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Nizamī's Perspective on the Relationship Between Poetry and Truth Nizamī’s Perspective on the Relationship Between Poetry and Truth By Seyedehparisa Sajjadi B.S. in Architecture, January 2007, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran M.A. in Philosophy of Arts, September 2011, Art University Arts, Tehran, Iran A Thesis Submitted to The Faculty of The Colombian College of Arts and Sciences of the George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Art May 15, 2016 Thesis directed by Muhammad H. Faghfoory Professorial Lecturer in Islamic Studies 1 Abstract of Thesis Nizamī’s Perspective on the Relationship Between Poetry and Truth The dominance of the Seljuk dynasty over Iran had profound consequences on Persian poetry. From this period on, poetry started to separate from court life and follow an independent path. Accordingly, the joyful and mundane Persian court poetry fell under the influence of Sufism. This transition did not happen at once and there is a middle chain: ‘poetry of religion’. Nizamī of Ganjah was the most distinguished figure during this period. Nizamī, who thought of poetry as a vehicle for truth, saw the poets as a shadow of the prophets and likewise inspired by Jibra’īl who are responsible for shedding the light of marifah (true knowledge) on his audiences. To summarize, Nizamī primarily sees himself as a jeweler who tries to put words, like gems, into the setting of discourse. Only then can he put himself in a line with the prophets, whose shadow poets seek, and whose inspiration comes from a similar source. Nizamī does not stop here, however. After aligning himself with the prophets, he compares his own poesy with God’s creation. As a divine act, then poesy finds a different meaning. God creates everything based on Truth and Intellect; Nizamī similarly thinks the poetic words need to be bound up with thought and wisdom. Keywords: Nizamī, Sufi Poetry, Word, Poetry, Truth ii Table of Contents Abstract of Thesis ............................................................................................................... ii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: The Socio-political Context of Nizamī’s Training............................................ 6 Chapter 3: The ‘Word’ as Defined by Nizamī .................................................................. 14 Chapter 4: Poetry as the Preferred Form for the Word ..................................................... 23 Chapter 5: The Relationship between Poetry and Truth ................................................... 29 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 43 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 44 iii Chapter 1: Introduction Persian poetry is one of the most dynamic forms of art in the Persian speaking world. It has experienced many periods of transitions during its long history. Art in general and literature in particular do not emerge or disappear at once, and their cultivation or decadence is a gradual process. Often, transitions within schools follow social and political transformations, especially when the artistic activity is sponsored by ruling institutions, and/or is dependent on a royal court’s financial support. The establishment of the Seljuk dynasty in Iran signaled an artistic turning point within the Islamic world in general and the Persian speaking world in particular. From this period on, Sufism gradually became the central topic of Persian poetry. Although mystical themes occasionally were used in earlier Persian poetry, Sufi poetry as a style officially began with Hadiqah al Haqiqah of Sanā’ī, of Ghazna (d. 1131 or 1140),1 a man who though raised and trained in the court, nonetheless stood against the shared values of court poets, and started a new path in Persian literature. His attitude influenced other poets after him, and reached a peak in the following centuries, especially in the poems of Hāfiz and Rūmī. After the reign of the Seljuks, the more Persian poetry moved away from the court, the more a newer terminology, as well as new themes, found their way into verse; this in turn changed the expectations of the medium. ‘Word’ and discourse in the literature of this period emphasized ‘truth’ as the central theme, and through the work of many poets including Fakhruddīn ‘Erāqī (d. 1289), ‘Aṭṭār (d. ca. 1220), Rūmī (d. 1273), and Jāmī (d. 1 Sīrūs Shamīsā, Sabk Shināsī She’r, Tehran: Ferdows, 1381 [2002], p 200 1 1492), truth eventually became the main element of poetry’s content, as well as the cause of the poesy. The first poet who frankly acknowledged his debt to Sanā’ī as a writer of didactic masnavi was Ilyas ibn Yusuf Nizamī of Ganja, who claimed in his didactical poem, Makhzan al-asrar (“Treasury of Secrets”)2 that he could surpass his predecessor. Unlike many other Persian poets, Nizamī speaks of himself and his family several times in his romances. From his poems we learn that he was born ca. 535 AH (1140 A.D) in the trans- Caucasian city of Ganja. He appears to have spent his entire life in the same region, dying there approximately seventy-five years later. He also lived through the time when Iran – or, more accurately, the Islamic world – was enjoying a period of great cultural efflorescence in Seljuk Period. During Nizamī’s lifetime, a period that saw poetry move from courtly verse towards mystical and otherwise ‘Sufi’ themes, court patronage was still the chief source of support for poets, guaranteeing not only their livelihood but also the reproduction and distribution of their art. In this regard Nizamī stands out as a prominent figure. Although his poems are dedicated to various local princes and contain appeals to his patrons’ generosity, the poet seems to have largely avoided court life.3 The medieval biographers like Dawlatshāh Samarqandī, Aufi, and Jāmī presented Nizamī as a member in one or more Sufi orders (turuq), but according to Talattof, they 2 J.T.P de Brujin, Persian poetry: an introduction to the mystical use of classical Persian poems, Richmond, Surrey: Cruzon, 1997, p 97 3 Nizamī Ganjavī; Julie Scott Meisamī, Nizamī Ganjavī; Julie Scott Meisamī: A Medieval Persian Romance, Oxford: Oxford University press, 1995, p viii 2 provided no reliable evidence of this. Talattof continues that Nizami’s deep spirituality is always present in his writing, and it would be hard to deny traces of Sufi learnings, as well.4 In his masterpieces, Nizamī defines a new role for poetry. Following in the footsteps of Sanā’ī, Nizamī positions himself against centuries-old customs in Persian literature, and moreover looked to expand the possibilities of the form. Unlike court-based poets, Nizamī used romance as a vehicle for expressing his beliefs.5 In his famous khamsa (Quintet), the first epic, Makhzan al-asrar (Treasury of Secrets) outlines twenty moral principles, each illustrated by a tale. What follows are three great romantic epics — Khosrow and Shīrīn, Layla and Majnūn, and Haft Paykar (The Seven Beauties) – the last epic being the Book of Alexander (Iskandarnama), all of which combine didactic, heroic and romantic elements.6 From Nizamī’s perspective, word7 and discourse8 contain rich meaning, and so does poetry, for its main material is the word. He sees a direct relationship between poesy and creation, and considers ‘discourse,’ based on both Islamic and pre-Islamic beliefs, as the first creation of God. In this view, word seems to be identified with Intellect (‘aql), thus making intellect the basis of poetry. This relationship between poetry and Intellect accordingly puts some responsibilities on the shoulders of poetry; indeed, if it is essentially an Intellectual art, it cannot be arbitrary, or in other words cannot be entirely divorced from 4 Kamran Talattof, “preface”, in The Poetry of Nizamī Ganjavi: Knowledge, Love, and Rhetoric, ed. Kamran Talattof, Jerome W. Clinton, New York, Palgrave, 2000, p 7. 5 J.C Burgel, “the Romance”, in Persian Literature, ed. Ehsan Yarshater, Albany, N.Y.: Bibliotheca Persica, 1988, p 167 6 Ibid 7 kalimah 8 sokhan 3 concepts such as truth and falsehood. Perhaps it is because of this connection that Nizamī considers poetry more generally as the vehicle for truth. To have a better understanding of Nizamī’s views on this matter, this research addresses the following questions in four distinct chapters: 1. Under what socio-political context did Nizamī train? Because social and political environments influence poetry, we must understand how Nizamī came to reflect the themes of early Persian Sufi poetry. Nizamī criticized his peers, and defined the new role of poetry in opposition to contemporary poesy. It is not possible to understand Nizamī’s ideal poetry without knowing the kind of poetry against which he positioned himself. 2. How is the word, as the primary formal element of poetry, understood from Nizamī’s viewpoint? What Nizamī expected of poetry followed from his understanding of word, and, accordingly, discourse. These views evolved over time, and may have been influenced by religious attitudes and conventions during Nizamī’s lifetime. 3. Why the word should be put in the form of writing, either prose orpoetry? Nizamī stresses that the best form of expression is poetry, and that it is the form through which truth can be revealed. Here, the question is whether or not it made any difference if Nizamī put his
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