00210868908701733
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The life and poetry ofMashreqi TabriziLeonard Lewisohn aa School of Oriental and African Studies, LondonUniversity,Version of record first published: 02 Jan 2007.
To cite this article: Leonard Lewisohn (1989): The life and poetry of MashreqiTabrizi, Iranian Studies, 22:2-3, 99-127
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Leonard Lewisohn
The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi
Of the rhyme and verse of Shams-e MashreqiGo tell the news to all who merit itBecause the worth of pearls borne from seaall jewelers will appreciate.
—Mashreqi
I. Mystic and Calligrapher: The Life of Mashreqi (d. 85911454)
During the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century in Tabriz, the political andcultural capital of medieval Persia, a remarkable congregation of Sufi poetsassembled whose society, fellowship, and fraternity in Sufism, made them allmembers of one literary movement in Persian poetry, known as the 'School ofTabriz'.1 In presenting the literary accomplishments and the mystical outlook ofthis School to a wider audience, the present article attempts to introduce the leastknown member of this school, namely, the Sufi gnostic poet, 'Abd al-RahimKhalvati (Mashreqi), whose poetic oeuvre and biography has, to date, beencompletely neglected by Persian literary historians, both east and west.
* The poets who belonged to this school include Mahmud Shabestari (d. 1339),Mohammad Shirin Maghrebi (d. 1408), Mohammad 'Assar Tabrizi (d. 1390),Kamal Khojandi (d. 1400), Qasem Anwar Tabrizi (d. 1433), Salman Savaji (d.1376), Homam Tabrizi (d. 1314), Mohammad Lahiji ('Asiri', d. 1506), ShahNe'matollah (d. 1430), and Shah Da'i Shirazi (d. 1466). For a detailed study ofthe different poets and their mutual cross-influence of ideas, see Leonard Lewisohn,A Critical Edition of the Divan of Maghrebi (forthcoming 1990), Vol. I, Chap. 9.
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The only available historical source to provide a detailed account of Mashrcqi'sbiography is the Rawdat al-janan by Ebn Karbala'i,2 a biographical work onthe famous Sufis, scholars, and saints of Tabriz, written in 1567. The followingextracts provide an outline of the poet's background:
Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim (known as 'the Recluse' [Khalvati]) was the sonof our master, Shams al-Din Mohammad al-Aqtabi al-Mashreqi, born inTabriz, of Transcaucasian origin [Nakhichevan), a distant relative ofal-Ziya al-Maleki al-'Osmani. He was one of the eminent men of histime.
Mowlana Shams al-Din Mohammad (al-Aqtabi al-Mashreqi) was adisciple of Mohammad Maghrebi, from whom he received his spiritualtraining. Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim, like his father, was also in thebeginning a disciple of our master Mohammad Maghrebi. Later, hecame to serve many other eminent masters of his day: Soltan Khajeh'AH Safavi3, Shaykh Zayn al-Din Khafi, and Shaykh Kamal Khojandi,and received their blessings.
He wrote good poetry, particularly using the technical terminology [ofthe Sufis], taking as his penname 'Mashrcqi'. He has a Divan of poetryand was the leading figure of his time in the art of calligraphy. In fact,it appears that he had such a reputation as a fine calligrapher, that thediplomas in calligraphy of most the masters of the art in Azarbaijan andKhorasan bear his signature.
Mowlana Shams al-Din Mohammad has two sons: 1) the above-mentioned Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim and 2) Khajeh 'Abd al-Hayy. Bothwere excellent calligraphcrs and were pupils of their notable father. Thevenerable Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim was not as conscientious in the art ofcalligraphy [as his brother] owing to his preoccupation with bothexoteric and esoteric sciences, and abstention from matters of lesserimportance, leaving that business [calligraphy] up to his elder brother,'Abd al-Hayy.
In calligraphy, 'Abd al-Hayy followed the style of Khajeh YaqutMosta'scm4 so well that it surpassed all imagination. According to
z Ebn Karbala'i , Rawdat al-janan, 2 vols. Ed. Ja'far Soltan al-Qorra'i (Tehran:1965).•* Khajeh 'Ali Safavi (d. 1429) was the third in succession to Safi al-Din Ardabili(d. 1334), the founder of the Safavi Order; the latter is referred to in the highestterms throughout the Rawdat al-janan by Ebn Karbala'i.
A famous calligrapher who flourished during the reign of the last AbbasidCaliph, Mosta'scm billah, dying in Baghdad in 698/1298 (Editor's note, EbnKarbala'i, op. cit., I, p. 568). See also, A. Schimmel, "Poetry and Calligraphy:Thoughts about their Intcrrealtion in Persian Culture" in Ettinghausen, R. &
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The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi 101
reliable accounts, there lived in Tabriz a calligrapher by the name ofMowlana 'Omar, who wrote a beautiful script and had a comprehensiveknowledge of the art of calligraphy. Mowlana 'Omar owned an originalpage of calligraphy written by Khajeh Yaqut, which he lent to Khajeh'Abd al-Hayy, who copied out the text in an identical hand onto paperof the same quality. Then, instead of the original, he handed his owncopy of the page to Mowlana 'Omar, who failed to distinguish theforgery. A short while later, 'Abd al-Hayy asked Mowlana 'Omar if hecould borrow the page back. Khajeh 'Omar brought it out, 'Abd al-Hayy presented him with the original calligraphy by Yaqut Mosta'sem,which Khajeh 'Omar still did not recognize, believing that YaqutMosta'sem had written two pages with the same text. Uponinvestigation, however, he realised that the original and the copy wereinscribed by separate hands.
It is also said that 'Abd al-Hayy's frequent production of forged versionsof Khajeh Yaqut's calligraphy caused his early death, since this was anact of fragrant discourtesy. Since Khajeh Yaqut was a person ofspiritual eminence, and endowed with a subtle body (sahcb bdten),some eminent men -being of jealous disposition—will not endure sucheffrontery and discourtesy.
The death of Khajeh 'Abd al-Hayy occurred in 825/1421 at thebeginning of the reign of Eskandar, son of Qara-Yusuf. His grave isbeside that of Mowlana Mohammad Maghrebi, who used to address himas 'his son'.
Following his brother's death, 'Abd al-Rahim was forced to resume theprofession of calligraphy since scribes and calligraphers were inconstant demand. Mowlana Bavvab, Mowlana Mohammad Khalili, andMowlana 'Abd al-Vase', and others, all received instruction incalligraphy from him.
Another memorable tale told of 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati is that he couldcopy out the whole edition of the Koran in forty days. Then he wouldjoke, " I sit in reatreat for forty days {Cheheleh) and bring forth anentire holy scripture. I wonder what other Sufis who sit for forty daysget from their retreat?!"5
Ebn Karbala'i also relates that both Shams al-Din Mohammad Aqlabi and 'Abdal-Rahim Khalvati (Mashreqi) were disciples of Mohammad Maghrebi. KhajehKhalvati took his patronym, al-Mashreqi, as a pen-name, and along with hisDivan, which is discussed later on, composed the following works, which are
Yarshater, E., eds., Highlights of Persian Art (Boulder: 1979), pp. 187-88, for adiscussion of the importance of al-Mosta'semi.5 Ebn Karbala'i, op. cit., I, pp. 83-85.
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primarily tracts and glosses on various aspects of Ebn ' Arabi's theosophy andSufi poetry:
1. Mafdtlh al-ghayb 2. Hdshlyeh bar sharh-e 'Estelahat-e Shaykh'Abd al-Razzdq Kdshl 3. Sharh-e Nosus-e Shaykh Sadr al-DlnMohammad Qunyavl 4. Sharh bar qasldeh-ye 'Meymiyeh-yeKhamriyeh-ye Fdrediyyeh 5. Resaleh-ye saneh-ye Sarmadlyeh 6.Resdleh-ye merdt al-'ibddfi ma'rifat al-ma'dd 1. Sharh bar Roba'i-ye hora'iyeh 8. Sharhl bar ba'dl az abydt-e moshkeleh-ye Golshan-eraz.6
Mashreqi often excelled amongst his contemporaries in disputation on matters ofreligion, especially in elucidating subtle points of Sufi theosophy, as is evidentfrom the following tale:
One time, Mowlana Shaykh Ardabili, one of the eminent students ofMir Scyycd Jurjani^-God's grace be upon him!-came to Tabriz toattend the wake of the funeral of Shaykh Shah Ibrahim Safavi [d. 1447],organized by Shah Hoscyn Sarpoli [d. 1457]. Many were the eminentScyycds, Sufi masters, and famous savants among the nobility andgentry of Tabriz who graced that gathering. In the course of theceremony, certain questions concerning recondite and difficult points inthe science of Sufism were put by Shaykh Ardabili before the entiregathering to resolve. 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati proceeded to answer allhis queries with suitable explanations, bringing forward appropriateexpressions couched in the technical terminology employed by theSufis so that the objections of the entire assembly were effectivelyanswered and indisputably resolved. Mowlana Ardabili praised hisreply; and by way of expressing his respect for Mashreqi, declared,"Until now, we all supposed that Shams al-Din's son (Mashreqi) wasbut a calligraphcr; we see now that you are a very adept philosopher, aswell".8
In addition to his facility in poetry and his ability in the field of Sufi theosophy,Mashreqi was also one of the main historians and chroniclers of the spiritualculture of his day. Ebn Karbala'i cites a manuscript by him, which is no longerextant, to complete his account of no less than five major Sufi sages: KamalKhojandi,9 Sharaf al-Din Tarami,10 Baba Faraj Tabrizi,11 Abu MansurMohammad Hafdat al-'Attari (d. 571/1175;),12 and Isma'il Sisi.13
6 Ibid. I, p. 86.A renowned mathematician and mystic famous for his treatise on "Sufi
Terminology' (al-Ta'rifdt) who flourished in Shiraz, and passed away there in1413.° Ebn Karbala'i op. cit., I, pp. 85-86." Ebn Karbala'i, op.cit., I, p. 509.1 0 Ibid., I, p. 225.
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Mozaffar Bazzazi, a famous judge and jurisprudent of the 9th/14th century inTabriz,14 was said to have commented: "However much I ponder, I can find noone who has lived in Tabriz in the two hundred years prior to Khajeh 'Abd al-Rahim, to equal his stature in learning and virtue. Indeed, it is so."1-" AnotherTabrizi jurisprudent, Qazizadeh Ansari, composed an elegy upon the graves ofMashreqi, Maghrebi, and other notables of Tabriz, which contains this line,reflecting Bazzazi's opinion of Mashreqi's learning:
May peace also grace, may love embrace himWho was to us Perfection's summation,Wisdom's exposition, a synopsis of gnosis-Mashreqi, our master and vicar.16
According to Ebn Karbala'i, Mashreqi died in 859/1454.
Mashreqi also composed chronograms to commemorate the deaths of KamalKhojandi and Maghrebi. These short poems communicate his intimate andsympathetic relationship with many of the great Sufi mystics of his day wholived in Tabriz. Following Kamal Khojandi's demise, Mashreqi wrote:17
The Perfect Shaykh: Kamal the Master-indeed a gnostic man of Truth--The world he possessedWith poetic purity and freshness of his verse;Since the day, that first when SpeechUpon the earth was swept,None had heard the like of the speechWhich that eminent poet did speak.
Though in the year'Eight-hundred & three'18
His sun did set-yet I seeHe lives, awake, secluded,
1 1 Ibid., I, p. 377.1 2 Ibid., I, p. 287.1 3 Ibid., II, p. 102-4.1 4 His grandfather, 'Abd al-Rahim Bazzazi was, incidentally, a highly advanceddisciple of Mohammad Maghrebi, profoundly dedicated to the Sufi Path. See EbnKarbala'i, I, pp. 367-68.1 5 Ibid.1 6 Ebn Karbala'i, op. cit., I, pp. 97-98.1 7 Ibid., I, p. 510.1 " This year refers to the Islamic lunar calender, corresponding to 1401 A.D.
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A moon by clouds concealed, secretedWithin the supersensory sphere.
Mashreqi's abilities as a composer of occasional poems and his genius for verseextemporization were obvious from his early youth, as another tale concerninghis encounter with the great poet of Khojand, with whom he was intimate,enjoying a relationship of 'spiritual paternity' from his childhood, demonstrates:
Once in his childhood, 'Abd al-Rahim Khalvati and his brother, 'Abdal-Hayy, went to pay a visit to Shaykh Kamal Khojandi. It was theholy month of Ramadan. Shaykh Kamal remarked: "We shall passthis day in your company, for Shams al-Din,19 knowing that wewere about to go on a journey, sent you to us." Shaykh Khojandiordered that food be brought forth for the youths. They protested thatthey were fasting, but the venerable master objected, saying, "Youhave not yet been bound [at your ages] with the obligations offasting. Eat." The boys completely resigned themselves to thecommand of Kamal Khojandi, and broke their fast. After they hadeaten, the master said, "We shall entertain you in another way aswell, and relate two Prophetic traditions (hadlth) to you, which youmay memorize, and one couplet of my poetry, which is not in myDivan.20 The two traditions of sanctity hadlth-e qodsl) are asfollows: "Fasting is mine and I reward it" and "Go hungry, that youmay sec me. Become detached, that you may be in Union withme."21 The couplet is:
When I seized the hand of the FriendAnd did smear with kisses all her cuffAnd hand, I could swear mine own handIt was, that I saw kissing with such love.
" Ebn Karbala'i's reference here is to Shams al-Din Mohammad al-Aqtabi al-Mashrcqi, the poet's father.•^ To this day, this verse cannot be found in 'Aziz Dowlatabadi's edition of theDivan-e Kamal al-ln Mas'ud Khojandi (Tehran: 1958). It is also absent from therecent critical edition of Kamal's Divan edited by K. Shidfar (Moscow: 1975).z l The first tradition is cited by the Concordance et Indices de la TraditionMusulmane, (ed. A.J. Wensinck et. al. ) Tome 3, p. 466; but the second traditiondoes not appear in any form in cither Wensinck, ibid., or in B. Foruzanfar'sAhadlth-e mathnawl (Tehran: 1955). However, both traditions occur cited as asingle aphorism by Najm al-Din Razi in the Mersad al-'ebdd, who attributes bothsayings to Jesus. See H. Algar (trans.), The Path of God's Bondsmen, PersianHeritage Series, No. 35; (New York: 1982), p. 324n.
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Showing his grasp of this lesson in tradition by the Master, Mashreqiset to verse both traditions in a fragment (Qat'eh), versifyingKamal's couplet in another fragment.22
Mashreqi's father, Shams al-Din Aqtabi, according to 'Abd al-Razzaq Kermaniand 'Abd al-'Aziz Ebn Shir Malek Va'ezi (two of the formost biographers ofShah Ne'matollah), was appointed a Khalifa (regional vicar) commissioned totake charge of Sufis in Tabriz by the renowned Sufi poet and founder of theNe'matollahi Order, Shah Ne'matollah.23 This fact probably indicates thatMashreqi himself was directly acquainted with Shah Ne'matollah, as an analysisof verse-parallels between their two Divans might well prove.
//. Love and Unity: Mystical Motifs in Mashreqi's Verse
Having summarized the biographical particulars of Mashreqi's life, scant as theyare, it is now fitting to turn to his only surviving work, his Persian Divan, theonly existing manuscript MS. OR 3313 (folios 66-195) in the BritishLibrary.24 This manuscript consists of 260 Persian ghazals (eight of which arebilingual lyrics: molamma'), one ode (qaslda), one construct-poem (tarkib-band), two strophe-poems {tarjl'-bands), fourteen fragments (moqata'dt), sixty-two quatrains (robd'iyydt), and eleven single-verse aphorisms (mofradat). Inthis manuscript are also found seven adaptations (ladmlndt: a poem of varyinglength in which a poet inserts a distich or hemistich by another poet), two ofwhich employ Maghrebi's verses, composed as direct answers (Javdb) to both therhyming-refrains of Maghrebi's two strophe-poems.25
2 2 Ebn Karbala'i, op. cit., I, p. 87.J For possible evidence of this, see Va'ezi's Resaleh dar siyar-e hadrat-e Shah
Ne'matollah Vail, and Kermani's Manaqeb-e hadrat-e Shah Ne'matollah Vail inAubin, Jean (ed.), Materiaux Pour La Diographie de Shah Ni'matullah WallKermani (Tehran & Paris: 1956, rprt. 1983), pp. 308: line 7; 110: line 14.2 4 The manuscript is dated Baghdad, 15 Jumada II, A.H. 953/1546. See: CharlesRieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the BritishMuseum (London: 1895), pp. 181-2. This Divan, uncovered in the course of myresearch-work on Maghrcbi, has been noted by no other scholar, whetherOccidental or Iranian. Munzavi in his Fehrest-e noskheha-ye khattl-ye farsl (pp.2531-32) mentions several Divans of Mashreqi: Mashreqi Shirazi, Mashreqi Tusi,Mashreqi Kashani —but records no Mashreqi Tabrizi (unless possibly his referenceto two Divan-e Mashreql-s—nos. 26002 & 26003 in the Majles and E'temad al-Dowleh Hamadan Libraries refer to our Mashreqi). The British Library MS. ofMashreqi's Divan is bound together with a Divan of Maghrebi, which it follows insequence (I have not employed this latter Divan of Maghrebi in my edition; it isalso listed in Rieu's Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum;(London: 1881), Vol. 2, p. 633 as "Add. 7739").Z J See below, p. 20 ff. for a discussion of the importance of these adaptations.
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The Divan of Mashreqi , like that of Maghrebi, is heavily influenced by over acentury and a half of Sufi teachings devoted to the exposition of the theosophicaldoctrines of Ebn 'Arabi (d. 1240). As the various titles of Mashreqi's otherworks and the scant biographical material available demonstrate, the poet isphilosophically and methodologically of the same school of Sufism asMaghrebi: a follower of Ebn 'Arabi and Sadr al-Din Qunyawi (d. 1274). Thefact that Mashreqi wrote a commentary on Shabestari's Garden of Mysteries(Sharlfi bar ba'di az abydt-e moshkel-e Golshan-e raz), is significant insofar asit demonstrates his adherence to the spiritual lineage of emulators,commentators, and lovers of this work, which has been extoled as "one of thegreatest masterpieces of Persian literature"26 and "the handiest introduction tothe thought of post-Ebn 'Arabi Sufism".27
The type of the ghazal which appears in the Divans of Maghrebi and Mashreqi,it should be noted, is, as a verse-form, essentially a romantic lyric devoted toerotic and bacchic themes-being, approximately speaking, the Persiancounterpart of our English sonnet. Since the twelfth century, however, with theappearance of the Divans of Sana'i (d. 1131) and, later, 'Attar (d. 1220), adistinct and separate genre inspired by Sufi metaphysics and symbolism, knownas the mystical or gnostic ghazal (ghazal-c 'erfan'i I 'drefdneh) had evolved inPersia, which still had not, however, been sharply distinguished from thetraditional romantic ghazal (ghazal-e 'dsheqdneh). By the fourteenth andfifteenth centuries, (Maghrebi's - Mashreqi's period) the gnostic ghazal hadfurther engendered another type of poem which was based upon the highly refinedsymbolic and abstract vocabulary found in the voluminous writings of Ebn'Arabi and those Sufis who followed his school. In the fourteenth century, asQascm Ghani explains,
Some Sufi poets created a new style in the ghazal which perhaps hadlittle in common with the ghazal as it existed up till then. This newtype of ghazal can be classified as a type of verse-form which illustratesthe topoi, ideas, aims, spiritual stations and mystical states of theSufis, using a special technical 'Sufi terminology' (Esteldhdt-esufiyyeh) in a very explicit way, regardless of whether the poem beornamented with proper poetic metaphors and allusions or not. Thepoetry of Maghrebi best illustrates this new type of ghazal. In hisghazals, it is clearly evident to every reader that all the ideas andexpressions are exclusively mystical.2^
The Divan of Mashreqi belongs to this tradition of the more recent traditions ofthe Sufi symbolic ghazal-bcst illustrated in his own period by his spiritualmaster, Maghrebi -although he follows, as well, the conventions of the gnostic
2 6 S.H. Nasr, Islamic Art & Spirituality (Suffolk: 1987), p. 93.2 7 A. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: 1975), p. 280.• " Bahth dar dthdr va afkar va ahval-e Hafez: Tarikh-e tasawof dar islam azsadr-e islam id 'asr-e Hafez, (Tehran: 1977), I, p. 563.
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ghazal beginning with Sana'i, flowing through 'Attar, Rumi, and 'Eraqi, andcontinuing down to Maghrebi, a kind of mystical 'stream of consciousness'expressed by the latter in the verse:
These waves of verse you read do flyfrom the cosmos-encompassing Sea of Reality.
By the Red Sea's furious tidethis frothy foam was brought.
His 'wave' did bring you Maghrebi;it spewed up 'Eraqi as well;
'Attar has comefrom its 'frothy foam',
And from it up swelledSana'i, as well.29
The Divan of Mashreqi also stands in the central current of this mystical stream.In a ghazal modeled on the style of the Divan-e Shams-e Tabriz of Rumi, forexample, Mashreqi identifies himself as a poet and spiritual master directly in theinitiatic line of 'Attar and Rumi:
Come, come to the apothecary's shop,to 'Attar's corner,30 if you have
The heart's dolor; show 'our master'your weakly pulse, and lay the balm
of wisdom upon your wounds.
Not in the forum,Nor in the tavern,The Khdneqdh or in mosques, am I seen:My sphere's beyond both the earth and heaven.
The way to Shams-e Tabriz was lost to all;
•'•" See L. Lewisohn, A Critical Edition of the Divan of Maghrebi, (forthcoming1991), Vol. 2, Ghazal 169: 21-22.3 0 This line occurs on fol. 72a. The word 'Attar in Persian means 'druggist' or'perfumer', the 'apothecary's shop' or 'Attar's corner being the medieval drugstore.The poet 'Attar was a druggist by profession. The word Mowlana (meaning 'ourmaster') in the next verse refers both to the honorary sobriquet of the poet Rumi,and, as an indirect pun, to Mashreqi himself, as spiritual master and doctor ofsouls. This verse constitutes the last couplet (maqla') of a ghazal, in the thirdhemistich of which the poet claims himself to be 'drowned in the ocean ofwisdom; the Slmurgh of the Mt. Qaf of spiritual power'.
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Invisible that Shams, that sun31 did fallAnd now my Sun is visible to all.
The verse of Mashreqi is characterized by the same fundamental motifs whichinspire Maghrebi's Divan. Mashreqi is the traditional amant metaphysique,lover and poet enraptured with the Truth, his philosophy being mystical andamorous in one breath. In most of Mashreqi's poems, as in those of Maghrebi,there is a pun between Mashreqi, the poet's name, and its literal signification of'Eastern.' Additional puns come into play when the poet refers to himself asShams-e Mashreqi, alluding to (1) the literal meaning of 'the Eastern Sun', and(2) the allegorical sense of 'the aurora of spiritual illuminative wisdom shiningfrom the visionary Orient'. The major motifs in his verse might perhaps betypified as follows:
A. Interiorization of the tenets of Islam.B. Pocticization of Ebn 'Arabi's thcosophyC. The Unity of Being {vahdat al-vojud)D. The Religion of LoveE. Unity of Religions
Although Maghrebi is perhaps more adept as a poet than Mashreqi, both displaygreat dexterity in expressing the elements of Ebn 'Arabi's thcosophy, adapted andcompressed into the symbolic terms of their poetic medium. SometimesMashreqi shows considerable originality, as his striking use of metaphors toexpress the theosophical doctrine of 'perpetual creation'32 (Islamic counterpart tothe Hcraclilian 'all things are a-flowing') in the following quatrain demonstrates:
As oil unto a lamp docs passThe strength of Being coursesWith unbroken flow from head to heart.It is just this that gnosticsProfess to be 'Creation's ever-newness':
The man from arbor to manor who is walkingHas altered when he reaches his dwelling.
The Sufi concept of the 'unity of being' or vahdat al-vojud^ expressed in thecontext of the Platonic doctrine that there is but one Absolute Beauty reflected inphysical forms, is expressed by Mashreqi in the following verses:
There is just one letter, one character
3 * These two couplets arc found on folio 136b. The latter puns on the literalmeaning of the name of Rumi's spiritual master, Shams-e Tabriz (sun of Tabriz).3 2 Divan-e Mashreqi, fol. 187b. Sec T. Izutsu, "The Concept of PerpetualCreation in Islamic Mysticism and Zen Buddhism" in Melanges Offerts a HenriCorbin, ed. S.H. Nasr, (Tehran: 1977), pp. 139-41.3 3 See William Chittick, "Ebn al-'Arabi's Doctrine of the Oneness of Being" inSufi: A Journal of Sufism, 4 (1989), pp. 6-14.
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Within all the scroll of existence;And yet it shows, that one letterThe whole scroll of God's unicity.
The Love-of-Rcality is their originalAnd all these lovely idols' beauty fascimile.That Moon does cast the beams of lightWhich keeps alit my domicile.34
The doctrine of the Unity of Being in fact permeates the Divans of all the Sufipoets of this period,3-' and is elaborated by Ebn ' Arabi in his writings within theframework of the concept known as the 'revelation of the Divine Names' (tajalllal-asma'). Each act of creation, according to this doctrine, is generated by aDivine Name; the Names are in turn subdidvided into Names of Wrath (qahr) andNames of Mercy (lot/), complementary contraries whose dynamic interactionoverrules and directs creation. The gnostic recognizes Who it is who speaks, andwhat type of Name from Divine-One-Who-Is-Named is proclaimed by the eventsof each moment, as Mashreqi in a quatrain explains:
O look, I have becomeYour Essence's very nameAnd from this name which I've becomeYour light is cast throughout the world.
It all is one: both I, the sunAnd you the light that's cast therefrom;One: both all name and quality--These belong to you—and to meYour Essence which everything subsumes.3"
All speech in fact reveals the Divine Name, the Speaker (al-motekallem),Mashreqi claims:
That One who turns our breath to rhapsody,Within the tongue's rcedpipe sings his melody,At times is far, at times essentiallyDoes dwell with us in intimacy.Unto these men of busy-nessIndeed such mysteries appear a messAnd not adepts, they cannot senseThere's One who does possess'Locution', 'Vision', and 'Audition'.Because these arcane mysteries of Articulation
Divdn-e Mashreqi, Fol. 79a.^ See Ehsan Yarshater, She'r-e farsl dar 'ahd-e Shah Rokh (Tehran: 1955), p.
164-65.Divdn-e Mashreqi, Fol. 188, Robd'l.
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You do not sense, in all your utteranceIs found nonsense and incoherence. What graceIndeed, exists in speech, unless the OratrixUpon the tongue cast a flash of wit?37
The permanence and subsistence of the Divine Names, regardless of theirrevelation in creation, lead Ebn 'Arabi to the strange doctrine of the 'non-existence of the Divine Names'-or rather their a priori existence without anycreative manifestation within God's Knowledge. Likewise, all things or entitiesalso have an eternal 'non-existent' prototype (al-a'yan al-thabeteh) in God'sconsciousness, a sort of unarticulated being virtually equivalent to nothingness.These doctrines of Ebn 'Arabi are versified in Persian by Mashreqi as well. Herein English, however, a prose translation perhaps better suits the abstract subject-matter:
Every Divine Name possesses two forms: Outer and Inner. TheInner form is intelligible, solely within the Divine Consciousness,which you may infer to be its essence and determined prototype. Theother, 'outer' form of Divine Name is sometimes manifest, andsometimes exists non-manifest, but 'potential' in essence.38
What a puzzling tale it all is! The Divine prototypes of things arcsaid to be nonexistent, invisible in nothingness, yet, at the sametime, they are said to be an 'exhibition' of the Absolute Being, whois God. However, when all is said and done, how can nothingness bean exhibition of Divine Eternity?39
Like other poets of the School of Tabriz, Mashreqi is heartily opposed toritualistic religion devoid of the spirit of Love. His Islam is an entirelyinteriorized 'religion of Love':
Our belief is this:Whoever has no Love can have no Faith.When first the covenant betweenThe souls of men and the sphere of heavenWas struck, I was, God knows, a lover then.40
Further elaborating on the theme of the Sufi's 'religion of love', in response toan anonymous interrogator, Mashreqi composed an entire ghazal (folio. 131)outlining 'ten stations of Love' in the order of: Courtesy (adab), Fear (tars),Patience (sabr), Heart-conviction (tasdlq), Generosity (sekhavat), Knowledge('elm), Poverty (meskinat), Gnosis ('erfan), and Self-knowledge (khod-
Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 83, Ghazal.3 8 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 184, Qat'eh.3 9 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 185, Qat'eh.4 0 Divan-e Mashreqi, Fol. 103a.
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shendsi). His general impatience with formalistic Islam and particular dislikefor the heartless piety of ratiocentric ascetics led Mashreqi to compose thefollowing fragment (qat'e) elaborating an entirely esoteric exegesis of the four'Pillars of Islam', a partial prose translation of which reads:
What are the pillars of Islam? Know them to be Fasting, Pilgrimage,Ritual Prayer, and Alms-giving. Fasting (sawm) which today are buthollow rituals; in truth, they signify Annihilation of the self in theDivine Essence. 'Pilgrimage' is realization of the station of thegnostics, gaining salvation from the fires of separation. Likewise,'Alms-giving' implies a charity which freely spends, sacrificing inGod's way everything in creation. Abandon yourself until you becomemerged and one in Him. Wash your hands of 'self, to say your 'RitualPrayer'. If your complete the obligations entailed by these 'Pillars' ofthe Religious Way, I'd offer you a thousand souls as a sacrifice.^
///. Mashreqi's Imitation of Maghrebi
Who pulls tradition down and sets up fashion?Pretence is one thing, and another, passion.In every smith whose work I come acrossTradition is the ore, fashion the dross.Pretenders mock the dead to make their mark,As little children shout who fear the dark.'His work is new, Why, then, his name encumberWith ancient poets?' He is of their number.
—Vernon Watkins
That many of Dante's sonnets in La vita nuova were composed in response tovarious poems by Cavalcanti; that Emerson paraphrased German translations ofHafez in his English verse; that William Blake set to verse the exordium ofThomas Jefferson's American 'Declaration of Independance'-is not consideredartless, unaesthetic, or abnormal literary practise. When we speak of Persianpoetical tradition, citing the verse of the great Persian lyricists such as Nczami,Hafez, Salman Savaji, or Maghrebi, it is best to remember the importance of therole of convention in any literature. In the words of Northrope Frye:
All art is equally conventionalized, but we do not ordinarily notice thisfact unless we arc unaccustomed to the convention. In our day theconventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law ofcopyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctiveenough to be patented....This state of things makes it difficult toappraise a literature which includes Chaucer, much of whose poetry istranslated or paraphrased from others; Shakespeare, whose plays
Divdn-e Mashreqi, Fol. 184.
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sometimes follow their sources verbatim; and Milton, who asked fornothing better than to steal as much as possible out of the Bible. It isnot only the inexperienced reader who looks for a residual originalityin such works. Most of us tend to think of a poet's real achievement asdistinct from, or even contrasted with, the achievement present in whathe stole, and we are thus apt to concentrate on peripheral rather than oncentral critical facts.
...It is hardly possible to accept a critical view which confusesthe original with the aboriginal, and imagines that a 'creative'poet sits down with a pencil and some blank paper andeventually produces a new poem in a special act of creation exnihilo. Human beings do not create in that way...Literaturemay have life, reality, experience, nature, imaginative truth,social conditions, or what you will for its content; butliterature itself is not made out of these things. Poetry canonly be made out of other poems; novels out of othernovels.
Nor, indeed, should we wonder if Mashreqi imitates the poetic style of Maghrebi.Belonging to the same Sufi tradition as the latter, his poetry often seems toconstitute an attempt to 'redo' Maghrebi, to surpass his master's expression.This attitude demonstrates, on the one hand, the predominance of the elements ofpoetic devices such as 'allusion' (talmlh), 'quotation' (tadmln), and 'poeticresponse' (esteqbdl)—lo Maghrebi —in the poet's Divan, and, on the other,communicates the eminence of his spiritual rank.
Considering the importance of Mashreqi's 'creative imitation' of Maghrebi in hisDivan, a brief critical overview of the historical background and literary traditionof verse-imitation among Persian poet's in Mashreqi's day, is in order/'-' The
42 Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton: 1973 rcprt.), p. 97.-̂* Although consideration of the antonym of 'imitation', i.e., the notion of
poetic originality (bdd') in Persian literary criticism transcends the scope of thepresent article, poetic originality among the Persian Sufi poets seems to comprisethree key elements:
1. Firstly, the notion of poetic originality (ebda') among the Muslimmystical poets as well as their extraordinary preoccupation with the compositionof poetry in general -may both be said to be derived from the the idea of theinimitability of the Koran. All the poetical figures of speech (sandye'-e badi')employed by the Sufis in their verse, in fact, seem to have had similar antecedentsin the divine rhetoric of the Koran. Concerning the earliest systematic treatise onthe rhetorical devices in the language of the Koran —Abu Bakr Mohammad al-Baqillani's Inimitability of the Koran (I'jaz al-Qur'an)—Vincentc Cantarino(Arabic Poetics in the Golden Age [Leiden: 1975, p. 14]) observes that the author"spends a long part of the treatise answering the question: Can the I'jaz of theKoran be recognized by the rhetorical figures which it contains? His affirmativeanswer consists of a detailed demonstration that the same rhetorical figures ofspeech found in poetry are also found in the holy text. Abu Hilal al-'Askari (d.1005), whose literary views greatly influenced those of al-Baqillani's, had stated
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in the introduction to his famous Kitab al-sina'atayn (The Book of the The TwoArts) that the rhetorical arts of eloquence —balagha, fasaha—are, after theknowledge of God, the worthiest of all things to be learned, since through themthe I'jaz al-Qur'an can be recognized." And as Jalal al-Din Homa'i argued in hisclassic work on Persian poetic devices (Fonun-e baldghat va sand'at adabl [Tehran:1984, 2nd ed.], p. 316.), "The best example of poetic originality (ebda') in bookswritten in the Arabic language occurs in Surah XI: 44 of the Koran. Entiretreatises on the figures of speech expressed in this verse alone have been writtenby literary scholars, who have been able to adduce and discover all the otheravailable figures of speech [in poetry] solely by reference to this verse."
2. Secondly, the Persian Sufi poets did recognize the existence of a definitekind of independent artistic originality at the basis of poetic inspiration. Rashidal-Din Vatvat, author of one the first manuals in Persian on poetic figures ofspeech, the Hada'iq al-sehr fi daqa'iq al-sha'r (ed. Abbas Eqbal, [Tehran: 1929]composed in 1157, about the same time as the Chahdr maqaleh [The FourDiscourses] of Nezami 'Aruzi Samarqandi) describes the meaning of poeticoriginality {ebda') as follows: 'This figure of speech is said by masters of diction(arbdb-e baydn) to consist of novel ideas expressed with good words arranged in averse-form without any apparent exertions. However, I say that ebda' cannot beconsidered merely a 'figure of speech'; on the contrary, all intellectual and learneddiscourse must possess originality, for everything else besides this belongs to thevulgar diction." (Hada'iq al-sehr, p. 83). And Dowlatshah, defending the spiritualbasis of originality, observes: "It is a mistaken assumption to think that thepurpose of poetry is merely regularity in metre (nazm), failing to understand thatbehind the curtain of this bridal chamber lie virginal mysteries, and in this roomare chaste ladies of Ideas" (Tadhkerdt al-sho'ard , ed. M. 'Abbasi, [Tehran: 1958],p. 15). 'Abd al-Hoseyn Zarrinkub's recent work on Literary Criticism (Naqd-eadabl, [Tehran: 1982] 2 vols.) discusses this type of literary originality amongthe Persian Sufi poets in great detail. See, for example, Vol. I, pp. 106-08, 212-14, 236; II, p. 762 (ft. 20), 787 (ft. 131).
3. Thirdly, since in the Sufi poet's ethos and in the Islamic world-view thereexists no purely individual originality, no merely human creativity whose Originis not transcendent and divine, we also find that the Sufis' theories of poeticinspiration equally efface the ego from the artist's atelier, instituting God—orMuslim mystical tradition —as the sole actor and agent on the mental screen andblank page of the poet's mind and paper. According to the Sufis, Beauty and Truthare of Divine origin, rays from the heavenly pleroma of the Divine Names (hence,al-Badl' [The Originator] being a Divine Name, is the sole source of artisticcreativity). Furthermore, the Koranic doctrine of the predestination and thecreation of human actions explicitly negates any purely human creativity.Interpreting verse 17 of Surah 13 from the Koran:
Or have they ascribed to Godassociates who have created as he created, so that creation
is all alike to them?Say: 'God is the Creator of everything, and he is
the One, the Omnipotent'.(trans. A.J.Arberry, the Koran Interpreted)
Abu Bakr al-Kalabazi (d. 995), the author of the first systematic treatise onSufism, the Ketdb al-ta'arruf (concerning which the eminent Sufi theosopher,
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practise of writing verse-imitations or poems composed 'after' the classicalmasters is of great antiquity. In the Ketab al-Slna'atdyn (The Book of the TwoArts) by Abu Hilal al-'Askari (d. after 1005), one of the earliest writers todiscuss the issue, the following observation is offered concerning literaryborrowing in general:
Not one of the various types of speakers can avoid borrowing conceptsfrom somebody else prior and adding to the molds of those whopreceded him. But if they borrow any concepts, they must dress themup with their own words....The Prince of the believers, 'Ali ibn AbuTalib-may God be pleased with him-has said, 'Were discourse notrepeated, it would dwindle away'....The ugliness of borrowing ideasconsists in one's accepting the idea and then also all of its wording, or
Sohravardi Maqtul [d. 1191] commented: "But for the Ta'arruf we should not haveknown of Sufism.") pronounced: "So God denies that there is any Creator otherthan himself. Now since acts arc things, it necessarily follows that God is theCreator of them: for if acts had not been created, God would have been the Creatorof certain things, but not of all, and then his words, "God is the Creator ofeverything" would be a lie—far exalted is God above that!...Abu Bakr al-Wasitiinterpreted God's words, "his is whatsoever dwells in the night or in the day"[Koran VI: 13], as follows: 'If a man claims that anything of his kingdom--thatis, 'whatsoever dwells in the night or in the day'—be it so much as a thought or amotion, is his, or through him, or for him, or from him, then he is contendingwith (God's) absolute authority, and weakening his power." (The Doctrine of theSufis [Ketab al-ta'arruf] trans. A.J. Arbcrry, [Cambridge: 1977 rpt.], p. 28.) Alsocf. similar discussions of this issue raised by J.C. Biirgel, The Feather of Simurgh:The "Licit Magic" of the arts of Medieval Islam (New York: 1988), pp. 7-8, 16-23.)
It is the first and the third elements of poetic originality mentioned above whichmainly preoccupied the Sufi poets. However, because their conception oforiginality was based on an aesthetics of heart-savour or dhowq(lhc esotericdimension of the poetic originality among the Sufis corresponding to anunveiling, tajalli) which strikes the heart, the organ of poetic vision; cf. theprofound discussion of Ebn 'Arabi's theories of poetic vision by W.C. Chittick,"The World of Imagination and Poetic Imagery According to Ibn al-'Arabi", inTemenos: A Review Devoted to the Arts of the Imagination, No. 10, 1989, pp.99-119), future study of the concept of ebda' in Persian Sufi poetry will require acareful review of the mystics' theories relating to poetic Imagination andInspiration.
In conclusion, from this preliminary examination of the "central critical facts" inthe aesthetics of classical Persian Sufi poetry, we find an oscillation between twopoles of expression whose mutual relation is more complementary than contraryin nature. Briefly put, these two poles in our modern parlance are inspiration andtradition, and in the lexicon of the Persian poets: ebda' (invention, creativity,originality, innovative ability) and serqat (literary theft or plagiarism). Theensuing discussion, however, will be limited to analysing the significance of thelatter pole—of literary theft or verse-imitation—rather than studying the formerdimension of poetic originality.
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most of it, or presenting it in a place which is not suitable. The ideaonly becomes beautiful through its adornment.44
Shams al-Din Qays al-Razi, the thirteenth-century author of a brillant treatise onmedieval Persian prosody: Al-Mo'jam fi ma'ayir ash'ar al-'ajam^ describesfour types of literary borrowing, two of these tending towards the negative poleof plagiary or serqat and two of which lean towards the positive pole ofinvention, novelty, and originality (ebda1). In one of the earliest works writtenin Persian detailing the classical education of poets and their literary milieu, thefamous Four Discourses (Chahar maqdleh) of Nezami 'Aruzi Samarqandi, theaspiring poet is exhorted to "commit to memory 20,000 couplets of the poetryof the Ancients and 10,000 verses of the works of the Moderns"; he is furthercounseled to keep these verses "constantly before his eyes, and continually readand mark the Dlwdns of the masters of his art", The young poet, says Nezami'Aruzi, should form his taste by a wide reading of poetry so as to strengthen hisstyle of expression, and acquaint himself with "the works treating of poetic ideasand phraseology, plagiarisms [italics mine], biographies, and all sciences of thisclass."46
During the late fourteenth century, the period of Maghrebi and Mashreqi, suchideas concerning imitation, emulation, study, and adoption of the Divans ofother poets had deeply permeated the minds of the Persian poets. The followingare the seven main poetic devices employed, whether consciously orunconsciously, by both the Sufi and the profane poets in the act of borrowing:
A. Talm'ih: indirect 'allusion' to a historical proverb or to a previous poet'scouplet.B. Eqtebas: 'Quotation' from the Koran or hadith inserted into a verse.C. Ersdl-e methdl: 'Narration of a proverb' in a verse.D. Tadmln: 'Insertion' or quotation of a entire distich or a hemistich of anotherpoet's verse by way of illustration of one's own ideas.E. Esteqbdl, javdb: composition of a poem of varying length and form in'response' and direct reference, sometimes to refute, sometimes to emulate theideas of the source poem.F. Tatabbo': 'Imitation', 'pursuit', or 'following' of the manner or style ofanother poet.G. Naz'ireh: Poetical 'paraphrase' or imitation of a previous poet's poem.47
4 Cited by Vincente Cantarino, Arabic Poetics in the Golden Age, pp. 129-30.4 5 Ed. Mohammad Qazvini & M. Razavi, (Tehran: 1957), pp. 464-76.
" Chahar Maqaleh (The Four Discourses) of Nizdml 'Arudi-i Samarqandi, trans.E.G. Browne (London: 1921, repr. 1978), pp. 49-50.4 ' Mohammad Qazvini summarizes the relationship of four of these devices asfollows: "The principle and basis of tadmln, eqtebas, ersal-e melhal, and talmlh isthe poet's adoption of something from someone else without conciously intendingto 'use' it or to 'plagiarize' it (serqat), yet also without this happening after themanner of an 'inspired coincidence between two poems' (tavarrod). In reality, ifthe item adopted by the poet be someone else's verse or poem, this art is called
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It should be emphasized that the practise of tatabbo' and Nazlreh to whichMashrcqi's Divan belongs, was quite widespread during this era. Indeed, artisticborrowing in the Persian poetic tradition came to be considered a necessaryaspect of literary erudition, part of the phenomenon which A J. Arberry describedas "the incessant emulation which was the inevitable consequence of theacceptance by all Persian poets of a comparatively narrow repertory of themesand images."48 Later on, in the Safavid era, it even became fashionable forpoets to write entire Divans in imitation of the classical Persian poets. Whilemuch of Mashrcqi's poetry constitutes unadulterated tatabbo' of Maghrebi, healso is particularly fond of the poetical device of tadmln. tadmln in Persianpoetry, according to Keyvan Sami'i:
was usually employed by the poet to bring about an appositeresemblance (tamaththol) by way of demonstrating and illustrating hisviews through citing a hemistich or a famous couplet by another poet,inserting the latter in an proper context of his verse. I personallycannot recall that any poet engaged in the practice of tadmln in anyother style besides this before the Safavid period. In these latter days,however, a poet could quite often be found writing a tadmln or'imitation' of every line in another poet's ghazal. However, thiscustom cannot be properly designated as tadmln because in the technicallexicon of poetics, tadmln refers to a practice involving a poet'sadoption of a hemistich or couplet or two couplets from another poet touse in his own poem in an appropriate place as an imitative illustration(tamaththol) to be borrowed rather than stolen or plagiarized (serqat).The inserted couplet or hemistich would have to be well-known and tocontain a proverbial allusion, so that the reader may not doubt thepoet's originality, or suspect him of plagiarism."49
The poetic device of tadmln, being an intregral part of the Persian poet'srhetorical tradition, docs not in any way indicate indigence of poetic imagination,but as Peter Avery remarks, demonstrates that
a continuing craft secret was being passed on among a select band ofcomposers and audiences who were upholders of a refined and subtleculture constantly threatened with extinction. The tadmln and talmlh,the ersdl-e mathal and cqtebds, signal the survival, through disastrousvicissitudes, of an asset which neither conquering warlords nor bigotted
tadmin; if it be something from the Koran or Prophetic tradition it is calledeqtebds; if it be a proverb it is called ersdl-e methdl; and if it be an allusionindirectly pointing to one of these things, or to a famous historical tale, then itis termed talmlh". "Da'di tadminhd-ye Hafez" in Majmu'eh-ye maqalat darbdreh-yeHafez, ed. A. Khodaparast (Tehran: 1985), pp. 78-79.4 8 Classical Persian Literature (London: 1958), p. 352.^" Kayvan Sami'i, Tahqlqdt-e adabl: sokhandnl plrdmun-e she'r va shd'eri(Tehran: 1982), p. 384-85.
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religious fanatics could obliterate. Threads from earlier poems werewoven into an everlastingly renewed web of poetry to produce a fabricthat became the banner of an outstanding feat of cultural preservationthat has made Iranian literature a by-word for excellence and beauty.50
Speaking of the frequency of verse-imitation of one poet by another poet throughemployment of an identical or similar rhyme and/or meter (the practise ofnazlreh) in fifteenth-century Persian poetry, Ehsan Yarshater points out that, "Itbecame a current practise to write parallels to the works of older masters,emulating the metre, rhyme-pattern, and sometimes the type of content of anearlier ghazal, qasldeh, or mathnavi. This trend continued through the Safavidand Mughal period, when poets often found themselves challenged to 'respond' toa poem of a past or present master."-' * The case of two sixteenth century poets,for instance—Fazli (d. 1563) and and Abu al-Fazl Daftari (d. 1575), who wereknown to have extensively imitated the Divan of Hafez, to the extent of writingseparate ghazal-s in the same meters and rhymes in 'response' to all of Hafez'spoems5 2 , particularly illustrates this practice. Dowlatshah Samarqandi'scomment concerning the poet Homam Tabrizi (d. 714/1314), that, "Most of hispoems [Homam's] were written in response (Javdb miguyad) to the ghazals andodes of Sa'di and Hafez",53 is more understandable in light of this deeplyingrained aspect of the Persian poetic tradition. The same custom appears tohave been a prevalent literary practice among all of Maghrcbi's and Mashreqi'scontemporaries, such as Kamal Khojandi, most of whose ghazal-s were written,according to an editor of his Divan, 'Aziz Dowlatabadi, "in response (esteqbdl)to his predecessor' poetry, the great masters of Persian literature, such asFerdowsi, Anvari, Nezami, and especially Sa'di and Hafez."54 Kamal's open andunabashed admission of borrowing from the Divan of Hasan Dchlavi expressedin the following couplet also makes a paradoxical claim to a sort of poeticoriginality in the practise of tatabbo' and tadrnin:
None could find a flaw in me.To all its clear:As a thief I'm fine;I stole from Hasan.55
From an article by Peter Avery, "Borrowings and Allusion in Hafez", p. 13,unpublished typescript lent to the author.
From his article in the Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6 (The Timurid andSafavid Periods), ed. P. Jackson & L. Lockhart (Cambridge: 1986), p. 983.5 2 Kayvan Sami'i, "Tadmln dar ghazaliydt-e Hafez" in Tahqlqat-e adabi, op., cit.,pp. 378-79.5 3 Tadhkerat al-sho'ara ; ed. E.G. Browne (London: 1901), p. 204. See alsoDivdn-e llotndm Tabriz, ed., R. Eyvazi (Tabriz: 1970), introduction, p. 57; forconfirmation of this.•^ Divdn-e Kamdi al-Dln Mas'ud Khojandi, ed. 'A. Dowlatabadi, (Tehran: 1958),introduction, p. 7.•3") The phrase 'As a thief I'm fine' (dozd-e hasanam) here is also a direct pun onthe Indian Persian poet Hasan Dehlavi (d. 1328), whose penname was Hasan.
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Jami's comment on above verse in the Bahdrestdn bears out the veracity of thisclaim, underlining Kamal's preoccupation with the art of tatabbo':
Kamal Khojandi followed the poetic style of Hasan Dehlavi, but thepoetry of Hasan lacks the subtlety of thought and idea which is foundin Kamal's verse. Those who dubbed Kamal 'the brigand of Hasan'probably based their assertions on this type of imitation{tatabbo').56
Another poet of the same period, Katcbi Nishapuri (d. 838/1434) ridiculed KamalKhojandi as a plagiarist in these two couplets:
If the words of Hasan of DchliFrom the verse of Amir KhosrowAppear extracted, do not find fault.For —Khosrow is a master; in fact, above all masters.
Then when Kamal Khojandi you catchIn the act of snatching ideas from Hasan's verseDon't scream thief; it's no worseThan a brigand pinching from a brigand.-^
'Esmat Bokhara'i (d. 1425), one of the major poets of the fifteenth centurywhose style has been often compared with Maghrcbi, and whom Dowlatshahacclaimed as the most popular poet of the reign of Shah Rokh (reigned 1405-47), is also judged by Jami as a poet who merely imitated and followed{tatabbo') the style of Amir Khosrow Dehlavi.59
Thus the hemistich could also be interpreted to mean: 'Clealy, I'm a plagiarist ofthe verse of Hasan Dehlavi' (I stole from Hasan).-*" Bahdrestdn of Jami (Tehran: 1961; reprinted from the Vienna edition of1846), pp. 100-01. See also A. Zaninkub, Naqd-e adabl, op. cit., Vol I, pp. 235-36.
Cited by M. Qazvini, BadV tadminhd-ye Hafez, p. 112. The followingtranslation of this verse by Edward Browne, (A Literary history of Persia, Vol. 3(Cambridge: 1920), p. 491), casts a different light on its meaning:
If Hasan stole ideas from Khosrow, one cannot prevent him,For Khosrow is a master, nay, more than the masters!And if Kamal stole Hasan's ideas from his DivanOne can say nothing to him: a thief has fallen on a thief!
3° Ketdb Tadhkerdt al-sho'ard', ed. E.G. Browne, op. cit., p. 358. The collectedpoetry of this poet has been recently edited and published by A. Karami, Divdn-e'Esmat Bokhara'! (Tehran: 1987).59 Bahdrestdn, op. cit., p. 102.
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From the above examples of the prevalence of the practise of tadmin andtatabbo' during this period, it is evident how integral an element this was in therepertoire of the Persian poet's craft.
There also exists a spiritual aspect to this poetic method which is by no meansinsignificant, related to various contemplative disciplines practised by the Sufis;in particular to the constant commemoration of God (dhikr) and the practise ofsama' (audition to mystical poetry and music)60; the latter being influenced bythe psalm-like nature of the Persian Sufi ghazal, written as much to be sung asto be read aloud -the situation of Sufi gnostic ghazal in the Ichaneqdhcorresponding more or less to the function of the hymn in the Church.
This spiritual dimension of tatabbo' is perhaps best illustrated in the PersianDivan of Mir 'AH Shir Nava'i (d. 1501), known by the pen-name of 'Fani'.While wielding great political power as the vizier of Soltan Hoscyn Bayqara, Mir'Ali Nava'i was also famed for his patronage of poets and love of letters (hisbiographical work on the 'Lives of the Poets' in Turkish entitled Majdles al-nafd'es was translated several times into Persian). Because his tremendouspolitical influence and power was also complemented by a sincere devotion toSufism^, Jami gave this vizier his benediction as the "lover and devotee of theDarvishes, rather—one who is beloved and believed in by them."^ it was onMir Nava'i's instigation that Jami collated and collected his own Divan. By hisprompting Jami also wrote many other works, including his famouscommenatary on 'Eraqi's Divine Flashes (Lama'at) entitled Asha'at al-lama'dl,and his biographical history of Sufi saints, the Nafahdt al-ons.
Fani's Persian Divan is deliberately divided into two types of ghazals calledtatabbo' and mokhtara' (original inventions) and, of course, the imitative poemsfar outnumber the original pieces. Stressing the spiritual basis of his practise oftatabbo', Mir 'Ali Nava'i composed this quatrain:
By Fani's followingPeople's verseIn 'poems of imitation'There is no intentionOf putting poetic prowess on exhibition,
no conceit nor pretension.
See Terry Graham, "The Influence of Sufism on Music in Islamic Countries"in Sufi: A Journal of Sufism, 1 (1988-9), pp. 22-7."1 Tadhkerat al-sho'ara , op. cit., p. 349.
Divan-e Amir Nezdm al-dln 'All Shir Naval, ed. R. Homayunfar (Tehran:1963), introduction, pp. 17-18.
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But masters of Letters are princes of heart;So, standing by the door of the heartThe begging of inspiration is his intention.63
Fani, here, like other Sufi poets, subordinates poetry to prophecy, and art tolove. (We may recall that the rank of the poets was placed by Nezami in theMakhzan al-asrdr just behind the row of the Prophets, and poets were countedamong the number of the Saints.64) Perhaps Mir 'Ali Nava'i even wished inhis quatrain to elevate the stature and rank of the poet as high as hiscontemporary admirer, the author of the Memoirs of the Poets, DowlatshahSamarqandi, who declared, citing Sana'i, that
Poets arc maids-in-waiting to the brides of ideas; they are critics of therefined subtleties of the Mysteries. Like divers their magnanimousnatures and upright consciences arc able to bring in as flash a myriadpearls from the depths of the ocean of Placclessness to the shores ofactuality. They lavish these pearls upon the heads of adepts inArchetypal meanings {ahl-e ma'ant). Indeed the falcon of archetypalmeaning lies in the snare of this group, and the restive colt of gnosticsubtleties by this company has been tamed. Sana'i says:
Do not count traditional historiansamong the number of the poets;for Jesus' niche is in heavenbut parrots perch upon twig-ends65
The spiritual sense of tatabbo' is thus seen to involve the practise of a kind ofimitatio deus, a training and discipline to which the artist, the poet, and the Sufifedeli d'amore must submit to cleanse his heart and, thence, to perfect his art.
The influence of Maghrebi's inspiration on Mashreqi's Divan, in respect to bothspiritual content (ma'nd) and formal literary terminology (lafz), is overwhelmingto the point of saturation. One of the unique aspects of Mashreqi's Divan is theexistence of an entire section called tadmlndt (adaptions of a former poet's verse),noted previously, which are'found in a scries of seven dowbaytl-s on folios 186-187. Mashrcqi composed tadmlndt to the rhyming refrains of famous strophe-poems by Sa'di and 'Eraqi; there are also two tadmlndt of the rhyming refrainsof Maghrebi's two strophe-poems. In the lyrical section (ghazaliyydt) of hisDivan, almost every second ghazal of Mashrcqi acts as a nazireh (poeticalparaphrase) of one of Maghrebi's poems, constantly reiterating themes, repeating
"•̂ Divan-e Nava'i, op. cit., introduction, p. D. I am indebted to Professor T.Gandjei of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London University, for thisreference.6 4 Cf. J.C. Biirgcl, op. cit., p. 59.6 5 Tadhkerat al-sho'ara, op. cit., p. 5.
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The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi 121
meters, re-employing imagery, and revolving around the same general stock ofmetaphors: ocean vs. drop, plurality vs. unity, concentration vs. distraction ofheart, tress and face, indivisibility of name (esm) and Named One (mosammd),lover and beloved, etc., which grace Maghrebi's verses.
Consider, for instance, how Mashreqi follows Maghrebi's style, down to the verymeter and rhyme, and how his imagery is copied with precision (although hisideas undergo considerable poetic revision)-in the following Ghazal:
The mesh of Faith and infidelityUpon the heart's-beloved's wayIs set like gaudy spectres to beguile you.If you have stabilityCast the blaze of Love upon them both.
To lovers how long shall you boast and blusterO Shaykh, of holy fear and piety?Such speech betrays the trace to meOf flux and variability.
For grief and pain, and eyes which rainWith tears, a heart forlorn at dawnWhich heaves with sighs-these you must have.What will you gain, devoid of pain,But flowery talk and turgid rhetoric?
In that reflecting glass in which ill-will,Conceit or greed or envy still do have a placeNever will the heart's-beloved bare her face.
Was that the meaning of Religion-To put your heart in hock in a hundred shopsWith untrained hopes & eyes agape on every courseThen in the Mosque to toss your body in wantonness?
Religion, Creed, and Faith to usIs the longing and the love we senseBeholding the heart's-beloved's face.—Such Faith is true to visionaries,Considered by them sound theology.
O Shams-e Mashreqi, you are the Eastern Sun,For from your face the light of Heaven is shown.Pious remains the businessman,Gazing at the promised landThe plighted word of Eden's virgins.66
6 6 Divan-e Mashreqi, Folios 92-93.
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Now, reading Maghrebi's own original Ghazal,^ imitated by Mashreqi above(composed even in the same metre and rhyme), it quickly becomes evident howdeeply imbued Mashreqi's imagination was with the images, concepts andmelodies of Maghrebi's poetry:
What to men is infidelity and sinFor me is Faith and true doctrine.All the world's gall and bitternessTo my taste seems sweet, delicious.
An eye which sees the TruthHas no sight for lies;For all 'un-truth' that is conceivedOr what is perceived as lies, mendacityIs in the eyes themselves deceived-Thc vantage-point of men without veracity.
For in the briar-patch of pride and envy,Deceit, hypocrisy-polytheism and jealousy,The blossom of Unity cannot flourish.
I sought from my soul the seat of the Friend;She said, 'The Friend's abode, should it existIs within a heart that is destitute'.
Paradise docs make for short-sighted manall life's business,
Just for the sake of heaven his exertions;It's dullness that makes him yearn for heaven's virgins.
But in the Paradise of Verity's mastersOnly the TRUTH exists. For Verity's mastersVerily, no other paradise exists.
If, indeed, you profess to viewThe Beloved Chinese fetish,Gaudy spectres hold your sight;Your purview's just caricature.
Alas! Your gaze docs not scanThat Chinese image, and empty effigiesGrip your eyes, and you discernBut stray designs-not the Plan.
No. 35 in my edition of his Divan.
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Mask yourself as you wish,no veil on Maghrebi is cast
by all such flux of figurationthrough all your forms of fluctuation:
His quality is stability,his spirit at peace,
his soul in consolidation.
Although the Persian original of this ghazal by Mashreqi is not the bestexample of his handling of this genre, his ripostes (Javdb) below to the rhymingrefrains of Maghrebi's two strophe-poems (tarjl'band) are brilliant, and showhow sucessfully Mashreqi could acquit himself in handling the device of tadmln:
MAGHREBI'S refrain:
All is Hewithin the spanof existence-In truth, but He exists,but He it is who lives.
MASHREQI's riposte:
How can I select another to love?For 'All is Hewithin the spanof existence'.
Who can my fancy affectSince 'In truth but He exists.but He it is who lives'—?
MAGHREBI'S refrain:
There is a treasure:This world's its talisman;
It is an essence:Whose attributes is man.
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MASHREQI's riposte:
For 'the treasure' I have on handIn that rag and bones shop of the heartThe world acts as charm and talisman'.Latent within my essence and attributesMy inward gaze contemplatesAn 'essence whose attributes are man'.
In short, although Mashreqi was quite conscious of his emulation of Maghrebi,he adopts a quite independent attitude towards his mentor. Both poets wereluminaries unafraid of the effulgence of their verses, but Mashreqi tended tovocalize his brillance, beaming back his inspiration upon his original teacher,amplifying, expounding, with further poetic commentary the varioustheosophical doctrines preached by Maghrebi in the context of his own personalmystical experience. Sometimes he even claimed to outshine his master, as inthe following two verses where Mashreqi mentioned Maghrebi directly by name:
O Occident!68 O source of Love's lights to me;If you are 'Maghrebi'-I am solar luminosity,A sun whose Oriental blazeConsumes the West, burns up all OccidentsSo no mote of dust without my glow exists.
In these two Persian couplets Mashreqi is actually following the meter andrhyme-scheme of Maghrcbi's ghazal 125, the last line {maqta') of which runs:
Now from the Orientmy sun appears
So utterly from Maghrebiam I set free.
In another ghazal, Mashreqi indulges in a conceit common to the repertoire ofthe Persian Sufi poets (exotic to us, perhaps, although familiar to the likes of aBlake or Shakespeare), boasting that his brillance renders the light of thematerial sun unworthy for Maghrebi (addressed by his name in this line) tobehold:
O sun of Faith -Shams-e Din,Before your features so fine,Your two bright cheeks,
°° The term 'Maghreb' (Occident) mentioned here contains a pun on the literalmeaning of the penname 'Maghrebi'.
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The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi 125
Why should Maghrebi bend his looksto scan the moon or sun? 6 9
And yet the wine and light which both Mashreqi and Maghrebi quaff andcontemplate had but one Divine source, as the following response by Mashreqito a ghazal by Maghrebi—the former poet practicing 'insertion' (tadmln) of adistich by the latter, again addressing Maghrebi directly by name (devices whichshow that his ghazal was consciously modeled on Maghrebi's original ghazal]-demonstrates:
MAGHREBI's original Ghazal (CXXVII: 9, 11, 12, 13):
0 let us perish in nullityin the being of the Friend;
Blase to existence, refuse to seeany self-identity, '/' or 'me'.
Lend us your assistance, Saki!serve us the wine of eternity,
give us a cup as offering,in love of wine we're languishing.
Till within the Self we'll steepourselves so deep, so drunk shall we
Become within, that from the nicheof nullity, we'll lift our heads to heaven.
Are we not beams of luminosity?0 Friend, in the space of a breathWe'll make our way to the orb of day
accidentally'like Maghrebi'.
MASHREQI's response (fol. 137):
In Love's aseityWe'll reach nullity"Blase to existence, refuse to seeany self-identity, 7' or 'me',"
Again we'll beAs Shams-e Maghrebi,
"" The term 'Shams-e Din' means the Sun of Faith or Sun of Religion while alsocontaining an allusion to the alternate penname of Mashreqi which is Shams. Theterm dow rokh means here 'two cheeks', rokh being the Persian translation of theArabic khadd (cheek), although in modern Persian rokh more often means merely'face' or 'features'.
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"0 Saki, give us a cup as offering,in love of wine we're languishing."
Despite such flagrant imitation and obvious adaption of Maghrebi's style, manyare the verse passages abounding in his Divan—often entire ghazals— whichdemonstrate that Mashreqi was able to transcend the degree of poetic imitationand even spiritual mendicancy (illustrated by the tatabbo' concept of 'Ali ShirNava'i) and, notwithstanding his obvious identification with Maghrebi's style, torealize the rank of independent, adept, and mystic poet in his own right. Hence,many of Mashreqi's ghazals appear as highly original re-visions of Maghrebi'sideas, rather than merely derivative imitations of a lesser quality.70
Because we do not possess the adequate critical means to assess Mashreqi'sstature amidst the pantheon of the previous and subsequent masters of Persiangnostic poetry—the poet's Divan has not yet been published—magnanimitydemands the utmost frugality in our exercise of the critical spirit, and sosuspension of passing a final judgement on his work. Furthermore, what wasoffered above by way of selected translation of random verses amounts to lessthan a fraction of the poet's whole Divan, hardly a representative overview.
What appears to be of greater significance is the poet's place as an exponent ofthe genre of the 'gnostic ghazaV (ghazal-e 'erfani-'drefdneh)—Mashrcql'sparticular contribution to the legacy of medieval Persian Sufism. For in thistradition Mashreqi's degree as a poet is pre-eminent; he stands both as animportant disciple/initiate of Maghrcbi, progenitor of this symbolic tradition,and as a poet who copied Maghrebi's style, a style which was to be emulated bypoets as far-ranging as Shah Ne'matollah (d. 1430), 'Abd al-Rahman Jami (d.1492), and Mohammad Lahiji ('Asiri', d. 1516 ). But beyond these merelyliterary issues, we may say that Mashreqi's rank as a poet appears quite eminentif regarded from the standpoint of the mystical state (hal) in relation to which hisverse was but a vehicle. In fact, he no doubt would have concurcd with PaulValery's opinion71 that the essence of poetic language is the re-creation of thepoetic state, and thus, ultimately, the offspring of a certain spiritualconsciousness (hdl). He would well have felt as Richard Rollc, the fourteenthcentury English mystic, did about poetry that, "Those who love the world indeedknow the words or verses of our songs, but not their music."72 So in surveyinghis Divan, we may recall that it is a matter of spirit and heart, rather than theletters and forms of verse, the metres and norms of prosody, which qualifies theSufi poet. For in Rumi's words:
For further examples of such similarities, see our list of parallels between thetwo poet's Divans in A Critical Edition of the Divan of Maghrebi, Chap. IX. A. 6.7 1 The Art of Poetry, trans. D. Folliot (New York: 1961), pp. 72-73.7 2 Grant, The Literature of Mysticism in Western Tradition (London: 1983), p.14.
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The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi 127
Words are only nests. Meanings winged creaturesaflight. Bodies are rivers,
the Spirit their steady current.73
—A truth which Mashreqi also enunciates in a verse (folio 103):
Here all charm of diction is nothingin this tome of verse the art of rhetoric
and poetic science bears a spiritand all evokes a higher sense.
Having composed a commentary upon the Golshan-e raz of MahmudShabestari, Mashreqi would no doubt have endorsed its author's view of thehermenuetics of Sufi poetry,74 that
The mystical significance unveiled,Experienced by heart-savour-No philological interpretation reveals.
It was alluding to this truth in his own verse, that Mashreqi wrote (folio 126):
Of the rhyme and verse of Shams-e MashreqiGo tell the news to all who merit itBecause the worth of pearls borne from the sea
all jewelers will appreciate.
Leonard Lewisohn, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University
7 3 Rumi, Mathnawi, ed. Nicholson, Bk. IV 32-92.Cf. L. Lewisohn, "Shabestari's Garden of Mysteries: The Aesthetics and
Hermeneutics of Sufi Poetry" in Temenos: A Review Devoted to the Arts of theImagination, 10 (1989), pp. 177-207
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