The Poet and His Patrons: Two Ghaznavid Panegyrists
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PERSICA XVII, 2001 THE POET AND HIS PATRONS: TWO GHAZNAVID PANEGYRISTS Julie Scott Meisami University of Oxford Among Professor Hans de Bruijn's many contributions to the study of Persian poetry, his discussion of the influence of patronage on the poetic production of Sanaˆi of Ghazna (d. 525/1131) stands out as the first major effort at addressing this important issue.1 De Bruijn disputed the traditional image of Sanaˆi as a court poet who, after a mystical “con- version”, dedicated himself to composing religious poetry, and showed us instead a poet who, failing to secure satisfactory patronage at the court of the Ghaznavid Mas¨ud III (492-508/1099-1115), turned to religious patrons, for whom he composed panegyrics, homiletic poetry, and poems to be used in preaching. Sanaˆi also produced song-texts (gazals) for professional minstrels; and when he returned to the Ghaznavid court in the reign of Bahramsah (511-52?/1117-57?), he dedicated to that ruler both his homiletic ma†nawi the Îadiqat al-Ìaqiqa and numerous panegyrics in the qaÒida and gazal forms. The diversity of Sanaˆi's patrons, and of his poetic output, raises broader questions about the nature of literary patronage; and Professor de Bruijn's study illustrates the need for a more extensive exploration of this issue. In his doctoral thesis on Sanaˆi Franklin Lewis addressed this issue further;2 but it remains to be seen whether Sanaˆi's case is excep- tional, or whether it reflects changing patterns of patronage at the courts of the later Ghaznavids.3 That from its very beginnings Persian poetry was intimately connected with courts is well known. To state that poets were dependent on court patronage is to state the obvi- ous; but the nature and conditions of this patronage have yet to be systematically ex- plored. What follows is a preliminary attempt to investigate poet-patron relationships at the Ghaznavid courts in the 5th/11th and early 6th/12th centuries. What did patrons ex- pect of poets? And what did poets expect of their patrons? The answer might seem self- evident: patrons expected poems, and poets produced them in exchange for (among other things) financial remuneration. But the poet-patron relationship was but one expression of a more general client-patron relationship which obtained in medieval Islamicate society. 1 J.T.P. de Bruijn, Of Piety and Poetry: The Interaction of Religion and Literature in the Life and Works of Îakin Sanaˆi of Ghazna, Leiden, 1983. 2 Franklin D. Lewis, Reading, Writing and Recitation: Sanaˆi and the Origins of the Persian Ghazal, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1995. 3 This question applies to court poetry under the Seljuqs as well, but the latter cannot be dealt with here. 92 JULIE SCOTT MEISAMI It is this system of clientage which explains the poet's position in the courtly milieu, as well as the fact that poets were often not simply composers of verse, but might perform other functions as well, and were intimately involved in the life — and the politics — of the courts they served. The institution of clientage has been studied in detail by Roy Mottahedeh, with spe- cific reference to the Buyid period.4 His conclusions, however, hold (with some modifica- tion) for other periods and other milieux. The bond between patron and client was (over and above specific services rendered) one of loyalty, and, more specifically, of benefit. Conferring and receiving benefit created a system of mutual and reciprocal expectations and obligations on the part of both patron and client. A client would become attached to a patron (or patrons; in the case of poets, at least, multiple patronage seems to have been the rule rather than the exception) with the understanding that he would perform certain tasks (a soldier would perform military service; a poet would compose poetry), and with the expectation that the patron would reciprocate through financial support (a regular stipend, a periodic remuneration, or provision of some form of employment) and (of at least equal importance) through “political” support (in the case of a poet, support against rivals, de- tractors, and so on). The poet-patron relationship was thus not unique, by virtue of the client being a poet, but was predicated on the larger values of this system of patronage. Although we have little evidence from the patrons' side as to what they expected — or demanded — of poets, there is ample evidence in the poetry to reconstruct at least some of these expectations. We know that poems were required on certain occasions: to celebrate the major festivals, both Islamic and Persian, campaigns and victories, and im- portant events in the patron's life, and to present general praise on less specific occasions. The poems also furnish evidence as to what poets expected from their patrons in the way of both financial and political support; and it would seem that explicit references to such expectations became more frequent in the poetry of the later Ghaznavid period. Here I propose to examine the poetry of two Ghaznavid panegyrists — FarruÌi Sistani (d. after 421/1032-3) and ¨Utman MuÌtari (d. after 513/1119) — in the hope that a comparison of the two will shed light on changing patterns of patronage. The aspiration of most poets was to obtain entrée to a court; the higher the court, the more desirable the entrée. The service of local princes, provincial governors, impor- tant officials and the like was often a preliminary stage in the rise to service of a more important ruler. Despite some charming stories — such as Îamd Allah Mustawfi's ac- count of Firdawsi's supposed encounter with the Ghaznavid court poets ¨UnÒuri, FarruÌi and ¨Asgadi5 — we may assume that it was rare for a poet simply to present himself at court, recite his verses, and be made welcome. Normally, the poet would seek out a per- son of standing at the court, address poems to him, and entreat his recommendation to the ruler. What appears to change during the period under study is not this basic procedure, but the increase in importance of what might be called second- or third-tier patrons, through whom the poet might seek the royal patronage to which he aspired. * * * 4 Roy P. Mottahedeh, Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society, Princeton, 1980. 5 Îamd Allah Mustawfi Qazwini, TariÌ-i guzida, ed. ¨Abd al-Îusayn Navaˆi, Tehran, 1960, p. 738. THE POET AND HIS PATRONS: TWO GHAZNAVID PANEGYRISTS 93 Our knowledge of FarruÌi's early life comes chiefly from NiÂami ¨Aru∂i's account in his Cahar Maqala;6 the rest of the poet's career must be reconstructed from his po- etry.7 According to NiÂami ¨Aru∂i, FarruÌi's father had been a gulam of the Saffarid ruler of Sistan, Îalaf ibn AÌmad; FarruÌi himself was employed by a local dihqan.8 Wishing to marry, he asked for an increase in salary; dissatisfied by his employer's response, he decided to improve his situation by entering the service of the MuÌtagid prince Abu l- MuÂaffar AÌmad Cagani, a vassal of MaÌmud of Ghazna (388-421/998-1030) and a noted patron of poets.9 He arrived at the Amir's court on the occasion of Nawruz 406/ 1016 (which coincided with ¨Id al-Fi†r),10 and presented the Amir with two of his most famous qaÒidas. The first congratulates the Amir on Nawruz and makes a plea for his fa- vour (the poet has travelled a long way, he says, in the hope that the Amir will accept his service);11 the second describes the Amir's branding-ground (daggah).12 In a third poem to the Amir, composed for Mihragan of the same year, the poet expresses his gratitude for the Amir's gifts of robes and other tokens of honour (Ìil¨at), gold, and, especially, a horse, which have added much to his status.13 We need not repeat the details of how FarruÌi won acceptance at the Amir Abu l-MuÂaffar's court.14 What is important is that he had the help of an intermediary: the Amir's katÌuda, the ¨Amid Sayyid As¨ad, to whom FarruÌi submitted his first Nawruz poem to the Amir, who demanded that he compose the second poem (on the branding- ground) to prove his poetic ability, and who (says NiÂami ¨Aru∂i) told the Amir that FarruÌi was the best poet since Daqiqi.15 FarruÌi addressed two qaÒidas to the ¨Amid. The first was clearly composed for the same Nawruz;16 in the second, which has an 6 NiÂami ¨Aru∂i, The Chahár Maqála (“Four Discourses”), trans. Edward G. Browne, Hertford, 1899, pp. 58-66. 7 Here I rely heavily on the research of Ms. G. Tetley for her D.Phil. thesis, “Panegyric Poetry in Per- sian as Evidence for Political and Social History…the Poetry of Farrukhi Sistani and Amir Mu¨izzi” (in progress). 8 Îalaf was removed by MaÌmud of Ghazna in ∑afar 393/December 1002, after which Sistan became a Ghaznavid province. It is unclear why de Blois thinks that FarruÌi was a slave (François de Blois, Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey, vol. 5 part 2: Poetry to ca. A.D. 1100, London, 1992, p. 109). 9 On Abu l-MuÂaffar AÌmad (or MuÌammad) Cafiani see C.E. Bosworth, “The Rulers of Chagha- niyan in Early Islamic Times,” Iran 19, 1981, pp. 11-12. Bosworth notes the confusion of names in the sources, and argues that this prince must have been Abu l-MuÂaffar MuÌammad, the son of Abu ¨Ali AÌmad Cafiani. 10 See de Blois, Persian Literature, p.