The Philosophical Poetry of Nasir Khusraw
Conference - Abstracts Full
17-18 September 2005
Brunei Gallery Auditorium, SOAS, Thornhaugh St., Russell Square, London
Over 20 speakers will take an in-depth look at the philosophical content of Nasir Khusraw’s poetry and the poetic techniques he employs to achieve his admitted success in conveying imagery and emotion. Convened by Alice Hunsberger.
Click on name to see biographical notes
The Poetics of a Moral Journey and Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals
Within the long philosophical tradition in Persia, whose most common form of expression has been discursive reasoning in prose, a different form of expressing philosophical thought has also existed whose medium is poetry. Even considering only the Islamic period, such philosophical giants as Ibn Sina, Suhrawardi, Afdal al-Din Kashani, Mulla Sadra, Hajji Mulla Hadi Sabziwari, and also a modern philosopher like 'Allamah Tabataba'i have all adopted poetry as a way of philosophizing. Despite the seriousness of this intellectual tradition, it has remained a neglected area of scholarship. Reasons for this may include the simple prejudice that art cannot be philosophy, or the judgment that formats differing from the systematic and discursive style of the Greek Peripatetics cannot be philosophy, or the difficulty in identifying premises, argument and conclusion within a poem. The real reason however might be that a poetic mode of thought requires a different process of intellection and reflection, one that does not lend itself to the analytical tools of reasoning.
Nasir Khusraw belongs to this tradition of philosophical poetry, discussing in his poetry almost all the philosophical themes treated discursively by the Peripatetics such as existence and essence, intellect, emanation, and theodicy. This paper will argue that, more than offering traditional treatments of these topics, Nasir Khusraw uses poetic license to construct a spiritual paradigm consisting of instructions for the journey of the soul. My paper is a discussion on Nasir Khusraw's 'Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals', a title I have adopted from Immanuel Kant. While not strictly a Kantian reading of Nasir Khusraw, the metaphysical foundations of Nasir Khusraw's views with regard to the relationship between pure and practical reasoning as reflected in his poetry will be analyzed and interpreted here. Nasir Khusraw's journey of the soul has an ethical and moral component, one that he has treated extensively in his poetry. However, the ethical (earthly) component of the journey of the soul has a metaphysical foundation, which he has also elucidated extensively in his poetry. Thus, the two components of morality in Nasir Khusraw's thought, pure and practical, constitute a coherent and consistent ethical paradigm whose principles and nuances will be discussed thoroughly in this paper.
Nasir Khusraw and the Poetics of Enlightenment
In this essay, I draw attention to the philosophical significance of Nasir Khusraw's employment of the poetic form. It is common knowledge that Nasir Khusraw's hermeneutics (ta'wil) relies on a distinction between (and a movement among) the exoteric and the esoteric dimensions of the philosophical (and prophetic) texts. What is perhaps less commonly known is that Nasir Khusraw's poetic work trains the reader in this hermeneutics. I will appeal to his prophetology in Knowledge and Liberation (Gushayesh va Rahayesh) as well as the poetics implied in his literary work and in the philosophical tradition which he inherits (that of Avicenna and Alfarabi) to make this point.
Knowledge and Liberation contrasts two movements in a prophetic moment, tanzil (revelation and condensation) and ta'wil (esoteric interpretation as return to the spiritual source). The first movement makes the spiritual accessible to a wide audience by exotericizing the divine message, while the second lays a course for the members of that audience to gain redemption by returning to the font of the divine communication. The poetic works of Nasir Khusraw and the philosophical poetics of his predecessors thematize the role of imagination in the two movements of the prophetic moment. In exploring these works, I show that it is the prophet's perfected imagination that realizes the tanzil, and the ta'wil, in turn, can be attained by cultivating the imagination of the recipients of the tanzil. Imagination's refinement is attained through the reader's engagement of the poetic form. I contrast the poetic cultivation of imagination with that of the intellect as advanced in Nasir Khusraw's more philosophical works.
Nasir Khusraw and the Doctrine of Resurrection (Qiyamat)
The aim of this paper is four-fold: (1) to briefly describe the Islamic doctrine of resurrection (qiyamat); (2) to describe Nasir Khusraw's treatment of the doctrine in his poetry and prose; (3) to compare and contrast Nasir Khusraw's perception of qiyamat with that of the later philosopher Nasir al-Din Tusi; and (4) to elaborate a theory of this doctrine in Nizari Ismaili thought in general and Nasir Khusraw in particular. Both Nasir Khusraw and Nasir al-Din Tusi will be placed in intellectual context by referring to key thinkers who influenced each of them, such as Abu Ya`qub Sijistani and Hasan `Ala Dhikrih-i al-Salam, respectively, as well as contrasting them with authors who differed from them, such as the Sunni philosopher `Ata Malik Juwayni. In the effort to place Nasir Khusraw's poetry in perspective, the religious poetry of his contemporary, Hasan-i Mahmud Katib will be presented. Based on this evidence, I will propose the question of whether the word qiyamat might be more correctly translated as 'religious renaissance' than 'resurrection'. The historical 'summons to qiyamat' proclaimed in 1164 by Imam Hasan `ala Dhikrihi al-Salam changed the attitude of the Nizari Ismailis toward the injunction of Islamic religious law (shari`at) in a way different from the ideas of Nasir Khusraw and Sijistani, and with direct implications for future attitudes toward the applicability of shari`at.
Also a Poet
In every culture philosophy requires linguistic precision. The same is true of poetry. They are, however, different kinds of precision. In philosophy the demand is for precise logical distinctions, whereas in lyric poetry it is elegant variation. The number of poets who respond simultaneously to the demands of the lyric and the demands of logic are very few. The term 'also a poet' in a biographical notice can be more than just an oddity; it can seem almost a miracle.
Nietzsche, in The Birth of Tragedy, reminds us that Socrates is said to have composed poetry in prison, as a kind of retraction of his refusal to acknowledge its power in his philosophy. Nietzsche himself wrote poetry, as did Ibn Sina and Thomas Aquinas. Lao-zu's Dao de jing is so concentrated and elegant it hardly seems prose at all. Lucretius provides the most prominent example of a philosopher/poet. And yet the consensus dominates that the lyrical and philosophical sensibilities are at odds. The lyric poetry of Nasir Khusraw, successful both as poetry and as philosophy, offers a way to examine the dilemma of writing operating under two generic constraints. I suspect this is a dilemma that holds true in more than one culture. We can observe it in a handful of European poets who, though not philosophers strictly speaking, are philosophical poets: in Italy Dante and Campanella, in English Spenser and Milton. With the right choice of texts we can make our comparative inquiry more precise: what happens to the peculiar demands of a lyric tradition when the rules of logic intervene to complicate them.
The Architectural Terminology of Nasir Khusraw's 'Divan': Lexical and Allegorical Aspects
The general objective of this paper is to study the philological aspect of Nasir Khusraw's text, while exploring its historical, cultural and anthropological perspectives. We explain how certain terms used by Nasir Khusraw not only denote specific images and objects, but also assume great associative power, thus revealing the inner, deeper meaning which they have within the whole Islamic Iranian culture. In this paper, we propose to investigate key terms - architectural terms - as a basis for better understanding of the ideas presented by the author in the text. The starting point for our analysis is the selected architectural vocabulary employed by the author, as well as its meaning and origin. We analyse lexical and semantic aspects of each term, and their usage from comparative and historical perspectives. The different layers of meaning of key terms heighten our understanding of the text, and allow us to give its most complete interpretation. We reveal the link to allegorical meaning, and analyse the images that represent allegory. The language data - architectural and construction terms - that are analysed here are derived from a poetic text. Our research includes a cognitive study of spatial modeling and its allegorical dimension. We investigate the main architectural and construction terms that are used in Nasir Khusraw's Divan: buildings for worship and their structural components (e.g. various types of foundations, roofing, domes, doorways, columns), and features such as minarets, rotundas, different types of arches, etc. Each term is also supplemented by a history of its elaboration and emblematic usage in Islamic culture. Thus, on the basis of the analysis of these terms we can study and interpret more fully Nasir's views on the spatial modeling of the sacred world and its organizing principles.
Nasir Khusraw on Intellect: Ontological and Aesthetical Aspects of Intellect in Nasir Khusraw's Poetry
One of the salient features of Nasir Khusraw's poetry is his analysis and interpretation of the concept of the intellect. He not only treats the subject matter in his philosophical works but elaborates on the concept of intellect in his poetry as well. In the present discussion, we will investigate Nasir Khusraw's concept of intellect both from an ontological and an aesthetics perspective. Nasir Khusraw who was well versed in Greek thought and made extensive use of Plato, Aristotle and in particular Plotinus, constructed an intellectual paradigm based on the hierarchy of beings. It is within this philosophical system that aesthetics and ontology are wedded into a single phenomenon and expressed poetically. The rapprochement between aesthetics and ontology in the poetry of Nasir Khusraw provides a number of philosophical utilities among which reconciliation of faith and reason can be mentioned. While a number subjects are mentioned here, the focus of this discussion will remain Nasir Khusraw's concept of the intellect.
Structure, Rhetoric and Meaning Concerning the Terms 'Nafs' and 'Jan' (Soul) in Nasir Khusraw's Poetry
Every word carries more than one meaning. Through the context of the surrounding words, the writer directs the reader to the desired meaning. The reader participates in this creation of meaning by allowing the other meanings to fall into the background, and agrees to go along with the writer's assertion that, in this phrase, in this sentence, a particular word designates one particular meaning. By the progression of words and sentences, the writer lays out a proposition of meaning which the reader accepts in the structured confines of the poem or other written work of art. This paper aims to show how Nasir Khusraw employs structure and other poetic devices to build meaning and power in his qasidas. Focusing on one concept (soul), for which he uses both the Arabic 'nafs' and the Persian 'jan', allows us to examine closely Nasir Khusraw's use of surrounding words, sounds and meanings to lead the reader to his desired meaning for that line. We will address the following questions: Are nafs and jan synonymous? Does each one separately always mean the same thing? What are secondary meanings? How does Nasir Khusraw differentiate between the two? With what other words or contexts do these words appear? For example, what is the difference between the frequent pair of jan/tan (soul and body) and the very significant duo jan/`aql (intellect and soul)? How does the poet control the poem's structure in order to emphasize the meaning he desires? In order to demonstrate whether Nasir Khusraw is unique or following a poetic tradition in his techniques, a few brief comparisons with contemporary or earlier Persian poets will be given, as well as his own statements about his methods and aims. For philosophical background, the paper will also make comparison with Nasir Khusraw's six prose philosophical texts, particularly Khwan al-Ikhwan (The Brethren's Banquet), Zad al-Musafarin (Provisions for Travellers), and Jami` al-Hikmatain (Blending the Two Wisdoms).
The Position of `Aql in the Prose and Poetry of Nasir Khusraw
The position of `aql or khirad, translated as 'intellect' in English, is one of the most important issues in Nasir Khusraw's works. Intellect, in its various positions, has been often debated as a means of attaining the knowledge of the realities of things (haqa'iq-i ashya) in many branches of Islamic learning. In order to assess the position of intellect in Nasir Khusraw's works, it would be appropriate to briefly describe his background and his own position within it.
According to Nasir Khusraw, the intellect is basically divided into two levels: the universal intellect, which is actual and is the cause of the spiritual and physical worlds; and the particular intellect, which is potential and needs an actual intellect to bring it into actuality by imparting to it the knowledge of the realities. In order to fulfil this need, God has chosen one of the particular intellects in the material world, and has endowed him with His special knowledge and ta'yid. That is, God breathes His Spirit into this chosen particular intellect and calls him His light and appoints him as His vicegerent on earth. Together with this light He also sends a Book, which consists of intelligibles (ma`qulat) or intellectual realities expressed in physical parables and allegories. These are gradually explained through the process of ta'wil to the particular intellects according to their receptivity and progress. With respect to their receptivity to this knowledge, Nasir Khusraw divides them into four groups.
The Ismailis differ from both the philosophers and mutakallims with respect to the position of the intellect and its usage. The innate intellect is indeed a divine gift to human beings to the exclusion of other animals. However, although it is capable of receiving knowledge, it is not already learned. According to Nasir Khusraw a divine teacher with given knowledge (`ilm-i `atai), that is, a Prophet or an Imam fulfils its need for knowledge. Nasir Khusraw compares the innate intellect to the eyesight and the teacher with the given knowledge to the sun. Both are complementary in order to attain the second perfection. Without a sound innate intellect the teacher cannot impart knowledge and without a perfect teacher with the given knowledge, the innate intellect remains in the darkness of ignorance. This is the main and central theme that runs throughout Nasir Khusraw's works.
Philosophical and Literary Contexts of Nasir Khusraw's Poetry
This lecture is mainly intended to give an overview of the work of Nasir Khusraw and his place in the history and literature of the Islamic, mainly Persianate, world. To begin with, I shall be briefly looking at the historical situation in which he lived, and discuss some of the implications of his conversion to Ismailism, including his strained relations with the Turkic ruling dynasties he knew personally, and his critique of established Sunni theological doctrines. I will also be dwelling on some of his own theological presuppositions and concerns, his devotion to the 'Family of the Prophet' and his attempts to prove creation ex nihilo logically, as reflected in both his poetry and prose, and raise the question of his originality oas a thinker. Given his extensive use of symbolism and polarity of meaning, such as This world/That world, zahir/batin, I will also explore Nasir Khusraw's complex relationship with mysticism and Sufism. It is complex because he values 'intellect' as the highest human trait, as well as perhaps the ultimate or foundational connective force in both worlds, a position which appears to stand in bold contrast to the extensive body of Sufi poetry and prose which considers 'love' as the highest value. It is also complex because it seems that it was through a process of creative adaptation to Sufism that a number of spurious poems came to be regarded as belonging to his authentic writings in the course of time (e.g. with Jami). In any case, the history of the reception of Nasir Khusraw's poetry in Sufism - its rejection as 'heretical' by some Sufis as well as its creative adaptation by others - deserves more attention than has been hitherto given to it. I will be looking at some aspects of this process by discussing what is probably the earliest quotation of one of his authentic poems by a Sufi, `Ayn al-Qudat-i Hamadani (executed 525/1131), and a recreation of the same poem as attributed to one of the pillars of the philosophical 'school of Isfahan' in Safavid Iran, Mir Findiriski (d. 1050/1640-1).
Ismaili Metaphysics and Poetic Riddles in Nasir Khusraw's Verse: An Annotated Translation and Study of the Ode to the Two Substances
The endless enigmas and poetic riddles, which are the product of the numerous obscure religious, cosmological, theological, psychological and philosophical allusions that pervade Nasir Khusraw's metaphysical verse, have to date received little systematic commentary or study. The following essay attempts to decipher a few of these riddles by providing an annotated English poetic translation of one lengthy qasida. This qasida (112 in the Minovi/ Mohaghegh edition) is a hymn to the Soul and the Intellect written as a philosophical allegory, every verse of which deliberately presents a challenge to the reader's theological lore by demanding a hermeneutic exegesis or ta'wil to decode its allusions. An English literal translation and a new verse rendition of this poem is given, accompanied by a running prose commentary on its esoteric meanings. An introduction sets the poem in historical and literary context, followed by line by line commentaries.
Kalima and the Synthesis of Poetry and Philosophy
This lecture analyses the prosaic sense, philosophical conceptualization and poetic significance of some of the key terms concerning 'Speech' in Nasir Khusraw's philosophical lexicon. I will explore the poet's philosophical understanding of key philosophical terms ( qawl, sukhan, Kalam, kalimat ) both in respect to his prose and poetry. Nasir Khusraw's conception of the Logos will be seen to prevail in his Divan as much as in his philosophical prose works. Extended references will first be made to his prose philosophical texts, including Zad al-Musafarin, Jami' al-Hikmatayn, and Khwan al-Ikhwan, to illustrate Nasir Khusraw's ideas in this respect. This presentation on prose will be followed by a similar exposition of his views on the same subjects as expressed in his poetry. Key topics such as: Nasir Khusraw's metaphysical conception of language, his views on the marriage of the Intellect to the Soul, and how the former relates to the Divine Pen and the latter to the Tablet will be explored in detail.
Philosophical Terminology in Nasir Khusraw's Poetry
In his Divan, Nasir Khusraw made use of a wide variety of philosophical and theological terminology, some of which is peculiar to Ismaili doctrine, and some of which is shared mutually with Peripatetic thinkers. His particular contribution however was to apply and use both sets of terminology in the context of Ismaili philosophy, showing the usefulness and concordance of all these terms with Ismaili teachings. Thus, he was able to utilize and show the relevance of terms such as Destiny and Providence, Freewill and Predestination, divine Attribute and Act, etc., to Ismaili teachings. Sometimes he even transcended the religious specificity of those teachings and used his knowledge of Ismaili-Islamic scholastic theology to reconcile Islamic spiritual teachings with those of other religions. Here, he usually emphasized that those followers of other religions-Christians for instance-did not properly comprehend their own spiritual teachings. For example, when interpreting Christ's statement: 'I go unto my Father in Heaven', Nasir Khusraw remarked that the esoteric sense of this statement is that the particular human soul continually conjoins itself unto the Universal Soul. Nasir Khusraw was particularly preoccupied with other theological subjects as well, such as the possibility of the ocular Vision of God, divine Justice and its relation to good and evil in the world.
In my lecture, I shall mostly be introducing, in the first place, the philosophical and theological terminology of Nasir Khusraw in his poetry. I will discuss and analyse a number of his key terms, showing their respective origins in Islamic philosophy and theology. In the second place, I will endeavour to illuminate how Nasir Khusraw managed to consider himself a Hakim and philosopher (filsuf) and at the same time combine his knowledge of philosophy with Ismaili teachings. This in fact demonstrates, as I hope to prove, that Nasir Khusraw, wished to initiate a 'Third School' or 'Third Way' alongside the teachings of the Mu'tazilite and Ash'arite schools, a way which he considered to be the proper via media in Islam. In his endeavour to propagate and diffuse this 'Third Way' among the Ismailis, he tried to show its compatibility with the rest of the Ismaili philosophical heritage.
Zaban-i hal as a Literary Device in Nasir Khusraw's Poetry
At the end of his philosophical-mystical mathnavi the Rawshana'i-nama, Nasir Khusraw explains his motivation for composing this work. He states that one night he had the experience of the world of pure Spirits where he was instructed by the souls of holy men who had been liberated from the physical world. These souls spoke to the poet and taught him everything he then expressed in his book, not by means of sound and uttering words, but rather in a mute way. Nasir Khusraw, apparently for the first time in the history of Persian literature, calls this silent language zaban-i hal, a word that was used more frequently by later poets and writers as well as Nasir Khusraw's contemporaries Omar Khayyam and Abu Hamid Ghazzali. Zaban-i hal (itself a translation of the Arabic lisan al-hal, literally, 'the language of the state of being') is in fact a literary device that poets and writers used when they wanted to attribute their ideas to another being, animate or inanimate, or speak through their mouths, as it were, and therefore may more correctly be translated as 'fabulous language'. Nasir Khusraw himself uses this device in some of his fables where nonhuman or inanimate objects 'speak', such as the fable of The Sycamore and the Squash ( chinar u kadu-bun ). This device was developed and used by later poets when they composed mystical allegories, expressing ideas similar to those Nasir Khusraw had expounded in his Rawshana'i-nama. The best example of this type of mystical allegory is the Musibatnama of Fariduddin Attar Nishapuri, which clearly seems to have been modeled after Nasir Khusraw's mathnavi.
'Evergreens of Reason': The Function and Treatment of Nature in the 'Qasidas' of Nasir Khusraw
This paper attempts to prove that imagery of the natural world is Nasir Khusraw's 'technical language' for writing poetry. The meticulous rationalist of Gushayish wa Rahayish and the ingenuous observer of the Safarnama are to be found in his poetry, but so also is a man struggling to reconcile his beliefs with the bitter emotions and realities of a life in exile. Nature functions to give him a poetic means with which to express all the major concerns of his other work-his religion, his philosophy, his biography-with the intensity of emotion poetry necessarily provides. While he certainly believes that the soul is immortal and not 'held captive by matter', Nasir Khusraw does, however, demonstrate that the existence and the function of the soul, of HIS soul, are explicable and reflected through the paradigms and processes of the natural world. Thus nature, like his pen name Hujjat, is the 'proof' of Nasir Khusraw's soul, of his poetry, of his beliefs, and of his life.
Adhering to the form, though free from the demands of court sponsorship, Nasir Khusraw's qasidas begin the development of nature imagery into a part of the 'frozen periphery of allusion' in Persian poetry, the stock of conventions that for the next nine centuries would be rendered mystically, perfunctorily, and politically. Thus this paper additionally considers Nasir Khusraw's role in the history of the classical Persian poetic lexis. It attempts to look closely at a select group of qasidas and carefully compare and contrast their diction with work by earlier and later poets.
The Architectural Terminology of Nasir Khusraw's Divan and Safarnameh: Semantic and Allegoric Aspects
In the context of classic Persian heritage, Nasir Khusraw’s poetic, philosophical and religious legacy, as well as his travelogue (Safarnameh), are all under-researched. This paper will investigate how he used architectural terms for many artistic goals. On the one hand, he used the words of this group in their literal sense (both in the Safarnameh and in the qasidas); on the other, he, in many cases, gave allegoric meanings to them. In both the Safarnameh and the qasidas the poet described some real places (cities, palaces, strongholds, gardens, etc.) and, at the same time, in his didactic and allegoric poetry he often presented architectural terms in a figurative sense. For example, using the group of terms connected with the semantic field 'house' (like floor, ceiling or roof, wall, door etc.) he characterized macro- and microcosm: the Universe and the inner world of Man, his Heart and Soul, his Intellect. Nasir Khusraw also used some terms of the group (palace, arch, gate) for a metaphoric description of the Word of God brought by the Prophet Mohammad (the Holy Qur’an). In some poetic texts Nasir Khusraw interpreted the Revelation given in the Holy Writ (tanzil) and its allegoric comment (ta'wil) as a palace and a gate (bab), door (dar). These terms can then be adopted for pointing to the Prophet Muhammad and to Imam ‘Ali. Many terms of the group are also used in the metaphoric picture of poetic creation itself (qasida as a palace).
Safarnameh
Safarnameh is a documentary film on the historical journey of Nasir Khusraw to Mecca started on 1047 CE based on his book with the same title. The film follows Nasir Khusraw to the places he went on his first journey of Hajj to Mecca. It starts from Sarakhs in Iran and passes through Nishapour, Sabzevar, Shahrood, Bastam, Damghan, Semnan, Tehran, Ray, Ghazvin, Khandan, Harzavil, Rasht, Khalkhal, Ardabil, Sarab, Tabriz, Marand, Khoy, Salmas to the Turkish cities of Van, Vostan, Tatvan, Ahlat, Bitlis, Dyarbakir, Harran, and to the Syrian cities of Manbej, Aleppo, Jonde Qunnasarin, Sermin, Moarra, Hama, Homs, to the Lebanese cities of Argha, Alqalamoon, Trablus, Byblos, Beirut, Sidon, Sour, to the Israeli cities of Akko, Tabarieh, Kafra Kana, Nazareth, Haifa, Caesarea, Jerusalem (Qods), to the Palestinian cities of Ramlah, Bethlehem, and finally to the Saudi Arabian cities of Jeddah, Medina, and Mecca. The film shows the actual places Nasir Khusraw visited in his time. The narration of the film is taken from the text of the Safarnameh with no subtitles.
Secrets of the World: Nasir Khusraw's Literary Achievement
In order to fully comprehend the heights of Nasir Khusraw's artistic and intellectual philosophy as well as grasp his theological beliefs, one must investigate how the interplay of the senses and intellect operates at the highest levels in his thought. Basing himself firmly on the principles and structures of language, literature and the religious sciences, Nasir Khusraw used philosophy, theology and hikmat as the subject matter of his scholarly and poetic works, simultaneously reflecting the development of his own character with appropriate ethical and philosophical aims and actions. In his poetry, we see he views the world and Being itself from a transcendental height that combines wisdom and experience into a synthesized world-view. He bound together logical discourse with true life experience and made these both his veritable 'Pilgrim's Provisions' (zad al-musafar) for the wayfarers (us) through the world-which are also into the principal aim and purpose of his poetry. For Nasir Khusraw, the difficulties in crafting poetry relate, first, to the dialogue between the senses with Intellect, and secondly, to the synthesis of the senses with Intellect. With an insight perhaps unique in his day and age, he realized that the foundation of poetry is precisely the presentation of intellectual ideas in a sensate form. His famous verse: 'Over intellectual problems, I shall place the sensibles (mahsus) in charge, as guardian and shepherd' thus expresses the fundamental method of Nasir Khusraw's poetry. In this fashion, his philosophical poetry became adorned with garments of the senses and emotions, resulting in his particular style of expression that is not merely dry, unadorned and denuded religious thought or philosophy, but the finest belles lettres in the Persian language of his generation. The rich variety of images and subjects in his poetry which are put at the service of his strong imagination spreads out a broad canvas for the study and reflection of the modern reader. He is the creator of a new world that is built artfully from fresh and original themes, in which poetry has the role of mediator, mediating between the realms of cause and effect. When one understands the strictures and control exercised by his poetry, one finds the effect to be exhilaration and excitement. Thus Nasir Khusraw's poetry, expressed and confined within the form of his own opinions and aspirations, points yet toward the ultimate and essential, spiritual reality.
Nasir Khusraw's Rhythm and Rhyme Technique
Nasir Khusraw is not very orthodox in his choice of rhythms. For example, the rare metre, bahr-i qarib-i mosaddas-i-akhrab ( - - ' ' - - ' - ' -- ), which occurs only twice in the extensive material used by Thiesen in his Manual of Classical Persian Prosody and accounts for only 0.2% of the poems examined by Elwell-Sutton in his Persian Metres), was chosen by Nasir Khusraw for fourteen of his poems. In addition, he has only thirteen poems in the very common bahr-i ramal-i makhbun ('- - ' '- - ' '- - ' '-), which accounts for 9.7% of the poems in Elwell-Sutton and no less than 27.5% of the poems in Hafez (who does not use bahr-i qarib at all). Further comparing Nasir Khusraw with Hafez we find that Nasir Khusraw prefers slow rhythms, i.e. rhythms with few short syllables, whereas Hafez has an even more marked preference for fast metres, i.e. metres with many short syllables. This paper will show how these conflicting preferences can be explained by the two poets' different attitudes towards poetry. Using internal evidence, it will also show that Nasir Khusraw must have studied prosody, `ilm-i `aruz. The paper will also give a complete inventory of rhythms used by Nasir Khusraw and show how closer attention to rhyme in certain places necessitates a different choice of readings from those accepted by Mohaghegh and Minovi in their critical edition of Nasir Khusraw's Divan. Finally, the paper will discuss the various rhyme schemes used by Nasir Khusraw.
Nasir Khusraw's Use of the Qur'an in his Poetry
The genre of 'tafsir' has long been the acknowledged domain for Qur'anic hermeneutics; with other approaches adopted by important literary and mystical figures remaining, for the most part, obscure and ignored. This paper will analyze the use of the Qur'an by Nasir Khusraw in his poetry, and forms part of a larger project I am working on, tentatively titled, 'The Qur'an in Muslim Literary Memory.' In this paper I will explore Nasir Khusraw's use of the Qur'an from three perspectives: (1) As a Muslim, how his sincere and probing reading of the Qur'an sets him on an individual, highly personalized, spiritual quest resulting in a physical and allegorical journey; (2) As a theologian/preacher committed to the Ismaili faith, what verses in the Qur'an lend credence and support to his beliefs, and how the science of ta'wil enables him to express and propagate his beliefs in accordance with the demands of the sound intellect of a philosophic mind; and (3) As an accomplished poet, how he views his own prowess at composing poetry vis-à-vis the words and status of the Qur'an. Based on the analyses of some of Nasir Khusraw's poems, I will argue that studying poetic materials of this nature will enhance our understanding of how the Qur'an resonated, and continues to resonate, among the vast majority of Muslim believers of various backgrounds. Thus, widening our understanding and scope beyond what traditionally qualified as tafsir source materials will open up further avenues for studying unexplored points of intersection between literary, philosophical, and religious traditions in Islam and the day-to-day practice inspired by the Qur'an.
The Call to Prayer, Equilateral Triangles and the Cosmos: Metaphysical Anaphora in the Search for God
Chanted in fortissimo tones from atop minarets across the globe and murmured in longing vesper-songs by Sufis in rapture, whispered in the ears of swaddled newborns when they enter the world and pronounced over the bodies of souls as they leave it, the declaration of faith, La ilaha illa Allah, resonates throughout the lives of Muslims. There is perhaps no pronouncement more characteristic of Islam nor more important to it than this: There is no god save The God. In this multimedia presentation, I will discuss how the celebrated 5th/11th century philosopher, poet and traveller, Nasir Khusraw, envisioned certain numerical patterns in the shahada - patterns that he observed mirrored in everything he contemplated. This vision of the world was exemplified by a harmony of correspondence (munasaba) and equilibrium (muwazana) between the worlds of nature (alam-i tabia), the sacred law (alam-i wad), religion (alam-i din) and the pleroma of Neoplatonic intelligences (alam-i ibda). Thus, all these worlds were seen as testifying, in their own way, to the oneness, or tawhid, of the Creator. The name of the science of correspondences was mizan al-diyana, the Balance of Religion.
I will then demonstrate that Nasir Khusraw's vision of the kalima as a cipher of the universe bears striking resemblance to ideas prevalent among the Pythagoreans concerning the Tetraktys, a perfect equilateral triangle that was the most significant icon of their belief system. As a mathematical idea and metaphysical symbol, the Tetraktys was believed to embrace within itself, in seed-like form, the principles of the natural world, the harmony of the cosmos, the ascent to the divine, and the mysteries of the divine realm. The kalima, to Nasir Khusraw, and the Tetraktys, to the Pythagoreans, acted as keys to decipher the universe.
From Pahlavi into Arabic and back into New Persian: Nasir Khusraw's Rawshana'i-nama and his uses of Proverbial Wisdom
Nasir Khusraw's Rawshana'i-nama (RN) is a sententious moralizing sequence of rhyming couplets, of a total of 550 or 592 verses, depending on which version we use, similar to a spurious booklet called S'adat-nama attributed to him and reproduced in his Divan. As it stands, RN consists of two distinct pieces clearly not related to one another. The first piece (Divan 511-17) which comprises 162 verses, was originally titled Nasihat-nama (p. 512:2). This has an introduction in praise of god, and a depiction of the present world as a place for gathering provisions for the hereafter (verses 1-34). Then follows the main admonitory part, of some 128 verses consisting of hikam. The second piece, an ethic-philosophical tractate of 430 verses, elaborates on God's unity, the universal reason, the rational soul, creation of the heavens and stars, the four elements, Resurrection, diversity of human beings, vices and virtues, and so forth. Towards the end, wise-sayings return again.
The poet's intention for composing this, explained as something like a revelation occurring to him in a dream is not expressed clearly (apparently a hint of his conversion to Isma'ilism). In the epilogue of some versions, the poet calls his work Rawshana'i-nama (541: 8; ms. B); and gives his purpose, in harmony with his general worldview, as to help the reader to move away from the concerns of earthly life and turn his attention to the requirements of the permanent abode, the world of light (540:6); thus an attempt to help man find the path to salvation. As such, the title indicates 'The book of Illumination', the road map or plan to the city of light.
However, Persian literature prior to Nasir Khusraw knows this title a couple of times. West names two people as authors of a Roshan-nipik 'The Book of light' in Pahlavi literature. One is unknown, the other is Roshna or Roshan, son of the renowned Zoroastrian priest Adharfaranbagh, the first collector of the Denkart in the early 3rd/9th century. Rosan is frequently used in the Pahlavi translations of the Avesta. An Arabic Rawshanai-namak was prepared by the prolific author and translator from Middle Persian into Arabic 'Ali b. 'Ubayda al-Rayhani (d. 219/834). Recently I have discovered one of his many lost books called Jawahir al-kilam wa-fara'id al-hikam which I have edited, translated, and written a commentary on his life and works to be published soon as Persian Wisdom in Arabic Garb by Brill. Jawahir al-kilam consists of over two thousand proverbs and concise aphorisms compiled by the author towards the end of his life. He incorporated into this also material derived from his own previous works including Rawshanai-namak. Interestingly enough, the majority of the hikam used by Nasir Khusraw in RN, as well as the rest of his Divan, can be traced in the Jawahir al-kilam. The evident reliance of Nasir Khusraw on al-Rayhani is a good indication that he might have used the latter's book of the same name for versifying it. Nasir Khusraw's penchant for wise sayings is well known and deserves to be assessed with regard to his sources.