The Dialectic of Poetry and Power in Iran 3

41 Pages·2015·1.43 MB·English

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Fatemeh Shams
PhD Candidate, Wadham College, University of Oxford
The Dialectic of Poetry and Power
in Iran
Fatemeh Shams
PhD Candidate, Wadham College, University of Oxford
No. 3 FEBRUARY 2015
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©
King Faisal Center for research and Islamic Studies, 2015
King Fahd National Library Catalging-in-Publication Data
King Faisal Center
Dirasat (the dialectic of poetry and power in Iran).
/ King Faisal Center, - Riyadh, 2015
40p; 24cm
ISBN: 978-603-8032-57-2
1- Iran - F0reign relations I-Title
338.2728 dc 1436/4400
L.D. no. 1436/4400
ISBN: 978-603-8032-57-2
Table of Contents
1. The Rise and Demise of Persian Court Poetry: From 5
Emergence to the Constitutional Period
2. From the Rise of Constitutional Poetry and Free 10
Verse to Pro-revolutionary Poetry (1905–1979)
3. The Rise of State Poetry after the Islamic Revolu- 15
tion (1979–present)
3.1. State Poetry in Ayatollah Khomeini’s Era
Conclusion 35
About the author
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Abstract
The present study tackles the question of the relationship between po-
etry and power in Iran in three periods, with a specific focus on the third
one. The first period stretches from the rise of Persian court poetry in the
medieval period to its demise in the wake of the constitutional movement
(1905–11). The second reaches from the rise of constitutional and modern
poetry to the emergence of prorevolutionary poetry at the outset of the 1979
revolution, and the third features the emergence of state-sponsored poetry
in postrevolution Iran, which has reached its climax since the inauguration
of poetry nights attended by the current leader of the Islamic Republic in
2000. Through these three episodes, and bringing the poetic precedents of
each period into discussion, I argue that the emergence of state-sponsored
poetry during the postrevolutionary period has to be understood and ana-
lyzed in light of its poetic precedents and the ongoing dialogue of poetry
and power in Iran.
1. The Rise and Demise of Persian Court Poetry: From Emer-
gence to the Constitutional Period
As scholars of medieval Persian literature have often noted, court poet-
ry in Persia “dates from pre-Islamic times, when the poet-minstrel enjoyed
an important and influential position at the court of the Iranian emperors.”1
Perhaps the earliest account of the engagement of Persian kings with po-
etry goes back to the court of the Parthian period and to the Achaemenids,
a time in which Persian epics and oral poetry were important sources of
knowledge and education for the Persian kings and a significant way of
communicating and maintaining the ethics and morality of the aristocratic
elite.2 The history of Persian court poetry before the ninth century cannot
be properly chronicled mainly because of major gaps in the documentation
of earlier periods.3
Prior to the fall of the Sassanian Empire and following the Arab conquest
(644-51) there was no clear distinction between the positions of the poet and
the minstrel in the court. With their musical and verbal skills, poets generally
played the role of the minstrel, whose main duty was to entertain the king
1- For more on the history of Persian court literature, see J. S. Meisami, Medieval Persian
Court Poetry, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987, p. 3; M. J. Cook, “The Rise
of the Achaemenids and Establishment of Their Empire,” in R. Nelson Fre, ed., Cambridge
History of Iran, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 200, 291.
2- J. T. P. de Bruijn, “Courts and Courtiers: x. Court Poetry,” in Encyclopaedia Iranica,
available online at www.iranicaonline.org; M. W. Thackston, A Millennium of Classical
Persian Poetry from the Tenth to Twentieth Century, Bethesda, MD: Iranbooks, 1994.
3- As stated in Encyclopaedia Iranica, the main primary sources for medieval Persian court
poetry include chapters 35 (on Sha’iri) and 36 (on khunyāgarī) in the Andarznamih (q.v.)
of Kaykavus b. Iskandar (pp. 189–97) and the second essay in Nizami ʿAruzi’s Chahar
maqalih.
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during his leisure time. The information regarding the role of poet minstrels
in this period has been obtained primarily through epic books such as the
Shahnamih (“The book of kings”) of Firdawsi. Even sources such as these
seem to be limited to the poet’s imagination of pre-Islamic courtly life.
From the mid-eleventh century onward, the status of the poet (shaʿir)
began to separate gradually from that of the court minstrel. Compared to
minstrels, poets enjoyed a far higher social standing in the court. Works
such as the Qabusnamih of Kaykavus b. Iskandar explained that poets had
to educate themselves, to improve their writing abilities and to learn court-
ly behavior, while minstrels were not necessarily educated or capable of
writing. While poets were often present in the court and would sometimes
even enter the inner circle of the king’s trust, the minstrel was not allowed
to be present in the court except on especial occasions.4 Works such as
Tarikh-i Bayhaqi and the Chahar maqalih of Nizami ʿAruzi state that the
court poets of the medieval period functioned not only as boon compan-
ions but also as a source of counsel and moral guidance in the court. They
were expected to be simultaneously masters of language and of morals.5
Court poets were also meant to ensure the fame of the king and
his salvation in the afterlife. Rudaki’s role for Amir Nasr Samani,6
4- Kaykavus, ʿUnsur al-Maʿali, Qabusnamih, ed. G .Yusufi, Tehran: ʿIlmi-Farhangi, 1973,
pp. 196–97.
5- For more, see A. Bayhaqi, Tarikh-i Bayhaqi, ed. A. Fayyaz, Mashhad: Firdawsi Univer-
sity Press, 2003; N. ʿAruzi Samarqandi, Chahar maqalih, ed. M. Qazvini, Tehran: Jāmi,
1995.
6- For example, the story of the famous poem “Bū-yi jū-yi Mūliyān” (“The fragrant scent
of Mūliyān”), written by Rudaki (858–ca. 941), highlights the significant effect of the poet
as a truthful character to inspire the patron and to influence courtly administrative affairs.
Rudaki initially wrote this poem to convince the patron of his time to move back to Bokhara
after a long tedious stay in Badgheys in Khorasan. A considerable amount of such verse
can be traced in the history of Persian court poetry, which proves the substantial role of
the poet as an essential component of the power establishment during the medieval period.
For more examples of Persian medieval panegyrics, see E. G. Browne, A Literary History
of Persia From Ferdowsi to Sa’di, London: Taylor & Francis, 1906; Meisami, Medieval
Persian Court Poetry.
ʿUnsuri’s and Farrukhi’s influential positions for their Ghaznavid pa-
trons, and Anvari’s and Muʿizzi’s positions in the court of Seljuq kings
bear witness to the enduring relationship of poets with patronage. The
mutual interest in poetry was an important factor in sustaining this re-
lationship. A number of patrons, including Amir Nasr Samani, Sultan
Sanjar of the Seljuqs, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, and Fathali Shah of
the Qajar dynasty, paid special attention to poetry. Moreover, most of
the Timurid princes “wrote poetry themselves and exercised critical
judgment on the poets of their courts.”7 Poets were extolled even more
when Mahmud of Ghazna established the post of poet laureate (malik
al-shuʿarā), which brought with it authority and prestige both in soci-
ety and in the court.
The power of patronage played a significant role in providing fi-
nancial support to poets. A large proportion of the most glorified Per-
sian verse perhaps would not even have come into existence had the
courtiers not offered support to the poets. Court poets who were in
the service of patrons were frequently rewarded with a variety of gifts
including cash, clothing, and robes of honor.8 Treating poets with gold,
silver, and clothing, however, was not always the case. The bitter story
of Firdawsi and the discounting of his world-famous Shahnamih by
Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, as chronicled by Nizami ʿAruzi, and that
of Masʿud Saʿd Salman’s prolonged custody, which is narrated in his
prison poems (Habsiyat), are but two of numerous examples of such
ill-treatment.9
After the fall of the Sassanid Empire and following the Muslim con-
7- E. Yarshater, “Safavid Literature: Progress or Decline,” Iranian Studies, 7, 1974, p. 219.
8- Ibid.
9- For complete accounts of Masʿud Saʿd Salman’s and Firdowsi’s troubled lives see N.
ʿAruzi Samarqandi, Chahar maqalih, ed. E. G. Browne, Hertford: Stephen Austin, 1899,
pp. 95–109.
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quest, Islamic customs began to influence the Persian court and the poetry
connected to it. The Islamic calendar was adopted and used in the court.
Beside ancient pagan feasts such as the first day of spring (Nawrūz) and
the Mihrigān feast in the autumn, Islamic feasts such as ʿĪd al-fitr were
celebrated in the Persian court. Similarly, Arabic literary forms such as the
qasida became a preoccupation of Persian court poets. In their panegyric
qasidas and courtly lyrics (ghazal), poets began to praise the king as the
shadow of God on earth.
In the sixteenth century, with the rise of the autocratic Safavid dynasty
and particularly under the reigns of Shah Ismaʿil and Shah Tahmasp, the
panegyric qasida acquired a more religious tone. The famous episode in
Alamara-yi ʿabbasi by Iskandar Bayg Munshi tells the story of Muhtasham
Kashani, the Safavid court poet, and his renowned religious strophic poem,
which was initially a panegyric ode in praise of Shah Tahmasp. After being
reproached by the king for praising temporal rulers, Muhtasham wrote his
seven-strophe poem in praise of Imam ʿAli; the poem has mistakenly come
to be regarded as an elegy for Karbala.10
According to Karimi-Hakkak, from the sixteenth century onward court
patronage no longer endorsed nonreligious court poetry. The Ottoman
Empire, Central Asia, and particularly India became the main centers of
Persian poetry. “This in turn gave rise to the particular poetic language as-
sociated with the Indian style,” which continued to influence the Persian
poetic discourse through the eighteenth century.11
The final attempt to revive the court poetry tradition was made during
the Qajar dynasty (1785–1925) by prominent Qajar court poets such as
10- P. Losensky, “Mohtasham Kāshāni,” in Encyclopaedia Iranica, available online at
www.iranicaonline.org.
11- A. Karimi-Hakkak, Recasting Persian Poetry: Scenarios of Poetic Modernity in Iran,
Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1995, p. 28.
Qaʾani. Under the “Return Movement” (Maktab-i Bāzgasht),12 Qajar court
poets sought to revive the works of previous classical poets, which in their
view had been overshadowed by the decadence caused by the impact of
the bombastic lexicon of the Indian style on Persian language and poetry.
This neoclassical tendency peaked during the reign of Fathali Shah and
that of his successor Nasir al-Din Shah (whose rule lasted for almost 50
years). Through tażmīn (thematic imitation), istiqbāl (welcoming recep-
tion) and taqlīd (imitation), Qajar court poets tried “to restore the millenni-
um-long tradition of Persian poetry to what they perceived as its ‘original’
simplicity.”13
In practice, however, the Return Movement failed to offer anything new
beyond what had already been offered by previous court poets such as
Manuchihri, Anvari, and Khaqani. One of the main reasons for the cy-
clical nature of poetry in this period, according to Shafiʿi Kadkani, was
the detachment of Iranian society from any sociocultural interchange with
other countries. This gap was filled in the second half of the Qajar reign,
when the main figures of the Return Movement, such as Surush Isfahani,
were harshly criticized in the works of the major advocates of cultural re-
form, Mirza Fathali Akhundzadih (1812–1878), Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani
(1854–1896), and Mirza Malkam Khan (1833–1908).14 With the rise of the
constitutional movement, which was a drive to modernize Iranian society
through sociopolitical reform, the role of poetry in the Iranian context was
also revisited. Poetry was now seen not as a literary form dependent on the
12- The Return Movement began in the second half of the eighteenth century when Persian
poets adopted the Khorasani and Iraqi styles of poetry instead of the Indian (Isfahani) style,
which was prevailing in this period. This movement started in Isfahan and was primarily
embraced by the pioneering poets of the “Mushtāq” literary circle, such as Sayyid Muham-
mad Shuʿlih Isfahani, Mir Sayyid ʿAli Mushtaq Isfahani, and Mirza Muhammad Nasir
Isfahani. Poets of the “Nishāt” literary circle, such as ʿAshiq Isfahani, Azar Bigdili, and
Hatif Isfahani, also later joined this movement.
13- Karimi-Hakkak, Recasting Persian Poetry, p. 28.
14- For a detailed account, see ibid, pp. 23–59.
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