Baquet's Guide to the World's Classics: Persia

Here are posts labelled "Persia" on The Guide

Showing posts with label Persia. Show all posts

Hafez of Shiraz, Persian Poet
(c. 1325-c. 1390)

...bored by beauty?

Just the Facts:

Name: Khwaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi
Known as: Hafez (or Hafiz) of Shiraz
Dates: c. 1325-c. 1390
Place: Shiraz, Iran
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian poet known for his ghazals (lyric poems)

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Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!

Rumi, Persian Poet and Mystic
(1207-1273)

Just the Facts:

Name: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhī
Known as: Rumi (also Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)
Birth: September 30, 1207, either in Wakhsh, Balkh, Tajikistan, or Balkh, Afghanistan
Death: December 17, 1273, Konya, Turkey
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian poet and mystic who wrote Masnavi (Rhyming Couplets of Profound Spiritual Meaning); Diwan-e Kabir (also called Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, or The Works of Shams Tabrizi) ; Fihi Ma Fihi (It Is What It Is)
Included in lists (What's This?): GC

Saadi Shirazi, Persian Poet
(1210-1291)

from a Mughal manuscript of Gulistan, c. 1645

Just the Facts:

Name: Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī
Known as: Saadi Shirazi, or Saadi of Shiraz
Birth: Unknown Date, 1210, Shiraz, Iran
Death: December 9, 1291, Shiraz, Iran
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian poet; Bustan (The Orchard); Gulistan (The Rose Garden)

Nizami Ganjavi, Persian Poet
(1141-1209)

Just the Facts:

Name: Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī
Known as: Nizami Ganjavi
Birth: Unknown Date, 1141, Ganja, Azerbaijan
Death: March 12, 1209, Ganja, Azerbaijan
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian Muslim poet; Panj Ganj (The Five Jewels) or Khamsa, five long narrative poems

Al-Ghazali, Persian Mystic and Philosopher
(c. 1058-1111)

Just the Facts:

Name: Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī
Known as: Al-Ghazali
Birth: Unknown Date, 1058, Tous, Iran
Death: December 19, 1111, Tous, Iran
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian mystic and philosopher; Tahafut al-Falasifa (Incoherence of the Philosophers); Kimiya-yi Sa'adat (Alchemy of Happiness); Munqidh min al-dalal (Deliverance from Error--autobiography); Ihya' Ulum al-Din or Ihya'u Ulumiddin (The Revival of Religious Sciences)

Omar Khayyam, Persian Poet
(1048-1131)

Just the Facts:

Name: Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Abu'l-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Khayyām Nīshāpūrī
Known as: Omar Khayyam
Birth: May 18, 1048, Nishapur, Iran
Death: December 4, 1131, Nishapur, Iran
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian poet and scientist; The Rubaiyat (Quatrains)
Included in lists (What's This?): LRP

One Thousand and One Nights, Story Collection
(12th century)

Scheherazade and the Sultan
by Ferdinand Keller

Just the Facts:

Name: One Thousand and One Nights
Dates: 12th century
Place: India? The Middle East?
Language: Arabic, then French, then English; but perhaps many other languages before Arabic
What it is: story collection that may have started in India, then traveled through Persia into Arabic-speaking lands. It has taken many forms, throughout centuries, but this date is as good as any. The frame story is of the woman Scheherazade using "cliff-hangers" to keep the Sultan at bay for just one more night...
Included in lists (What's This?): LRP; HC; Bloom; GC

Attar of Nishapur, Persian Sufi Poet and Hagiographer (c. 1145-c. 1221)

Just the Facts:

Name: Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm
Known as: Attar of Nishapur, or simply Attar; also Farīd ud-Dīn
Dates: c. 1145-c. 1221
Place: Nishapur, Iran
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian Muslim poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer who wrote Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr (The Conference of the Birds); and Tazkirat al-Awliyā (Memorial of the Saints)

Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani, Persian Man of Letters
(969-1007)

Scene from The Maqamat of al-Hamadani

Just the Facts:

Name: Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani
Birth: Unknown Date, 969, Hamadan, Iran
Death: Unknown Date, 1007, Herat, Afghanistan
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian man of letters who wrote the Maqamat al-Hamadhani (The Maqamat of al-Hamadani), 52 stories about a rogue named Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari

Ferdowsi, Persian Poet
(c. 940-1020)

Statue of Ferdowsi in Tehran

Just the Facts:

Name: Abu'l-Qasim Ferdowsi Tusi
Known as: Ferdowsi
Date: c. 940-c. 1020
Place: Iran
Language: Persian
Who he was: Persian poet; wrote the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), the national epic of Greater Iran
Included in lists (What's This?): LRP

Hammad Ar-Rawiya, Persian Anthologist
(694/714-Unknown Date)

Imru' al-Qais, an important poet whose work
was anthologized by Hammad Ar-Rawiya

Just the Facts:

Name: Hammad Ar-Rawiya
Date: 694 or 714; died Unknown Date
Place: Kufa, Iraq
Languages: Persian (?), Arabic
Who he was: Persian anthologist of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, he is credited with preserving the work of the "seven renowned ones" who wrote the poems in the Al-Mu'allaqat (Precious Gems, also called The Seven Odes)

Bodhidharma, Chan (Zen) Patriarch
(5th or 6th century)

Just the Facts:

Name: Bodhidharma
Dates: 5th or 6th century
Places: Indian culture sphere --> China
Language: Sanskrit?; Persian? Chinese?
Who he was: quasi-legendary Indian (?) Buddhist monk and patriarch credited with bringing the Chan (Zen) tradition to China; attributed writings include Outline of Practice; Bloodstream Sermon; Wake-up Sermon; Breakthrough Sermon

The Avesta
(224-651)

Zoroaster in Raphael's School of Athens

Just the Facts:

Name: Avesta
Dates: 224-651
Place: Persia
Language: Avestan
What it is: Zoroastrian collection of religious texts; various authors, compiled during the Sasanian Empire of Persia (224-651)

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