, not only by writing ia Persian but also by following the examples set by the poets of Persia in their own languages, During the ‘medieval’ period these developments had hardy begun. On the whole, the poets reviewed here were Sunni Muslims and nearly all ved, or at least were bor, in the lands ‘where Persian language was the indigenous language: Tn its earliest form, the Persian language appears in the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenian Kings of Kings ‘written between the sixth and fourth centuries ac. After the destruction ofthe Old Persian empire by Alexander the Great, it disappeared from historical reneds for several centuries unt, from the third century aD cnvards, it was adopted again as a literary medium (called Middle Persian or Pablavi) by Sasanian kings, Zoroasrians and Manichaeans. In the seventh century, ‘when the Arabs brought the religion of Islam to Persia, another ‘major break occurred i the continuity of Persian culture. Arabic became the exclusive medium of literary culture in the dominating Muslim community. However, already inthe second half of the ninth century, Persian began to be used in writing 2 Invouction asin inthe easter provines ofthe Abbasid caliphate. Poa! Cieummtancs which brought res of lel origin into owe, favoured the pid development of x New Persian Ienguage. In ‘many ways twas pial product ofthe clon of ithe ‘crip large section ofthe vray nd many teary forms tone dcr fren AriatcMeneoat the later langage remained an important fir in Peran cate, where st Centinad to play more oles the sane clean Latin di in medieval Europe. Arabic was pariculaly dominant in the ‘gions dcipins, one of which wa the ene of Stim! Until the rweatith century, when it was signieantly mdemsod under Wester infaene, Persian potty was Ail formal arin adit, To write poem men, nthe fit pic, to apply cetsin unchangeable rls covering proxy, eager ecticeehchtrad dere Arles penn sess tat each poem should be constructed as a sequence of {ch or byte The two half-vere ofeach dsich re virally “ensical ap far as their metic pattems ae concerned. The ‘hymen iter intra (3) ony fal (2) inking the Kine withthe ober dist ofthe pom, The former mark the isch {ae opening lines the poems ali telat cold be wed thy ber ine fn thin way, met vere forme entet in the {ron can be defined. The ost mpertant ae the quan ot ‘us the qd, the ghazal and the maa. To each ofthese four vere fers neo the chaptesin this book willbe devoted inital, this pocky wer almost ently mater of the aecieval Persian court and therefore etenally secular trode, The chamcersic frm wn te gol, which waa tom fen uae fr poems of praise. When the Sats began 1 rte Persian pcre ty acapted many forme of our poetry their own ends. Suf pote etsined several tras ofthis rg thedisincton with oar ovr therefore ometines ified tp make. On the other hand, the remarkable expansion of Su etry equally mae ts mopacton the pty othe worl otha, ‘venta the lines distingishing the two Beare vague. Tis Ciowed sos peeblems fo the interpretation of Prin poet cope fr asthe yal gene ofthe gavel is concerned 3Pan uf Pty Intradaton ‘The controversy surrounding the mystical or non-mystcal readings of Hifr's poetry isthe most typical example. ‘A matical tend must have been preset in Islam from the very beginning. The English word Sufism, as Islamic mysticism is ‘usually refered to, was derived from the Arabic tasavvuf which sccocding tq the most likly explanation, orginally meant ‘to don ‘woollen cloak’, It would then refer othe predominance, during the fire few centuries, of ascetic piety, influenced, ait seems, by the practices of Christan hermits inthe Syian desert. Accounts ofthe acts and th sayings ofthe early sheikhe are preserved in an extensive agiographical literature, written in Arabic and Persizn “Already inthe eighth century (the szcond ofthe Islamic era) more reflective books appeared, which mark the beginnings of a rich lowering of Sufi literatuein prose and poetry composed aver the ‘centuries in every cultural language of the Islamic work. These ‘works cove the various aspects of mystical experience and ethics ‘aswell as metaphysical theory as, fom the late twelfth century ‘onwards, it developed out ofa merger of philosophy and Sufism: the most influential boy of mystical doctrine was Mubyi ad-Din Thnal-/Arab's theceophy known asthe thesis of wahdatal-wuyid the ‘Unity of Being. “The fist Sufi poets about whom we ave any knowledge were ‘Arabs. Lave poetry of great intensity has been attributed tothe feat mystics, such 2s the poetess Rab'a of Basra (4, 801), the Egyptian saint Dha'a-Nan (d. 861) and al-Hallj of Baghdad (executed in 922) whom the Persian poets celebrated a the prime example of sacrifice for love's sake tinder the name ‘Mansi’ ‘When inthe eleventh century Persian Sufis started to write and read poetry, they coatinued 2 long-standing practice. The Persians, however, were able to create lasting and extremely fertile tradition, whereas Arabic literature of later centuries produced few mystical poets of any importance besides Ibn al Farid (4. 1235) and Ibn al"Arabt (d. 1240) who wrote the ‘mystical love poems collected in Tarjumin al: ashudg.” “The size of this volume makes it impossible to include an introduction to Sufi. For thie, the reader should turn to one of| ‘the works mentioned in the Select Bibliography. The focus of our 4 tention will be the reflections of mysticism in Persian poetry Reynold Nicholson's statement that ‘Sim ha few idea, but an inexhaustible wealth and variety of illustration” is no longer tenable since our knowledge of Sufi literature hat expanded treaty since the end ofthe nineteenth century. Yet, there might fl be some truth inthis chim if we retrit it w Sufi poetry in particular. The mystical concepts one neods tobe familiar with in ‘order to understand the word of the poets are comparatively few. Many of them concer general items of religious ethic rather than initiate points of esnteric doctrine. The bref explanations sven in the course ofthe exposition will probably be enough for the reader who has only + general knowledge of Suf ideas. The twansated specimens will ako speak fr themselves in most cases. “Throughout this survey, the emphasis will be on the poems rather than on the poets. As rule, biographical information is sed to elucidate poetry, not the other way round. Such data are inverted at thowe places where they best fin with the msi line of| argument, which need not be the fist instance of mentioning the tame of a particular poet. Within each chapter a chronological orders followed. In Chapter 3, onthe ghazal, which is mostly of an analytical nature, the history of the gente is discussed in & separate section. ‘Being an introduction, the main purpose ofthis book isto show the way to the vast literature available to those who wish 10 acquire a deeper knowledge of the subject. Readers should seek help from the Select Bibliography and the references contained in the Notes Notes CPL, p 450. 2 His aoe was realy a Huan ib. Manet al Halls, On Arabic risa poetry se in particle A”Schisanel, As Though a Vel pala 3, Plead tant by Reyoold A. Nichlon, London 1911 4 Salted poo from the Divini Shit Teva, Cambridge 1858, paMystical Epigrams Persian quatrains "Neatly ll drs of Persian poets contin, besides poems inthe eat casa forms, collections of shorter poems. Among the later, some aeieeglar pieces (at eas from the point of view of standard prosody), of various lengths, but usally not longer than 2 few lines, which are called ‘fegments (gas or mug‘). [Although tis erm does not necessary imply that these poems are unfinished or incomplete, they do in fact have a rather informal character. Sach agent’ often served as occasional Poems or epigrams, and are therefore much closer tothe day-to tay practice of poetry than the more fished getdas and ghazal Only rarely did they gain ore importance, as fr instanee inthe poety of Tbn-i Yamin (1286-1368), a court port of the Mongol Period, whose output of fragmentary porns was considerable both in quanty and in substance. Hie mugatst express plilosphical and ethical reflections, mostly based on nothing ‘more profound than worldly wisdom and common sence. However, cccaionally myotcal ideas can be found as well Whether this justifies the qualification of Ibn-i Yamin a a Sufi poet is tla mater of debate, which is complicated by the Fact ‘hat sometimes hs poctry was confused with hat ofan outspoken rytial post of the sintenth century, who happened to be his namesake Mota irom ‘Among the shorter poems another form, the quatrain, played @ much greater part in Su poetry than the magata'it. As far as our ‘present knowledge goes, it was the east kindof poetry that was read and writen by Persian myrtics. Literary history, therefore, indicates that we should begin our survey with the quatrais, but, part from that consideration, they also provide a good starting point fora discussion of some ofthe basic features ofthis tradition. Persian quatraine are pocms of four lines with, most often, a thyme pattem a-a/b-a, although among the earliest specimens known to ut the sequence of two internal rhymes (2-a/2-) also frequently occurs. If it is described in terms of the general principles of Persian prosody, a qustain ofthe type a-a/b-acan Alo be defined asa very bref poem of two distichs. Actually, the tere dase (iterlly, poem ‘of two distchs’) has been in se, Dbutonly for quatrains which deviate fom the metrical rues fora regular quatrin. Another tem, sometimes applied to quatrains, istardne, propery denoting a‘song' or a'meledy’ and referring to ‘the musical use of quatrains. The mest common appellation ofa Persian quatrain is rub (with the pal ula‘), a derivation feom the Arabic numeral arba (Your). A remarkable feature of| this name ie that, contrary to Persian protodical theory, the four lines, or ‘half verses’, ae counted here as separate entities "This isnot the only deviation from standard prosody. The Persian rub't also has a metre ofits own, which cannot be fited into the pattems of metrical theory, although i is, lke all other Persian metes, based on quantity, that isthe distinction between short and long syllables. The pattern ofthe rubi'isa sequence of twenty metrical units called moa in metical theory. In some places of the sequence only long syllables (equivalent to two moras) can be used, but in others one long sjlable may be replaced by two sect ones so thatthe actual numberof syllables ina line may vary between ten and thitwen. This varity gave the rubi‘Ta great measure of flexbilty, which may have been one of the reasons for it immense popularity. "According toShams-iQays, who in the early thirteenth century wrote the most comprehensive expesition of Persian prosody, the ruba' was invented by the poet Radabt (f. tenth century). He 7Perio Sf Petry ‘would have derived its metrical pattem fom a rhythmical phrase shouted by a playing child and then adapted it to the eules of classical prosody. Although it gives only a legendary explanation ofthe origi Classical nature of the rubat metre. The true origin remains unknown ingpite of aitempis to prove that the rubaT was derived cither from Persian popular literature or fom easly Turkish Poetry where quntrains were quite common, although not in ‘quantitative but athe in syllabic metrics. Whatever the case may be, iti very likly that quatrain initially belonged toa literary stratum distinct from the realm of polite poetry which produced the clasical forms "The quran s most often an epigram,theterse formulation of a postal idea, suitable to serve as a brief interruption in a ‘conversation, a sermon or a prose composition. Because ofthe test variety ofits uses, itis impossible to delimit the subject- matter ofthe quatrain, Ruba's deal with any theme that could be treated in elassical Persian poetry. Particular to them isa pithy and pointed mode of expression, using wit ae striking images in ‘order to enforce and illurtate the poet's statement, To be successful the pom has to express certain development of thought, for which in many cases the third non-rhyming line is used, It connect the inital idea or image put forward inthe fst two lines to a conclusion contained in the final line. This stractural feature made the quatrain into an important medium for mavims, which may convey mere secular wisdom but also profound religious ideas “Toa certain extent, quatrans ae comparable to the individual distichs of longer poems, which often show a similar epigrammatical structure. The difference is, however, that dquatrains always stand on their own, without any connection whateocver to larger poetic structure. Their actual meaning depended very much upon the context in which the poem was presented. This context could be a literary text ae well ax oral pecch in the latter cae, such contexts usually have left no traces tnd this ssrously limite the possiblity of drawing conclusions from quataine with regard tothe ideas they express. This point ® Mtl irons should be kept in mind, especially when one tries to read (quatraing as satements of Su doctrine. Generally speaking, the casical Persian tradition is one of individualized authorship. Poems of other kinds, whether lyrics or pics, are usually firmly connected to specific names. Although there are indeed caves of flagrant literary mystifications known conceming these verse forms, this does not contradict the fact that, on the whole, the concept of an individual author prevails ‘throughout the Persian tradition. ‘The eae of (Umar Khayyim ‘Again, the Persian quatrans area diferent case. Ths has become ptticuarly clear in te remarkable instance of ‘Umar Khayyam's ‘callection of quatrains, which tomost Wester readers constitutes the epitome of Persian poetry. In Persia itself, ‘Umar was not ‘much regarded as poet until his worldwide fame began to spread fom Vietorian England through the amazing eucces of Edward FitzGerald’ adaptation of ‘Umar's quatrans in his poem “The Rubiyat of Omar Khayytim’. It was fret published in 1859, reprinted many times and translated into all the major languages ofthe word.” During his lifetime, ‘Umar-i Khayyam (1048-1131) was a celebrated scholar, not only in philosophy and the sciences but also in theology. The only writings attributable with certainty to hhim aren Arabic onthe subjects of mathematics, astroncmny and metaphysics, Al that we know about ‘Umar’ life points to a ‘more rlese normal existence asa distinguished medieval scholar, ‘who found patrons among the rulers and other influential men of| his days. The earliest reference to him asa poet occurs in ‘Imad ad-Din Ipfbiny’s Khordat al-qavr, an anthology of Aribic poetry, and some other Arabic writers ofthe late twelth century ‘who cite afew short poems of his, That Khayysim, like any other Cultured person, would have writen Arabic poetry cccasenally, {snot unvoval, and iti even quite possible chat at times he may have improvised some Persian quatrains. However, considering °Paria Saf Paty the lack of any documentary evidence to the contrary. it is tstremely unlikely that his poste output was significant in quantity or that any single poem atibted to him may ever be Proved tobe authenti. “Towards the end ofthe twelh century, the theologian Fak ad-Din Rig (4 1210) forthe frst ime ted single Perian Gquaain under his name. The same pom, together wih ancter ne, canbe ound ina wll Lnown Sufi textbook, the Mada: ‘bad min a-mahdaa-ma‘ad by Najm ad-Din Daya, writen shout 1223. It war not until the fourteenth century that anthologts were able to assemble smal collections of Khayysm's quran in Jam's Mums al-avd (1339-40) thirteen poor Tave been preserved, and the anonymous collie of Nata: mais (133) could bring together thirty-one poem. Ki fermatkable that several ofthese euly specimens our in mete than one of the sources. This pints tothe existence of nly a very Tite corpus of guaran ascribed to Khayyam prior to the fitteenth century. The famous mancacritof the Boden Library, compile in 1460, which was wed by Fis, containe 158 poems: but inthe anthlogy Taran, compiled ony two years leer, already 554 rubi'yat wore broushe togster. This number increased even more in ater ellectons of Khayyamn's quan ‘Stimulated bythe outburst of publ inteestin these qutains, Orieralts besan to examine the problems of the textual transmission. An amazing outcome ofthis esearch was tat in 1897, Vlimie Zhukovaky, «profesor at the University of St Paursburs, showed that a great aumber ofthe poems which circulated under the name of Khayyam could be atsibuted in mdieval manuscripts to other poets as wel Thus a subsantia ‘r0up of poem were identifed sx ‘wandering quatrsins, that poems of multiple attabution, the true authorship of which is ‘posible octablsh * thas become clear that there exists no such thing a stable corps ofthese quaaine. The findings inthe aes sours do not provdean absolute certainty that any ofthe cited poems were realy by Khayyim. Even if they are genuine, there are not enough poems found in these sources tallow the reconstruction tical Eierome of his poetic personality. If these facts are acknowledged, we are forced to redefine Khayyam's place in the history of Persian literature. As a poet he seems to have been the creation of a collective imaginstion rather than a literary figure to be held responsible forthe thoughts expressed in the quatains. A more ‘realistic view of his place in the history of Persian iterate i that Ihe became the eponym ofa cluster of poetic themes exemplified in numerous poems whose real authors remained anonymous. The poetic persona speaking in these quatrains might be described asa ‘world farnous scientist and metsphyrsician who, at theend of aif spent in an endeavour to grasp the rationale behind the universe, is resigned to doubting the ability of the hurman mind to solve the cenigmas presented by this world and by man's transitory ‘ectence on earth? "The question which needs to be answered with regard to our focus of intrest is whether or not this poetic persona of Khayyam iin any way connected with Sufi poetry. This has been another issue conceming our post scholar which became the subject of 2 heated debate, even earlier than the authenticity ofthe quatrains. “The first Wester translator to defend a mystical interpretation of Khayyzn’s quatreine was JB, Nicola, who had lived in Persia 28 «French consul. Hebased his raslation (published in 1867) ona lithographed edition containing collection of 464 quatraine. His view contradicted the interpretation of Edward FitzGerald who had presented Khayyam a6 a sceptic secking a remedy for his disillosion with the word and with his own intellect in a carpe- tiem philosophy. Nicos’ version ofthe poems met with much less succes than FiteGerad's; nevertheless, his mystical reading bas always found its followers. Itwas defended fr the lst time in 1967 by the English poet Robert Graves in the introduction toa volume of translations, which were soon proven tobe founded cn farged material. The least that could be sid in favour of Nicolas point of view i that it did have an authentic background in 0 far te it was based on the taching of 2 Sufi of Tehran, who had ‘explained Khayyim's poems to the translator.” Apparently, the Guatrains were indeed susceptible to a genuine mystical inerpretaton, and this need not surprise because themes like uPeron Sof Paty the vanity of the world, the transience of life, or the insuliciency fof human reason in solving the world's mysteries, are in themselves quite compatible with a mystical outlook and were commonplace in genuine Sub poetry. “The earliest references by mystic to Khayyam, however, speak a different Janguage. Among the very fiet specimens of the [Khayyim corpus on record are the two potms cited by the ‘mystical writer Najm ad-Din Daye: The cre of ee coming and ou going ‘Has o beginning and shall have mo end [No on can eer in hit word explain Whence was this coming and ohee the ping “The Keser Who arranged ths complex body Who id He bring itt decay end rin? Wasi an wy frm? White Hae? (Or wait good? Who would detoy i then? [Daya's quotations were intended as a disapproval and were accompanied by a sharp condemnation of the faze doctrines of philosophers like ‘Umati Khayyam, who ony reckoned with the forces of Fate and Nature, but ignoted the sublime stats towhich the mystics aspire" Ina similar sprit the great Sufi poet Fard ad-Din ‘Attar (dca. 1220) made use of an anecdote concerning 'Umar's fate after his death. In his didactcal poem Ilahi-ndma (‘The Book of the Divine) he tells about a clairvoyant who, standing at Khayyiim's| save, saw him ina state of imperfection’ ‘Umar was bathing in bis eweat for shame and confusion. As the clairvoyant explained, hhe had boasted at the Heavenly Gate of his learning but was eeply embarrased when he lee how ignorant he relly was.” Quatrains were commonly put tothe names of other famous scholars and mystics, some of whom lived even earlier than Khayyam. The great philosopher Abu ‘AU ib-i Sina, known to the West a Avicenna (d. 1037), also accredited with a number of short Persian poems, including quatains. Some of the Sufi tical Eigoms sheikhs who are mentioned as the authors of quatrains are ‘Abd Allth Anlst of Herat (d. 1089) and Aba'l-Hasan Kharagin ( 1033) All these attributions are very uncertain Babi Tir ‘Unyin ‘The problems concerning the authorship of quatrains suppose to have been written in the eleventh century ate particuasly relevant to our discusion, because they concern the dating ofthe very beginning of Persian Sufi poetry. For all we know, the ‘quatrain was the frst verse form which the myptics used for the expression oftheir thoughts and experiences. Unfortunately, to all specimens known from the eleventh century the philological ‘uncertainties jst outlined ae attached. If we may trust the single chronological indication about hislife, the frst Suf who can be identified individually a8 a poet would have been Babs Tir, nicknamed ‘Uryan (‘the Naked)” At some time between 1058 and 1058 Sultan Tughril Beg, who had justestablshed the Slug lout a the new Turkish power inthe ‘ater part ofthe Abbasid Caliphate, madehis etry inthe city of Hiamadan, Tree Sufi saints were standing on hill near the gate. "The Sultin’seyee fell upon them: he halted the vanguard of his amy, lighted, approached, and kissed their hands.’ One of them, ‘who was somewhat crazy nhs manner’ said to Tughril:"O Turk ‘what wilt thou do with God's people?” The pious man who thus dared to remind the new rule of his duty a the protector ofthe community of the believers, was Babi Tahir." “The date of this event conflicts with a dating of Baba Tabir's death in the Muslim year 410 (1019-20) given by the ninetenth century anthologist Rizd-Quli Khan Hidayat, which is: not supported by any earlier source. There remains, inevitably, a ‘considerable doubt regarding the dating of his life, and no other biographical detail are avaiable. On the other hand, the few facts that are known all point to Hamadan as his hometown, of possibly the nearby mountains of Luristan. In that area he was immortalised by the AKL Haga (‘The People ofthe Truch), a 3Pain Sf Paty sect beyond the farthest boundaries of Islamic heterodony witha folowing among the Lar of the Zagioe mountain. In thir sacred book Soranjm, Bab Tahir appears aan angel serving the third ofthe seven maifeations of the Divine who made their appearance inthe sacred history ofthe world according tothe mythology of the Abli Haga “Asa lerary figure, Baba Tahir is more tangle because ofthe ‘works stibted to hen, They include a fay lage amount of Gursine anda few glazal The former deviate fom the Standard robsiyat besase'they are writen in one of the ‘aration ofthe haa wich fa eommon metre in cased poetry Another particularity pertains to the language of these Cqsrsne which, although waten basally in leary Pea, Contain many dat forms. thas een argued that they were ceiginly composed in the Lusi dslect and in the course of ie ‘were more and more adapted to the standard language.'? To distinguish these pocms from the regular quatrains they are often tefered to an deta. There also exits a callection of 400 ‘Aric maxime on Sufi themes, ented a-Kolindal-gidr(The brief words), on which s numberof commentaries, both in ‘Arbicand Pasian, have been writen “To add wo the cbecrty surounding the historical gure of Baba Tahir there are uncertain with eared to the authenity ofthe quitain. The ces source which contains a few ofthese poems dss fom the fifesnth century; the oer poems can be Found ony in ch ater collections. Th dbs are il very popular in Pera. An albary compiled by Vabid Dag in 1927, which contain 256 quatre considered to be genuine by the editor, was reprinted many times over Its hardly pombe to atach historia value tothe image of Baba Tsht's personality ite reflected in teve poems, an the same apples othe metal ideas exprested. The collection hat trithot doubt been added to ter, 20 tat mpl concepts nd ‘mbes ve been inserted which were sil strange to rural ‘nc ofthe eleventh century. With hese reservations in mind, should he sid tha the image ‘we gun from this uncertain source basa number of traits which « Mia Eire Jend it a remarkable individuality. Baba Tahir appears tous a a