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Study on the Description of Architect in the Haft Peykar of Nizâmî

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Study on the Description of Architect in the Haft Peykar of Nizâmî 45 quarterly, No. 31 Spring 2021 Persian translation of this paper entitled: DOI: 10.22034/jaco.2021.270477.1183 پژوهشی پیرامون وصف معمار در هفتپیکر نظامی is also published in this issue of journal. Original Research Article Study on the Description of Architect in the Haft Peykar of Nizâmî Ali Asadpour*1, Shahabeddin Sadeghi2 1. Ph. D Architecture. , Department of Interior Architecture, Shiraz University of Arts, Shiraz, Iran. 2. M.A. in Architecture, Shiraz University of Arts, Shiraz, Iran. Received; 27/01/2021 accepted; 24/02/2021 available online; 01/04/2021 Abstract Due to the lack of Persian resources to understand architecture and the architect in the history of Iran, it is necessary to turn to literature. In the meantime, NizâmîGanjavi’s poems from the early twelfth century are an important and significant source. The purpose of this study is to recognize the description of the architect in the Haft Peykar of Nizâmî, which is one of the most important Persian literary works. In this research, the names and emblems of architects, moral characteristics, and attributes representing their skills and abilities have been studied. To do this, in a qualitative strategy using content analysis, the desired verses are identified and first, the attributes of each architect are extracted. Then, by combining common attributes in a category, a large group is formed that represents the common characteristics. The research findings revealed the names of three architects named “Sinmár”, “Shida” and “Russian Princess”. The frequency of all of them in the narration shows that each is somehow related. Sinmár is a skillful roman master and is best known for his engineering and astronomy. Shida, a trainee of Simnár, has been most prominent in the arts and crafts. The temperament and moral character of the Russian Princess, Banoo-ye-Hesari is described more in the Haft Peykar. Finally, it can be said that the architect’s description in Nizâmî thought shows a kind of comprehensiveness that is skilled in both geometric and land measuring and construction techniques, as well as in astronomy. Besides, the architect has been subtle and delicate in artistic matters. Every architect has benefited from these attributes according to the position and role in the Haft Peykar narration. Keywords: Sinmár, Shida, Architect, Nizâmî, Haft Peykar. Introduction Among these, Nizâmî is one of the most prominent Our current knowledge of the architect’s personality poets of the 12 century. Many biographers have and their characteristics and temperaments is scarce written that Nizâmî was born in Iran around in the surviving Persian sources. Therefore, turning 1156AD. Ilyás ibn Yûsuf, known by his pen-name 1 to literature, especially poetic works can be helpful. of Nizâmî,"who has perfected Masnavi to a kind of maturity, imagination and skillthat none of the * Corresponding author: [email protected], +989173061828 46 quarterly, No. 31| Spring 2021 past writers and poets have been able to in this (Nizâmî, 1995, 267) way" (Shirani, 2002, 35). Masnavi in his poems Nizâmîin his subconscious has a mentality of the sometimes filled with the themes of the qaṣīda2 and culture of the time, and this mentality has helped indicate his talent in these two fields (Zarrinkoub, him to express the cultural depths of his time. By 1999, 204).This magic of the word has made him avoiding the degeneration of his time and exploring one of the pillars of Persian poetry and has made him the depths of the inner and subconscious, he creates one of the poets who have succeeded in creating or an ideal world in the Haft Peykar (Mashhadi, completing a special style and method (Safa, 1983, Vasegh Abbasi & Abbasi, 2011, 165); A world that 357). The Nizâmî’s main legacy is a collection of five has emerged from the poet’s lifetime. Therefore, books which is called Khamseh (five poems) orPanj the purpose of the present study can be considered Ganj(five treasures) (Nafisi, 1983, 73). “These five as a search for the description of the architect in famous collections, which are the unique work of the poems of an important poet from the 12AD the storyteller of Nizâmî are five books of poetry century. To find the true meaning of “architect” and in five different rhymes” (Zarrinkoub, 1976, 168). the scope of meaning of the word in that period, Among these works of Hakim, the Haft Peykar, referring to Nizâmî’s poems can be considered a key with its seven heartwarming stories, is the most and beginning point that in connection with other imaginative, colorful, and illustrated poem from findings can help clarify the meaning of “architect” Panj Ganj (Zarrinkoub, 1999, 144). in Iranian history. Many scholars of Persian literature have called Haft Peykar one of the most complex literary works Research questions in the world (Krotkoff, 2005, 38). Nizâmî’s strange This research tries to answer the following questions: way of writing is considered to be the product of his A) which architects are mentioned in the Haft Peykar? solitary spirit. This seclusion made him imaginative B) What were their moral characteristics? And C) and narrow-minded so that what he wrote would Which of the following aspects of an architect’s appear beyond a veil of ambiguity. This view has training background represents these features and discovered unknown details in the manifestations of characteristics? nature and the poet’s mind has expressed them with his unique art (Toghyani & Hatami, 2011, 79). He is Research background creative in the word, meaning, and the subject of his Numerous studies have been done on the Haft poems, and his writings are full of innovations. Like Peykar (Kazzazi, 2004; Dezfulian & Malekpaeen, a unique artist, he records the moments of human 2013; Zolfaghari, 2007). Among them are several life and behavior, and explores the relationships pieces of research in artistic aspects of the poem; between phenomena, and brings them all into the for instance, the fields of color-coding have been realm of sight and perception. In Nizâmî’s writings, studied as a manifestation of unity and plurality in the two elements of “thought and eloquence” are the Haft Peykar (Aliakbary & Hejazi, 2011). Or side by side (Ardalani, 2011, 223) as he wrote about the connection between color and anecdotes has the creation of the Haft Peykar: been explored (Varedi & Mokhtarnameh, 2007). Or For lesser men it outside’s fine; for those who see, the relation between numbers and colors has also the pith’s within been investigated (Krotkoff, 2005). Color and its All things are on its string, good, bad; and all manifestation in paintings (Ghazizadeh & Khazaei, allusion, wisdom, and symbol 2005) and theanalysis of the color of red based on Ali Asadpour & Shahabeddin Sadeghi 47 Islamic mysticism have also been studied in Haft century AD. Peykar (Rafiei Rad, 2021). However, few studies relate to the field of architecture. Jayhani (2016) Research method represented the spatial structure of Khajeh Garden The strategy of this research is qualitative and based on a story from the Haft Peykar and Ghazizadeh has used content analysis in some way.All the and Khazaei (2005) have also searched for the colors Haft Peykar poems have been read in full to get in Haft Peykar as an example of Iranian paintings. acquainted with the tone and meaning of each Therefore, the description of the architect could not verse. The poems related to the architects were then be seen in these studies. identified and divided in such a way as to reflect the On the other hand, our historical knowledge of three personalities of the architect. The findings at architecture and architecture in pre-Renaissance this stage are without precedence or lag. Then, to re- written literature is not significant either globally or read the concept of the architect in the poet’s mind, nationally; From the Ten Books on Architecture of using his poems and descriptions of these three Vitruvius to Alberti’s Ten Books of Architecture, architects, five different clusters were defined, each only a handful of treatises by Augustine, Petrarch, cluster expressing a macro attribute of these three and other Christian authors remain that are among characters. Each of these clusters has subsets that the available sources on architecture (Mahmoudi, contain the micro-attributes of architects, attributes 2012, 31). One of the rare examples in the Islamic that are directly extracted from the verses. world is the treatise on architecture written by the Ottoman architect Jafar Effendi, written in Arabic The structure and nature of Nizami’s Haft in 1644AD about the characteristics of Muhammad Peykar ibn Abd al-Mo’in, a prominent Anatolian architect, Artistically, Haft Peykar is considered the best and contains valuable information on the manner among Nizâmîworks and is undoubtedly the urbanite and system of architectural affairs, words, materials viewpoints that have been put into words (Ripka & and tools (Effendi, 2016). Fortunately, it has been Klima, 2002, 299).This is the fourth Masnavi of translated into Persian. In Iran, the Futuvvetnâme3 of the five Masnavis of Nizami, which is called Haft architects, builders, and related professions also have Peykar and was composed in the octave meter khafif a symbolic language and rely on self-improvement and is arranged in 5130 verses (Shahabi, 1955, 252). and self-cultivation as a basic and stable principle Hafteh Peykar has an introduction and a story from (Nadimi, 2007, 61). Khanmohammadi’s research seven domes, the most verses of which belong to the (1992) in poems called Shahr-e-Ashob in manuscripts first dome (522 verses) and the least to the second and often unpublished works by Masoud Saad- dome (213 verses). Haft Peykar is a story about Salman (12th and 13th AD), Seyfi Bokhari (16th Bahrâm Sasani, from his childhood to his reign AD), Lesani Shirazi (The period of Shah Tahmasb), and from his reign to his disappearance in a cave.
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