Boyle J.A. The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods
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POETS
AND
PROSE WRITERS
One of Amir Khusrau's close friends was Amir Najm al-Din Hasan
Sijzi,
surnamed Hasan Dihlavi (b.
651/1253,
d.
729/1328),
a
court poet,
though perhaps reluctantly, since
it is
likely
that
under
the
influence
of
his spiritual mentor Nizam al-Din
Auliya
he regarded panegyrics
as
unworthy of a poet. His eight
hundred
or
so ghazals, which are much
admired both
in and
outside India,
are
distinguished
by
simplicity
of
language and poetic technique and by
an
emotional force even greater
than
in
Khusrau's, though Hasan knew how
to be
mordant as
well
as
delicate.
Marek also refers
to
romantic
and
didactic epics
and
prose
works
by Hasan.
1
Although his poetry seems
at
first sight simple,
it is
in fact written with great
skill.
It is not
surprising
that
he
influenced
even
Persian and Central Asian poets such as Kamal Khujandi (d. 803/
1400-01)
and Pamir Isfahan! (d. after
985/1578);
Kamal was even called
"Hasan's Plagiarist". Like Khusrau, Hasan took Sa'di
as a
model.
Compared with those of many other poets, his
ghazals have
a
remark-
able internal coherence.
PANEGYRIC
POETS
AT
MINOR
COURTS
A
poet whose fame was great even
in
his own lifetime is Kamal al-Din
Abu'l-'Ata
Mahmud b. 'All, whose poetic pseudonym Khwaju. (" The
Little
Lord") was probably
a
childhood nickname. Born in 689/1290
or
679/1281
at
Kirman,
he
was very much
a
court poet,
as his
qasidas,
dedications,
and
epics prove.
His
patron
was
the
last Il-Khan Abu.
Sa'id;
he
then
served the Muzaffarids and the Jalayirids, finally settling
at the court of
Abu.
Ishaq Inju.
in
Shiraz, where
he
died
in
753/1352
or
762/1361.
Much
of
his
life
was spent wandering from place
to
place,
and
in so
doing
he
became acquainted with many people
and
joined
a Sufi order, which was
to
make
its
mark
on his
writing.
He was
twenty-seven
when one
of
his qasidas was immortalized
in
plaster
on
the walls
of the
bath-house
at
Yazd.
Even
if
later generations have
somewhat modified
the
hasty judgments
of
their merit,
his
writings
are numerous
and
remarkable, especially his divan entitled
Sanayi*
aU
kamal,
"Arts
of
Perfection" (alluding
to his
name Kamal al-Din).
Because
he
was
a
court poet,
the
panegyric element
is
very much
to
the fore, though
he
praised
not
only temporal rulers
but
also
the
imams, especially 'Ali. Much
of
his poetry springs from religious—
mostly Sufi—and ethical considerations.
His
qasidas were obviously
1
Dejiny
perske a taa\icke
literatury,
p. 524.
6lO
PANEGYRIC
POETS AT MINOR COURTS
written under the influence of the 'Iraqi school, while Sa'di influenced
his ghazals, even though he himself maintained
that
he wrote in the
manner of Hafiz. While it is not
true
that
Hafiz actually praises him
in so many words, the number of identical subjects in the divans of
both poets suggests
that
they shared sympathies; a likelihood con-
firmed by the fact
that
their ghazals have been confused by later
generations. Their common sphere of activity, together with the fact
that
they probably knew each other personally, makes it easy to believe
that
they influenced each other, and Khwaju is more likely to have
influenced the young Hafiz
than
vice
versa.
Kopriilu sees in Khwaju's
ghazals
a connecting link between Sa'di and Hafiz,
1
Shibli Nu'mani
perceives
a lack of mysticism in his poetry and in consequence regards
him as nothing more
than
a colourful flower without a scent.
2
Khwaju
even
wrote riddles and logogriphs, both decadent literary genres but
widely
popular for this very reason; on the other hand he was adept
at choosing the mot juste, and was versed in intricacies of poetic tech-
nique and stylistic art to the point of artificiality.
In writing a " Quintet" Khwaju modelled his work on Nizami's,
but also introduced alterations which were to be perfected one and a
half
generations later by Jami. Khwaju's mathnavis belong to his
maturity, perhaps even to his old age. Two of them are love stories,
the other three being devoted to religious themes, either ethical,
Sufi,
or inspired by the poet's membership of his order. The love stories
concern the adventures
of
two
couples, Humdi u
Humayun
(732/1331-32)
and Gul u Nauru^ ("Rose and New
Year",
742/1341-42), the latter
being the better mathnavi, though its subject matter is not original.
Both
are almost like fairy tales from the Arabian Nights, with a
tendency to veer into mysticism.
3
The next phase in Khwaju's epic-
writing is represented by his
Raudat
al-Anwar (" Garden of Lights ",
743/1342),
an imitation of Nizami's Makh^an al-asrdr (see above,
pp. 579-80); then follow two Sufi ethical mathnavis, the Kamdl-Ndma
("Book
of Perfection", 744/1343-44) and the Gauhar-Ndma ("Book of
the Pearl", ? 746/1345-46).
As
to the
Sdm-Ndma—an
epic, more in the form of a courtly novel,
about the ancient Iranian hero Sam—Safa favours Khwaju's author-
ship for a variety of reasons, although the old sources make no mention
1
I
A,
vol. v, p. 40 a.
2
Sbi'r,
vol. v, p. 30,
where
he
makes
the
same
reservation
with
regard
to
Salman
Savaji.
3
Bausani,
Istoria,
p. 752.
39-2
POETS
AND
PROSE WRITERS
of
the
work;
1
Kopriilii,
on the
other hand, doubts
its
authenticity
and
regards
it as a
feeble effort. Several prose treatises
are
also ascribed
to
Khwaju;
they
are all
written
in an
artificial prose style
in the
manner
of
the
Maqdmas.
In spite
of
his reputation, Khwaju
is a
poet without personality;
it is
truer
to say
that
he
was
a
successful imitator
of
greater poets both
in
his lyric poetry
and in the
romantic
and
reflective mathnavi. Indeed
he
was
so
skilful
at
imitation
that
his
contemporary Haidar
of
Shiraz
accused
him of
plagiarism
in a
versified lampoon, doubtless prompted
by
nothing more
than
spiteful envy
of the
reputation
that
Khwaju
was
already enjoying.
A
remarkable exception
to the
general monotony
of
Persian poetry
in this period
is
presented
by
Amir Mahmud
b.
Amir Yamin al-Din
Tughra'i
of
Faryumad (this
was not his
actual birthplace), named
Ibn
Yamin
for
short, born
in
685/1286
or
687/1288. After
the
death
of
his
father,
who was
also
a
poet,
he
succeeded
to the
latter's
office
as a
director
of
finance
to the
vizier
of
Khurasan
in
722/1322,
but
this gave
him
no
satisfaction
as he
was denounced
by his
colleagues
and
finally
dismissed.
In the
unusually uncertain circumstances prevailing after
the death
in
736/1336
of the
last ruling Il-Khan, namely
Abu
Sa'Id,
Ibn Yamin shuttled between
the
courts
of
various rival petty pfinces.
At
the
Battle
of
Zaveh, fought between
the
poet's patrons,
the Sar-
badars
of
Sabzavar,
and the
Karts
of
Herat
(743/1342),
he
lost
the
only
manuscript
of the
divan
he had
composed during
the
first half
of his
life,
and
probably
all his
wealth
as
well.
He
was taken prisoner
by the
victorious
Karts
and
remained
in
captivity
for
several years.
He was
not badly treated,
but he had to
sing
his
captors' praises until
he
managed
to
return
from Herat
to the
Sarbadars
at
Sabzavar.
He
died
in 769/1368
at
Faryumad, where
he was
living
a
withdrawn
life
as a
farmer.
The
loss
of the
divan was
a
bitter blow;
but it
was
not
lost entirely
beyond
recall, because
Ibn
Yamin pieced
it
together again
as far as
possible
from
his own
memory
and
that
of
his friends.
In
Leningrad
an
old
manuscript
is
preserved
in
which there
are
also poems dating
from
the
first half
of
his poetic career. Since this manuscript certainly
does
not
contain
all his
poetry,
it can be
assumed
that
Ibn
Yamin's
total output was more
than
has
actually survived; nevertheless 16,000
lines
are a
substantial amount, double
the 8,000
lines
in the
printed
1
Hamasa, p. 335.
6l2
PANEGYRIC POETS AT MINOR COURTS
613
edition. He eulogized approximately
sixty-five
rulers, some of whom
were
mutual enemies, but his qasidas are all thoroughly average, often
repeating themselves and full of plagiarisms. His ghazals are equally
mediocre;
it is in
vers
^occasion
(gifd)
that
he
excels,
rivalling Anvari
as an exponent of this form. These short poems are the products of the
inspiration of the moment, and as a result contain inconsistencies and
even
contraditions. In them Sufism alternates with rationalism, en-
couragement to activity with a desire for isolation from the world;
they are, in other words,
true
products of their times. Ibn Yamin
was
in many ways a forward-looking poet, not without a touch of
materialism. In these poems he attacks the feudal overlords whom he
praises in his qasidas, confesses reverence for women, shows pity for
the suffering, and extols the virtues of husbandry—but without ceasing
to be the loyal servant of the sultans. He accepted the Shfi convictions
of
the Sarbadars as his creed and was amongst the earliest poets to
praise the imams and Karbala. All this, together with his knowledge
of
rural
life,
renders
his "fragments" important for the understanding
of
social and peasant
life
in the period, while the document itself is
almost unique amongst the Persian classics. Ibn Yamin captivates
the reader not with the excellence of his style but with his down-to-
earth
ideas and his realism.
A
country nobleman, Khwaja,
Jamal
al-Din Salman Savaji, i.e.
of
Saveh (b. c. 709/1309, d.
778/1376),
was the last notable pre-
Safavid
panegyric writer. He eulogized the Jalayirids, though he did
not hesitate to praise their temporary conquerors. Because he was a
"prince of poets" and in the ruler's confidence, his favour was courted
by
many, and he soon acquired fame and esteem through the preciosity
of
his " over-artificial qasidas " written in the
manner
of the panegyric
poet
Sayyid
Dhu'l-Fiqar Shirvani (d. 689/1290). This type of poetry
had been in vogue before and was often to be cultivated with greater
perfection
afterwards, particularly by poets in the ninth/fifteenth cen-
tury who put Salman in the shade. As a compensation for their lack of
ideas,
the writers of panegyrics pursued a line of "art for
art's
sake"
all
the more vigorously. Salman was especially skilful in his use of the
double
entendre.
But writing of this type was chiefly a way of attracting
notice at the outset of his career. He wrote works of greater literary
merit when he began to think up new subjects and new metaphors.
Despite
this, his qasidas still contain echoes of Kama! al-Din Isma'il,
of
Zahir Faryabi, and Anvari, and even of the early panegyrist
POETS
AND
PROSE
WRITERS
614
Manuchihri (died c. 432/1040-41), while the great mystic poets can be
recognized
as the models
of
his ghazals. Salman wrote hymns glorifying
God,
the Prophet, and the imams, in particular 'All, who until then
had not been praised very much in
Iran;
on the other hand, it cannot
be maintained
that
Salman was an out-and-out Shi'i. Apart from these
poems and other traditional forms of lyric verse, he wrote a Sdqi-Ndma
("Book
of the Cup-Bearer"), which probably antedates Hafiz and was
therefore one of the earliest lyric poems; a romantic epic called Jamshid
u Khurshid
(763/1361-62),
an adaptation of Khusrau u Shir in under an-
other name; and a romantic tale Firdq-Ndma ("The
Book
of Separa-
tion"), written to console Sultan Uvais on the loss of his favourite;
the separation was temporary at first, but after the reconciliation it was
to become permanent, since his beloved died. Since the poem was based
on an actual occurrence—and here Salman was following the example
of
Amir Khusrau—his Firdq-Ndma was to become a model for many
later poets. In general Salman's works display accomplishment
rather
than
genuine poetic fire. The praise he was given in the divan of Hafiz
was
based on spurious poems, though Hafiz certainly knew his works,
as Salman knew those of Hafiz; and in fact their styles are so similar
that
some of Salman's ghazals have passed into the other's divan. His
frivolous
verses ("Jokes") recall those of Sa'di. 'Ubaid-i Zakani re-
proached him for writing in the language
of
women,
saying he must have
written his poems for his
wife;
nevertheless the two men became friends.
Judaeo-Persian literature lies somewhat outside the scope of this
study. Towards the end of the Mongol period, Maulana Shahin of
Shiraz,
taking as his subjects biblical material and Judaeo-Persian tradi-
tions, became a kind of Firdausi or Nizaml of the Iranian Jews. Before
his time translations of the Pentateuch had already been made. The
Judaeo-Persian writers all used the Hebrew script exclusively.
At
this point the Mongol period comes more or less to an end, and
poetry moves into the age of Timur with the outstanding figure of
Hafiz.
PROSE
This
section does not touch on strictly scientific prose, but is confined
in the first place to
belles-lettres;
then to prose lying on the border be-
tween literature and science: didactic prose with literary pretensions;
and finally, historiography.
Though
New Persian prose has not acquired the fame of New
PROSE
Persian poetry, and with a few exceptions has not received the same
notice or critical scrutiny as the poetry, it must on no account be
underrated,
as regards either quantity or quality. Immeasurable riches
still
lie hidden in manuscripts. A peculiarity of Persian literary prose,
and often of scientific prose too, during this period is a tendency—to
an even greater extent
than
in earlier periods—to approximate to
poetry as the
true
voice
of Persia. To this end literary prose favoured
a florid style and the inclusion of verse, accompanied by an increasing
use of Arabic. In didactic and scientific prose the same means were
used, especially in prefaces and historical works, and sometimes even
to the point
of
including
verse in the text itself. Furthermore, in literary
prose rhythm and rhyme were brought into the
structure
of the sen-
tence, particularly in the short story in dialogue form known as
tnaqdma;
indeed the whole gamut of rhetorical ornamentation and
excessive
Arabic borrowing were the essential features of this curious
genre, and became much more important
than
the story itself. Ten-
dencies
of this kind had already been discernible during the Saljuq
era, and Mongol rule only sharpened the
taste
for this ornamentation
and preciosity in both literary and didactic prose. This
trend,
however,
was
not
wholly
uniform. Although it is indisputable
that
artificiality
increased and
that
prose became highly elaborate and tended towards
poetry, still
there
were always certain writers who cultivated simple or
at least relatively chaste modes of expression. Two
currents
were
thus
at work in the same period. While historians delighted in styles of
every
kind, including the most pretentious,
Süfi
writers in general
preferred a simpler tone. History
apart,
bombast tended to occur most
frequently in biography and literary history, essays, and epistolary
writings.
In these genres may be found a style which is
flowery,
high-
flown,
often
excessively
verbose, and lacking in content sometimes to
the point of
utter
vacuity; a style, moreover, which swelled the pro-
portion
of
Arabic
vocabulary in Persian to such extreme limits
that
only
professional
aesthetes were capable of understanding it. The require-
ments of reality were simply lost from sight.
I. Literary prose
The
oldest Persian novel,
Samak-i
c
Ayydr
(" Samak the Magnanimous ")
was
written down, according to the oral tradition of Sadaqa b.
Abu'l-
Qâsim
Shïrâzi, by Faràmurz Khudâdâd b. 'Abdallah Kâtib al-Arra-
6i
5
POETS
AND
PROSE WRITERS
616
jani
in
585/1189.
It
records
the
fabulous adventures
of the
various
knights
who
courted
the
Emperor
of
China's daughter. Another
novelist,
Abu. Tahir Muhammad Tarsusi, whose dates
are
quite
un-
certain, imitated Firdausi
in the
sphere
of
historical romance,
and
became famous
for
various prose novels based
on
Persian legends;
his
Ddrdb-Ndma
has
been published.
1
There
is
also
a
novel
by
Hamid
al-
Din
Jauhari
Zargar dating from
the
sixth/twelfth century
and
telling
about
the
poetess Mahsiti; only
a
small number of the
quatrains
quoted
in
it,
however,
can be
accepted
as
genuinely hers.
Collections
of
anecdotes, arranged
under
various unifying titles,
have
also come down.
The
most important
is
Jawdmi'
al-hikdydt
va
lawdm?
al-riwdydt
("Necklaces
of
Anecdotes
and
Lightning-Flashes
of
Tales
"),
comprising
2,113
stories gathered by Sadid al-Din Muhammad
c
Aufi.
A
descendant
of
'Abd al-Rahman
c
Auf,
one of the
Prophet's
companions,
'Aufi
came
of a
cultured Transoxianian family
who en-
gaged
in
literary pursuits;
he
was born between 567
and
572
(1171-77).
He travelled
widely,
and
worked
at
royal courts
in
Transoxiana, Sind,
and finally Delhi;
he
seems
to
have
had no
moral scruples about
changing
masters. There
is no
further record of him after
630/1232-3
3.
The
collection
of
stories dates from
the
author's
later years
and is
distinguished
by its
simplicity, which contrasts with
the
pomposity
of
the Lubdb
al-albdb
(" Quintessence
of
Hearts"), written
in
618/1221-22.
The
latter,
besides being more characteristic
of
his style,
is the
oldest
work
of its kind
in
Persian literature.
It is a
sort
of
history
of
literature
or
rather
a
collection of biographies of poets, written
in a
flowery
style,
in place
of
which
one
would prefer more facts.
'Aufi
was
not an
out-
standing master
of
style
and the
importance
of
both works lies
in
their
usefulness.
The
JawdmF
al-hikdydt,
a
veritable fountain
of
anecdotes
drawn from
a
great many sources, was
in turn a
source
for the
parables
of
the
didactic writers
and is
important
for
this reason alone, quite
apart
from
its
occasionally valuable historical comments.
In
620/1203
'Aufi
made
a
Persian translation
of
Al-Faraj ba'd
al-shidda
(" Joy after
Sorrow"),
from
the
Arabic of the Qadi Abu
'All
al-Muhsin al-Tanukhi
(d. 384/994);
but it has not
survived.
The
original was again translated
between
651/1253-54
and
656-73/1258-75
by
Husain Dihistani
Vaziri,
but
it is not
certain whether this was
in
fact
a
new translation
or
simply
1
See the Bibliography s.v. BIghaml. To judge from the manuscript, Blghami must have
written the text in the eighth/fourteenth or ninth/fifteenth century. The narrator, however,
must have died a little earlier.
PROSE
617
an adaptation of the older one; even now all the uncertainties about
this so-called second translation and its
author
are far from having
been removed.
Among
the collections of moralizing fables or tales incorporated
in a framework, first and foremost
stands
Kalila u Dimna, for countless
ages
one of the most treasured books of the peoples of East and West;
it is also known by the name "Bidpai's Fables". For present purposes,
its origin lies in the excellent Arabic translation by the Persian 'Abd-
allah b. al-Muqaffa' (executed c.
142/759),
whose text was taken from
the Middle Persian adaptation by Burzoe of various Indian models.
Several
Persian versions were based on the translation by Ibn al-
MuqafiV,
but they were all superseded by
that
of
Abu'l-Ma'ali
Nasr
Allah,
probably a native of Shiraz, who at the command of the Ghaz-
navid Bahram-Shah
(511-52/1118-52)
undertook a new adaptation.
Khusrau Malik (5
5
5-82/1160-86) rewarded his ministerial services
by
having his executed. The versified version by Rudaki has been lost.
And
even Nasr Allah's work (written between 515 and
537/1131-53),
which,
in spite of much rhetorical ornamentation adapted to the
exigencies
of contemporary taste, is still a masterpiece of Persian prose
by
virtue of its elegance and comparative simplicity, was not to remain
unscathed. The ornamentation which he gave it seemed insufficient
to later writers, who outdid each other in their customary stylistic con-
tortions and bombast, though it is not surprising
that
so popular and
highly
valued a work should have been subject to such influences. The
elegance
of Nasr Allah's style became obscured and his text underwent
such brutal distortion
that
it is virtually impossible to form any clear
idea of its original
state
without the aid of a critical reconstruction.
In or about 658/1260 Baha' al-Din Ahmad Qani'I of Tus cast Nasr
Allah's
version into the form of a mathnavi in the
mutaqdrib
metre for
'Izz
al-Din
Kai-Ka'us,
the Saljuq ruler of Rum. The version by Husain
Va'iz
Kashifi entitled
Anvdr-i
Suhaili (" The Lights of the Canopus ") is
far more blatantly rhetorical
than
that
of Nasr
Allah;
but this belongs
to the end of the ninth/fifteenth century.
The
Mar^ubdn-Ndma, written in the Tabari dialect by Ispahbud
("Prince") Marzban b. Rustam b. Shahryar b. Sharvin around the
turn
of
the
tenth
to eleventh century, provides a valuable parallel to Kalila
u Dimna. Only two mutually independent New Persian verions have
survived,
both written in an over-elaborate style. These are the
Mar^ubdn-Ndma
by Sa'd-i Varavini of Azarbaijan, written between
POETS AND PROSE WRITERS
618
607/1210
and 622/1225 and the 'Kaudatal-uqul("The Garden of Sensible
Minds
"),
written at the end of the twelfth century, by a vizier of the
Saljuqs of Rum, Muhammad b. Ghazi of Malatiya. Three works re-
sembling the Arabian Nights, viz. the Sindbdd-Ndma ("The
Book
of
the Seven
Viziers"),
the related
Bakhtiydr-Ndma
("The
Book
of the
Ten
Viziers"),
and the
Tutt-Ndma
("The Parrot-Book"),
date
from
this period and were at one time extremely popular. They are collections
of
tales arranged within the framework of a definite " moralizing"
idea (mainly
that
same objectionable disparagement of and disrespect
for
women which underlies the Arabian Nights). One collection with-
out any underlying idea is the Qjssa-yi Chahdr Darvish ("The Tale of
the Four Dervishes
"),
a fantastic work strongly impregnated with the
romantic spirit. The origins of these collections lie for the most
part
in India and Sassanian
Iran,
though their texts have of course
under-
gone the most varied and colourful developments. Sooner or later
they were all clothed in a more elevated prose style. The original
version of Sindbdd-Ndma, written in a primitive style by Khwaja Amir
al-Din
Abu'l-Fawaris Qanarizi in 339/950-51, has disappeared, to-
gether with a poetic replica by Azraqi (d. before 465/1072); the latter
was
recast in a more elevated style by Muhammad al-Zahiri al-Katib
of
Samarqand in
5
56-57/1160-61.
The oldest version of the
Bakhtiydr-
Ndma,
dating from the beginning of the seventh/thirteenth century, is
by
a certain Muhammad Daqa'iqi of Marv, to whom a version of the
Sindbdd-Ndma is also
attributed;
it exists in several different versions,
and was versified by an otherwise unknown poetaster named Panahi
at the Qara-Qoyunlu court in
851/1447.
The Tuii-Ndma, the anony-
mous original version of which has disappeared, is preserved in an
"extremely tasteful new version" (Ethe) of 730/1330 by
Diva
al-Din
Nakhshabi, as
well
as in shortened versions by Muhammad Khudavand
Qadiri
(ninth/tenth
century) and
Abu'1-Fadl
b. Mubarak (d. 1011/
1602-03), and in a metrical version by Hamid of Lahore.
A
nobler type of rhetorical art is represented by the
maqdma,
a
true
expression of art for
art's
sake, in the form of tales in prose
inter-
spersed with verse about the adventures of witty vagrants, an
attenu-
ated offshoot of the classical mime. The principal examples are in
Arabic,
although the creator
of
the genre, which was later to be brought
to perfection by Hariri (d.
516/1122),
is generally considered the
Persian Badi' al-Zaman of Hamadan (d. 398/1007), unless chronological
precedence is given to his rival Abu Bakr al-Khawarizmi (d. 383/993
PROSE
619
of
з
9311002).
The
Arabic
works
of
two
principal exponents
of
the
maqdma
were
then
imitated
in
Persian by the qadi Hamid al-Din
(d.
5 5
9/1163-64),
who
employed fewer unfamiliar and
recherche
expressions
than
Hariri, and
whose
style was closer
to
that
of
his fellow-countryman
Badf
al-Zaman.
After
an
interval came Sa'di's Gulistdn, which
had its
first imitation
in
the
Nigaristdn
("Picture Gallery")
by
Mu'in al-Din
Juvaini(735/1335).
II.
Literary prose
bordering
on
the
scientific
or
didactic
A
work
of
Sufi character, Asrdr al-tauhid fi
Maqdmdt
al-Shaikh
Abu
Sa'id
(" The Secrets
of
God's Oneness
on the
Spiritual Stations
of
Shaikh
Abu
Sa'id"), provides valuable information about
the
life
of
the celebrated mystic
who
died
c.
570-80/1174-85. According
to
this
biography,
written
by his
great-great-grandson Muhammad
b. al-
Munavvar,
Shaikh Abu Sa'id
did not
himself write poetry;
the
poems
generally
attributed
to him
must therefore
be by
others. The work also
possesses great literary merit,
and
except
in its
introduction avoids
the
artificialities
fashionable
in the
sixth/twelfth century.
Shihab al-Din Suhravardi blended tasavvuf with Zoroastrian
and
Neo-Platonist ideas
in his
Arabic
and
Persian works,
and put
forward
the heretical philosophy
of
Monism;
for so
doing
he was
executed
in
Aleppo
in
587/1191,
and he is
therefore called al-Maqtfil,
"the
executed
one",
to
distinguish
him
from other writers
of the
same name.
His
treatises
in
Persian
are
consciously artistic
in
style
(H.
Corbin calls
them visionary)
and are
amongst
the
earliest allegories ever written
in
that
language. Written
in
relatively simple language, these tales
are
remarkably
effective.
Other prose
of
this kind includes 'Attar's hagio-
graphic
Tadhkirdt
al-auliyd,
and the
Mirsdd al-ibdd (" Observatory
of
God's
Servants")
of
Najm al-Din
of
Ray.
In the
latter work, besides
important
and
varied themes drawn from Sufism,
there
are
valuable
quotations from
the
poets, including
the
earliest reference
to
'Umar
Khayyam's
quatrains.
1
It was
written
at the
request
of the
author's
disciples
in
618-20/1221-23
in
Qaisariyya
and
Sivas,
where he had taken
refuge
from
the
Mongol hordes.
For
Iraqi's
Lama
c
dt
("Lightning
Flashes")
see
above
p. 602;
three
minor prose works
are
ascribed
to
Shabistari (p.
603
above);
and the
Arabic
and
Persian writings
of
Baba
Afdal
should also
be
mentioned (p.
603
above).
1
Arberry,
op. cit. p. 252, stresses "the detailed account of the mystical commemoration
{dbikr),
and the curious discussion of the kinds of
*
light'
seen
in ecstasy".