Saraf Al-Din Rami on the Art of Deciphering Poetry

PERSICA XVII, 2001

THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND: SARAF AL-DIN RAMI ON THE ART OF DECIPHERING POETRY

Natalia Chalisova

When dealing with Persian Poetry I sometimes ask myself: do I like this poetry as it is or do I just create my own phantasies about it? As A. L. Beelaert in her dissertation on Îaqani's TuÌfat al-Ïraqayn has so nicely put it, “paradoxically we like them (i.e. the texts of “the great classics”) because — historically we misunderstand them. The danger is the greater in texts which are emotionally charged; love poetry in particular errone- ously seems to transcend the centuries”.1 It was exactly the feeling of inadequacy of my own perception and translation, of the dangerous traps set up for my taste and mind many centuries ago, that urged me to search for additional resources, for authoritative texts exhibiting traditional notions of constructing and interpreting poetic images.2 And the Anis al-üssaq (the Lovers' Com- panion), designed by its author exactly for those who poorly understand the great Persian classics (which is explicitly stated in the introduction), in many respects turned out to be user-friendly. The book was written in the middle of 14th c. by Îasan b. MuÌammad Saraf al-din Rami.3 It is dedicated to the Jalayirid ruler SayÌ Uways I (1356-74). Saraf Rami himself was a poet, but he was more famous for his philological and critical essays, especially for the Îaqa'iq al-Ìada'iq4 (the Sooths of the Gardens), the extended and replenished ver- sion of the Îada'iq al-siÌr (the Gardens of Magic) by Rasid Wa†wa†.5 “The Lovers' companion” is a concise guide to allegoric expressions used in Per- sian love poetry for denoting 19 body parts of the beloved “from head to feet”, from the 1 A.L.F.A. Beelaert, A Cure for the Grieving, Studies on the Poetry of the 12th-Century Persian Court Poet Khaqani Sirwani (Proefschrift), p. 20. 2 Cf. the instructive remark by J.T.P. de Bruijn: “Yet, if the study of Persian literature by orientalists as a scholarly pursuit still has any sense, an effort should be made to conquer the barriere of taste and to investigate the scale of values of the people by whom and for whom works like Sana'i's didactical poems [and I should add — like any piece of classic poetry. — N.Ch.] were written” (J.T.P. de Bruijn, Of Piety and Poetry, Leiden, 1983, p. XIV). 3 On the somewhat imprecise chronology of his life and unlikely and late dating for his death (795/ 1392-3) see EI, NE, s.v. “Rami Tabrizi” (E. Berthels-[J.T.P. de Bruijn]). 4 See Saraf al-din Rami Tabrizi, Îaqa'iq al-Ìada'iq, ed. Sayyid MuÌammad-KaÂim Imam, Tehran, 1341S./1962. 5 5. See Rasid al-din Wa†wa†, Îada'iq al-siÌr fi daqa'iq al-si¨r, ed. Ä. Iqbal, Tehran, 1308S./1929- 30. 12 NATALIA CHALISOVA hair, forehead and eyebrow down to the stature, hip and shin. One should note that the beloved person's sex is not mentioned or disclosed anywhere in the treatise. The book consists of lists of metaphorical names for every body part, accompanied from time to time by illustration of their usage in a bayt. At first glance it resembles rather a dictionary than an exercise in poetical theory. According to G. Wickens, “the procedure is largely descriptive and mechanical, with no attempt at sophisticated analysis or esoteric interpretation in the modern manner. But the work is useful…in the authority it brings from the period of highest poetic achievement”.6 A French translation was made as early as 1875 by Cl. Huart.7 It was based on three manuscripts,8 containing numerous errors and distortions. The translation was intended to provide Western scholars with a dictionary of conventional metaphors, allegories and epi- thets, necessary for deciphering the conundrums of the Persian ghazal. It renders the text exactly only in what concerns the enumeration of particular metaphors and poetic examples. The enframing discourse of the author is rather paraphrased, leaving out some particulars which seemed irrelevant or simply incomprehensible, while the author's introduction, where the reasons for writing the book are detailed, is omitted altogether in the translation and partly quoted by Cl. Huart in the introductory article of his own.9 Being thus introduced into scholarly usage, the treatise was modestly cited in European works devoted to the poetic imagery, and its trope lists are even today used as a handbook for students of Persian poetry. E. Browne called “the Lovers' Companion” a curious work of the period.10 Indeed, in his branch of description and research Saraf Rami had no predecessors, nor had he, in a strict sense, any followers. By the beginning of the 14th century “grammar and syntax” of the basic genres of Persian poetry were already fixed. A number of normative text- books appeared, canonizing the rules of metrics (äru∂) and rhyme (qafiya), piecing together the poetic embellishments of form and meaning (badi¨) and relating the concepts of basic vices and merits of verse.11 Meanwhile, the poetic semantics, i.e. the established and constantly developing system of special names and attributes (iÒ†ilaÌat and Òifat) necessary to be employed by any poet, remained within oral tradition. There was only one way to master the language of poetry: poets were adviced just to study and learn by heart the masterpieces of their celebrated predecessors and contemporaries, that is to derive the conventional vocabulary from the poems by empiric means.12

6 See Wickens' description of the book in Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Anis al-Össaq”. 7 See Anîs el-öchchâq par Cheref-eddîn Râmi. Traduit du Persan et annoté par M. Cl. Huart. Paris, 1875. 8 For details see ibid., p. 7. 9 Ibid., pp. 6-7. 10 A History of Persian Literature, III, p. 462. 11 The most prominent and full-scale study in the field was the book, finished by Sams-i Qays Razi in Shiraz around 630/1232-33 and entitled al-Mu¨gam fi maäyir asär al-ägam (A Compendium of the Stand- ards of Persian Poetry). 12 Cf. Sams-i Qays' instruction for a student of the art of poesy to study and deliberate the verses of the masters, so that “their poetic ideas (maäni) become fixed in his heart, their verbal forms (alfaÂ) become established in his mind, their ways of expression (ïbarat) become the rulers of his tongue and the whole of it becomes the augmentation of his natural gift (†ab¨) and the foundation of his thought (Ìa†ir)”, see Sams al-din MuÌammad b. Qays Razi, al-Mu¨gam fi maäyir asär al-ägam, ed. MuÌammad Qazwini and Mudarris Ra∂awi, Tehran, 1314S./1935-36, pp. 446-7. THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND 13

However in the middle of the luminous 14th century, when Sa¨di's ghazals were being spread throughout the Iranian world and ÎafiÂ, Saraf Rami's contemporary, was writing his poems in a “cryptic language” (lisan al-gayb), the system of poetic metaphors became already so extensive and branchy that it turned out necessary to fix the allegorical conventions, in order to ensure the correct (i. e. acknowledged by consensus) interpretation of verses. Thus the very time when the Anis al-üssaq was compiled is extremely important for the history of classical Persian poetry. The middle of the 14th centure seems to be a crucial point in its development, when the degree of complexity of the conventional language caused its written fixation to be done, and special lexicographic aids, containing the so called iÒ†ilaÌat al-suära (technical terms of poets), started to appear. The importance of “the Lovers' companion” for the Persian poetological tradition far exceeds its role as a “lexicographic handbook”. The author's introduction, as well as the occasional remarks upon the cited verses, help at least partially to reconstruct the traditional algorithm of deciphering and interpreting a conventional image. This procedure is most explicitly described in the beginning of the book, in the In- troduction and in Chapter I. Below I shall render the relevant passages in translation and afterwards I shall try to arrange all the facts “with precision and method”, i.e. to trace step by step the way from metaphor (magaz) to the verbatim (Ìaqiqat) of the verse, as suggested by Saraf Rami. The translation is made upon the Äbbas Iqbal's edition of the text,13 which is based on the Iranian manuscripts14 and differs from the text used by Cl. Huart in numerous details. In the introduction to “the Lovers' Companion” Rami explains his reasons for writing the book. After singing the seemly praise of the Creator, who has distinguished man from other mortal creatures by the benefit of speech, of the Prophet who was the most eloquent among both Arabs and Ägams, and of the ruling lord Abu ‘l-FatÌ Uways Bahadur, Rami moves on to describing his visit to the Azerbaijani town of Maraga, sub- ject to SayÌ Uways. Once when walking in the spring bloomy garden which encircled the observatory of NaÒir al-din ™usi15 he encountered a company of local poets. “All around the place and in every corner companies [of poets] and masters of eloquence were drenching the cornfield of talent by the water of splendour of AwÌadi's16 poems or enlivened the bazaar of versification by the pearls of Masriqi's17 sayings, in accordance with the words:

13 Saraf al-din Rami, Anis al-üssaq, ed. Äbbas Iqbal, Tehran, 1325S/1946. 14 Unfortunately, the short editor's introduction lacks any particulars on the employed manuscripts, although at least three different texts are mentioned in the foot-notes. 15 NaÒir al-din al-™usi (d. 1274), one of the great scholars of medieval Islam who distinguished himself as a philosopher, scientist and politician. Author of numerous treatises embracing vast fields of knowledge (medicine, physics, mathematics, kalam and fiqh etc.), as well of the renowned works on ethics (AÌlaq- i naÒiri), poetics (Miÿar al-asär, written in Maraga) and numerous books on astronomy. In Maraga he founded an observatory later usually associated with his name. 16 AwÌad al-din AwÌadi Maragi-yi IÒfahani (1271-1338), born in Isfahan, but having spent many years in Maraga. Became famous as the author of the Sufi ma†nawi Gam-i gam (the Cup of Gamsid) and as a master of ghazal (see ∆abihulla ∑afa, TariÌ-i adabiyyat dar iran, Tehran, 1363S./1984, vol. 3, p. 831-44). 17 I failed to find a poet called Masriqi in the accessible sources. The Ìikma-verse on the posthumous fame which is given further in the text points out that he, like AwÌadi (see n. 16), must have been a senior and already deceased contemporary of Saraf Rami, belonging to the local Maraga circle. 14 NATALIA CHALISOVA

The pearls of my speech are poorly marketable, while I'm still alive. When the mine becomes exhausted, the gems obtain their price. During the talk they started boasting and unbound the tongues of mockery, reviling the poets of the past. In short, the contents of the speeches changed from discussion to altercation, while the object of discussion remained unclear. Since I regarded the pearls from the sea of speech as precious, and the best stones from the casket of knowledge as highly valued, I used the occasion to speak out and considered it pertinent to inquire. This nightingale of the rose garden of speech got drunk, He raised his voice of a sudden upon a certain pretext. Not going into detail, I declared, that one of our distinguished contemporaries said the following: Just by straightening the cypress of your stature, You have arranged all the attributes of beauty to a hair. On the top of your head Moses revealed the white hand,18 When you subtracted the intricacies of a hundred from nineteen. This ruba¨i contains the attributes of beauty of the graceful persons and depends on the interpretation (ta'wil)19 of the connoisseurs of speech. The knot of difficulties of this question can certainly be undone by the enlightening answer from the grandees of the time, in which way the concerted opinion of the masters of eloquence20 will manifest itself. Having pondered upon what was said, they exclaimed with apologies: Do tell us about the ready cash of criticism from your money-box,21 since you Are both a clearsighted critic and an informed story-teller. 18 On the white hand see Qur'an, 7:108(105); 26:33(32), 27:12, 28:32; cf. Exod. IV, 6 on the hand of Moses afflicted with leprosy. M. Piotrovsky mentions that Muhammad's contemporaries knew what it was about, but already several centuries later the Muslim commentators started talking about Musa's black skin that changed its colour on his hand, see M.B. Piotrovsky, Koranicheskiye skazaniya, Moscow, 1991, p. 110- 111. 19 Ta'wil (lit. “coming back to the beginning”), a term of the Koranic exegesis denoting a symbolical and allegoristic, or a rationalistic interpretation of the Koran. Within the context of polemics between al- Åahiriyya (advocates of the literal interpretation of the Qur'an) and al-Ba†iniyya (those aiming at its “in- ward” meaning) tafsir and ta'wil emerged as two opposed methods of interpretation, while for the rest of the community they were essentially synonymous. The ta'wil was directly linked with metaphor (magaz) by the Mu¨tazila scholars (the rationalistic theologians in Islam), who maintained that the obscure passages (mutasabihat) of the Qur'an should be regarded as metaphors requiring a rationalistic interpretation, see EI, s.v. “ta'wil” (R. Paret); Islam. Encyklopedicheskiy slovar', Moscow, 1991, s.v. “ta'wil” (A. Knysh). On tafsir and ta'wil juxtaposed as exegesis and hermeneutics see a definitive and clear view of al-Suyu†i (al-Itqan fi ¨ulum al-Qur'an, vol. 2, Cairo, 1978, pp. 221-4). He rendered a common opinion on ta'wil as a “deep penetration of those skilled in the methods of sciences into the meaning of what is said” (ibid., p. 222). 20 Natayig-i igtima¨-i ahl-i suÌan, cf. igma¨ as a technical term and the most important of the bases of Islamic religious law (fiqh), a unanimous opinion of the community or of the recognized religious authorities on a legal problem. If the verdicts of the authorities coincide, their joint opinion is accepted as a source of truth and becomes a legal norm, see EI, NE, s.v. “Idjma¨” (M. Bernard). 21 Az naqd-i gang-i Ìis Ìabar dih ba ma. I use a genitive construction “ready cash of criticism” for naqd (lit. “ready money, [coin] of a just standart”, but also “literary criticism”), because here it is connected with gang “treasury” and Ìabar dadan “to report, to tell news”, and both meanings are actualized. THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND 15

Since after haughty declarations they have jointly acknowledged their neglect of [poetic] meaning (ma¨na), I proceeded with my presentation. The creative poets and saga- cious artists, aware of the affluence of meanings and expert in word-knowledge, have divided [the description of the] beloved person from head to foot into 19 chapters, and after careful scrutiny gave the hair precedence of everything else, in keeping with the saying “There is no colour above black”. As a particularized prescription for interpreting such bayts has not been written in any way by the pen of both languages,22 this short memoir is being compiled in a concised fashion at the request [of the poets] and directly on behalf of the speaker,23 and he who goes first has preference.24 And this bride, kept behind the curtain, is righteously called “the Lovers' Companion”, a composition of the pettiest slave Îasan b. MuÌammad, called Saraf, known as Rami — let the Lord provide a safe end for this enterprise! Wait until the eyes of fate are awake, Do not worry, oh ignorant, that it is sleeping. Behold! will remove all the veils The one who lies in the cradle of nineteen chapters.”25 Saraf Rami completes the introduction by enumerating the titles of the nineteen chapters of the book (on describing hair, forehead, eyebrow, eye, eyelashes, face, down, mole, lips, teeth, mouth, chin, neck, breast, forearm, finger, stature, waist and shin) and proceeds to chapter 1 — on the names of hair. He reports that hair, by common opinion, is the sovereign leader of the kingdom of beauty, and distinguishes between three types of natural hair: mu¨aqqad or gulla (knotted), which is common to Turks, muga¨¨ad or kulala (curly), specific for Daylamites and musalsal or kakul (enchained, frizzy), common to Ethiopians.26 Hair of each of these types may be called zulf, if it encircles the beloved's cheek, gisu, if it curls around the neck, †urra, if it reaches the shoulders, and muy, if it goes to the waist.27 Having thus presented the true names (Ìaqiqat) of hair, the author moves on to their figurative names. First he lists 7 names and 33 attributes provided by Arabic poets for the

22 The “working” languages of poetology in the Iranian world were Arabic and Persian. 23 Bi-ma fi ‘l-∂amir-i qa'il, this “persianized” Arabic expression shows that the author (qa'il) has no predecessors, upon whose books he could have based himself. Putting into written form the “fruits of unanimous opinion of the scholars”, i.e. “the collective conscious” of the tradition, he thus becomes an innovator, a pioneer of the new philological genre. 24 The question of precedence and ownership was constantly under discussion in the treatises dealing with the varieties of plagiarism. Thus, according to common opinion of critics, if one poet had invented a concept (ma¨na), and another one improved its verbal expression, the right of ownership passed to the latter poet, while the former one preserved the right of precedence (see Sams-i Qays, Mu¨gam, p. 476). 25 Rami, Anis, 1946, pp. 3-4. 26 Thus, three types of hair are distinguished according to their capability “to stick together” (knotted, dishevelled and “enchained”). This rather evasive criterion is extremely important for the figurative description of curls, because their harmful qualities are directly proportional to the degree of their mobility. The curls dishevelled by the breeze are able to catch hearts by snares and claws or to chase them by polo sticks on the stadium of beauty. I should note that kakul is unanimously glossed in dictionaries as “forelock, cowlick”, but applied to the negroid hair type it should rather be understood as a mass of stiff curly hair covering part of the forehead. 27 Rami, Anis, 1946, pp. 5-7. 16 NATALIA CHALISOVA colour, shape, interlinking and motions of hair. Eleven of them are used also by non-Ara- bic (ägam) poets. “Those are maftul (twisted), maftun (charmed), äyyar (brigand), †arrar (impostor), lam (the letter lam), Ìalqa (ring), mim (the letter mim), na¨l (horseshoe), †u¨ban (dragon), duÌan (smoke), burg (tower)”.28 Finally Saraf Rami gives his 100-wordlist of the most widely spread Persian metaphors: “As for the Persian speakers they provided the true name (Ìaqiqat) of the curl's ring by way of circumlocution (magaz) with one hundred by-names which are: [1] samansa (touching the jasmin [of the face]); [2] banafsa (violet); [3] sumbul (hyacinth); [4] nafagusay (opening the musk gland); [5] muskin (musk-scented or musk-coloured); [6] muskinbuy (musk-scented); [7] muskrang (musk-coloured); [8] muskpas (scattering musk); [9] muskbiz (spreading musk); [10] muskriz (pouring out musk); [11] muskagin (full of musk); [12] ämbarfam (amber-coloured); [13] ämbarsikan (crushing amber); [14] ämbarin (amber-coloured or amber-scented); [15] ämbaragin (full of amber); [16] ämbarasa (amber-like); [17] ämbarbuy (amber-scented); [18] ämbarbar (pouring out amber); [19] ämbarbiz (spreading amber); [20] ämbarnasim (amber-breezed); [21] galiyagun (galiya-scented or galiya-coloured29); [22] galiyarang (galiya-coloured); [23] galiyabuy (ghaliya-scented); [24] galiyafam (galiya-like); [25] abr (cloud); [26] gulpus (covering the rose); [27] samanpus (covering the jasmin); [28] qamarpus (covering the moon); [29] sam (evening);

28 Ibid., p.8. 29 Galiya — a fragrant black mixture of musk, amber and oil (mostly of jasmin) used for anointing and colouring hair and eyebrows, one of the seven items used in traditional cosmetics, along with henna (Ìinna), antimony (surma), indigo (wasma), rouge (surÌi), white wash (safidab), and gold-leaf (zarak), see A. DihÌuda, Lugat-nama, Tehran, 1993-94, 14 vols, s.v. “haft dar haft”. THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND 17

[30] sam-i gariban (evening of the strangers30); [31] sabistan (lit. “place of night”, bedroom31); [32] sab (night); [33] sabrang (night-coloured); [34] sab-i yalda (the longest winter night); [35] sab-i daygur (dark night); [36] sab-i qadr (night of Power32); [37] ümr-i diraz (a long life33); [38] saya (shadow); [39] sayaban (sunshade, parasol); [40] parda (curtain); [41] cang (claws, hook); [42] gim (the letter gim); [43] cin (fold, China); [44] macin (the Empire of China); [45] hindustan (India); [46] zangbar (Zanzibar or name of a fabulous island in India); [47] hindu (Indian, black slave, black-skinned, robber); [48] lala (the chief servant; incomparable); [49] siyahkar (criminal, evil-doer); [50] siyahdil (black-hearted, remorseless); [51] dilduzd (heart-stealing); [52] dilband (heart-binding); [53] dilbar (heart-ravishing); [54] sargiran (lit. “having a heavy head”, angry, drunk); [55] sarkas (lit. “head-pulling”, rebellious, disobedient); [56] sargasta (lit. “having a roaming head”, ranger, rover); 30 I.e. the “evening of those who do not belong to this place”. M. Zand chose the “first night of mourning” as a most plausible translation for this locution and placed it among the names with the “causing suffering” ground of comparison (M. Zand, “What Is the Tress Like? Notes on a Group of Standard Persian Metaphors” in Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet, ed. by Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, Jerusalem, 1977, p. 468). For other possible connotations (“a technical term for a special Shiïte mourning ceremony for Îusayn b. Äli”, “sweets divided among the poor on the first night after (lit. when) the burial of a dead person” and “an allusion to a variant of the proverb shab-i ghariban diraz ast ¨the night of those who do not belong to the place is long'”), with further references, see ibid., p. 474-5, n. 7. Whatever variant we choose, the curl is described as a lasting darkness (evening or night), connected with grief and sorrow. 31 Also a place in the mosque reserved for nightly prayers. 32 I.e. the night of 27th (Shiïte 23d) of Rama∂an, when, according to the tradition, the holy Qur'an was first revealed to Muhammad, cf. “Surely, We sent it down during the night of Power (laylat al-qadr)” (Qur'an, 97:1). M. Zand classifies this metaphor (the Predestination night) as based on the ground “colour: blackness, darkness” [Zand, Tress, 1977, p. 465]. Probably the “night of Power” metaphor as compared with the “night” proper, has an additional meaning: darkness of hair that reveals the true light of the face as the dark night of Rama∂an has revealed the truth of the Qur'an. Cf. sab-i yalda (the longest winter night), lit. “night of birth” (yalda being a Syriac borrowing into Arabic), the night when Jesus was born (DihÌuda, Lugat-nama, s.v. “yalda”). It is noted, that usually poets assimilated the curl of the beloved to the sab-i yalda on the ground of blackness and length, but some poets, like Sana'i and Muïzzi, were aware of the original meaning (ibid.). The direct sense of sab-i qadr may also be taken into account, “night of power” then meaning the dark and unmerciful power of hair [over a lover's heart]. 33 Lifelong (ümrdiraz), if read without i∂afa, as a composite. 18 NATALIA CHALISOVA

[57] sarkaz (having a bent edge); [58] sar ba bad dada (lit. “having given one's head to the wind”, one who has ruined his own life); [59] sar-andaz (lit. “throwing the head”, agile; woman's head kerchief); [60] sar-afganda (lit. “with lowered head”, ashamed, abashed); [61] sar-afraz (lit. “raising one's head”, proud); [62] qafadar (lit. “guarding the back of the head”, assistant34); [63] rahzan (high-way robber); [64] kamand (lasso); [65] kamandafgan (he who throws the lasso); [66] kamandandaz (he who casts the lasso); [67] rista (yarn, thread); [68] rasan (rope); [69] rasantab (lit. “stranding the rope”, rope-maker); [70] rasanbaz (lit. “playing with the rope”, rope-dancer); [71] cambar (circle, hoop); [72] cambari (round, bent); [73] dud (smoke, soot; sigh; grief); [74] atasparast (fire worshipper); [75] Ìursidparast (sun worshipper); [76] kafir (infidel, lit. Ar. “he who covers smth”); [77] kafirkis (infidel in faith); [78] zunnar (belt35); [79] calipa (cross); [80] cawgan (polo stick36); [81] band (band, tie, fetters); [82] zangir (chain); [83] surida (disturbed); [84] sawda'i (consisting of black bile causing melancholy; deep black; melancholy)

34 Cl. Huart proposed to consider this metaphor as an “allusion aux péchés que chaque homme portera sur le cou au jour du jugement dernier, ainsi qu'à la noirceur de ces péchés comparée à celle des cheveux” [Rami, Anis, 1875, p. 17, note 3]. 35 In the Islamic world zunnar (belt or girdle put around the waist) served as an attribute of non-Mus- lim “peoples of the Scripture” (Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians) and consequently acquired a general meaning of a “sign of a different, non-Muslim faith”. It also denotes “a string for the Christian cross on the neck” and “a kind of cotton or silk band worn by Christians around the neck, with two ends hanging in front on the shoulders” (probably stole, Gr. epitrachelion, part of the vestments of an orthodox priest. — N.Ch.), see DihÌuda, Lugat-nama, s.v. “zunnar”. It is of some interest, that these meanings correlate with three of the four body parts (cheek, neck, shoulder and waist), which are mentioned in the beginning of chapter 1 of the Anis (see above) as the markers of the four main types of hairdo. 36 Cawgan, well known as a polo stick, also denotes “a stick having one end arched, to which is suspended an iron or steel ball, carried as an ensign of royalty” (F. Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, s.v. “chaugan”). The latter meaning could have created a beautiful image of a curl to which a heart of a lover is suspended, thus marking the royal status of the curl's owner, but I failed to find any traces of it in the DihÌuda's dictionary and in the known verses as yet. However, the DihÌuda's explanation as to the form of the polo stick “at the old times cawgan had a form of a ladle (kafca), for one could place a ball inside it, because they used to catch a ball by cawgan in the air” (s.v. “cawgan”, p. 7308) throws an additional light on this assimilation. It is well known, that the curl becomes most dangerous in the state of waving in the air (parisani) and it starts then to work as a cawgan by catching the balls of hearts. THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND 19

[85] dam (trap, snare); [86] zag (crow); [87] pursikan (lit. “full of bends”, curling; heart-broken); [88] Ìam andar Ìam (lit. “bend within bend”, tortuous); [89] badpaymay (lit. “measuring the wind”; swift as wind; making futile efforts); [90] hawadar (following the wind, dispersed in air, a lover); [91] parisan (scattered, mischievous, troubled); [92] parisankar (one whose affairs or behaviour are in confusion); [93] asufta (agitated, disordered); [94] asuftakar (one whose affairs are in disorder); [95] tabdar (lit. “having twists”, intertwined); [96] tar (dark; thread, string); [97] mar (snake); [98] biqarar (disorderly, impatient; unstable); [99] ba ham baramada (intertwined, twisted; indignant, angry); [100] diraz (long, lasting); [101] pic-pic (twisted, curling).37 This is on the whole a long story,38 and the composites of these elementary [attributes]39 are beyond numeration. But in discordance with the listed comparisons Åahir al-din Faryabi40 calls the curl a magician (gadu),41 and he is the inventor42 of this assimilation (tasbih), as he says: Your curl by means of magic (ba gadu'i) captures the hearts everywhere, Whereafter it delivers them to the remorseless eyes and brows. This simile was not mentioned in the covenant43 on one hundred names and attributes of the curl because not all of the connoisseurs are singleminded as to its usage on

37 The number of units in the list is in fact 101 and not 100, as it was promised by the author. It includes 39 proper metaphors (35 simple ones and 4 genitive constructions like sam-i gariban; it is this group that was analyzed by M. Zand (Tress, 1977, with a detailed discussion of the grounds of comparison), and 62 attributes, mostly composites of the dilband type. 38 Cf. the famous bayt by Îafiz: “The description of the folds (sikan, also deceit) of the beloved's curling locks // Is impossible to shorten, since it is a long story (qissa-i diraz)”, see ∆iwan-i gazaliyyat-i ÎafiÂ-i Sirazi, ed. Îalil Îa†ib Rahbar, Tehran, 1373S./1994, p. 59 (40:5). 39 Murakkabat-i in mufradat, i.e. composites (tarkibat) or complex locutions including any of the listed elementary names as components. 40 Åahir al-din Faryabi (d. 598/1201-2 in Tabriz), master of the Persian panegyrical qaÒida, lived at the courts of Mazandaran, Nishapur and Azerbaijan. Y. Rypka qualified him as a poet who had inherited the perfect rhetorical skill from Anwari and Îaqani, but “im Verhältnis zu Îaqani und Anwari war seine Ausdrucksweise schlichter, entbehrte aber trotzdem gleicher Gefühlsregungen”, see J. Rypka, Iranische Literaturgeschichte, Leipzig, 1959, p. 201. 41 The quoted list of figurative terms includes the word siyahkar (criminal, evil-doer) which also could have been understood as “black magician”. Judging by the author's following remark on gadu as a totally new and invented name of the curl, he did not connect the meaning of siyahkar with magic. 42 MuÌtari¨ “inventor”, technical term in literary theory, denoting a poet who makes an invention (iÌtira¨), i.e. creates a new tropological name or poetic idea (ma¨na) by himself, without predecessors. Ac- cording to Ibn Rasiq, iÌtira¨ is “an invention (Ìalq) of maäni in which one has not been forestalled and an accomplishment of maäni which have never exsisted”, see Ibn Rasiq, al-Ümda, Vol.1, Beirut, 1972 (4th edition), p.265. 43 Äqd, also could be understood as ïnterlacement'. 20 NATALIA CHALISOVA the supposition (taqdir44) that whenever the object in view (manÂur) shaves his/her head, the [miracle] of the white hand of Moses is revealed, and the hundred attributes (Òifat) of the curl, which are the preamble to the nineteenfold register of beauty, are thus obliterated from the diwan of captive hearts. So until one has grasped the mentioned true meaning, he will not follow the allusion contained in the words of the poet: On the top of your head Moses revealed the white hand, When you subtracted the intricacies of a hundred from nineteen.45” So it was exactly the “communication break”, i.e. the inability of the poets to interpret verses in accordance with the established tradition, that gave the impulse for writing “the Lovers' Companion”. Saraf al-din Rami encountered such inability on the periphery of Persian world, in the Azerbaijani town of Maraga. The modern Western student of Persian poetry is even further spatially, and is sepa- rated from the object of research by a barrier of time. The problem of understanding poetry is nevertheless as important as it was. What can we do to untangle the “mystery of the white hand” proposed in Rami's introduction, without prying into the first chapter for the clue? The first two hemistiches of the rubaï are straightforward enough: the beloved has straightened the cypress of his/her body in order to reveal the whole splendour of beauty. To interpret the third hemistich “On the top of your head Moses revealed the white hand (bar farq-i tu Musa yad-i bay∂a binumud), we can turn to medieval and modern dictionaries. DihÌuda's dictionary lists the following explanations for yad-i bay∂a:46 1. “Belongs to the miracles of Musa. When he revealed his hand out of his bosom, the light appeared and illuminated the whole world” (with reference to the NaÂim al- a†ibba's farhang, Giya†u ‘l-lugat and Anandrag); 2. same as above, with the following addition: “some say that in his hand he had a light that shone like a mirror, and everyone on whom it fell fainted, but came to his senses again when [Musa] hid his hand. And some say that Musa's hand was burnt,

44 Taqdir (lit. measuring, supposing), technical term in traditional Arabic grammar, explanation of the real syntactic structure of a sentence by way of finding a proper implicit member of sentence. This procedure helps to track the real syntactic structure back to the established and “correct” pattern. The literary critics followed the method of grammarians and used it to lead the cryptic image back to its conventional ground by way of establishing a proper taqdir. On the usage of taqdir in the dispute of Persian philologists see Sams-i Qays, Mu¨gam, p. 457; on taqdir in literary criticism see below. 45 Rami, Anis, 1946, pp. 8-9. As this last passage is important for my subsequent analysis, it seems useful to give it here in transliteration and in Huart's translation: wa in tasbih ba wasi†a-yi an dar äqd-i Òad ism wa Òifat-i zulf ∂ikr naraft ki gumhur-i †ayifa dar isti¨mal-i in tasbih muttaffiq nistand bar an taqdir ki har gah manÂur sar bitarasad yad-i bay∂a-yi musa rawsan wa Òad Òifat-i sast-i zulf ki sardaftar-i nuzdah bab-i Ìusn wa gamal-ast dar diwan-i dilbari mansuÌ gardad wa ta kasi Ìaqiqat-i in ma¨na istima¨ nakarda basad mutaärri∂-i kinayat-i in lugat nagardad cunanki qa'il guyad: bar farq-i tu musa yad-i bay∂a binumud ta äqd-i Òad az nuzdah andaÌta'i (Rami, Anis, 1946, p. 9). Cl. Huart's translation (based on the manuscripts discrepant from Iqbal's sources):“Mais cette dernière comparaison ne fait pas partie des cent noms des cheveux énumérés ci-dessus, parce que tous les poètes ne sont pas d'accord sur son emploi. Maintenant, si l'on suppose que l'amante rase sa tête, ce qu'on exprime en la comparant à la main blanche de Moïse, on dira qu'elle fait disparai^tre les cent qualités de la beauté, et que par conséquent elle renonce à s'en parer. Si l'on ne savait cela, il serait impossible de comprendre l'énigme suivante…” (Rami, Anis, 1875, p. 18). 46 See DihÌuda, Lugat-nama, s.v. “yad”. THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND 21 and the whiteness appeared on his hand because of the scorch” (with reference to the Burhan-i qati¨). Two parallel excerpts from the Qur'an (7:108 and 26:33) are mentioned as a source: “And he drew forth his hand, and it appeared white to the beholders”. The dictionary proceeds with examples of yad-i bay∂a as a conventional locution for shine, splendour and whiteness. It denotes sun, sword, heart (examples by Muïzzi), as well as a poet's splendid craftsmanship (Ä††ar, Sa¨di, ÎafiÂ). A separate tropological meaning is also noted (magazan): “working wonders and supernatural acts, possessing craftsmanship in some matter”, “completing a difficult cause by means of a nearly supernatural ability”. Examples represent the white hand metaphor as denoting generosity (Suzani), victory (Îaqani) and poetic endowment (Sa¨di). The latter meaning is illustrated by Sa¨di's bayt: The magic (siÌr) of my speech spread over all borders, But what can it attain compared with the white hand of yours?47 The dictionary also explains the combination of yad-i bay∂a with the verb numudan, used in the line we are dealing with: ¨to work wonders like Musa'. Judging by examples, one may note the meaning of producing shine and whiteness of snow (Îaqani: the mountains, like Musa, reveal the white hand), the meaning of victory of a true miracle (i.e. the deeds of the praised person) over the machinations of the Pharaoh (i.e. the deeds of this world and Fate, quotation from the Sindbad-nama), and the meaning of “turning black into white”. The latter is illustrated by Gamal al-din Äbd al-Razzaq's verse: The white hand is being revealed every time By Musa upon the moustache (sablat) of your enemies.48 This means that Musa shows whiteness, which appears from blackness, on the faces “of your enemies” by defoliating them of their whiskers. The idiom sablat kandan (lit. to tear out whiskers) means, in its turn, “to suffer damage, to humble oneself”,49 so the general idea of the bayt is that each time you fight with your enemies, they feel humbled and suffer damage.50 Now, the example of “tearing out whiskers” almost hits the point. We return to our mysterious bayt and understand that on the beloved person's head a transformation of black into white has occurred, and that “the shaved head” is our only option. In fact the poetic idea (ma¨na) suggests a resemblance of the whitened head to the hand of Moses for an obvious reason of “shining whiteness” and “unexpected change of colour”. After this conclusion it is already easy to guess why the beloved one, after shaving his head, subtracted a hundred from nineteen. In the end of the preface Rami lists the nineteen con- stituents of beauty, noting that hair is “towering” (both directly and figuratively) over everything else (Anis, 1946, p. 4). That surely means that “hundred” is in some way con-

47 See Sa¨di, Kulliyat, ed. M.A. Furugi, Tehran, n.d., p. 675. 48 See this bayt also in R. ¨Afifi, Farhang-nama-yi si¨r, Tehran, 1376S./1997-98, vol. 3, s.v. “yad-i bay∂a numudan” with reference to the Diwan. 49 See DihÌuda, Lugat-nama, s.v. “sablat kandan”. 50 One may also consult some special dictionaries, like R. ¨Afifi, Farhang-nama-yi si¨r, s.v. “yad-i bay∂a” and related articles; M. ™arvat, Farhang-i kinayat, Tehran, 1364S./1985, s.v. “dast-i Musa”, “yad-i bay∂a” and “kaf-i safid”. However, they add nothing to the information, included in DihÌuda's dictionary. 22 NATALIA CHALISOVA nected with hair. The poem is translated, we say bingo and leave aside other connotations of the “white hand” given by DihÌuda, like “surpassing the witchcraft” and “victory over the Pharaoh's machinations”, because our bayt does not seem to contain any allu- sions to magic. Unlike us, the poets of Maraga failed to unriddle the sense of this poetic test and acknowledged the “lack in knowledge of poetic meanings”. Let us note the author's indi- cation that the difficulties of understanding can be overcome only on the ground of consensus reached by literary professionals (natayig-i igtima¨-i ahl-i suÌan) concerning every image and its interpretation. Apparently he means here the consensus (igma¨) of philologists and critics reached during common discussion (igtima¨, lit. “alliance, community”) of a particular aspect of poetic production. The notion of igma¨ was developed within the Islamic law (fiqh), where it means concerted opinion of the community or religious authorities (see n. 20). If an igma¨ solution is available, the procedure of qiyas or reasoning by analogy, becomes possible. Saraf Rami thus means that poetry speaks its own artifi- cially created language (with a specific system of form/meaning correspondence), on which the only convention so far available is the oral consensus of poets and critics. Since the information on the system of correspondences between the units of poetic language and their correlates in the natural language had not reached the poets of Maraga — which means the mechanism of oral transmission of the poetic convention started to fail — it became necessary to create a written normative text, a sort of dictionary fixing these correspondences. This collection of authoritative “solutions” on poetry may also provide the contemporary poets with the essential tools for analogical reasoning, whenever a cryptic bayt is under discussion. Saraf Rami proceeds by relating that the poets and literary professionals have subdi- vided the description of the beloved person from head to feet into 19 chapters, but none of those has a written compendium for interpreting bayts like the one about the white hand, and he decided to compile a short treatise for that purpose, becoming the first in this enterprise. The exposition should be started by describing the hair, because “there is no colour above black”, and in the first chapter of the treatise the author gives 100 (in fact 101) names for hair, after which he discloses the sense of the enigmatic bayt. The following structure can be deduced from his narrative. In order to understand the quoted verse, one should know that the consensus of poets and critics acknowledges 33 Arabic and 100 Persian metaphorical definitions (Òifat) of the beloved person's hair. They are elementary units — mufradat, from which poets create more complicated mixtures or composites — murakkabat. After examining the list of figurative names (see above) it becomes clear that poets and critics are unanimous in the following opinion: the beloved person's hair should possess such qualities as black colour, convolution (curliness), fragrance and disorder (being dishevelled, parisan). Hair fulfils a number of functions directly linked to its tempting and ill-omened qualities and having strictly negative connotations. Black colour provides hair with the function of concealing the white face (cf. parda “curtain”, gul-pus “concealing the rose” etc.) or throwing darkness (cf. sab, even sab-i qadr “night of Power” as darkness, concealing and revealing the truth of face, like the night of Power revealed the Koran). THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND 23

Convolution (curliness) gives the opportunity to imagine crooked hair as infidel (cf. kafir, zunnar etc.) — in this group a kind of ethic projection of the quality of convolution can be traced, since every deviation from the straight path of Islam is traditionally treated as walking on curved ways. Fragrance and disorder lead to diffusion of an appealing fragrance and chaotic motion (cf. sar-andaz “agile”, sar-gardan “dizzy, in disorder” and musk-riz “pouring out musk”, ¨ambar-bar “pouring out amber”).51 Convolution and chaotic motion of hair also cause violence. Items of this group characterize the hair as any crooked instrument for capturing hearts (claws, hook, lasso, polo-stick, fetters, nets, snares — all of them also possess the quality of curvedness), as a black evil-doer (at the same time hinting at blackness) and a robber (stealing, capturing, robbing, abducting hearts). Many items belong simultaneously to two or three groups, denoting several attributes at once. These functions of hair, already accepted by consensus, allow to extend the list with new, invented ones (muÌtara¨). But every invented name has to pass the test of “legality” and is accepted or rejected by the consensus of poets and critics depending on the kind of its relations to the acknowledged names. Let us keep in mind the analogy of this procedure to that of fiqh. The acception of each “invented” figurative name is rather a respon- sibility, because it creates a precedent and opens new semantic ways to involve and conventionalize concepts. Naturally enough, plausible inventions should appear as “an extension of convention”. After the “100-word list” Saraf Rami gives one more name of hair — gadu “magician”, invented by Åahir Faryabi. Since it is established that hair is an infidel, lier, and evil-doer, that it conceals light and truth, does not respect order and pro- duces violence, the name “magician” can take its righteous place in the list of names. Rami quotes Faryabi's bayt on the curl, capturing the hearts of lovers by means of magic (ba gadu'i) and explaines, that not all the authoritative men of letters find this gadu a happy idea. He then offers their line of reasoning and thus reveals the mystery of the “white-hand verse”. The logic of the author's discourse shows that only the knowledge of metaphorical hair names and their legal functions in the world of love allows the reader to resort to the procedure of ta'wil or ascension from the metaphorical to the original sense (see n. 19), strongly recommended in the introduction. One can find the route from the metaphor or parable (magaz) to the true sense (haqiqat) by means of the correct supposition (taqdir). Within the criticism of poetic concepts (ma¨ani) taqdir, being originally a grammar term (see n. 44), denotes the starting point of interpretation and often enough the interpretation itself. It is usually based on one of the “simple words” of the conventional language and its correct reconstruction ensures a “rational” interpretation of a phantastic

51 Items of this group demonstrate most explicitly the “transparency of metaphor”, inherent also in many elements of other groups of figurative names: perceived literally, on the ground of direct meanings of their components, these items turn out to be physical characteristics of the object, while taken in a derived sense denote ethical features: sargasta — “having a roaming head” and “ranger, rover”, sarkas — “head- pulling” and “rebellious, disobedient”, sar-afraz “raising one's head” and “proud” etc., which creates rich opportunities for the poetic wordplay of the “double entendre” kind (iham). 24 NATALIA CHALISOVA image.52 In our case the starting point of interpretation is the metaphorical name of the curl — “magician”. Some connoisseurs of poetic meanings refused to acknowledge the “magician” as a proper name for “hair” because it created a prerequisite (taqdir) for comparing the act of cutting hair with the victory over the magicians. Moses was considered by tradition as the main opponent of the magicians, thus the sense of “victory over the magicians” could be represented as the “white” (i.e. miraculous) hand of Musa (on these meanings, mentioned in DihÌuda's dictionary, see above). But the victory of Moses denotes the celebration of the Divine truth, it is both inevitable and extra-temporal, which implicitly deprives the hair of its high status within the Diwan of beauty and loveliness. The consequences are thus serious enough to cause some critics' perplexity. The Koranic story of Musa (the biblical Moses) is most consequently rendered in the “™a ha” chapter (20:9-97). In the sacred vale of Tuwa the Lord conveyed to Musa that he was chosen and manifested the signs — the rod casted down by Musa turned into a snake, and his hand drawn close under his other arm came forth white without any blemish. Afterwards Musa, whom the Lord had surrounded with His love and chosen for Himself, defeated the magicians of Fir¨awn (Pharaoh) with the help of the endowed signs. The magicians and conjurers made the first cast, and “their cords and staves appeared to him, by their magic, as though they scurried about”(20:66), i.e. they came to life and became snakes. Then Moses put down his rod, it swallowed up that which they had wrought (according to the commentators, by turning into a huge snake), and the magicians were exposed. In his tafsir on the chapter “™a ha” al-Suyu†i rendered the words of Muhammad “whenever you meet a magician, kill him!”, after uttering which the Prophet read the ayat “a magician shall not thrive, come whence he may” (20:69).53 Further in the treatise “the hand of Moses” (dast-i musa) is mentioned also as a metaphor of a glamourous white face.54 So the verse in question reads as follows: When you shaved your hair (and we know that hair practises magic), you acted like Musa who had exposed the Pharaoh's magicians. Thus your razor, which shaved the hair, is similar to Musa's rod that had turned into a huge snake and swallowed up the small snakes (i.e. the ropes called to life by the magicians — cf. rope and snake as the names of hair). When you completed the shaving, the wonder of the miraculous white hand has been manifested, i. e. the shining whiteness of your head (or the Divine light of your face) appeared from beneath your black infidel hair. And by shaving the hair you have subtracted one part from 19 parts of beauty — the part whose intricacies are described in 100 names. The narrative given by “the Lovers' Companion” thus implies that for proper understanding poetry the listener should not only translate the conventional names into the true ones, but also find the correct ground of comparison (tertium comparationis), which is under convention as well.

52 An interesting example of the term's usage see in Sams-i Qays, Mu¨gam, p. 317, where the discov- ery of the proper meaning of the word helps the critic to construct the taqdir and improve the interpretation of the verse. 53 See Suyu†i, Itqan, p. 255. 54 See Anis, 1946, p. 20. THE MYSTERY OF THE WHITE HAND 25

In my attempt to carry the translation without the prompt from Rami I managed to decipher the mystery only in part. A certain knowledge of medieval Persian poetry and the professional use of explanatory dictionaries allowed me to catch the main idea, since already in early poetry “the hand of Moses” had been regularly used for expressing the change of blackness into shining whiteness. But it is only the ta'wil, carried out according to established rules,55 through searching for the hidden elementary metaphor and constructing by its help the bayt's taqdir, that gives a chance to approach the traditional interpretation and conceive the poetic essence of the bayt — the comparison of the beloved person's head being shaved with the drama of Musa's struggle with the Pharaoh's magicians, ending by the victory of the prophet's wonder and revelation of truth. They sometimes say that Persian poetry is so complicated in its imagery that we mistake the delight from deciphering it for aesthetic delight. Then why were (and still are) these verses so much loved throughout the Iranian World? I think the answer to this question is encoded in two conventional metaphors: siÌr-i Ìalal (licit magic) as the key metaphor of creating poetry and yad-i bay∂a (white hand) as the key metaphor of interpreting it, of the “triumph of truth”. And to my mind, the choice of the main test example by Saraf Rami was far from accidental.56 The craft of the poet (sa¨iri) in the classical period was considered as casting spells, enchanting eyes and ears, but the intellectual efforts of the listener possessing an erudition equal to the poets' were directed towards breaking the spells and moving backwards from the vertiginous circumlocution to the real semantic foundation, from the miracle of the white hand towards the shaving of the head, and the triumph of truth gave aesthetic delight. Saraf Rami's celebrated contemporary, Ibn Îaldun described “the diverse ways in which the mind moves among the ideas” in the following way: “In its conventional meaning, a word combination indicates one particular idea, but then the mind moves on to what might be the consequence of, or have as its consequence, that idea, or (what might) be similar to it and, thus, express (some idea) in- directly as metaphor or metonymy. This moving around causes pleasure to the mind57”. And he added, that “the different ways (the mind) moves around in this way also have their conditions and laws, which are like rules”.58

55 On ta'wil as a mode of intellectual reconstraction and on intellectual analysis as a way to understand tam†il (a kind of metaphor which is based on the conceptual and not perceptual assimilation) see H. Ritter (ed.), Asrar al-balagha. The Mysteries of Eloquence of ¨Abdalqahir al-Jurjani, Istanbul, 1954, pp. 9-18. 56 Cf. the chapter on the best or “gifted” (ma†bu¨) poetry in Mu¨gam, which is illustrated by the passage from Anwari's qaÒida. The greatest poet there assimilates himself with samiri, i.e. the greatest conjuror and magician, who managed to create the Golden calf but was shamed and beaten by Moses (Sams-i Qays, Mu¨gam, p. 440). 57 See Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History. Transl. by F. Rosenthal, abridged and edited by N.J. Dawood, London, 1987, p. 453. 58 Ibid.